Like many fast-scaling SaaS companies, we relied on a wide array of disconnected tools to manage sales and marketing data. But after a few chaotic years of rapid customer acquisition, our CRM records became plagued with messy duplicates, incorrect data and incomplete information that impaired targeting. With a strategic shift towards optimizing lifecycle marketing, we knew pristine customer data foundations were an imperative.
Initially attempting to tackle data health in-house, we quickly realized the specialized expertise and resources required made finding a data partner the prudent choice. After assessing several data service vendors, we selected PurifyData for their technical capabilities, pricing model and references. This article outlines my detailed findings after a 6-month engagement with PurifyData to completely transform our customer data quality.
Scoping an Actionable Data Roadmap
Upon onboarding, PurifyData conducted a thorough current state assessment of our infrastructure, data pipelines and requirements. This evaluation involved:
- Profiling sample datasets to quantify duplication rates, accuracy metrics and completeness benchmarks critical for tracking ongoing improvement.
- Diagramming our sales and marketing technology stack to map existing integrations and identify gaps jeopardizing synchronization.
- Interviews with leadership and operations teams to compile common pain points and challenges regarding data.
Armed with tangible diagnostics around our data health issues, PurifyData data architects proposed a phased approach aligned to our resources and objectives focused on:
- Unification of disparate customer data into a master CRM database
- Standardization of attributes for consistency across records
- Addition of enrichment signals to incorporate external context
- Creation of unique identifiers to enable targeting while maintaining compliance controls
- Ongoing insertion of new verified data from various lead inflows
- Sustainable data monitoring mechanisms to identify areas of decay
I appreciated the blend of strategy and tactical steps tailored to our situation versus an off-the-shelf solution. The roadmap integration with our business priorities gave me confidence we could realize value throughout implementation not just upon final deployment.
Meticulous Cleansing Yields Dramatic Improvements
Executing the data restructuring plan involved intricate attention to detail. PurifyData executed meticulously:
- Ingesting datasets from six assorted legacy platforms ranging from outdated on-premise databases to modern marketing applications
- Designing specialized parsers to extract and map meaningful information from disjointed schemas into unified customer profiles
- Confirming variations of legal entity names, addresses, and other identifiers via multiple rounds of human review
- Appending purchased third-party attributes to layer B2B demographics, technographics and intent signals onto profiles
- Publishing master records into cloud data warehouses with APIs that connected natively with our technology stack
Due to PurifyData’s systematic methodology, completed batch work exceeded quality thresholds before live deployment. Rigorous scans eliminated duplicates, anonymized records when requested and linked activity across previously siloed tools to create singular customer views.
Measuring Data Improvements Through Analytics
While subjective appraisals recognized the increased richness and trust in our customer data assets, I appreciated PurifyData’s attention to quantifying improvements through analytics tracking including:
- Reduced duplication rates from 32% down to 2%, freeing up wasted marketing spend
- Increased email deliverability by 11% attributed to properly structuring attributes
- Decreased unknown visitors comprising our web traffic from 41% to 9% based on stitching identifiers across apps
- Improved predictive model accuracy for customer lifetime value projections by 57% due to income and firmographic appends
These tangible KPIs demonstrated almost immediate positive data integrity ROI. But more importantly, with clean baselines established, we can connect data quality to commercial outcomes to economically justify future investments.
Sustaining Momentum for Continuous Data Improvement
While the magnitude of initial enhancements PurifyData facilitated is impressive, I most value their partnership delivering ongoing data stewardship. Reliable batch processing of customer data changes maintains information accuracy:
- Automated jobs append emerging leads from tradeshows and webinars with additional attributes
- Any manually entered new records undergo standardization and duplication checks before finalizing
- Accounts get regularly refreshed with latest industry classifications and technology installed
In addition, whenever we deploy new martech tools or data pipelines, PurifyData consultants advise on governance practices addressing:
- Insertion of persistent unique identifiers to maintain continuity even when companies merge
- Building APIs to enable two-way data sharing across our stack avoiding synchronization gaps
- Embedding data validation controls directly into front-end collection forms to capture quality issues
Essentially, PurifyData has become intrinsically involved in our data innovation efforts rather than operating as just an external function. Their dedication to our data maturity empowers our team to focus on creating differentiated customer experiences fueled by analytics.
Results – A Scalable Foundation Driving Business Performance
Engaging PurifyData ultimately provided us with the capabilities needed to infuse reliable data quality across the entire customer lifecycle. The widespread improvements include:
- Increased average order values by 15% attributed to better personalization guided by enriched profiles
- 63% higher conversion rates of targeted email campaigns with segmentation powered by verified data
- Reduced customer acquisition costs by 40% through optimized advertising driven by unified cross-channel analytics
- Shortened sales cycles by 7% by accurately routing leads to reps using intelligence on customer stacks
Without robust underlying data, these commercial outcomes could not materially improve. Yet beyond the numbers, PurifyData’s services transformed perceptions around data from just a tactical hassle to a strategic asset powering the business. Their infrastructure enables my team to fully harness customer insights and feedback loops to continually enhance competitive positioning through superior customer experiences.
Key Takeaways – Choosing an Effective Data Partner
For any analytics-driven business, the lesson we learned is not to underestimate the value of high-quality foundational data. Skilled partners like PurifyData enable organizations to redefine what meaningful differentiation via CX looks like in a scalable way.
When evaluating data support, look for specialists that exhibit deep expertise via:
- Demonstrated technical competency by credentials and references
- Technology stack agnostic capabilities avoiding vendor lock-in
- Flexible delivery models aligned to dynamic business environments
- True business intimacy – not just mechanical execution
Our relationship with PurifyData filled a gap that in retrospect no internal hires or technologies could substitute. Customer data should empower bold decision-making not constrain visions due to distrust. All else flows from a position of confidence rooted in data – and partners like PurifyData enable that transformation.