Nowadays, businesses are collecting more data than ever. The question now lies in how well they are using their data. Effective data management can give your organization a competitive advantage with stronger business insights that follow. However, Ineffective data management can cause the following damage to your business: inaccurate business decisions, loss of potential customers, and lack of productivity. In this blog, we discuss the negative effects of ineffective data management. We will also provide tips on how to correctly manage data to strengthen your business.
- Inaccurate Business Decisions
Firstly, ineffective data management can result in poor data quality in the form of inaccurate data, outdated data, and more. As business decisions are heavily dependent on collected data, ineffectively managed data can result in poor business decisions and insights. It is important to be mindful that the whole organization draws from the same data source. Remember that poor-quality data can negatively impact multiple departments across your organization.
- Loss of Potential Customers
Ineffective data management can result in letting potential opportunities fall through. Incorrect data may lead you to send out communications with the wrong information, or to the wrong audience. It is important to acknowledge how your marketing and sales team will be dependent on your collected customer data. The quality of data can hinder the ability to effectively communicate with prospects, leads, and customers.
- Lack of Productivity
Another downside of ineffective data management is the need to constantly validate data for accuracy. This slows businesses down from making decisions, especially when users are becoming hesitant to use data due to ineffective data management. The time spent on fact-checking and confirming collected data could have been better spent on actually acting on insights.
Tips to Effectively Manage Your Data
- Leverage Automation: Substituting manual entries for automated entries can ensure data is imputed and shared correctly throughout your organization. Consider where one employee might put down an organization’s name as “XYZ” and another employee may input it as “X.Y.Z”; this would result in the creation of two different entries, but a duplicate entry of the same company. The nature of manual data entry is bound to lead to inconsistencies, errors, or redundancies.
- Mobile CRM Options: Being able to access your CRM on the go will reduce the potential for incomplete or inaccurate data. Making it easy for your sales rep and other employees to find information and add information can lead to higher data quality.
- Data Cleanups: Regularly ensuring that data is correct and up-to-date can help reduce the headache of poor quality data, which can build up over time. Furthermore, be sure to merge or delete duplicate data entries to improve productivity and reduce instances of inaccurate or incomplete data.
Conclusion
Overall, there are many benefits to ensuring that your business is effectively managing data. In fact, quality data management can lead to higher revenues and greater productivity organization-wide. If you’re interested in implementing a CRM solution at your organization to overcome this business challenge, contact us today.
