Five signs your business data needs some attention
Running a small business usually means keeping track of a lot of information: customers, suppliers, invoices, appointments, enquiries and all the little details that help everything run smoothly.
That information often builds up gradually. A spreadsheet gets added to, notes are made during phone calls, records are copied from one place to another, and before long the data is not quite as tidy or consistent as it once was.
That does not necessarily mean you need a new system or a major overhaul. But there are some common warning signs that your data is starting to create more work than it should.
1. You keep finding duplicate records
Duplicate records are one of the clearest signs that your data is starting to get messy. You search for a customer and discover that they appear more than once, perhaps under slightly different names or with old and new contact details.
That can quickly create practical problems. You might contact the same customer twice, miss an important update because it was added to the wrong record, or spend time trying to work out which version is the correct one.
A few duplicates are easy to ignore, but once they start appearing regularly they usually point to a wider issue with how information is being entered and maintained.
2. The same information is entered in different formats
Inconsistent formatting can make perfectly good data much harder to work with. Dates might be entered in several different ways, phone numbers may include different spacing, and postcodes or reference numbers may not follow a consistent pattern.
On their own, these differences may seem harmless. The problems start when you try to sort, filter, search or report on the data and discover that information which should behave consistently does not.
Using consistent formats makes records easier to find, compare and reuse, and reduces the amount of tidying needed every time you want to do something with the data.
3. You have to tidy the data manually before you can use it
If you find yourself doing the same clean-up every time you open a spreadsheet or export some data, that is a sign the underlying information could be better organised.
You might regularly remove blank rows, fix column headings, change date formats, rearrange columns or delete information you do not need before you can start the job you actually wanted to do.
A small amount of preparation is normal, but repeated manual tidying quickly becomes wasted time. If the same fixes are needed again and again, it is usually worth addressing the source of the problem rather than continually working around it.
4. Your customer details are scattered across scraps of paper, notebooks and sticky notes
When a customer calls, it is easy to grab whatever is nearby and jot down their details. The problem comes when those notes never make it into the place where you normally keep your customer information.
Before long, phone numbers, email addresses, enquiries and follow-up notes can be spread across notebooks, scraps of paper and sticky notes, or written on the back of a receipt and left in the van.
Having one reliable place for important customer details does not have to mean introducing a complicated new system. Even a simple, well-maintained spreadsheet can be a big improvement if everyone knows that it is the main record.
5. You don't completely trust the figures
If you find yourself checking the same totals more than once, comparing figures against old spreadsheets, or wondering whether something has been missed, that lack of confidence is a warning sign in itself.
The numbers may still be right, but if you cannot easily explain where they came from or why they have changed, it becomes much harder to rely on them when making decisions.
Good data should give you confidence, not another reason to reach for the calculator. If you regularly feel the need to double-check the figures before using them, it is probably worth taking a closer look at how the underlying data is being recorded and maintained.
How I can help
If some of these signs sound familiar, the good news is that you probably do not need to start again from scratch. Often, a few sensible changes can make your existing data much easier to manage and more reliable.
Many of these problems are not especially complicated to fix. The real question is whether you want to spend your evenings sorting out spreadsheets, cleaning up customer records or trying to work out why the figures do not look right. That is time you could be spending running your business, or simply enjoying some family time.
That is where The Data Bloke can help. I work with small businesses to clean up inconsistent records, restructure awkward data, check data quality and improve spreadsheets that have become difficult to work with.
If you would rather hand the problem over and get that time back, take a look at my data services or get in touch to discuss what you are dealing with.