CONFUSION over how to handle customer data is threatening potential business growth and profits, a research study has revealed.
Global information services group, Experian, has published the findings in its 2015 Global Data Quality Research, confirming that while businesses are increasingly aware of the potential of their data.
many are still struggling to harness the strategic value of that data
Yet more than 90% of businesses surveyed still find data improvement challenging.
While the research, among representatives of 1,239 organisations in the UK, US, France, Germany, Spain, Australia and the Netherlands, shows most now understand the importance of their customer data and its potential to drive value, many are still struggling to harness the strategic value of that data.
According to Experian, there are two main reasons for this. The first being a lack of ownership and co-ordination – with almost 63% of organisations lacking a coherent, centralised approach to data quality. And the second being the use of outdated methods to check data accuracy – with 29% of organisations still manually cleaning their data.
Boris Huard, Managing Director of Experian Data Quality said: “What is particularly encouraging is that companies are increasingly switching on to the value of their data assets, with 95% of respondents stating that they feel driven to use their data to either understand customer needs, find new customers or increase the value of each customer. They recognise that more emphasis on data management and strategy will enable them to satisfy escalating customer expectations.
“However, there is still some way to go. As the research reveals, many challenges persist – the number who suspect that they have data inaccuracies is up from last year and the majority still think they lack a clear approach to data quality.
