In our latest research, we discovered that 92% of the business leaders surveyed invested in data management in the last 12 months—a key finding that emphasizes the far-reaching impact of leveraging data to experience organizational growth. While the connection between data and growth may make you overly eager to put your data to work, it’s important to first ensure that your company possesses information that can successfully steer you towards the most informed and strategic business plans. In essence, you need to confirm the reliability of your data, first.
But what is reliable data and how can you tell if the data that your business uses is mature enough to enable your team with the confidence necessary to make the most informed decisions?
Let’s explore the characteristics that define reliable data that you need to know.
1. Accurate
Think about the number of times you’ve moved, changed your number, or created a new email. If you’ve altered your personal data in any shape or form over the years, chances are that your customers and prospective clients have, too. While you may think that having extensive data puts you one step ahead of your competitors, you can only begin to rely on the data you have when you are confident that it is accurate and represents your users’ current information.
Since data quality is directly correlated to the precision of the data your business possesses, accuracy is the foundational characteristic of reliable data that your business should prioritize when formulating a data management plan.
2.) Complete
Complete data is oftentimes the most effective data. While it’s great to have a user’s phone number, address, or any other single piece of information attached to their name in your CRM, you’ll often find that the data with the highest reliability is typically fleshed out and complete.
Why does complete data matter? Access to comprehensive data allows you to reach your audience across multiple channels while ensuring the validity of their identity. If you know John Doe would be a great client, but you only know his phone number, your ability to reach him successfully decreases tremendously. Additionality, it is much more challenging to verify the validity of a user’s identity when you only have a fractional identifier stored in your database, which can lead to security issues for your users, too.
3.) Useful
What does your customers’ data tell you? Does it paint a picture of your users? Or does your data only provide you with a glimpse of what you truly need to know to execute necessary business strategies that lead the pathway to business growth and success?
While data in and of itself may seem inherently valuable, your data should provide an array of information to your organization that shows you what you need to know about your business performance, your audience, and other key metrics. Reliable data is useful data you can lean on to provide you with the answer to questions such as “how do I reach my intended audience,” and “what is the next best strategy that will lead my company to success?”
4.) Timely
In order to thrive in your industry, you must constantly remain a step ahead of your competitors. This means engaging in marketing initiatives and reaching out to prospective customers in an efficient and timely manner. When you wait too long to market to a given audience, you risk losing their attention entirely— steering them directly in your competitors’ hands.
Not only will reliable data provide you with a complete customer profile, but it will do so quickly. You want to have an idea of the key identifies that define your audience and who exactly you’re targeting so that you can grow your business efficiently and with success. Data quality management systems that effortlessly provide you with the correct consumer information in a rapid manner will play a significant role in helping you to thrive in a competitive landscape.
How to ensure data reliability?
Above, we outlined what it means to possess accurate data that you can rely on and trust to reach the right audience. If you’ve noticed that your data doesn’t check all of the boxes outlined above, the next step is to look for areas of opportunity for improvement so that you can begin to leverage reliable data that leads to notable results.
Investing in address verification, phone verification, and email verification solutions is a great first step in ensuring your business access to essential consumer data that is both accurate, complete, and reliable. In our research, 86% of those who invested in data management emphasized the importance this initiative played in their business growth. Data quality management initiatives will ultimately be one of the most decisive factors that ensure data reliability, so it’s crucial to act as soon as possible to experience the benefits of more mature data.
Learn more about data reliability, management, and maturity
In our most recent research study, we surveyed leading business professionals across the country to understand the impact of data maturity and investment on a company’s success. You now know what makes data reliable—now it’s time to learn how your company can leverage this information to reap the greatest business success. Ready to get started?
