We can all agree that data is the new oil in today’s world. However, that doesn’t mean you stuff your database with all the prospect and customer data you can get your hands on. Doing so will only waste your effort, time, and money due to the ineffectiveness of your campaigns and business operations. This is especially true for phone number databases. Since you will be using these data sources to reach out to potential and existing customers, you want to be sure you can get the value of your efforts. A clean phone database will ensure that, so here are some practices to guide you:
- Verify phone numbers immediately after you capture them
After collecting a customer’s contact details, you may be tempted to add the information to your database and confirm later, but that’s the worst mistake you can make. Cleaning a phone number database isn’t all that easy, so your best bet is to avoid adding bad data in the first place.
Investing in tools such as an API for validating mobile phone numbers from a reliable provider like Trestle gives you the assurance you need when adding contact information. If you capture telephone data using web forms, performing real-time HLR lookups as the customer is filling the form helps to ensure the number is real and active. You can then use a verification tool to confirm that the number belongs to the user.
- Use standardised phone number formats
Regardless of how you capture customer telephone data, it’s always advisable to standardize the storage format. There are tons of formats you could choose from, but if you want to make it easier to catch duplicates in your database, use the industry-standard E.164 format. If your database doesn’t have this option as standard, you should always remove brackets, commas, spaces, and all other non-digits from the phone number.
Using a standardized telephone format guarantees uniformity and reduces confusion. In addition to standardizing the numbers, you should also have checked for country codes and telephone prefixes. With various tools for such tasks, you won’t have to worry even when working with large datasets.
- Scan purchased data for quality
Why is this crucial? Simple – Dead phone numbers aren’t worth spending resources on. A potential customer is only valuable if you can reach them in the first place. Suppliers will try to address such concerns by oversupplying contact data to allow room for inaccuracies. Still, you should scan the data to see the actual usable portion.
That way, you can determine if you’re getting great value for your money and you’re sure that only valuable data will find its way into your database.
- Perform regular validity checks
Do you know that 55% of mobile service users change their phone numbers within 2 years? Various reasons lead to this, with some being changes in job roles and personal preferences. That’s why you should check your mobile number databases regularly since that’s the only way to determine whether all numbers in there are valid.
You can use an API to automate such data maintenance processes and flag outdated contact information. Also, consider combining validity checks with data scrubbing to either amend or remove inaccurate, incomplete, or duplicate data. After identifying the inactive phone numbers, you can contact the customers via different means and ask them to update their contact information for easier communication.
- Do a one-off clean
If you’ve never cleaned your phone number database in the past, you don’t want to keep postponing. Quality data (or the lack of it) can support or stymie your campaigns and other efforts. Cleaning your data set thoroughly just this once will give you a clear starting point so you know exactly what you are working with.
When doing so, make sure to check your database against Blacklist and Do Not Call (DNC) registers to avoid the risks that come with contacting such numbers. It’s also a good idea to create your local DNC so you have a list of people who’ve requested you to contact them via one channel exclusively or not to contact them at all.
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Get all the tools you need to maintain a clean database
There are endless benefits to ensuring that your business contacts list is accurate and reliable. Maintaining a clean phone number database assures you that all decisions you make regarding such data will yield favorable results thus you can contact the listed customers with confidence.
Trestle provides all the tools you need to power your data management operations, so if you don’t know where to start, the right thing would be to visit their website to learn more and get the help you need!
