Everyone loves signing up a new customer, making a new sale, or adding a subscriber to a mailing list. Adding a new record to your database signals you’re growing some aspect of your business. However, once these customers have been with your company for a while, how much do you still really know about them?
Given how many accounts, online or otherwise, that most people have today, they probably aren’t rushing out to make changes at every site whenever their email, address, or other information changes. That can lead to problems when it comes time to communicate or perform work on behalf of your customer.
Here are some ideas to help keep your data up to date:
- Determine the importance of the data. If the information is just an email address on a mailing list, you’ll probably just have to write-off the email address if it bounces back. On the other hand, if you need to send important statements such as 1099’s, W-2’s, or other critical account information, verifying and refreshing your data is a must.
- Ask your customers for help. If you have a website, a good method is to check the last time a user logged in and prompt them to verify their information if it’s been longer than a threshold that you decide on. Conversely, you can pick a specific date and have all users verify their information the next time they log in after that date. If you have a deadline looming and information to send be sure to leave enough lead time for your customers to respond.
- Reach out to your customers. If you don’t have a website or customers tend to visit infrequently, you’ll need to reach out to them directly. You can do this through a mailing, an email, or through the phone. Be sure that you have a legitimate need to update your information before sending a mass email as you don’t want to spam your email list. This method is the most time consuming and costly, so consider other options before going down this path. You’ll need to leave yourself even more lead time in this case, as calling or waiting for people to mail back responses will be slower.
You can’t expect the data you have collected to stay accurate forever. The best thing to do is create a plan to proactively keep it up to date instead of trying to chase down all your customers once you realize you need to. Having up to date data will save you time and money in the long run, by allowing you to accurately report on your customer information and save money by sending information to the right place the first time.
If you have questions or would like to learn more about keeping customer data up to date, please reach out to Genesis HR Solutions at AskUs@genesishrsolutions.com or 800-367-8367.
Genesis HR Solutions is the premier PEO provider for Massachusetts based businesses.
