Association Insight International & European

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 20 | © Associations Network 2015 www.associationsnetwork.org

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