Sometimes, the most boring work is ultimately the most rewarding. According to Forbes, “57% of data scientists state that cleaning and organizing data is the least enjoyable part of their work.” While going through your customer data and email bounce-backs might seem less than exciting, it could ultimately save your business. Why is your database accuracy so important? Here are several reasons.
It Improves Your Marketing Efforts
Do you want to improve your insurance marketing efforts? If so, start with your database. According to Outbound Engine, “bad data wastes time, effort and money, and it only increases bounce rates, spam reports, and unsubscribes.” If you have a lot of bad data in your email list, you could even get into trouble with your email provider. Make sure that the people on your list have actually subscribed, or they may report your email as spam, causing further problems.
You can also use your database cleanup to understand which leads are inactive. You could be targeting some of your marketing efforts to people who are no longer relevant to your business. You may also be targeting a large group of people who have used a fake email address.
It Saves Money
According to Blue Pencil, data clean-ups can actually save you money. For instance, “you may print incorrect information onto company letterheads – and realize it must all go to waste once that error is found!” You don’t want to send out renewal notices to the wrong address for all sorts of reasons, and one of those is that it costs you money to create each notice in the first place.
It Helps You Clarify Data
Sometimes, what appears to be a duplicate in your database could be a sign that something larger is going wrong in the database. For instance, if you have a person with multiple email addresses, how do you know whether or not an email address is a correct contact? Following up by looking into both data sets can help you streamline your database.
It Ensures That Your Data is Uniform
What happens if you don’t have uniform data in your system? You could run into larger problems. For example, you might discover that some of your data does not have the correct spelling or abbreviation. This could lead to email or mail that isn’t addressed to the right person and is therefore ignored.
This not only means that your database is not uniform—it could also lead to a customer missing an email from you. In a worst-case scenario, a customer might not renew or make a change on their insurance, and this could lead to an errors and omissions lawsuit.
Think of data cleaning as scrubbing the floor of your front office. While a dirty floor may not be a big problem for many of your clients, if you have a spill that results in a client’s injury, then it could suddenly be a big deal. You’ll wish that you’d taken out that mop a little sooner.
Are you ready to find new E&O insurance? At American Agents Alliance, we want to help you find the resources you need to run your insurance agency. Contact us today to discover our many membership benefits.
