Rules that prevent most problems
- Search before you create. Most duplicates come from adding someone who is already there.
- Agree on formats: full company names, phone numbers with area codes, states as abbreviations.
- Make the fields you rely on required, and remove the ones nobody uses.
- Every record has an owner.
A monthly routine
- Duplicates. Review suspected duplicates and merge them, keeping the history.
- Gaps. Find active customers missing an email, phone number or owner.
- Stale deals. Close deals with no activity in 60 to 90 days.
- Old contacts. Archive people you no longer deal with and have no reason to keep.
- Bounces. Fix or remove email addresses that bounce.
Why clean data matters
Duplicate records split a customer’s history across two places, so someone works from half the story. Missing emails stop follow-ups. Stale deals make the forecast unreliable. And bad data undermines trust: once people stop believing the CRM, they stop updating it, and things get worse.
Fields worth making required
- Contact: first name, last name and at least one of email or phone
- Company: name
- Lead: source and owner
- Deal: value, stage, expected close date and owner
Keep the required list short. Too many required fields encourage people to type rubbish just to save the record.
Clean as you go
The easiest time to fix a record is when you are already looking at it. Encourage everyone to correct a wrong phone number or add a missing email when they notice it. Small fixes every day beat a big clean-up once a year.
Preventing duplicates at the source
Most duplicates come from three places: imports, web forms and staff adding someone without searching first. Clean lists before importing, use forms that check for existing contacts and make searching before creating a habit. Fixing the source is far easier than merging duplicates later.
A worked example
After two years of use, a marketing agency’s CRM has 3,200 contacts. A monthly clean-up finds 140 duplicates from old imports, 400 contacts with no activity in two years and 60 bounced email addresses. They merge the duplicates, archive the inactive contacts after a final check and fix or remove the bounced addresses. Reports become more reliable, and email campaigns reach people who actually want them.
Quick checklist
- Search before creating any new record.
- Agree formats for names, phone numbers and addresses.
- Keep required fields to the essentials.
- Merge duplicates monthly.
- Fill gaps in active customer records.
- Close stale deals and archive inactive contacts.
- Make one person responsible for the monthly check.
Make it someone’s job
Data quality is everyone’s responsibility and therefore nobody’s, unless one person owns the monthly check. Put it in their calendar.
On Business plans, NovaSoft One’s data quality view finds incomplete and duplicate records and merges them without losing their links, and recycle and recovery restores records archived by mistake.
Common questions
How often should we clean our CRM data?
A light check weekly and a fuller review monthly keeps most small business CRMs in good shape.
Should we delete old contacts?
Archive or delete contacts you no longer have a reason to keep, especially if privacy obligations apply to you.
What causes duplicate records?
Usually imports, web forms and people adding contacts without searching first.
This guide is general information for Australian businesses, not legal, tax or financial advice. Check anything specific to your situation with a qualified adviser or the relevant government agency.