Keeping it clean: Data cleansing service and other approaches to dirty data

Tuesday, August 27, 2013

In its simplest term, dirty data is anything that is inaccurate, incomplete, or erroneous. Businesses deal with dirty data by availing of a data cleansing service or practicing certain procedures in-house, particularly for information regarding customers. Accurate and up-to-date information helps build a good business-customer relation in general.

Armed with knowledge, a business can form more effective and strategic approaches to its sales efforts and provide better customer service.

How businesses deal with dirty data


A study by ZoomInfo, a leading business information provider, shows that dirty data is prevalent among businesses. This poses a major cause of concern, as accurate information is critical for a business to market and serve its customers. Dirty data may hinder the business from anticipating the needs of its customers and complicates customer treatment, which is why businesses often employ standard procedures for ensuring data hygiene.

As a preventive approach, some companies highlight the importance of accuracy to their staff, detailing on how the lack of such aspect can impact the operations. Other companies perform manual audits to ensure that quality is strictly followed among staff, asking for follow-ups as necessary. The drawback with this is that manual cleansing tends to take up too much work and makes the output prone to mistakes.

Other businesses harness the gift of technology, acquiring automated contact validation tools that ensure accurate and standardized entry of information or software programs that identify duplicate records, among others.

Finally, some businesses simplify the process by availing of various data cleansing services offered by outsourcing companies. This lessens the managerial and administrative responsibility of the business, at the same time maintaining high-quality information for low costs.

Dirty data has the capacity to jeopardize a business. It may cause loss of sales and negatively impact customer satisfaction. As an answer, businesses enforce training and ensure accuracy starting from input to updates. Aside from these, it is also critical to employ clean-up services as a guarantee that customer database and other critical information lives up to their function.

Open Access BPO resolves the need of businesses for accuracy with its data cleansing service. This efficiently removes or corrects erroneous data, as applicable, using a chain of tried-and-tested verification methods. Open Access BPO helps businesses perform their most crucial processes by enhancing data quality and integrity.


Photo credit: Robert S. Donovan on Flickr