However, people and potential customers, move house, get new jobs or move up the career ladder, change their email address and phone numbers.

Businesses often resort to purchasing a new database when they don’t get new leads or business from their current database and ignore the goldmine of data they’ve gathered over time.

By regularly updating and cleansing your database, information that is dated and irrelevant is removed and you are left with relevant, up to date, qualified and useful data.

Even though data maintenance is a cumbersome process, removing entries that are no longer relevant and updating contacts you wish to keep and engage with in future, ensures you have a higher success rate. Relevant data also equips your sales team with a weapon other companies won’t have or be able to use.

Another challenge organizations can be faced with is the size of their database. Databases can be enormous, which is why it is imperative to make space for new data that won’t take up valuable storage space.

Data cleansing also opens up an opportunity to re-engage with dormant or lost customers. For example, a customer might not have wanted to purchase your product or service due to their budget, but a few months or a year later, they might have a new job with a higher salary and might show interest now to make a purchase.

Building and maintaining a customer database is a job that takes time and energy, but if maintained well, it can be a powerful marketing and sales tool.