What is data cleansing and why do I need it?

Data cleansing (or cleaning) is a bit like house-keeping for your data. It’s a way of spotting, correcting and/or removing information in a database that is wrong, incomplete or duplicated.

Data cleansing also identifies records deemed irrelevant or unnecessary under the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). In an ideal world, this is done on an ongoing basis as data is fed into a CRM system. However, as we don’t live in an ideal world, it is possible for this to be done as a one off project and imported back into a CRM system.

Having complete, accurate and usable data is not a luxury for a successful business – it’s imperative for any company that holds information on their customers! Having ‘dirty data’ sitting in your CRM system, or wherever you hold information about your customers, can be detrimental to a company.

Your customer and prospect databases are arguably the most valuable asset the business owns. Consistent, relevant and timely communication with your customers and prospects is key to improving your sales. However, if your database isn’t up-to-date, it is worthless. Every day that your sales and marketing team use the data, you are throwing away money. You also run the risk of failing compliance with GDPR and data regulation which could lead to hefty fines.

Now that we have the scare tactics out of the way, let me tell you how you can avoid falling into this category…

Data cleansing is vital for any organisation that holds data. Data is a valuable asset when used to its full potential and in order to make the most of it, organisations need to make sure it is accurate. ‘Dirty data’, or data that contains errors, can cost a business time and money. For example, sending direct mail to an invalid or incomplete address is a complete waste of money and resources. It can also cause damage to an organisation’s reputation if done at scale and on an ongoing basis.

Some examples of data cleansing are listed below:

·       Append missing address lines to incomplete addresses in order to make them deliverable

·       Fix common misspellings

·       Check for towns in wrong counties and amend

·       Split out address lines into separate cells for geographical analysis

·       Append gender to record where known

·       Remove any unnecessary spacing / punctuation / anomalies from the data

·       Verify that email addresses are correct and deliverable - this reduces the chance of your domain being blacklisted

·       Flag any duplicated customers and create a link for relational databases

The benefits of holding usable data in your system far outweighs the alternative. Business data cleansing enables you to keep in contact with your customers, re-ignite lapsed relationships, up-sell, cross-sell and can even help you find new customers by profiling your existing data and identifying matching prospects. It will fill in all the gaps within your business database and vastly improve the usage of your CRM.

It will also improve decision making, allowing for quicker and smarter business decisions. Data driven insights provide the intelligence to understand your customers better, allowing for more targeted, personalised communications. This will significantly increase your return on investment and optimise revenue streams for a business, while in turn building brand loyalty from your customers.