If you're reading this, chances are you have a CRM.
Your CRM is a valuable asset for you because it can provide solid data about your customers, which, in turn, helps you make good decisions. But, if the data isn't accurate, you are not guaranteed good insights. As a result, you won't be able to make good decisions.
To ensure your CRM data is healthy and reliable, a regular data health check is generally a good idea. In this blog, we have compiled 20 important checks we do to our HubSpot portal. But, you can do it with any CRM you want!
So, let's dive into the data health check!
Duplicate Records
Duplicate records are some of the biggest issues in CRMs. Here are some standard things you can do to get rid of duplicate records:
- Invest in deduplication tools that fit your budget and requirements. Suppose you don't have a large number of duplicate records. In that case, you can manually deduplicate them, but if you have a lot of duplicate contacts, or are using multiple integrations that constantly generate contacts, investing in a deduplication tool can really be a lifesaver.
- Establish data quality rules to prevent duplicate entries from occurring in the first place.
- Have periodic reviews of your CRM data to identify potential duplicates manually or through automated processes.
If you maintain these processes, duplication will be fine for you!
Incomplete or Missing Data
Missing data is the bane of existence for many CRMs. Incomplete data can absolutely demolish your chance of making solid decisions with your CRM data. Here are some things you can do to address incomplete data issues:
- Identify critical data fields that are most commonly missing and prioritise those properties. You can use data enrichment tools to fill in missing information from external sources like public databases or third-party providers. Data enrichment is really a life saver in these issues.
- Enforce data quality rules to ensure that mandatory fields are always completed before new records are created. This can help if your system is built on manual contact creation.
- Provide training to your team on the importance of data accuracy and completeness. Please encourage them to double-check data before submitting new records or updating existing ones.
Incorrect Phone Number Formats
If you use HubSpot, you don't have anything to worry about. All you have to do is use our free app, Smart Phone Number Formatter.
If you don't use HubSpot, here's what you can do:
- Have phone number validation libraries into your CRM or data entry process. These libraries can automatically verify the accuracy of phone numbers and make sure they are formatted.
- Periodically check phone numbers to validate existing records and identify any incorrect formats. This can be done through automated dialing or by manually contacting customers.
Data Accuracy
Data accuracy is another important factor of CRMs, so you have to make sure that the data is accurate to a reasonable degree. Here's how you can do it:
- Audit your data periodically and correct inaccuracies. You can do it manually, with data quality tools, or with a combination of both.
- Develop clear data governance policies that define data quality standards, roles and responsibilities, and processes for data management.
- Train your team on data quality best practices, including how to identify and correct errors. This will help to improve data accuracy throughout your organisation.
Source Tracking Accuracy
Tracking the source of your leads is crucial for measuring the effectiveness of your marketing campaigns. Accurate source tracking allows you to identify which channels are driving the most valuable leads and allocate your resources accordingly. Here's how you can ensure a healthy source tracking system:
- Integrate your CRM with marketing automation tools to automate source tracking and ensure consistency. But, if you use HubSpot, or Salesforce, source tracking will come automatically with the subscription.
- Train your team on the importance of accurate source tracking, how to make decisions and attribution based on source tracking, and how to use tracking tools effectively. This will help to prevent errors and ensure that lead sources are properly attributed.
Website Tracking Accuracy
Website tracking is absolutely vital for understanding how visitors interact with your website and what actions they take. If your website tracking is accurate, you can gauge if the visitors like a specific thing you put out on the website. That way, optimise your website content and improve conversions with help from solid data. Here is how you can check your website tracking accuracy:
- Perform audits of your website to identify and correct any tracking code errors once a month, or once a quarter if your traffic isn't very high. You can use browser developer tools to do this, or third-party auditing services.
- Regularly test your website tracking to ensure that it is working. You can do this by browsing as a guest and verifying that the appropriate tracking events are being fired.
- Use tag management tools to streamline the management of your website tracking codes. These tools can help to reduce errors and improve efficiency. Google Tag Manager is the only one you need for this, and it is completely free.
Email Deliverability
Email deliverability is the rate at which your emails reach your subscribers' inboxes. If your email deliverability is high, you can rest assured that your messages are being seen by your target audience. And if your marketing reaches your audience, you can sell them your product or service.
In order to optimise email delivery, you can do the following:
- If you are sending cold emails, run your emails through a verification service like Reoon. Email verification services will filter out invalid and bounced emails, so your domain won't be penalised for them afterward.
- Keep track of your email deliverability rates and investigate any significant drops. No matter if you're working with inbound or outbound campaigns, keep email sending to a minimum and in a consistent way.
- Make sure that your email content is relevant, engaging, and optimised for deliverability. Avoid using too many spammy keywords or overly promotional language.
Lead Scoring Consistency
A consistent lead scoring system helps you prioritise your leads based on their potential value. Lead scoring works best when you have a clear profile of customers you know are interested in your business and you find more and more customers like them. This is why your lead scoring needs to be consistent in finding the best recruits as well. This is how you can consistently do it:
- Create a detailed scoring model with specific criteria used to evaluate leads. This should include factors such as demographics, engagement, and behaviour.
- Review your lead scoring model after certain periods to make sure it remains effective and aligned with your objectives. Make updates as needed if the sales process or target market changes.
- Provide training to your sales team on the lead scoring process and guidelines. This will help them understand the system, enforce it, and prevent errors from happening.
Association Accuracy
Accurate associations between contacts, companies, and deals are necessary for keeping data uniform and identifying potential cross-selling or upselling opportunities. Correct associations can improve your sales efficiency and increase revenue.
- Develop clear guidelines for creating and managing associations between contacts, companies, and deals. These guidelines should address issues such as duplicate associations and incorrect relationships.
- Utilise automation for association management to reduce the risk of errors. If you use any popular CRM, you can get automated association management as part of the software.
- Review your new associations after each quarter to identify and correct any inaccuracies. With HubSpot, you can see all your associations in the right panel, so checking for it becomes pretty easy with reports and visualisations.
Suppression List
A suppression list is a list of contacts who have opted out of receiving your communications or you have no way of contacting them. This is vital, especially if you have multiple channels to send emails from. This way, you can avoid sending unwanted emails and comply with legal requirements. Here's how you can manage a suppression list:
- Keep your suppression list up-to-date by adding new opt-outs and bounces. You can use automated processes like a HubSpot active list or manual methods to update your list.
- Make sure that your suppression list is integrated with your CRM and email marketing systems to prevent unwanted communications.
- Meet all relevant legal requirements, such as GDPR and CAN-SPAM, when managing your suppression list.
What Now?
If you do these data health checks, you will absolutely be on top of the world with your CRM!
And, to help you, we have developed an app, called Smart Phone Number Formatter!
You can check the quality of your numbers from within HubSpot Workflows, and you can format them as well!
Click the button below to try the app for your data health check!