The Importance of Data Cleansing for Your Organization’s Productivity

Data cleansing, also referred to as data scrubbing or simply data cleaning is described as a process through which a set of data is verified to be correct, accurate and up-to-date. This is a very important part of any business or organization, large or small, which relies on a large database. Whether you are using the database as a consumer mailing list, or it is simply a database that details your business operations and interactions with other businesses, no doubt a database is bound to carry redundant and obsolete records sooner or later. 

With specialized software and tools, and a dedicated team of experts, you can rest assured that your database can be cleansed to ensure it is accurate, up-to-date, and relevant. During the process of cleaning data, specialized tools are used to check entries for consistency and accuracy, and verified as correct, altered, updated, or deleted. The process also involves merging of multiple sets of data to ensure a seamless business operation.

Today more than ever before, so much emphasis is put on the quality of data that an organization uses. You cannot afford to have redundant or obsolete information in the competitive business environment that is characteristic of today. Staying on top of your business is vital for so many reasons, and one way to do it is through data cleansing.

Is data cleansing a do-it-yourself process?

Before looking at the main benefits of data cleansing, it is important to mention that the process is better left to experts. Unless you have the time to verify thousands of entries on your database to be correct, no doubt you need to leave it to the experts who have the time, tools and resources to do it. Generally, a reputable company will have an updated database of just about every niche, demographic, age group, region or nation you wish to target.

During the data cleansing process, your database will be matched with its exhaustive database to ensure that all entries in your database are up-to-date and accurate. Of course you do not have a list of millions of people across a specific demographic that you wish to target. Once data matching is complete, the next process entails the actual data cleaning process. This is where inaccurate and corrupt data is removed and replaced by latest data of each and every entry on your database. Don’t be surprised to have people who died several years ago still on your mailing list. 

Importance of data cleansing

1.      First and foremost, you will be able to maintain a good reputation of your organization. If you have ever received a letter with an incorrect mailing address, spelling mistake, or received the same letter two or three times, you know just how annoying this is. Put yourself in your consumer’s shoes and assume you are sending out information purportedly to the correct mailing address. For one, you will be wasting a lot of your advertisement money. Secondly, by annoying and irritating your target audience, you will end up thwarting any opportunity of them doing business with you. Why? Because you will have already created a negative first impression. Data cleaning will ensure you get rid of any possible error in your database that is likely to spoil your first impression. 

2.      Secondly, data cleansing will save you money and time because it is a total waste of valuable resources working with incorrect information. A very good example is when you have the same person on your system with different versions of the same name. This means you will be sending out similar information to the same person. Wouldn’t it be better to save yourself some time and effort and send to different people the same information than sending to one person the same information severally?

3.      With the latest technological advancements, you should be advised that redundant and corrupt data on your database can corrupt and cripple the entire database. Rather than lose all the information that you have and end up buying a mailing list, how about cleaning your existing database and ensuring it is updated? Talk about killing two birds with a single stone.

Conclusion

They say the first impression matters a lot. It would be the gravest mistake to make referring to a potential client by a wrong name several times just because the information you have on your database is incorrect. This can be the worst marketing campaign ever in the world. Taking your time to have your data cleansed by professionals means you will be guaranteed of the perfect mailing list and a database that you can rely on for all your future organization’s endeavours. 

Author Bio:
Guest Post by Steve. You can check his website on data cleansing services