(Don’t mention the data cleanse!)
People often run for the hills when I start talking about data. It’s an understandable reaction. They are either going to be bored to tears or have to admit they haven’t got a clue about data.
But I have learned that there is a topic even more powerful when it comes to emptying a room…
Data Cleanse. Deads and Gone Aways. Data Cleaning. Suppression. Data Management.
Call it what you want, it’s all the same, just different flavours.
A data cleanse should always be a proactive exercise. Something that happens continuously and underpins everything that you are doing with your data. But we rarely mention it because it’s deemed trivial and unsexy… Until the decision has been made to change the CRM.
The fact is, that poor data quality is probably at the heart of fifty percent of the problems that your Fundraising Team experiences. So, let’s get back to ‘when do your data cleanse; before or after moving it to a new CRM?’
Here’s a top-line run down of a migration schedule:
Obviously, this is hugely simplified, and when it comes to data there isn’t a magic one-size-fits-all method. But I’m sure you can see that cleaning up the data before you move it means that you won’t be moving all the crap and issues from the old system into the new system. Well at least all the data quality issues, anyway!
Have I said it enough? Data cleanse goes before the the migration!
If you move it and then try and clean it up, you’re likely to encounter additional issues where the original problems have been exacerbated by the move. Your new CRM will have been structured to accommodate the issues or the issues will have been altered (but not corrected) to fit the new structure. Either way, you’ve now got a load of bad data inhabiting your new CRM.
And if you’re thinking of moving but haven’t yet committed, then take a moment to think about how you could do some of the data management prep work ahead of time. Even if you don’t move CRM, you will reap the rewards from the work that you’ve done to improve data quality. Everything you do will filter through and will benefit your fundraising. You would do all of the normalisation and the cleaning but put the data back into the existing CRM rather than a new one. And if you are going to do a cleanse – these guys are great – Data8.
I’m off to stick my hands into some filthy dirty data. Are you going to join me?
