Getting the Most Out of Your Data May Mean Less, Not More
Wednesday, 13 July 2011 12:57
Modern marketing is relying more and more on data, so it’s important to realize quality is as important, if not more so, than quantity. Which is better for your marketing plan, 100,000 addresses bought from a list broker or 5,000 from past customers? In most cases, it’s the latter.
The first to keep in mind is to understand data quality. A quality list has more positive impact than a lot of new entries. Those green fields of new customers could be filled with ravines.
Saumya Chaki, writing in Information Management Newsletters (http://www.information-management.com/newsletters/customer_data_quality_compliance_crm_supply_chain_erp-10016972-1.html), notes inconsistent customer data collection can impact quality.
“The trouble lies in the lack of a consistent framework in collecting consumer attributes,” writes Chaki. “Most organizations collect the same consumer through multiple channels with no consistency in the attributes collected. Hence when these organizations build data warehouses and data marts to study consumer behavior, they lead to a large number of duplicates in the consumer tables in the warehouse or mart. This can be disastrous for any business.”
If the data is not consistent, among the problem outcomes could be multiple mailings to the same customer or to consumers who have opted out of campaigns and mailing (with possible legal ramifications.) Also, any ROI analysis would be skewed.
Steps to improve data quality include deduplication and relevance.
According to Chaki, the key to data deduplication is to define the duplicate data and to seek corrective action while ensuring no important data is lost. That’s a tall order!
The first step is screen the data for inconsistency, invalid or outdated entries and duplicates. Next examine the data for quality and develop rules for the surviving entries. Remember, the best quality entries may not necessarily be the most recent. Then, make sure you have retained a history of the deleted records and changes for possible later reference.
Also, now is a time to examine your processes to determine what fields are relevant to you. Do you need fax numbers? Do you have a mobile number as an alternate? Do you have a way to merge mobile numbers – maybe gained through a text-message campaign – with your main data?
One key way to ensure quality, according to Joel Curry, writing in Information Management (http://www.information-management.com/newsletters/five-tips-to-improve-data-quality-10016939-1.html) is to appoint several staff members as checkpoints. First, identify those employees who can create or update data, then find out who accesses the data. Then cross-train employees to know what data are relevant to other departments (like shipping preferences).
