by jezwalker
19. May 2010 15:31
Depending on the nature of your business there are a number of ways to value your data. Whether you measure this on the level of revenue, number of referrals, average retention per customer, or in another way, one thing is clear, the data you hold is extremely important to your business.
By having multiple users entering information on your database, over time the information in the CRM system often becomes less accurate and therefore of less worth. Tidying up this data can be a challenging proposition.
Firstly, you should consider data cleansing to ensure that any old or invalid data is identified and removed.
Once this process is complete you should ensure that any new data you add to the system is accurate, whether captured from the web or typed in internally. At the very least you should perform a postcode lookup which can auto-complete pre-defined fields with full, accurate addresses. Once you add in email validation and telephone validation you can rest assured that future data you collect will be accurate and current, increasing the value of the data you add.