Call it what you will, but “stale”, “outdated” or “unhealthy” data doesn’t benefit anyone. Some generic older data can help you assess trends over time, but identifiable customer data is usually useless if not up to date. People move house, update their contact numbers and email addresses, change jobs. They earn more or less, stop working, start working, have kids, retire. All of these mean that their needs change, and their contactability changes, so maintaining a customer relationship and delivering the things they want becomes impossible.
So, how do you keep your data fresh?
For generic data (like web analytics), you must continuously monitor trends and note what causes changes overtime. This is also useful for monitoring trends and identifying gaps in data when a business evolves. For instance, if you know that you generally receive increased website and store visits during December, but your sales drop, you know that you need to gather more data around your inventory and in-store environment during that time.
Keeping identifiable data current means you need to facilitate regular dialogue with contacts on your database. Whether it’s through a call centre, an online prompt or a quick question at your in-store point of sale, there needs to be a plan for updating details at regular intervals.
