Can you trust the people you work with?
It’s a natural question to ask, and, more often than not, it’s a question you ask instinctively when you meet new people. When you have a first impression of someone, it’s not about defining whether or not you like them, but it’s about trust. Do they seem like someone you could talk to openly without worrying about them use the information to stab you in the back when you least expect it? While this sounds a little excessive, it’s ultimately how office workers, managers, and entrepreneurs apprehend the world. You need to decide within the first few seconds if you can build a valuable and profitable relationship with a person.
With data, it’s the same story. However, as you are unable to use your instincts, you need to find creative and professional solutions to establish whether you can work safely and productively with your business data. Can you trust your data? Here’s how to ensure that your data remain trustworthy and useful.
Use error-free data tools
If every company had only one data collecting tool, life would be so much easier. But when many businesses use more than one-hundred different collection instruments, you need to work with an extract, transform, load tool to bring your data together. As data are real-time entities that are generated at any time of the night and day, ETLs need to be able to handle the constant stream of data and connect them effectively to create a meaningful visual. Data, however, are typical to the tool that collects them. Consequently, you need a solution that can clarify the diversity of data formats and create a fault-free result you can trust. If the solution can’t understand the diversity of formats and metrics, you might struggle to obtain a meaningful image.
Let the customers tell you
The data you collect can be generalized as part of a profiling exercise. However, not two customers are the same. Creating customer profiles without the relevant background information can have dramatic consequences. On future interactions and transactions. But that’s precisely why you need to use a CRM tool to establish a workflow of introductory communication. Think of it as a getting to know each other strategy. You can encourage customers through offer-based emails to share more about themselves. Would they prefer product A or product B in offer? Based on their answer you can place the customer with the appropriate audience group.
Build realistic customer profiles
Is your IT system secure?
Finally, data are elements of information that are stored digitally. Ensuring that your data remain secure is the primary challenge of the business world. Indeed, malware attacks surpass 9 billion this year, and put companies at the mercy of cybercriminals. While most cybercriminals prefer to steal data instead of modifying them; some hackers choose to hold data in hostage with ransomware attacks. In 2017, the NHS in the UK suffered a serious ransomware attack that blocked their access to medical data. Patients worried that their records might not be saved, and ultimately the several NHS trusts were unable to operate effectively during the attack.
Trusting your data doesn’t happen by chance. It’s the result of hard work involving a meaningful extraction and visualization of data, the ability to build specific profiling segments, and finally a malware-proof IT system that doesn’t put your data at risk. In short, there’s only one question left to ask: Do you trust your data?
