• by Ray Schultz , Columnist, February 10, 2022

CRM data is in such a terrible state that practitioners sometimes falsify it to get what they want. And many would leave their jobs over it, judging by The State of CRM Data Health in 2022, a study released Thursday by Validity. 

Of the marketers polled, 75% say employees have faked data to tell the story they wanted decision makers to hear, with 33% saying they have faked it often and 42% saying they have done so sometimes. And 82% have been asked to find data to support a scenario even if it is not accurate. 

But 87% say leaders rely on CRM data to make key decisions for their departments. Ninety-one percent contend that the data to support these decisions is inaccurate, with 51% saying it is often inaccurate and 40% sometimes. 

There is a real cost to all this: 44% say their firm has lost 10% in revenue due to poor-quality CRM data, and 64% are so dismayed that they would consider quitting if additional resources were not allocated to support data quality. 

And while 76% claim their CRM data is good or very good, this confidence may not reflect reality. 

For instance, 75% acknowledge that their firm has lost customers due to duplicate and/or inadequate outreach caused by bad data. And 50% have lost new sales for the same reason. 

Also, 69% say their firms fail to pursue or complete potentially valuable initiatives. 

Moreover, bad data quality has prompted firms to delay or halt email campaigns and other efforts: 

• Marketing campaigns — 47%
• Sales pipeline processes — 37% 
• Brand awareness initiatives — 37%
• Customer service initiatives — 35%
• Marketing automation strategies — 33% 
• Re-engagement email campaigns — 33%
• Customer retention initiatives — 20%
• Other — 1%

Specifically, companies suffer from these problems:

• Missing or incomplete data — 56% 
• Incorrect data — 46% 
• Duplicate data — 44% 
• Expired data — 35% 
• We have no data quality issues with our CRM — 5% 
• Other — 0% 

What’s driving this storm of bad data?

For one thing, 79% say data decay has increased due to COVID-19. But the study identifies these three syndromes: 

1. Leadership doesn’t prioritize data quality

Only 19% say CRM data quality is a high priority for their leadership

While 25% of leaders are aware of data-quality issues, they do not support initiatives to improve the situation. 

Another 14% say leadership is oblivious to data quality, and 24% say management does what it wants regardless of what the data says. 

2. Management responsibilities are murky

The respondents say:

• it is the full-time responsibility of a cross-functional team — 21% 
• it is the full-time responsibility of a single person or department — 17% 
• it is the full-time responsibility of someone in IT — 13% 
• the owning department is debated internally within my organization — 12% 
• it is a part-time responsibility for a cross-functional team — 12% 
• it is a part-time responsibility of a single department, such as IT or sales operations — 9% 
• it is the full-time responsibility of someone in marketing — 6% 
• it is the full-time responsibility of someone in sales — 3% 
• it is the full-time responsibility of a different department — 3% 
• it is no one's responsibility — 2% 
• don't know — 2% 
• other — 0%

3. Organizations think they are taking steps to improve data quality — but take the wrong ones

Here is what they are doing:

• We use manual processes to identify and correct data quality issues: 51% 
• We supplement what's in our CRM with third-party data: 38% 
• Third-party data management solutions: 35% 
• We clean data before it is imported into our CRM: 33% 
• We hire temp workers and/or paid interns to improve database quality: 23% 
• We don't take any steps to achieve optimal data quality: 6% 
• Other: 0% 

Validity surveyed 1,241 customer relationship management administration workers in the technology, retail, e-commerce, professional services, healthcare, travel, distribution, or manufacturing sectors.Of these, 606 were in the U.S., 318 in the U.K. and 317 in Australia.