Association Insight International & European | Page 20
Association Insights | Expert Briefing
is that individuals are less likely to do business with an
organisation; the polar opposite of what the organisation
intended. They may also tell their friends and colleagues
about their bad experiences via social media and other
channels, so the damage can quickly spread.
If the negative effects are so harmful why do these
problems continue to occur? There are many reasons, but
some of the main ones are:
•F
ailure to track and account for data volatility. Over a
typical UK year over three million people move house,
over half a million people die, more than half a million
people immigrate to the UK, and over 300,000 emigrate.
Business related data volatility is even more pronounced.
Nearly half a million new companies are formed each
year. The average rate of data decay in a UK B2B CRM
database is around 2% per month. That means around a
quarter of your data will be obsolete at the end of a year
unless positive action is taken to correct it.
I have examined and analysed a lot of CRM data over my
career. Like bad pennies, the same types of data problems
surface time and time again. Some of these include:
• Simple name and address spelling errors
•P
refix titles that do not align with first names, e.g. Mr.
Charlotte or Ms. John
• Missing data – blank postcodes, email addresses etc.
•M
isfielded data, e.g. names in address fields, national
insurance numbers in text fields
•V
arying data formats for the same field, e.g. telephone
numbers held in multiple formats
•D
ata duplication, i.e. the same customer replicated in
numerous multiple duplicate records within the same CRM
system or across systems. In one CRM system I analysed,
the organisation had over 4,000 variations of the same
business customer name.
So what? There is a huge amount of evidence that data
defects and anomalies such as these can have a significant
adverse impact on both organisations and individuals. Here
are a few examples from recent research:
•O
n average organisations waste 15-18% of their budgets
dealing with data problems
•D
ata input errors, falsifications & omissions. According
to recent research carried out DQ Global UK 76% of all
CRM records are damaged by poor data entry. Whenever
people input data, they inevitably make mistakes.
•D
ata processing and migration problems. The same DQ
Global UK research estimates that 53% of CRM records
are damaged during system changes; 48% are damaged
during data migrations.
•P
oor design and execution of business & IT processes.
Too many processes damage, rather than enhance, data.
Often they encourage the creation of duplicate customer
records, allow data inputters too much leeway to put the
wrong data in the wrong place, and do not measure the
quality of the data input in any methodical or regular way.
•T
he absence of agreed data standards and rules which
govern how data should be managed. All too often what
is basically the same data is created and stored in such
varieties in so many different places that it is well near
impossible to reconcile and integrate it.
• Lack of accountability for CRM data. In too many
organisations the business regards data as solely an IT
responsibility. It isn’t. Data is a business asset and needs to
be managed and nurtured as such. IT of course does have
an important part to play, but that is in a supporting role.
But all too often no one is ultimately responsible for getting
the data right. Inevitably, therefore, the problems get worse
and worse...
•5
6% of UK marketing organisations say managing data
quality is a significant challenge
•3
6% of individuals had their name spelt incorrectly in a
marketing communication
•B
ad data can cause a telemarketing campaign to be up to
30% less effective
•O
verall, UK businesses waste £75 million a year on
pointless marketing waste
And the overall impact of this on organisations? The main
ones include lost revenue opportunities, higher operational
costs, potential non-compliance with legal and regulatory
requirements, and brand damage. For the individuals
affected, this also creates annoyance, frustration and
sometimes even reputational damage. The end result
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