We shall begin with a mere question.
Did you ever go to your sales report and said this did not feel right?
The numbers say one thing. Your gut says another. Their version of truth is the one that your team holds. Your data lies in between somewhere. Messy. Incomplete. Out of date.
Here, the actual price of inaccurate data quality lies. Not in a single great melodramatic failure. But in one thousand little grains that creak away time and money and energy.
This is much more widespread than we would wish to admit in the case of retail and service based business owners within the Australian market. And it is frequently concealing itself beneath our noses.
What is Meant by Bad Data Quality
Low quality of data is not only limited to the lack of fields and spelling errors. It is larger and more furtive than it.
It looks like:
- CRM Duplicate customers.
- Sales reports which do not tally with the finance figures.
- Gets stuck in the wrong stage months on.
- Employees export spreadsheets due to lack of trust with the system.
- Making decisions out of old information or biased information.
Concisely, it is the time you have your systems that technically work but no one believes what they say.
And when there is no trust, then everything is slack.
The reason Bad Data is Killing Sales
Momentum is the life and death of sales teams. Unhealthy information suffers silently.
Picture this.
One of the salespeople calls a lead that was already reached last week. Awkward. A different rep misses a hot opportunity as he was not properly assigned it. There is a manager who predicts revenues by basing on transactions that ought to have been closed in several months.
All this does not reflect as a line item cost. But it adds up fast.
The Real Sales Impact
- Prolonged sales cycles due to the absence of complete information.
- Miss of close rates following poor follow up.
- Unsatisfied sales workers that lose faith in the CRM.
- Lost upsell and cross sells.
Poor data does not only slow down sales. It changes behaviour. Teams operate on the system rather than on it.
It is at that point that spreadsheets creep back in.
Operations Feel the Pain Too
The most vociferous about data issues is sales. The harm is silently taken in by Operations.
Inconsistency in the customer records requires operations teams to take hours in correcting some problems that should not be there.
Think about:
- The jobs placed with incorrect information.
- Inventory that has been ordered is due to erroneous forecasts.
- Information hunted teams within the systems.
- It takes days rather than minutes to report.
Any workaround of manual type is a business tax. It robs you of the time that you can work.
The Reason this occurs in emerging Companies
When you are thinking, you are not alone, this is like us.
The majority of businesses in Australia do not begin with poor data.
They grow into it.
- This is the general course in which it is conducted:
- Simple tools are the ones that you begin with.
- New systems are introduced as time goes on.
- There is never a complete definition of processes.
- The workarounds are developed by staff.
Data becomes fragmented
Then, your CRM, accounting, marketing and operations software are giving you a different story.
It is here that one can actually see the difference with the right zoho training and advice by a zoho implementation partners. It was not only to install the software, but to influence the way people use it in their day-to-day actions.
The Ways Data Problems Are Not Solved by Tools
Here is a hard truth.
Poor data can not be fixed by purchasing new software.
Roll out the best CRM in the world. Your data will continue to rot in the event that your processes are not clear, and your team is not trained appropriately.
The combination of three things results in good data quality:
- Clear processes
- Consistent behaviour
- Systems that are capable of supporting both.
Technology is not the end of the world.
A Short Account of the Real World
One of the service businesses with whom we were engaged believed that their sales funnel was broken.
Deals were stalling. Forecasts were unreliable. Better reporting was desired by the management.
The real issue? There was no consensus over the meaning of each stage of sales.
One of the reps had been taking deals forward following a phone call. One of them was awaiting a proposal signed. The system was not wrong. The usage was.
Their data and information started to make sense after organized zoho training, coordinated phases, and a neat implementation. It did not happen that sales improved overnight. But decisions did.
And that changed everything.
The Influence of Poor Data on Decision Making
This could be the worst and the most dangerous effect.
In cases where the leaders no longer trust data, they use their gut.
Instinct is useful. But it does not scale.
Poor data leads to:
- Guess based planning
- Reactive decision making
- Lack of development opportunities.
- Risky investments
Good data instills confidence. Bad data creates noise.
Frequently Asked Questions Business Owners How do I know that my quality of data is poor?
In case your team exports to spreadsheets, quarrels with reports, and does not use the CRM, these are obvious indicators.
Is it possible that data problems can impact the customer experience?
Absolutely. Inaccurate information will result in follow ups that are missed, redundant questions and inconsistency in service. Customers notice.
Is this a people problem or a software problem?
It is both. The implementation of software should be done in the right way. Individuals require education and defined procedures to be observed.
And where to begin with mending it?
Begin with a review of the manner in which data gets into your system. The next question is who touches it and why. Herein lies the recommendation of employing an implementation specialist of Zoho to identify problems within a short period of time.
The Training and Implementation role
This is a place in which most businesses fail.
They invest in software. Then they rush onboarding. Training is not considered.
Correct training on zoho is not about demonstrating buttons and screens. It makes your team understand the direction of the data flow, its importance and the impact of their actions on the larger scope of things.
Good implementation is concerned with:
- Clean data structures
- Clear ownership of records
- Automation as it makes sense.
- Reporting which is real.
What Good Data Feels Like
When there is an improvement in the quality of data, an interesting thing occurs.
Your business feels calmer.
The emphasis made in sales meetings is on strategy rather than number wrangling. Operations run smoother. Reports are easy to understand on the surface.
Above all, decision making is made easier.
You stop guessing. You start knowing.
Concluding Remarks and Next Steps
Bad quality data is not dramatic. It is quiet. Persistent. Expensive.
But it is also fixable.
It is worth listening to when you are operating a retail based or even a service based business and your systems are not as fast as they ought to be. The cost is already there. You are simply wasting your time, worry, and regret.
An appropriate combination of the organized procedures, considerate execution and continuous zoho training can transform your systems into a nightmare or a true benefit.
In case this article seemed a bit too familiar then that is a good thing. Awareness is the first step.
The next one is the decision to repair it.
