Last week, we discussed five data quality issues that could prevent information such as blast emails or direct mail postcards to reach potential customers. As a business juggles customer relationship management (CRM) with sending information, some small hang-ups could keep Thank You notes and special deals from being sent to valuable customers.
You can review numbers 10-6 here. With help from Melissa Data, we will examine Round 2 of our Top 10 Data Quality Issues a business could be experiencing.
5 — Vanity names for cities
Vanity cities are accepted city names for the address and ZIP code. There are official names of cities set forth by the United States Postal Service, but one example of a vanity city is Hollywood for Los Angeles. While both these are correct, some companies may only want to use the preferred city names. The same could be said for unincorporated areas that aren’t officially cities.
4 — Mailing errors
We covered some of these last week, but there are also some other mailing issues that could cause direct mail not to be sent. This could involve mailing to deceased individuals, street addresses in rural areas/PO boxes, wrong ZIP codes or outdated addresses. Sometimes, the easiest solution is the simplest. If a phone number is on record, perhaps a quick phone call to the person could clear up some incorrect information on your records.
3 — Stale data
Did one of your most loyal customers get married recently? Perhaps they moved? If this information didn’t get updated, you could be sending mail to a Misses who is no longer a Miss. Most of the time, email addresses will not change, but perhaps a form on your site to send change of information could help clear up this email.
2 — Not consolidating multiple records or duplicate records
Similar to the multiple mailings to the same address issue, the lack of making a concise list of records can hurt your CRM. This can also apply to email marketing. If you have multiple lists for email marketing and no way to suppress duplicates, email campaigns can be a nightmare. Thankfully, Farfetched Studios has the experience to manage your email marketing.
1 — General errors in data entry
More than 25 percent of data quality problems can be attributed to data entry errors according to The Data Warehouse Institute. Addresses misspelled or names incorrectly misspelled can not only make your business look bad but be the No. 1 cause of your business not sending vital information to customers.
Thanks for joining us on our journey through data quality issues. To learn more about how Farfetched Studios can better manage your marketing and CRMs, contact us today!