As an IT Director, you are the guardian of data quality in your company. However, the new CRM project is disrupting your strategy. How can you ensure that this new customer relationship management software is populated with high-quality data? How can you make sure that this quality is maintained over time? Here are some of the answers...
To get started, we recommend that you set up a data repository. The introduction of new software as important as a CRM system is the perfect opportunity to review your processes and the existing data in your company.
Draw up a detailed list and ask yourself a few key questions: where does your customer/prospect data come from? Which workflows do they pass through? What manual changes are made to them? And so on.
This will allow you to have full clarity when deploying the future CRM. Of course, among the data you have collected, there is no requirement to keep everything!
However, "too much data kills the data". At least at the start, it is better to integrate only the essential data and give users time to familiarise themselves with the new process. You can then decide whether it is useful to add additional processes.
Finally, bear in mind that data quality is often linked to the user experience. If the CRM is not sufficiently user-friendly, there is a high chance that users will not make the effort. So, make sure that the processes you put in place are intuitive and simple to follow. Where possible, structure manual data entry into the CRM using drop-down lists, checkboxes, and so on. This will help you ensure a certain level of consistency in how the data is structured.
If you would like to go further and benefit from a proper data quality specification for your future CRM, our Guide to a Successful B2B CRM Project is for you!
