Database integrity
Database integrity must be a concern if you sell services or directly support people who do the selling. After all, how can you sell a contract without having an accurate installed base and contact information? This is what I am talking about:
- Customer name, contact information, and summary of past transactions and conversations for both you and the whole service team
- Installed equipment information like model, serial number, and installed date
- Current entitlement (warranty, billable, contract)
- Date of last service call or on-site visit and outcome
- The same information about all your other equipment at the site
If you haven’t considered this subject before, you are probably scratching your head and wondering how this information never got entered. Or maybe you realize that it was entered when the products were first installed, and now you find out there are system errors. How can that be? Well, here is one summary of the causes of the lack of database integrity:
Don’t you think these things can’t ever happen to any of your customers? Well, think again. In any 2 hours in the U.S., 578 companies will change their phone number; this means 1,806,480 companies will change their phone number in 12 months. Some of them are Fortune 500 size. No doubt, some of these will be on your contact list.
A few common mistakes and omissions that you can avoid
To read about one specific reason to have an error-free database click here.
1. Make sure that you check names before entering a new customer. A common mistake is listing a customer under two or more names. For example, I have Google Alerts to notify me when my name appears online. Here are the alerts:
- Sam Klaidman
- Samuel Klaidman
- Samuel L. Klaidman
- Sam L. Klaidman
You can easily miss out on sales if the same customer is listed under different names. The solution is to merge the entries to make a single record that is more complete.
2. When the equipment was installed, the database was correctly created, including the name and contact information of the end user and department manager. Recently, the manager has moved on and been replaced. Either your company was never told of the change, or someone in your group talked to the replacement but never updated the online records. Either way, you have no idea which is now in that job.
3. The fat-fingered devil took control of someone while entering data. We all know the fat-fingered devil. He causes us to type San when you meant Sam. Not all systems have a spellchecker; not everyone looks at the squiggly lines under the text, even if they do.
How to prevent data errors
One problem is that even when you find and correct a mistake, it is tough to take preventative actions. People very infrequently raise their hands and admit the error. Instead, it usually goes like this:
How to proactively improve database integrity
As far as I know, there is only one way to identify database errors; even that way is not foolproof. My solution is to confirm every entry by attempting to contact each person using text, email, or snail mail.
With text and email, send a message to each contact with a subject like “Please take 15 seconds to confirm our records.” In the body of the message, include all the contact info from your system and ask the contact to return it if all is correct, or change it and return and add the word “updated” to the subject line.
If your email is bounced with a message like “Jane Doe is no longer…” then it’s time to do some detective work. Someone has to reach out to other employees in the same business area as Jane and find out who is taking her place. What an excellent opportunity to introduce your company and organization, find out if you can do anything to help now, and start building a relationship.
One thing I’ve done around the end of the year to increase database integrity is to send each contact a little gift, like a calendar with the service group’s contact information. Go online and find thousands of inexpensive gifts you can send out. Or ask the person in Marketing who handles tradeshows. Not only are you saying “thank you” to all your customers, but you will also get feedback about who is no longer there by including a short message asking for confirmation of receipt. To be sure you get the feedback, you can address the package to “Jane Doe or Current Lab Manager” or whatever. This is a small price to pay to ensure your database integrity.
If you follow my model, send the gift in December and the email in June or July. Even if you are diligent, you will find that errors creep into your database, but the number will be small. You should also set an accuracy goal. I suggest achieving the same record-level accuracy (as a percent of records) as the Inventory Control Manager for inventory accuracy. And both of you can cooperate to improve both measurements.
About Middlesex Consulting
Middlesex Consulting is an experienced team of professionals with the primary goal of helping capital equipment companies create more value for their clients and stakeholders. Middlesex Consulting continues to provide superior solutions to meet the needs of its clients by focusing on our strengths in Services, Manufacturing, Customer Experience, and Engineering. If you want to learn more about how we can help your organization increase service sales, please contact us or check out some of our free articles and white papers here.