Duplicate data has no value. In a CRM system, it is like a doppelganger that does more damage than good. You might wonder, “How can a few duplicate records of customer data harm my business?”
5 duplicates out of 1000 customer records may not be a big deal. But when there are too many duplicate records, things can get messier. Users will find their last data updates missing. MIS reports will portray a misleading picture. Sales personnel will have difficulty figuring out the right contacts to reach potential leads. Multiple salespeople might reach out to the same prospect. Even with a powerful CMS system like Salesforce, duplicate data can threaten your business’ selling prowess.
The Hidden Cost of Bad Data Management
According to this IBM infographic, poor data quality costs the US economy around $3.1 Trillion annually. While not every small and medium scale business might have trillions worth of losses, it is indisputable that bad data management can prove to be a business threat. This is where Deduping your CRM data on a regular basis can help. And if you are a Salesforce user, things are made easier for you.
Data Duplication: How and where it happens the most
Salesforce, being an open and flexible system that collects data from various sources, is bound to encounter several duplicate data records. The most common routes through which duplicate data creeps in include:
- Migrating from previous CRM to Salesforce
- Integrations & 3rd party connectors
- Data loader imports
- Errors in manual data entry
How Does Salesforce support the ‘Duplicate Data Elimination Mission’
Salesforce comes with some in-built duplicate data identification tools that help you zero in on duplicate phone numbers, email ids, misspelled names, wrong designation formats, and so on.
Duplicate Management Feature
Salesforce Duplicate Management Feature proactively warn users when they are about to create a possible duplicate record. By default, there are some basic rules which will help pick out duplicates. These rules can be further customized in Salesforce with additional rules to weed out duplicates. Even the message box that alerts the user can be customized with custom messages to warn users.
For instance, the duplicate management feature will alert users when they are creating a duplicate for a profile that already exists in the CRM. The user can choose to accept the warning and discard the profile creation or ignore the warning and continue with the profile creation.
Analyze duplicate record set
How will you know if the conditions you set in the duplicate management feature are actually detecting duplicates? You can generate a duplicate record set object report that shows all duplicates and possible ‘false positives’. Depending on the pattern of false positives you can tweak your duplicate conditions to perfection. The end result would be an enhanced CRM database.
The benefits of maintaining a clean & duplicate-free CRM
It is easier to maintain a clean and duplicate-free CRM than spend time cleaning the data. Here are benefits of having a clean & duplicate-free Salesforce CRM data.
Glitch-free use of pre-built templates
Salesforce allows its users to create customized email templates from its CRM data. The customized email templates can also be downloaded for use across various email clients that your sales reps could be using.
Duplicate-free data helps in creating contextually correct emails using the templates available in Salesforce.
For instance, a duplicate-free CRM data would help create personalized email blocks of text like, “I noticed that you are the CTO for <company name>. I would love to showcase to you how <my business name> can be an ideal fit for IT managed services.”
Duplicate data could possibly trigger the same email mentioning different designations or names to the same account/lead. Such a scenario may portray your business as poorly organized or unprepared.
Establishes a practice of rules-based data creation
Salesforce allows you to create rules-based data creation that helps stop duplicate data creation right at the point of creation. Additionally, the settings can also be customized to allow users to accept or ignore the warning message.
This makes it easier for sales reps to quickly spot leads that are hot and conversion-ready. In fact, one of the world’s premier universities was able to maximize its sales rep productivity by implementing a customizable duplicate data management feature in Salesforce.
Accurate MIS reports
The prime use of data is to create reports that influence enterprise decision making Data that is free of duplicates helps in creating accurate MIS reports that will help decision-makers make informed decisions that will lead to future profitability.
Picking the duplicate one out
Data duplication can happen quickly. But, identifying the duplicates and removing them from the CRM system takes time. Luckily, Salesforce comes equipped with in-built tools that help in methodical elimination of duplicates without overspending your resources. The cloud-based CRM system allows you to create custom reports of duplicates which can be analyzed before taking corrective action.
The CRM system also ensures that your sales reps as well as marketing team follow a uniform way of creating and maintaining data. The consistency of data results in accurate MIS reports based upon which the future can be foretold and planned for.
Get in touch with our Salesforce experts for de-duplication support in Salesforce.
