In 60 Seconds

Clean Data in 60 Seconds

•The Cost of Dirt: Bad data costs money. Sending 2 postcards to the same house is waste. Calling the wrong 'Bob' is embarrassing.
•Duplicate Logic: Define what a duplicate is. Same Email? Same Phone? Same Address? Usually, Mobile Phone is the best unique identifier.
•Standardization: Force format. (555) 555-5555 vs 555.555.5555. Pick one. Enforce it.
•The 'Zombie' Purge: Once a year, identify contacts who haven't opened an email or booked a job in 3 years. Tag them 'Inactive'. Stop marketing to them.
•Validation Tools: Use tools like NeverBounce to check if emails are real *before* you send. High bounce rates get you blocked by Google.

Entropy is real. Order moves to chaos. Your database naturally gets messier every day.

People move. People change numbers. CSRs make typos.

If you don't actively clean your data, your Automation Architecture will fail. You cannot automate what you cannot trust.

The Cleaning Schedule

Daily (The CSR's Job)

Search First: Before creating a new customer, SEARCH.
Script: "Have you used us before? Let me check your phone number."
Verify Info: "Is the email still [email]?"

Weekly (The Admin's Job)

Merge Duplicates: FSMs usually have a "Potential Duplicates" report. Run it. Merge them.
Fix Case: Fix "ALL CAPS" or "no caps" names. "JOHN SMITH" looks like a robot sent the email. Change to "John Smith."

Quarterly (The Audit)

Bounced Emails: Delete them.
Wrong Numbers: Delete them.
Standardize Addresses: "St." vs "Street". "Ave" vs "Avenue". Use USPS standardization.

The Tools

Excel: VLOOKUP and Remove Duplicates are your friends for exporting/cleaning lists.
NeverBounce / ZeroBounce: Validates emails.
CRM Native Tools: ServiceTitan and HubSpot have built-in hygiene tools. Use them.

Verification Checklist

Unique ID: Does every customer have a System ID?
Required Fields: Are 'Source' and 'Email' mandatory?
Backup: Before running a bulk delete/merge, EXPORT A BACKUP. There is no "Undo" button on bulk actions.

Common Mistakes

[!TIP] The Junk Drawer Don't have a customer named "Cash Customer" or "Miscellaneous." It becomes a dumping ground for lazy data entry. Every transaction needs a real person attached to it.

Hoarding: "I have 50,000 leads!" Yeah, but 40,000 are dead. Size doesn't matter. Engagement matters. Prune the dead wood so the healthy branches can grow.
Ignoring the Techs: Techs create duplicates too. Train them to link the new job to the existing equipment, not create a new equipment entry every time.

FAQ

Q: How do I handle people with multiple homes? A: Use "Parent/Child" relationships.

Parent: John Smith (The Payer).
Child 1: 123 Main St (Location).
Child 2: 456 Lake House (Location).

Q: Can I automate cleaning? A: formatting, yes. Merging, no. Merging requires human judgment (Is "Bob Smith" the same as "Robert Smith" at the same address? Probably. What if it's Jr and Sr? Careful).

Sources and References

HubSpot: Data Hygiene Checklist - Maintenance guide.
Salesforce: Data Quality Best Practices - Enterprise standards.

Changelog

2024-08-01: Initial publication.

Read Next in This Hub:

Perfect Customer Record - The goal.
Zombie Lead Automation - Using the data.

Related System:

Automation Architecture - The setup.

Data Hygiene: The Daily Habits That Prevent Database Decay