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So you’ve invested in a CRM which is going to transform the way your agency operates… but is ensuring the quality of your data a priority for you?
If you're noticing duplicate results when searching for candidates, or discovering that some key information such as a phone number or email is missing when you go to contact them, it's probably time to clean things up.
It’s easy to let things slide – with Candidates being added and changed in various ways (such as LinkedIn, auto-add, manually, mass updates) it can be really difficult to stay on top of them, but with a few simple steps it’s something you can regain control over fairly simply.
Step 1: Audit and clean your data
It can be a bit scary to begin with, but getting an understanding of what you’re dealing with, and your current processes, is key:
- Identify and record where your data is coming from
- Find out if there is duplicate data
- Check for accuracy and patchy data
- Determine what data is most valuable to your teams
We’ve made a couple of tools - Duplikit and DataCleaner - which make auditing and cleaning a lot easier.
- Duplikit will scour your data overnight, merging duplicate records
- DataCleaner highlights missing information and files; from there you can update the records, or exclude these people from searches
Step 2: Centralise and organise your data
If you have data living in different formats and places, it’s time to combine it all together, ideally so it’s all kept and updated within your CRM. Going forward, consider the different ways in which data is coming in and how you can ensure it’s updated to your CRM in a timely manner.
Step 3: Update your data collection practices
Data cleaning isn’t a one-time thing – if you don’t want your efforts to go to waste it’s essential for CRM end users to help maintain its integrity:
- Define and share the process for data collection, recording, and cleaning
- Assign ownership over data to ensure that everyone does their part
- Create user alerts to highlight holes in data
It may seem like a huge task in the beginning, but the start is the hardest part, and doing this exercise will really help to improve the efficiency of your CRM.
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