Why You Should Outsource Data Entry to A Virtual Assistant to Maintain Data Accuracy

Quality data is the holy grail of business conversions. Without it, you will never know who or where your true customers are, let alone learn about their likes, dislikes, purchase triggers, and buying history. Bet you already knew that!

But do you know what the key defining factor behind quality data is? Accuracy! Sounds simple enough, except it’s not. Keeping customer data accurate is especially hard due to duplicities, data downtime, and a copious quantity of data entering the CRM.

You cannot leverage inaccurate data as a reliable source of information unless you have dedicated assistance for data management. This is where outsourcing data entry services to virtual assistants comes to the rescue. We’ll talk about these remote entities a little later.

Let’s first understand the top three causes of data inaccuracy.

What Causes Data Inaccuracy?

Data inaccuracy can cost you | Source

There is a lot of talk about the many factors that contribute to data inaccuracy. But, if you address only the following three issues, rest assured you will maintain data accuracy in the long haul.

1. Data entry practices

Poor data entry practice is the numero uno cause of data inaccuracy. If your company doesn’t have set data governance practices, you will find data being stored in different formats, platforms, and styles. This is how data goes to die.

For instance, different sales reps may enter the name of a potential qualified lead in different ways with incorrect spellings. The same can happen with phone numbers, email addresses, and other parameters. Add to it the data your reps acquire from digital channels, mainly social media platforms are highly prone to typos and copy-paste errors.

2. Not addressing data errors

Know that in-house sales and marketing teams are simply too busy and ideally focused on core tasks to be bothered with rectifying data all day long. It is a waste of their core talent and is also time-consuming.

On the other hand, people in leadership roles are busy implementing strategies and transformation practices to bother with disparate and erroneous data. After all, data inaccuracy is not something C-suits discuss behind-closed-door meetings.

As a result of all this, data quality suffers, which slowly snowballs into marketing disasters and low conversion rates. Only at this time the issue of data inaccuracy comes to light.

3. Bureaucracy of data accessibility

Even though multiple entities use the CRM to input and extract data simultaneously, they cannot rectify mistakes they spot quickly due to accessibility limitations.

For example, a sales rep wants to validate a lead’s information, their name and email address, before approaching them. S/he notices a spelling mistake or an incomplete entry missing the lead’s email address.

Perhaps marketing personnel is responsible for the error. But now, the sales rep will have to get multiple approvals before fixing this mistake, or perhaps the lead is lost forever. Even worse would be if the sales rep sends an email to a lead with their incorrect spelling.

So, is there a way to solve these three gaping errors? The most cost-effective and quickest way to ensure data accuracy is by hiring a virtual analyst.

Who Are Virtual Data Analysts?

The concept of hiring virtual assistants is not as novel as you may think, especially now, with hybrid and remote workplace practices being the norm. You can use credible web portals like Wishup.co to scout some of the best data managers and analysts capable of promoting and supporting healthy data practices in your company. The only thing is they do this remotely.

You can call remote professionals that can address data inaccuracy issues data entry virtual assistants and hire them contractually. By doing this, you cut down on your overheads and recruitment costs. You also don’t need to train virtual data analysts extensively, as you can hire from a pool of highly experienced workers. Outsourcing data accuracy to data entry virtual assistants will allow your sales and marketing teams to focus on core tasks whilst your data practices improve significantly.  

How Can Data Entry Virtual Assistants Ensure Data Accuracy?

Once you bring in a virtual analyst, they will start with the following list of things to boost your company’s data accuracy.

i. Conduct a data audit

Since duplicities, typos, and incomplete entries are one of the key issues causing data inaccuracy, a data entry virtual assistant will start their operations by conducting a data audit. Initially, they will start by highlighting the errors with data recording and then move on to more complex and detailed tasks. Here is a blueprint of the possible steps a data entry virtual assistant will complete in due course of a data audit.

• Identify the scope of data required. What are your data collection parameters, and why? This may help point out any redundancies in data collection.
• Figure out the location of current data sets. Knowing where each bit of data is stored will help them streamline the process and lend a single format for data collection.
• Learn about the different stakeholders who may input and extract information from the dataset. This lets them know the people to approach in case of errors.
• Critically review data for typos, duplicities, and incomplete entries. They also check older datasets for decay or erosion of contacts.
• Review and highlight priority datasets, which require special attention when collecting and updating in the CRM.
• Create a consolidated report of all company data and present ideas and best practices for data accuracy.

ii. Data preparation

Comprehensive data auditing will lead to robust data hygiene and accuracy. By this point, your data entry virtual assistant may also understand the nuances associated with your data, like which leads require more attention and which customers require re-engagement.

So they can assist you in strategizing your next marketing move. Sure, this is not their core task. They are there to assist you with the administrative load associated with maintaining data accuracy. But that's not to say you can't seek their assistance in better planning your marketing campaigns.

Therefore, you can ask them to prepare data under specific headings like high-priority leads, low-priority leads, leads for re-engagement, and other such niche categories.

iii. Leveraging Digital Tools

Your virtual assistant will know the digital tools to manage data for higher accuracy. They will leverage automated solutions for matching and cross-referencing data with other internal and third-party datasets. Doing this will eliminate repetition, typos, and other erroneous data.

Simply put, the software data tools virtual analysts use will consolidate and run data against multiple sources to prepare an accurate set of data. By the end of this step, you will be in possession of clean and correct data, which is a potent tool for effective marketing.

iv. Update accurate data on the CRM

Once your virtual analyst is in possession of the final datasets, the next challenge they prepare to overcome is distributing that data. The quickest way is through your company’s CRM application. Depending on how much responsibility they are contractually obligated to bear, they will gain control of the CRM.  

From then on, virtual analysts can not only cleanse, append and enrich company data but also update the CRM with accurate data. This will be substantially helpful for your sales and marketing personnel as they will possess actionable and useful data to plan their pitches and campaigns. All this without wasting their precious time fulfilling administrative tasks associated with data accuracy.

v. Help cultivate healthy data culture

The 'anything goes' attitude around data is dangerous but rampant. Several companies, especially small and medium enterprises, are yet to cultivate a data-driven culture. A virtual analyst can make it happen! For starters, they will ensure your staff uses accurate data and experience positive results.

This will set a precedent that your company has a zero-tolerance policy for bad or inaccurate data. Add to it, your remote analyst can also lay down data best practices to collect and share data. For instance, they can freeze a particular format in which data must be collected and updated by other employees.

Doing this will automatically improve data accuracy, as your staff will be bound by certain practices and processes around data collection, thus, improving data accuracy.

Where Can I Find Seasoned Data Entry Virtual Assistant?

Try Wishup.

It is a user-friendly digital portal that boasts an extensive network of virtual assistants, including data analysts. Browse through their profiles and check their forte and experience levels in just a few clicks. Rest assured you won’t have to spend time and money training these virtual analysts, as Wishup is not just an outsourcing agency.

We recruit and train virtual assistants, which reduces their learning curve at your organization. This reduces your operational expenses and manpower costs. Why only a remote data analyst? Through our network of virtual assistants, you can build a completely remote team in less than 24 hours.

Wondering why hiring from Wishup makes sense? Here are the four key benefits you instantly experience when you seek our assistance.

Work with global talent: Wishup features a robust network of professionals from across the globe on our portal. Through us, you can hire from a broader pool of talented professionals that may sit miles away from you. Under regular circumstances, it would be near impossible to collaborate with such entities.

Rid yourself of training and onboarding expenses: Hiring in-house comes with its fair share of overheads. Training employees in certain roles is not only expensive but also time-consuming. By hiring virtual analysts or assistants through Wishup, you can bid adieu to these expenses as we take the load of training virtual professionals off you.

Affordable and effective: Simply because we train virtual professionals in-house doesn’t mean our services will burn a hole in your pocket. On the contrary, we are a pocket-friendly remote service boasting a steady stream of well-trained professionals. For instance, you can hire a digital marketing assistant to work remotely starting at just $9, which comes out to $20,000 per year. This is nothing s compared to an in-house digital marketing assistant’s salary, which is often pegged as high as $75,000 per year.

Friendly replacement policy: One of the biggest challenges of hiring in-house is letting your employees go in case of performance-related issues. You don’t have to face such hassles when hiring through Wishup, as we have a no questions asked instant replacement policy if you are unhappy with your virtual analyst.

In the End

Trust us when we beseech you not to compromise on data quality simply because you're too busy accomplishing your core duties. Instead, hire a virtual assistant adept at rectifying and managing your database. At the end of the day, there is no substitute for data accuracy.

To try our services, you can book a free consultation or drop an email at [email protected].