We're drowning in data, right? From raw information to processed data, no one can ignore the power of insights. Every single piece of information is like a piece of a puzzle, no matter how small or large, solving something uniquely if analysed, managed and utilized correctly has the capability to drive growth and success for your business. However, with the mountains of data piling up every hour and minute, maintaining it accurately, keeping it clean and reliable is a herculean task.
Experian's study reveals a harsh reality: 'Nearly 88% of companies are struggling with revenue loss, and the sole culprit is inaccurate data, resulting in an average loss of 12%.' This is not a minor setback; it's a severe hit to any business.
Stats like these showcase the importance of data cleaning and thus its reliability while using CRM. To tackle these serious concerns and make the best use of your CRM’s ability, Zoho CRM's data cleaning tool called Zoho Data Prep acts as a powerhouse. Be it doing safe Zoho CRM data migration or ensuring the consistency, workflow, duplicacy and accuracy across all databases, Zoho CRM’s data cleansing tool is the most effective tool available in the market.
So, if you're ready to leave the chaos behind and work on the full potential of your data, Zoho CRM’s Data Cleansing Tool is here with you at every step of the road. Let’s have a look at why data cleaning matters in detail and essential steps to make it happen.
Why Data Cleaning (aka) Data Cleansing is Crucial?
Think of it like maintaining a car. Just as a car, while beneficial, requires regular maintenance and specialists to help avoid breakdowns in order to maintain the smooth driving experience, so does CRM. Data cleaning and maintenance are essential, but with the right tools and strategies, you can ensure Zoho CRM performs optimally.
So, let's talk about the necessity of clean data:
● Improve your customer connections: Accurate and reliable data is the key to understanding your customers' requirements, choices, and behaviour, thereby booming stronger relationships.
● Enhancing decision-making: Clean and well-maintained data is the synonym for accurate insights. When you have reliable data, you can unquestioningly trust its reports and analytics, which results in better strategic decisions.
● Stay Compliant with regulations: Dealing with proper data is not just a best practice; it's a legal requirement in this CRM arena, as is the case with laws such as GDPR. Non-compliance can result in a mess, damaging your reputation, and loss of customer trust. This underlines the urgency of maintaining clean data.
● Efficient Operations: Clean data not only reduces errors and redundancies but also makes processes fast, smoother, and more efficient.
● Target Right Audience: Clean and reliable data enable you to reach the right audience with the correct message at the appropriate time. Meanwhile, dirty and unplanned data leads to wasted resources, damaged connections, and missed opportunities.
Hope this has helped you understand why data cleaning is so important. Now, let's learn how you can apply them to your Zoho CRM.
Essential Steps to Keep Your Zoho CRM Data Clean & Reliable
Whether you are a CRM newbie or are an expert in it, below are mandatory steps to be followed to make sure your CRM is your valuable asset instead of chaos and mess.
Step 1: Regular Data Audit is primary
As you check your work before the submission, the data audit is similar to beginning with its cleaning process. It's the primary thing to understand the extent of the clutter.
Begin by identifying necessary data fields that are essential to your work operations, such as contact details, customer history, etc.
● Utilize Zoho CRM's reporting tools and generate detailed reports to check and analyze.
● Have a check on the patterns of duplicate, incorrect or missing data.
● Prepare a guide stating the types and sources of data problems.
● With data auditing, you can pinpoint precisely the areas that need to be looked into and efficiently handle the problem.
Step 2: Set a clear Guidelines for Data Entry
Wouldn’t a non-synchronized sentence be chaotic for a reader to understand? It will impact the reputation of the writer as well as the publishing house, right? The same principle applies to your CRM tool. Inconsistency in data entries can result in errors, confusion, and inefficiencies.
To set the guidelines for the data entry, the foremost step is to -
Prepare Clear & Effective Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs).
Yes, you need to clearly define what information is required and how it must be inserted. You can set the correct format to avoid confusion, and will provide consistency in data along with making it easy to search or filter data.
Team Training
After the preparation of SOPs, start training your team with regular sessions to make sure everyone has a clear understanding of the significance of data accuracy. Ensure it is going as per the guidelines prepared.
Make use of mandatory fields
Zoho CRM data migration tool like Zoho Data Prep has a feature that allows you to set mandatory fields. It ensures that necessary information is always filled in. Plan out which fields you need mandatorily to avoid stress or frustration to your team with unnecessary requirements during data entry.
Step 3: Automation Cleaning of Data
As we all are aware how manual data cleaning becomes a time-consuming and challenging task. Thanks to our cloud based data cleaning tool that requires no setup or installation. Yes, Zoho Data Prep inbuilt connectors offering automated data export to 30+ destinations that help to maintain data quality with minimum effort and time spent.
“One of the research done by Forrester says, ‘Businesses that use data quality automation tools experience around 30% of reduction in their data management costs with a 40% hike in data accuracy improvement rate’.”
What is covered in the Automated Data cleaning step?
Having in-built tools in Zoho CRM helps -
● To determine and merge duplicate data records
● Set data validation rules and automate the correction process
● Automatic scheduling of regular data cleanup tasks
● Third-party data cleaning tools integrations for advanced cleaning features.
Step 4: Using Data Enrichment Tools & Regular Data Maintenance
Incomplete data or lack of any brief may sometimes take place, and that’s where Data-enriching tools like Zoho Data Prep come to the rescue. With its AI based transforms Ithelps you enrich the CRM data quality by adding needed information from legitimate sources.
Dun & Bradstreet's report reveals a promising statistic: ‘Companies that leverage data enrichment tools experience a 50% increase in data completeness, coupled with a significant 35% boost in lead conversion rates’.
Enriching data involves adding incomplete information, which leads to in-depth insights, more efficient personalization, and targeting. This process is simplified with Zoho CRM data cleansing tool that sets up an end-to-end automated data pipeline and preserves data-lineage to track every step of the data cleansing activity.
Rapid Checklist to go through for Data Maintenance:
● Regular Data Audits
● Updating data timely
● Cleaning up all clutter entries
● Check data quality metrics with the trends using reporting tools as needed.
Data enrichment adds invaluable insights and improves the effectiveness of your sales and marketing efforts.
Step 5: Execute Data Governance Policies
Just as a car without its legal documentation is incomplete, data governance involves checking on policies and processes to ensure effective CRM data management. Your role in maintaining data integrity and compliance with all relevant regulations is crucial.
Data governance institutes say that ‘organizations having robust and accurate data governance policies experience around 25% of the decrease in the cost of data management with a 30% rise in data usage’. That’s where proper governance makes sure your data is safe, compliant and accurate.
It would help if you did a few things to set up data governance as per regulations:
● Set up policies for maintenance, data entry, and usage, aligning with the best industry practices and regulations.
● One of the key steps in data governance is defining clear data ownership. This involves identifying the individuals or departments responsible for the creation, maintenance, and usage of specific data sets. By doing so, you ensure accountability and transparency in your data management processes.
● Monitor data compliances regularly to ensure the following governance policies are followed.
● Form a data governance team to look after data governance with established policies.
Following these steps, you can be assured that your CRM data is clean, compliant, and reliable.
Step 6: Delegating Training Session for Your Team
You might have heard that even the best data management tools fail to succeed if you or your team is lacking the needed knowledge or skills. Training your team to adapt the protocol and work on it is essential to maintain data hygiene.
In a study by Harvard Business Review, it is found that ‘Companies investing regularly in data management training experiences around 20% improvement rate in data accuracy which leads to better business results along with more reliable data’.
How can you train your team?
● Greet the onboarding programs for your team.
● Schedule some workshops to help the team learn new data management techniques and best practices.
● You can also develop a few e-learning modules that employees can access at their own pace.
● Try gamification techniques to make training sessions more enjoyable.
With tools like Zoho Data Prep team across the organization securely gets the fine-grained access control over features that helps them collaborate on data cleaning like a pro.
Step 7: AI & ML Integration
Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence, when integrated into CRM data management, revolutionize the process. These technologies not only identify patterns and anomalies but also predict future data issues, enabling proactive data management.
MIT Sloan Management Review's research reveals that companies leveraging AI and ML in data management experience a significant 40% improvement in data accuracy and a nearly 50% reduction in data-related errors. These technologies streamline data quality maintenance with minimal manual intervention.
Zoho CRM's AI assistant, ZIA, and Zoho DataPrep are reliable sources that can identify duplicate records, provide data-driven insights, and predict lead scores, ensuring your data management is secure and efficient.
To make this integration successful one needs to make sure of removing inconsistencies, removing outdated data and fixing missing information for the maximum efficiency of the ML model.
Conclusion
When it comes to data cleaning, even the finest of CRMs might face challenges. However, these challenges are not impossible to overcome with the perfect Zoho CRM implementation partners.
Cleaning and maintaining data in Zoho CRM is a continual process that needs your focus on various segments. It involves regular auditing, automation, best practices, and team training. These steps are designed to be straightforward and manageable, ensuring that your CRM data remains accurate, effective, and up-to-date. This, in turn, allows you to make correct decisions, improve business growth, and enhance customer connections.
As said, ‘Your CRM is the most logical investment for the future of your business’. It will pay you back with the best outcomes if you treat it with the attention and care it requires right now.
With this problem solving and decision making article, we hope we have helped you enough to make more informed decisions for your business. So, adapt the user-friendly Zoho CRM data cleaning tool today.
Looking to transform your business? For free consultation, connect with the official Zoho CRM Implementation Partner now!
