Let Go Of Your Bad Data

This Sunday is Let it Go Day. So is your business letting things go that are holding you back? One thing that has the potential to make or break your business is your company data.

Did you know that business data decays on average by 37% each year, and consumer data by 13%? Data affects a multitude of things within your organisation. For example, your compliance with legislation, your marketing and your overall efficiency. Managing your data has never been more important, that’s why we’ve listed three benefits of letting go of your bad data…

1. Getting rid of your bad data will save you money

Every organisation wants to save money. The more you save, the larger your cash reserves will be, which will help further your financial security during uncertain economic periods. Bad data will cost you money. According to Rex Ahlstrom of BackOffice Associates, “When you ask people if their data quality is good, they’ll almost certainly say no”. This is quite a worrying notion considering that you don’t comply with current legislation. Not to mention poor return on investment for your marketing and your reputation could suffer as well.

Letting go of your bad data will not only help you become GDPR compliant, but it will also help you reduce wasted expenditure by reducing the number of misdeliveries and duplicate records. As an SME ourselves, we’re all about efficiency and maximising ROI.

2. Data cleansing will save you time

Research shows that UK businesses lose an average of two hours of each of their employees’ working time every working day. If you multiply this by the amount lost throughout the entire working week, it results in 11.4 hours. This ultimately costs employers £11,225 per employee each year. Can you afford to waste this kind of money?

Your business could be wasting time by housing bad data. If you haven’t carried out any data cleansing in a while, this could cause misdeliveries on your customers’ purchases or marketing campaign. If your database contains duplicates, deceased, or goneaway records, your employees will waste a significant amount of time and resources by correcting errors.

3. Productivity and customer acquisition will increase

As your business begins to benefit from the all the time and money you have saved through data cleansing, you will also start to notice that your company’s productivity increases. Think about it like this, the less time your employees spend trawling through your dirty data trying to decipher what is and isn’t correct, the more time they will have to complete other tasks, thus increasing their productivity.

Additionally, cleansing your data ahead of a marketing campaign to prospects will significantly boost your customer acquisition. If a mailing lands on the wrong doorstep, you may well annoy the recipients and deter them from pursuing your services. This in effect will hinder your customer acquisition. Word-of-mouth marketing plays a large role in all industries, therefore, if you clean your data and execute a successful marketing campaign, acquiring customers will become much easier.

The solution

Hopewiser has been helping businesses let go of their bad data since 1982. Our Marketing department spends a lot of time promoting the benefits of having clean data, therefore, we understand the implications that having dirty data can have on your business.

In fact, we’ve recently published a FREE downloadable guide highlighting the dangers of possessing inaccurate data. Inside you’ll find out the following:

• Which data mistake Manchester City Council made that severely damaged its reputation

• Why a well-meaning speeding campaign by Sussex Police backfired

• How Eastbourne Council achieved an unfortunate, and well-publicised, miracle with its data

The guide also explores how your organisation can avoid these (completely avoidable) mistakes and a cost-benefit analysis of cleaning your data. Get your copy today!