Data quality issues

Data quality issues: Problems and costs of poor data

In order to maintain a good relationship with customers as well as make a profit, organizations must maintain a high level of data quality. At Experian, we recognize the importance of solving data quality issues so a company can perform efficiently and effectively. Consider a few examples of how poor quality data can harm different areas of an organization.

Poor data results in lost profits

A company conducting an email marketing campaign that introduces a product needs to reach both its loyal customers, as well as potential new ones. This means a company must have the correct email addresses of everyone they want to target in the campaign. If dozens or even just a few of the email addresses are bad, the company ends up with a great new product that very few people know about. Fortunately, these sorts of data quality issues can be solved. At Experian Data Quality, our email verification tool can ensure your email lists are valid and deliverable before you send your campaign. With an email verification tool in place, companies can send out material for their email marketing campaigns knowing that it will be delivered to the proper recipients.

Poor data has negative effects on a company's reputation

Another common data quality issue with organizations and companies that send out a lot of email is a low sender reputation. This problem occurs when an organization sends out a large number of undeliverable emails, hits spam traps, or doesn't follow opt-in best practices. An email address may have a misspelling in it or have other errors that cause it to bounce back to the sender. When this happens too frequently, the organization receives a bad sender reputation with email providers. The providers may think that the organization is sending out spam or other harmful emails. In short, the organization's important marketing campaign material and other legitimate email may immediately travel to a customer's spam folder or may be blocked from delivery entirely. The cost of poor data quality in this scenario is a badly tarnished reputation. Not surprisingly, it takes an organization a long time to reestablish legitimacy with customers and spam monitoring organizations. Alternatively, a company that uses our software can do a thorough check of email addresses, which helps avoid this disaster.

Poor data equals lost customers

Another cost of poor data quality is lost customers. A company that is fortunate enough to have a large group of loyal customers must do whatever it can to nurture those relationships. Part of this process includes keeping all contact information up to date. A company that doesn’t keep its customer contact information up to date will lose a loyal customer every time a person moves to a different residence. This can add up to a lot of lost customers over time! Fortunately, organizations can utilize our address verification solution to keep track of new movers and verify new addresses before they enter your database. Along with maintaining current contact data, this software also checks for misspellings and looks for missing components in addresses. In short, it prevents the loss of valuable customers due to data quality problems related to contact information.

Poor data can result in fines

A company that contacts many customers through telemarketing campaigns may encounter fines due to a data quality issue. It's important that these companies call valid telephone numbers and respect the Telephone Consumer Protection Act. A company can receive fines for calling individuals who are on the National Do Not Call Registry. This affects a company's reputation, as well as its pocketbook. At Experian Data Quality, we offer a phone validation tool to help organizations with their phone data. This tool checks an organization's data for valid telephone numbers. It can help an organization to stay within the bounds of federal regulations while conducting an expansive telemarketing campaign.

Related links:

Learn how you can cleanse contact data. 
Find out more about data quality.
Learn about our email list cleaning options.