Four ways clean customer data drives CRM success

If brands are serious about driving CRM success and delivering growth in the current challenging economic climate they must ensure they have access to clean customer data.

There are four ways quality data can drive CRM success:

1. Fast delivery of communications and products

Customer data – collected at the onboarding stage and through ongoing communications - is one of the most valuable assets brands have. Only data that is clean, contemporary and verified helps drive sales-driven customer communications, and importantly, enables products ordered to be efficiently delivered. This is critical in providing a standout customer experience in an increasingly competitive marketplace.

Marketers need to remember that without routine data quality processes customer data degrades at two per cent each month and therefore around 25% annually. Another issue is customers increasingly providing data via their mobile devices, because on small screens it’s easy to mistype. This is why approximately 20% of addresses entered online contain errors, such as spelling mistakes and wrong house numbers.

Incorrect data such as customer name, address, email, or telephone number, can be easily rectified if brands put in place some simple procedures. Straightforward and cost-effective, these involve cleansing and standardising existing customer data as a basic business practice. This sees held records updated in batch form in real-time, and data corrected in real-time at the customer onboarding stage.

2. Speed up checkout / reduce cart abandonment

Address autocomplete tools are a good place to start with the collection of correct address data, because these ensure the acquisition of accurate information at the customer onboarding stage. These tools automatically reveal a suggested correct version of the address as the customer completes an online contact form, enabling them to select one that is not only accurate but easily recognised, and properly formatted. Another key benefit is the number of keystrokes is reduced when typing an address by up to 70%, accelerating checkout and increasing the likelihood of a completed purchase.

3. Save money and improve customer experience  

Duplicate customer data is costly in time, money and in the negative impact it can have on customer relationships. For instance, when customers receive two mailings in their name, with one spelled incorrectly, this not only wastes marketing resources and opportunities, it also demonstrates to your customer a lack of understanding as to their identity and needs. It’s only by merging and purging the most difficult records with an advanced fuzzy matching tool that brands save money with targeted customer communications and enhance the customer experience.

4. Improve logistics / drive sales and marketing

Use geocodes—which deliver latitude and longitude coordinates based on verified postal address data—to provide pinpoint (rooftop) accuracy. They improve logistics and ensure the speedy and accurate delivery of products and communications.

On the logistics side brands can accurately determine the shopper’s distance from distribution points and offer, in real-time, a range of delivery options and prices depending on how fast the customer wants to receive their goods. This in turn improves the customer experience.

In fact, customer experience can further be enhanced with geolocational offers that target audiences based on their whereabouts, and the nearest outlet or distribution point to them.

Furthermore, geocoding can be used to map the location of customers and find like-minded prospects in specific geographic areas for sales and marketing purposes. They can then be targeted based on similar sites where there has been identifiable interest in your product or service.

Clean data powers CRM success

It’s now time for brands to ramp up their access to accurate, quality customer data. If they do it will help them improve their CRM efforts and drive overall business success.