“There is real magic in enthusiasm. It spells the difference between mediocrity and accomplishment”
– Norman Vincent Peale
For me this quote sums up why some companies have good data and why others have poor data. It’s their enthusiasm about data.
When you’re not so enthusiastic about your data, then it’s likely your data will be mediocre or of poor quality, but if you’re enthusiastic about data then I’ll bet you have good quality data.
So here are 5 suggestions that will move you from mediocrity to excellence:
Having an Evangelist
Believe it or not, there are thousands of people who love data. They love analysing data, cleaning data, managing data, measuring data, and so on.
Having someone in your downline that’s your data evangelist will go a long way to data excellence.
If someone is responsible for data but isn’t that enthusiastic, then be aware that your data may suffer.
Evangelists dive into the detail of data, they know how problems arise, how to fix them and the impact it has on your business. They are not overwhelmed by data and they are under no illusion how fragile data, particularly, through the process of data degradation.
Measure, Cleanse, Sustain
In that classic 1960’s hit single by Eddie Cochran, he sang about “Three Steps to Heaven”, well here are our “3
Steps to Data Heaven”:
- Measure – Find out how bad your data is, so when you’re fixed it, you’ll know much better it is. Without measuring, you’re guessing.
- Cleanse – Perform a Deep and Full Cleanse. This process solves all your data issues in one project. Your aim is have the cleanest and most accurate data as is humanly possible. You have to have a starting point for very clean data, as it’s a challenge keeping it clean from now on. Measure it after the initial cleanse and compare to step 1, you should see a big improvement.
- Sustain – Now incorporate technologies, define processes and appoint suppliers that help keep your data to that high-level you created in step 2. By having on-going measurements, you will know exactly how good the data is or is not.
Once these three steps are complete, you’ll be in control of your data quality.
Standardise and Standardise
- My Data Standard – Define how each element of your data should look. This will help everyone know what’s expected.
- My Data Entry Guide – Most errors occur through data entry, so having a specific guide educating users on how to enter data is important. This is not just about how you enter an address or a phone number; it’s also about what you do when you find a duplicate contact, company, invoice, product, etc.
The chances are, those entering data into a system have other priorities, sales, support, customer liaison, etc.
They are probably not thinking about data quality. So have cheat sheets, intranet links, etc. to publicise you standard and don’t forget to publicise your data measurements so everyone can see clearly the current quality.
Train Them Young
Every time you hire a new employee make sure data standards is a topic during their induction training. Creating the right mind set from the beginning will go a long way to data quality being good.
Weave Into the Fabric
Finally build the data standards into the fabric of your business. Apart from the measuring, add clauses in contracts that ensure staff focus on good data entry and data management. After all, every missing contact name, phone number, invoice number, address, product id, etc. are going to cost your business in some way. The contract clause will emphasise the important of data and drive the point home.
Summary
You can have very high quality data once your business places focus on attaining it. Applying the above 5 suggestions is a practical approach to quickly having very good data.
It’s easy to see how valuable data is to your business, simple ROI calculations will show a net benefit against all the costs in the above 5 steps.
If you had enough of mediocre data and want excellence then contact us and we can start the process of attaining data that you and your company can be proud of.
