Data Integration Blog
In this blog you can find posts with useful links to, news on and analysis of things like data integration, mashups, data quality, data warehousing, application integration (EAI), data management…the list goes on.
Wednesday 15 October 2008, 12:39 PM
Don't Waste on Data Quality
How does that happen? How come companies are losing this much money and not even realizing there's a way to save up?
Again, the major problem usually lies in the source the data is received from and the way it is processed (if processed at all) before it enters the database/warehouse. Then there's also the currency of data, its accuracy, completeness, relevance and consistency.
When dealing with leads, a few of these problems can be avoided by using Online Lead Generation (OLG) techniques instead of buying from a big data provider with huge outdated databases. A recent Christopher Petix's article titled Marketers Should Avoid 'Dirty Data' discusses the major benefits of OLG as opposed to buying from data providers. Here are a few I thought really make OLG technique stand out:
- collecting new data for every campaign
- ability to set parameters for data collection
- consumers fill out information related to their demographics AND specify their interest in a specific product or service
- strict data cleansing processes, double-filtering
All of the above ensure a hugher degree of relevance, and, as a result, really help you save the money you'd waste otherwise on reaching out irrelevant leads.
So called "dirty data" not only wastes contact center agents' time, it also wastes a marketer's budget--and optimizing budgets is crucial in the current market conditions.
That's where you realize that data quality could be taken care of in advance, but you're stuck with your dirty data and need to deal with it (and consequently spend more).
Data quality has the ability to save marketers a considerable amount of money and is a completely transparent process.
What could be simpler?
PreviousComments on this post
Great post, Alena.
Tom Redman, a.k.a. the "Data Doc" estimates that poor data quality costs the typical organisation 20% of its revenue. The surprising thing, therefore, is that more companies aren't doing something about it.
Many think it's just "one of those things" or put doing something about it in the "too hard" tray. What's needed is to actually get down to the cost of NOT doing anything about it. People sometimes get really wrapped up in trying to build a business case around intangible benefits, such as improved customer service, when there are plenty or solid, measurable rewards staring them in the face.
Reducing wastage of marketing budget is an excellent example. I received 2 letters on the same day this week offering me broadband from Virgin Media. The only difference between the two was that one addressed me as Steve and one as Stephen. The funniest thing of all is that I recently took out broadband with Virgin and now I'm miffed because they're offering a better deal.
If they'd taken the trouble to follow the simple steps you suggest, Alena, Virgin Media could have saved themselves the cost of printing and mailing offers to duplicate prospects and existing customers. That's a tangible benefit that they could easily measure and I'm sure would easily justify the modest investment needed. The intangible benefit of not annoying existing customers and getting named and shamed in public would have been a bonus!
Thanks, Steve.
Excellent example with Virgin Media. Sad that so many companies don't realize how much they're losing on not making an effort and taking care of their data on time.
Could this also be said of the banks? I do most of my banking online and occasionally pop in branch. It seemed to make sense to turn off paper statements, so what have the bank gone and done? They send me three times the volume in adverts that I never used to recieve. One off them had the cheek to offer me a loan with money that my tax pounds had been used to rescue them, and call interest on it. So it's business as usual
Well that just menas that your bank isn't very smart on keeping its customer data clean. =)
Is it a lack of smartness or just a lack of care? It feels like they've just stuck two fingers up at me and anyone else who is concerned about our environment!
So then what did you do to let them know what you think about their customer management?
I went in there and told off my bank manager. It turns out I'll have to write to the crew in the city of london because they won't deal with it on a local level!
All that really inspires me to do is to write to national media, cos I get the feeling that banks need to be shamed into action!
Plz update me on the progress, I'd really like to see how the banks react to that.
I must admit. When it come to banks, I am a bit of a chicken! They can be very spiteful to individuals when they want to be. + the fact I'm running my business from my current acount (legal but they don't want people thinking that) and havn't asked them for any favours. They must really hate me!
you bet they do =))
To add a comment, fill out the form below
