Gain buy in for contact data validation

In today’s digital age, data is king. Companies are now warehousing higher volumes of consumer data through more channels than ever before. This data is helping to improve the user experience and customer satisfaction, facilitating more intelligent business decisions and generating overall gains in revenue.

With such high volumes of data being collected, businesses are also faced with the reality of a lack of data integrity and data accuracy. A high level of inaccurate data puts limits on how data can be used, which creates lost time, money and opportunities.

One way organizations can improve accuracy is by utilizing contact data validation. Software tools can be implemented at any point of capture to ensure the accuracy of valuable customer information, such as email address, mailing address and telephone number. This translates to decreased costs and resources associated with incorrect contact information.

Although proactive data quality management is widely recognized as a best practice for increasing a business' bottom line, it is typically considered a low-level priority.

To gain leadership and investment, stakeholders must constantly look at how data errors and inconsistencies interfere with achieving success. This will help build the business case to prove the need for data quality tools.

While businesses vary in terms of their operations, there are a few key areas that can easily be benchmarked for measurement. These include:

• Returned communications, including bounced emails or direct mail pieces
• Employee time spent manually correcting data and re-sending communications or packages
• Customer calls reporting missing materials
• Loss of marketing opportunities

These costs show how many resources are being wasted on inaccurate data, as well as a clear return on investment from implementing a data validation solution.

Contact data validation in its simplest terms should provide a strong ROI by verifying valuable customer information and ensuring open lines of communication.