CRM data health probably overvalued

New research shows that the pandemic has accelerated data decay and suggests that many CRM users have unfounded confidence in the quality of their data.

The 2022 State of CRM Data Health report, from Validity, follows a survey of 1200 CRM users across the US, the UK and Australia. According to the report, maintaining high-quality data health remains a significant business challenge, with poor-quality data being blamed for everything from customer losses to high employee turnover.

Despite acknowledging these issues, Validity says 76% of respondents still characterised their CRM data quality as either ‘good’ or ‘very good’ in the initial stages of the survey. Further in to the survey responses, participants reversed this stance, revealing that poor CRM data is impacting sales and driving inadequate outreach, which has led to customer losses.

The report says a lack of acknowledgement from company leadership trickles down through an organisation, snowballing into overarching unethical data practices which quickly erode customer trust and hurt brand reputation.

“Everything an organisation does starts with, and relies on, accurate CRM data — from marketing campaigns to sales development activity to providing an excellent customer experience and beyond,” said Kate Adams, SVP of Marketing at Validity.

“While the findings of this report may initially be bleak, there is hope. As the initial shockwaves of the pandemic ebb, many organisations are realigning their budgets and planning to invest in the betterment of their data health and quality. The upward trends of companies dedicating a portion of their budget to hire a full-time CRM data quality employee, and taking data quality more seriously in light of COVID-19 related data decay, are highly encouraging,” she said.

Key report findings for Australian market

Despite 75% of respondents rating the overall accuracy, quality and usefulness of the data in their CRM system as ‘good’ or ‘very good’, many Australian businesses reported that poor-quality CRM data results in significant business challenges, including:

• losing existing customers (61%);
• losing high-quality employees (41%);
• losing new sales (56%);
• duplicate and/or inadequate outreach driven by poor-data quality leading to customer loss (82%);
• estimated company losses of over 10% in revenue due to poor data quality (42%).
   

Reliance on data remains high in Australian organisations, despite concerns of inaccuracy. For example, 93% of respondents agree that most decision-makers within their company rely on CRM data to make key decisions for their department; however, 43% say that the data requisition to drive decisions is often inaccurate, and 29% say that the CRM data requested to drive decisions often does not exist at all.

COVID-19 has accelerated data decay, according to 74% of respondents. Specifically, 71% say that an increase in movement of employees between jobs and/or locations since March 2020 has led to an all-time low in data quality.

Image credit: ©stock.adobe.com/au/greenbutterfly