Jul 11, 20217:39 AM - edited Jul 11, 20217:40 AM
Inbound Professor
How often do you clean your contacts database?
We’re in a data-driven era, where datasets are shared between marketing, sales, and customer service teams to increase organizational effectiveness and facilitate alignment. When you have high levels of inconsistent data, it’s not just one team taking the hit. It’s everyone. The entire company. The fallout from that bad data extends to every corner of your business that the data touches. With that in mind, how often do you currently audit and clean your contacts database? Once a month? Every quarter? Once a year? What does the process look like? Share your thoughts and current schedule.
Not as frequently as I like. One of the aspects that is super time consuming is updating contacts within a company as the retail industry we serve has high turnover. I wish there were a way to integrate a plug in to update when someone in the CRM changes their title on LinkedIn. Currently I have to do that manually or our outreach and our reporitng of MQLs and KPIs related to engagement and conversion are not correct. Does anyone know of an automated way to do this?
I like cleaning databases based on how it's structured. I personally like having my top 5-10 percent as a focus and then everything else accordingly. Based on that, the top 5-10% would be biweekly, while prospecting clients or those close to converting monthly, and then those that are either completed or on a touch-base campaign quarterly. Truly depends on how you strucure your database and your sphere!
Is one of the first (and most important) items on our list as we are re-structuring the business and the whole marketing organization! I hope we'll be able to do it at least 2 a year. It is not realistic to affirm we'll do it quaterly, but in the future we'll try!
Dec 22, 202211:42 AM - edited Dec 22, 202211:44 AM
Participant
How often do you clean your contacts database?
In my previous company, data collected both internal and external; are collected daily and ranned through "old school" spreadsheet techniques to make sure that data is aligned in all departments in terms of your specialization. [ as to quality reports on quality numbers but can be accessed by any support up to H.R or even facilities] With Crm's like HubSpot, it generates real time updates and communicates to all departments keeping in mind the prime OKR's. This allows small businesses to grow in a much rapid pace in terms of updates and creating solutions. " a business that grows together, stays together" being stronger as a pack and moving as one to reach goals and targets. I can't wait to try it out on both work and future businesses.
I believe quarterly is a must but if a case presents itself where emails are not being delivered or you know information has changed then the database should be immediately updated.
This is something that has yet to happen. Our migration to Hubspot will be our starting point, and we aim to follow the new processes recommended through our training. I believe it is important to update as soon as the information comes to hand or, as instructed, a minimum of quarterly.
I think there should be a defined method: after a number of tries, if the contact remains unresponsive, it should at least be tagged and receive less priority from the CRM team. Later it should be deleted.
What I have learned and I totally agree with is we should be cleaning our database up every quarter. I also love the human interaction and connection that takes place as you clean up your database. For me at worst, data should be cleaned up annually but more frequently is definitely more beneficial and allows you to resolve and retain rather than going back and restarting the whole process again.
Currently, our databases are not cleaned as frequently as needed. The problems that this has created in our business are exactly as you have stated. The issues that this problem has created are time-consuming and costly across a number of different departments. I totally agree with everything that I have learned here. Keeping your database up to date and engaging with your customers will definitely make them feel important and valued but you will also retain them as customers rather than spending a lot more money to find more customers. Keep your current database of customers happy and work on moving them along the path to purchase rather than getting new customers every time and losing them shortly thereafter.
