Regardless of a company’s specific sector and country of origin, practicing good data hygiene is a wide-ranging investment, destined as such to repay itself with the optimisation of resources, shorter timeframes and stronger decision-making processes. Data hygiene has many benefits and from time to time these depend on the situation of the data when you start. In general we can say that the relationship is direct: the larger the amount of data to be cleansed, the more advantages the company can benefit from immediately and, with continuous cleansing, in the long term.
FROM EMAIL MARKETING TO CUSTOMER ASSISTANCE: FIELDS OF APPLICATION
There are as many fields of application for company data hygiene as there are uses for the data themselves. In the age of the Web and Big Data, any operation that uses addresses, telephone numbers and personal profiles can be improved and perfected with the more accurate management of available databases. The fields of application where maximum effects are attained through cleansing include:
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Customer care
Customer services in today’s companies do not answer with “Hello, who’s speaking”, but with “Hi Richard, thank you for contacting us. How can we help you?”. The difference is subtle, yet crucial. Knowing the customers you have acquired allows you to offer targeted, rapid and tailored support without wasting any time. The secretary and the entire staff of telephone operators can monitor the incoming call (or chat, Skype call, and so on), see the customer’s name and surname, products and services purchased, residential address, VAT number and any other significant data on the PC monitor’s display, guaranteeing a more reliable and punctual service. Above all, customer satisfaction also depends on the assistance provided by the CRM system (customer relationship management). Again, carrying out data cleansing allows you to meet these needs with the right configuration and the right approach.
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Leafleting and delivery
It is impossible to talk about data hygiene without mentioning leafleting and the mailing of advertising material. When the addresses of the recipients are verified, updated and corrected, this scope of application brings considerable benefits. The costs of blindly sending material can be extremely low, if it’s a one-off. However, if it is done frequently it is obvious that the costs of non-delivery increase, both in terms of time and numbers: The less brochures and coupons that arrive at their destination, the fewer the people that have access to your offers, promotions and commercial offers. A similar argument also applies to leafleting, with the additional variable of geocoding. Imagine that you want to distribute leaflets in a limited area, to a target audience made up of families with children. Once the names have been collected, they should be transferred to a map, or to the navigator or GPS used by those who carry out the distribution. Therefore, for profitable leaflet management, the data must not only be cleansed but also converted into exact geographical coordinates.
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Home delivery
As with leafleting, companies can also derive concrete competitive advantages from home deliveries, also known as mailing, by making the transition from chaotic and approximate delivery of products to fast and efficient home delivery with a zero margin of error. It doesn’t matter whether it’s food, car parts, baby accessories or cut flowers: e-commerce, department stores and other companies have to organise shipments according to a flexible lean model, living up to the expectations of today’s consumers. It is difficult to imagine copying the names stored during the purchase or order stage and using them for delivery without any type of control. It is more logical and sensible to submit the same postal addresses to the scrutiny of a dedicated computer program, thereby practicing data hygiene with the possible geolocation of delivery points.
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Email marketing
Years pass by but email marketing remains the most effective digital promotion tool ever, with an ROI that – according to several authoritative sources – stands at around $ 40 for every dollar invested (Small Business Trends and others). Good address data management and the creation of winning communication are of fundamental importance in increasing the chances of hitting the target and achieving campaign objectives. But how do you customise messages for individual emails? And more importantly, how can you be sure that every email arrives at its destination without any hitches? The answer in both cases is data cleansing: cleansing a database before sending material not only means eliminating unnecessary email addresses, but also enriching the contact list with valuable information, for example adding the name of the recipient to the subject line or opening a message.
TOOLS FOR PRACTICING DATA HYGIENE (INCLUDING ONLINE)
In this case, these are bona fide suites to implement in CRM, data warehouses, data entry programs, e-business and CMS platforms.
At Egon we offer two different versions of our data normalisation suite, both with advanced features.
The Egon Web package is aimed at those who do not need to update their company IT infrastructure and wish to rely on Egon services via the Internet. Through API, WSDL and other methods, the customer is able to query the Egon server once, paying for usage via credits or convenient subscription formulas. Maximum quality for data hygiene at your fingertips, including via your smartphone and tablet, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.
The Egon On-Site suite includes the on-site installation of the software on the company’s proprietary servers. In this case, the control on all the technical infrastructure necessary for the operation of the system is complete, with a level of customisation that is superior to the online version. The Egon On-Site suite is configured in collaboration with one of our technicians. You will then be given a training session on how to autonomously use the suite in the batch, online, enterprise application (plugin) and autocomplete modes.
REQUEST YOUR FREE DATA HYGIENE DEMO
You can try out the potential of the Egon suite immediately by requesting a free trial test, without any obligation. All you have to do is fill out the short form on the Demo Registration page and follow the instructions you receive by email. If you would like more information on data hygiene, database cleansing, batch geocoding tools or similar topics, we invite you to read the latest articles published in our blog.
Egon operates in over 250 countries around the world and is able to return data that is translated and encoded in the target language of your choice. Register now to access the online trial version and find out how to cleanse your data meticulously!
