Have you ever entered information into a record on your CRM only to not be able to find it the next time you search for the record? It’s not because the information mysteriously vanished. It turns out that there are three different contact records all for the same individual, and information is scattered across these duplicate data points. 

Duplicate data is an inherent risk in any database. Yet the success of your business will be based largely on the quality of your data. Which means it’s critical that you not only avoid creating duplicate data, but when duplicate data does exist, you work to identify and eliminate it as quickly as possible. 

How Does Duplicate Data Happen?

Few people go into their CRM with the intent of creating complications by entering duplicate data. But it happens. One colleague is adding critical information to Record A, while another is adding data to a duplicate. Each record ends up having some of the information, but no record ends up with all of it. And unfortunately, if anyone makes a decision based on only one of the duplicate records, they’re likely to have made a decision that is at best not well-informed and at worst, deeply flawed. 

Consider this: Experian found that as many as 94% of organizations lack data accuracy and suspect that customer and prospect data are likely inaccurate in some way. And when you’ve got duplicate data, it can negatively impact:

• Customer experience
• Data compliance
• Marketing campaign effectiveness
• Storage costs 

That means that duplicate data is actually a company-wide issue, and one that you definitely need to focus on solving swiftly and correctly. 

But how does it start? Leads are the most common suspect as they often come from multiple sources. For example, Beth Jackson, a Senior Director, could sign up with her personal email to attend your webinar. Then a few weeks later she visits your booth at a tradeshow, by which time she’s been promoted to VP and her badge not only names her as Elizabeth Jackson but populates with her business email. The result? Two different leads from two different sources . . . that are actually the same person. 

Duplicate data can also come as the result of:

• Integration if proper data governance isn’t in place
• Data imports from third-party sources, mergers and acquisitions, and list uploads
• Lack of process for internal users that leaves reps free to create new records however they want

Quick and Easy Ways to Avoid Being Duped

If duplicate data causes all those issues, then there must be clear benefits of deduplicating data. Those include:

• Improved customer experience
• Reduced risk of non-compliance with data protection and privacy regulations
• Optimized marketing spend
• Reduced storage costs

If those look like the exact opposite of the negative impacts we listed above, that’s because they are! And all of these should be compelling reasons to start deduplicating your data right away. 

Deduplicating data can feel like an overwhelming process—and some organizations put it off, which only leads to more duplicate data. And while there’s no way to completely eradicate the risk of duplicate data existing in your system, there’s a lot you can do to minimize it and prevent it from the outset. 

• Search before creating a record. It’s a simple enough solution, but it also takes time, which is not something anyone—especially a sales team—wants to waste. Still, it’s important to encourage your team to take the extra 90 seconds to search both the name and a few variations (Elizabeth, Beth, Liz) to ensure they’re not creating a new record for someone who already exists in the system. 
• Deduping tools. Third-party tools can help by scanning your CRM system and building a list of any duplicates they find. A tool like this should ideally be run weekly by a data champion whose task it is to then merge and/or delete duplicate records. 
• Duplicate prevention tools. These third-party tools will catch a record that looks to be a duplicate as it is created.
• Normalize data prior to importing. This process ensures that all your records have the same fields in the same order. This is another way of catching duplicate data when adding a large number of records to a database.
• Coordinate the sales team. It helps too when the entire team is working together to keep CRM data clean. Making it a habit for everyone will reduce the opportunity for duplicate data to make its way into your systems. 

 

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One More Easy Way to Avoid Dupes

One of the reasons that adding new records into your NetSuite CRM leaves the door wide open for duplicate data is that sales teams often let the admin side of their work pile up in the name of speed when trying to close a deal. And while we certainly can’t fault them for that, that also means that by the time they do sit down to add in all their new CRM information, they just want to get it done. Which means they might not take that extra minute to make sure a contact doesn’t already exist in the system. 

What does that mean? You guessed it: duplicate data. 

Instead, what if it was easier for the sales team to search, edit, create, and even delete CRM records right from the application where they’re likely getting the fastest updates on this information: their inbox. 

That’s why we built ExtendSync for both Outlook and Gmail. This seamless email to NetSuite CRM integration lets users work where they’re most comfortable—in their inboxes—to add information to NetSuite CRM without needing to click over to that application. Got an email update from Beth that she’s now VP? Great! Search her record right from your inbox (don’t forget to do a quick search to make sure she’s not already listed as Liz or Elizabeth), and once you find her record, edit her job title right then and there. You can even attach the email to her record, too. 

And if she’s not already in your system because you haven’t gotten around to entering her yet? No problem, just create the NetSuite CRM contact record right from there. ExtendSync is the perfect solution for helping keep NetSuite data squeaky clean right from the source. 

Try ExtendSync in your inbox today, completely free. Get started here.