The Surprisingly High Costs of a Messy CRM

Dirty data is a huge problem that businesses often overlook, but a messy CRM can silently drain your business’s resources and opportunities. This isn't just a problem for big corporations either — it affects small and medium-sized businesses too. 

We’ve seen countless clients who recognize that their HubSpot CRM needs serious attention but still kick it down the priority list because they don’t realize just how much damage it’s causing their business — in both the short and long term.

Let’s take a look at some of the reasons why delaying this fix is a bad idea, and then go over some of the signs that your CRM needs urgent attention. But first, what do we mean by messy CRM data?

What constitutes messy CRM data?

A messy CRM can cause all sorts of headaches for your business, but bad data can take a few different forms. Here are the top issues you might be dealing with.

• Incorrect data — Wrong phone numbers, email addresses, or misfiled info are common issues. This can lead to miscommunication and missed sales opportunities.
• Incomplete data — Missing details in contact profiles (like an email address or a first/last name) can make it hard to fully understand and engage with leads, lowering your conversion rates.
• Inaccurate data — Personal emails instead of work ones, misspelled names, and outdated job titles can result in poor targeting and wasted marketing efforts.
• Duplicate data — Multiple entries for the same customer can cause overlapping outreach, wasting resources, and frustrating potential clients.
• Inconsistent data — Different formats for the same info across tools can make data analysis and reporting a nightmare, leading to bad business decisions.
• The CRM is a miscellaneous data dump — Storing non-customer-related info in your CRM clutters the system, making it hard to find what you need and slowing down performance. 

So how might this be damaging your bottom line?

The types of damage caused by dirty CRM data

When our clients come to us with messy CRMs that need fixing, these are the main types of costs they’re dealing with (whether they’ve recognized it yet or not):

Revenue loss — limits investment options

• Wasted money: Sending mail to wrong addresses or running email campaigns with outdated contacts wastes time and money.
• Significant financial impact: Some research suggests the average company loses 12% of its revenue due to bad data. For a business making $10 million a year, that's $1.2 million lost.
• Missed growth opportunities: Money and time wasted on bad data could be better spent on growing the business, such as investing in new markets or offerings.

Ruined productivity — limits scalability and competitiveness

• Operational headaches: Neglecting to keep your CRM data clean leads to operational challenges, like sales teams spending hours fixing data instead of selling.
• Increased payroll costs: Time spent managing messy data increases payroll costs as productivity drops.
• Confusion and frustration: Duplicate or incomplete data causes multiple sales reps to contact the same lead, creating confusion and frustration.

Bad decision-making — derails long-term business objectives

• Skewed insights: Messy data skews business insights, leading to bad decisions and poor strategies that can take time to recover from.
• Inflated pipeline: Duplicate entries can inflate your pipeline, causing resource allocation based on false information.
• Missed targets: Misleading data can result in missed sales targets and inventory problems.

Reputational damage — increases customer churn

• Customer communication mistakes: Errors like using the wrong name or sending irrelevant offers can erode trust.
• Brand damage: Failing to meet customer expectations can hurt your brand and lead to negative reviews and new challenges with positioning.
• Lost business: Poor data management can result in lost business as customers expect personalized and accurate interactions. 

You might not always know how your team is using your CRM, so you’re more likely to notice the symptoms rather than the causes. With that in mind, what are some signs that you need to take action?

8 Signs your CRM needs a cleanup

When we work with clients to fix their HubSpot setup, these are the main signs that their CRM needs some serious cleaning:

1. Sales and marketing complaints: duplicate records and missing info waste hours and frustrate teams

If your sales and marketing teams are always grumbling about duplicate records or missing info, it means they’re spending more time fixing data than selling or marketing, which hits productivity hard.

Tip: Listen to your team's feedback regularly and make data cleanliness a priority by giving them the tools they need.

2. Inconsistent reports: mismatched sales data leads to poor forecasts and misallocated resources

When your sales reports and customer insights don’t add up, it leads to bad decisions and wrong forecasts, messing up your plans and resource allocation.

Tip: Regularly audit your reports in HubSpot for accuracy and use automated tools to ensure clean, standardized data in your CRM.

3. High email bounce rates: outdated addresses cause wasted campaigns and lower conversions

Lots of marketing emails bouncing back because of incorrect or outdated addresses waste your marketing efforts and lower engagement and conversion rates.

Tip: Keep your contact information updated and verified, using email verification tools to clean your email lists before sending campaigns.

4. Lots of manual workarounds: employees rely on personal systems, causing data chaos

If employees are using their own spreadsheets or tracking systems because they can't trust the CRM data, it leads to inefficiency and errors, as important data isn’t centralized or easy to find.

Tip: Streamline CRM processes to make it the go-to place for data and provide training to ensure everyone knows how to use the CRM correctly and understands why data integrity matters.

5. Wasted time handling errors: your teams spend days cleaning data instead of closing deals

Teams spending a lot of time searching for, correcting, or cleaning data divert their attention from more important tasks like engaging with customers and closing deals.

Tip: Use automation tools to handle routine data maintenance tasks, freeing up your team to focus on higher-value work and reducing human error.

6. Low CRM adoption rates: messy CRM discourages use, leading to scattered, unreliable data

If HubSpot is messy, users are often reluctant to use it, or use it properly, and are usually less likely to bother updating data or logging activities (a “what’s the point?” mentality). When many team members avoid using the CRM because they find it unreliable or hard to use, it means your CRM isn’t being used to its full potential, leading to scattered data and missed opportunities.

Tip: Make the CRM user-friendly by simplifying data entry forms and providing good training, encouraging a culture that values data quality.

7. Customer complaints: Incorrect info and duplicate messages damage customer trust and loyalty

Customers getting incorrect info, duplicate messages, or irrelevant offers erodes trust and hurts your brand reputation, possibly losing you business.

Tip: Regularly check customer communication logs for errors, implement strict data validation rules, and make sure all customer-facing teams know the importance of accurate data entry.

8. You’re not using lifecycle stages: untracked sales stages lead to missed follow-ups and lost sales

If your team isn’t using lifecycle stages, you’re likely losing track of where contacts are in your sales process. This can lead to missed opportunities and sloppy follow-ups.  

Tip: Make sure all contacts are properly categorized by their lifecycle stage to keep your sales efforts on point and your communication clear.

Make sure you’re building a scalable system

It’s easy for your CRM to become a tangled web of messy data, underutilized features, and overly complicated processes. Make sure your managing it effectively:

1. Standardize your processes: Develop and implement standardized processes for managing data, such as how leads are labelled, categorized, and moved through your system. This also means making sure all team members have a clear understanding of your customer journey map!
2. Update database regularly: Keeping your database updated and logging activities is key to making HubSpot work for you.
3. Track everything: Accurate records help you understand what’s effective and with whom, so you can repeat your successes as you grow.
4. Audit for accuracy: Regularly review your CRM data to ensure it is accurate and up-to-date.
5. Eliminate duplicates: Use your CRM’s automated tools to find and remove duplicate entries. 

If your HubSpot CRM is messy and you know it, don’t wait: fix it now. The longer you wait, the further you fall behind, and the more broken and convoluted your setup will become.

Get started with our Fix My HubSpot service today to transform your CRM experience, turning it from a source of frustration into a powerhouse of efficiency and results. We dive deep into your current setup, identify key issues, and restructure your CRM environment to align with your business goals.