Torque March – by Rebecca Matchette
November 9, 2009
5 Cool Ideas That Rock – by Michael Angelo Caruso
November 9, 2009

The Right Side of CRM

 

 

What you MUST DO before Wednesday, January 2nd, 2008

 

– Dean R. DeLisle

 

These are the top five best-practice maintenance items that you must do regularly (but we all know that everyone gets busy) so check these out and save yourself possibly thousands of dollars in 2008!

 

  1. Backups – Why have I been talking about backups for over 25 years? Because no matter what companies I have been involved with, there are always critical data losses or major expenses when it comes to backups. Please confirm with your service provider or IT department that your actual data is being backed up to somewhere other than the same computer that your data resides. When was the last time you did a test restore? Was the data really there?
  1. Error logs – They tell the tale of what we don't always see. Is anyone looking at these? They tell you about when people click or enter data and it really does not get where everyone thinks it going. They can also tell you about problems that are coming. This is an easy must do!
  1. Database cleanup– This is the time when records that are incomplete and missing critical data can be cleaned up. If you don't have a data quality process in place, then this is a must. You have the potential to communicate with your entire database the way your competitors are communicating with their database, but only if the data is at least 80%! This simply means that all customers are really tagged as customers, prospects that you are using whole departments chasing are really marked as prospects, and leads, don't get me started.
  1. Archive unproductive inactive records– These are the records we sift through all year to get to the good stuff! I can hear it now, I called and their number was disconnected. Yes, but did you update the record? There are simple reports that you can run and sometimes clean these up in mass. However, someone needs to take ownership and make it happen. Is that you?
  1. Get rid of those expired users – Why is it when we walk into companies they feel they need to keep hanging on to the people who no longer work there? I guarantee that if you look in your outlook or CRM there are plenty of ghosts lurking around.

 

Many of these routines, while automated, need to be checked regularly. It depends on your feel for luck, people and the systems in place as to when you check into these.

 

Have a happy and less expensive New Year!