How To Create A Data Capture Procedure Checklist For Your Small Business CRM Software

Fortunately one of the most common reasons cited for the high
failure rate of CRM systems - poor data quality - is also one of
the easiest to avoid. Your CRM software is only as good as the
information it contains. As the old programmers motto goes
‘garbage in, garbage out’.

So how can you avoid incomplete, incorrect, irrelevant or
out-of-date and generally unfit-for-use data from permeating your
CRM software?

You need to gather your key CRM users together and thrash out a
DATA CAPTURE PROCEDURE document, defining the rules of use.

Spell out:

• Who has what rights to the system; who can Create, Insert,
Modify or Delete records, assuming your software supports all
these functions? Forward this information to your system
administrator to action.

• Decide on a procedure to check for any duplicates before
creating a record. Depending on what ‘de-duping’ or ‘data
scrubbing’ features your system has, this might require some
simple searches before starting a new record.

• Do you allow abbreviations or acronyms? For example: IBM, or
I.B.M, or International Business Machines Inc. or Incorporated
and so on. A policy on ensuring consistency of input will help to
avoid duplications in future.

• Are records going to be created in Upper and Lower case and
when are CAPS acceptable?

• By when do you expect records, notes and so on to be created or
updated? Same day, on return to the office?

• Check to see whether your Postal Services have specific
requirements. Ensure your data meets these criteria.

• Is the primary address of clients to be created as a postal or
a physical address?

• Make sure everyone checks spellings if they are unsure and do
not trust spellchecker! When in doubt, ask the client – they’ll
respect that. Is it Clark with an ‘e’; Shawn, Sean or Shaun? One
certain way to get your mail binned is to spell someone’s name
incorrectly.

• Also confirm the kind of corporation e.g. LLC, Inc, PTY Ltd.
and so on.

• Make rules for creating new profiles or User Definable Fields
(UDF) (or whatever your specific CRM software calls them.) Place
a lot of emphasis on this. Every time a new UDF is needed, it
should first be approved. Otherwise duplicates will permeate your
database e.g. Lead Source: Yellow Pages, YP, yelo pages.

• Ensure that email addresses are put in correctly. Basic but
common mistake!

• Set up procedures, if not supported by your software, of how to
create records from inbound emails.

• If applicable, are you going to use Mandatory/Forced fields?

You might as well address the issue of Backups while you are
about it.

• Who is the responsible person for backing up your databases/s?
Who covers for them when they are absent or unavailable?

• How frequently are backups to be done? Diarise!

• How are backups done e.g. by the Grandfather, Father, Son
method.

• Ensure backups are made on good quality CD’s or whatever format
you are using. It’s no good doing a backup, then finding on
attempting a Restore that it doesn’t work! It is also a good idea
to copy backups onto more than one data format.

• Where are the backups to be stored?

• Are the backups secure? This is important for both security and
practical reasons.

Once your Data Capture Procedure Document is finished, get
everyone to sign it off as READ! As standard practice, ensure
that document is handed to all new employees at your company.
Refer back to this document for possible revision every three
months or so.

Try this: select a couple of records - both good and bad - every
week, to put on the overhead at staff meetings. Make sure you
don’t unduly embarrass anybody but watch this become the
light-relief highlight of your meetings! People learn best when
having fun!

What if your database is in one unholy mess?

Has the rot set in so deeply that your database needs a complete
overhaul? Turn this seemingly insurmountable task into an
opportunity to you. This is an excellent excuse to re-establish
contact with your clients and let them know you care. You can
always put lapses down to data crashes but tell them you have
fixed the problem!

Importantly, help your staff understand what you need from the
data to facilitate more accurate marketing and reporting and
hence the success of your business and their careers.

By creating a sense of pride and ownership in the company
database, you are nurturing the essential process of buy-in,
necessary for the success of your CRM initiative. Don’t
compromise this critical tool by allowing your CRM software to be
infected by inferior data.

About the Author: Perry Norgarb has specialized in Small Business
CRM solutions for the last 15 years.

Contact him or find out more about CRM, Contact Management and
other Sales Tracking software tips and solutions for small
businesses at: http://www.smallbizcrm.com

You are free to re-publish this article as long as this bio box
and copyright remain intact. © 9 March, 2004.

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