Introduction
Hi! And welcome to this tutorial on Nexl's improved Data Cleaner.
Nexl is unique for its "no-data-entry" approach to CRM.
We want our customers to spend as little time as possible on manual data management and data cleaning, so they can dedicate their time to higher-value tasks and activities.
As you know by now, Nexl automatically captures your contacts and companies, and then enriches these with data from external data providers.
Sometimes, however, Nexl will not find all relevant data points, or capture contacts and companies you may not want on the platform. Or there might be duplicate contacts and companies you might want to merge.
Rather than going through all your contacts and companies one by one, Nexl has created a Data Cleaning solution that can help you keep your data in shape in the most efficient and practical way possible.
Please remember that the Data Cleaner is only available to admin users.
Let's have a closer look!
Archived Records
Admin users can find the data cleaner in the Admin menu at the top of the application.
In the Data Cleaner, you will notice an additional side menu that focuses on Archived, Incomplete, and Duplicate contacts. Let's start with the Archive section!
Bounced Contacts
Under Archive you will find three lists. The first one is a list of all "Bounced" Contacts. Because Nexl is integrated with your email server, it can pick up on automated replies that indicate that an email address no longer exists. Typically, this is because these contacts have left the company and their accounts have been disabled.
For relevant contacts, you can have a look at their LinkedIn profile on the contact record to see where they currently work, and get in touch to retrieve their updated contact details. In the list of Bounced contacts, you can see when you last received an email from that account, and when it was created. We also make it easy to delete contacts with the recycle bin icon.
Unengaged Contacts
Secondly, you can access a list of unengaged contacts. These are contacts for whom the last touch point was over a year ago. The list allows you to identify contacts of interest and reactivate them by reaching out via email. Redundant contacts can also be deleted easily from this list.
Manual Archives
Finally, the third option in the Archive section will show you the list of all archived or deleted contacts and companies. In this list, you can toggle between Contacts and Companies with the buttons in the upper right corner. In the Action column, at the far right of the screen, you can restore a contact or company. In the company list, Nexl's data cleaner also gives you the option to fully block a company. This will prevent Nexl from picking up and further contacts or interaction with that company.
In all three lists under the Archive section, you can re-order the list by using the drop-down menu, where you can choose to order them from on creation date, from old to new, or from new to old.
Incomplete Records
Now, let's move to the second section in our data cleaner. In the Incomplete section, Nexl will give Admin users the opportunity to further complement contact and company data by manually adding additional information.
In the Contact section, Nexl will surface all contacts that miss essential data points such as Name, Job Title, or Location. Nexl will show which info is missing, and also indicate when the contact was created and when the last interaction took place.
In the Action column, our data cleaner will give you three options. You can choose to ignore this contact, removing it from the list. You can also edit the contact by clicking on the pencil icon. This will open a pop-up window, where you can add the missing data.
You can also just archive the contact by clicking on the recycle bin.
As you will likely see in your Nexl, many contacts will have one or more missing data points. Not all contacts necessarily need to be fully completed. Our data cleaner makes it easy to focus on the most important contacts. By selecting options from the drop-down menu, you can sort the list by Last Interaction, or by Number of interactions. This is a smart and efficient way to attack those contacts that matter most!
Duplicate Records
Finally, let's have a closer look at the Duplicate section in our Data Cleaner.
Before we dive in, it's important to point out here that Nexl uses the email address of a contact, and the domain name of a Company, as unique identifiers. This implies effectively that there can't be duplicates on Nexl. It is not possible to have two contact records with the exact same email address or two companies with the same domain.
That being said, it may be the case that one person has two different contact records on Nexl. One with an outdated email address of the company the person used to work for, and one, correct up-to-date email address. In that case, Nexl allows you to merge both contacts into one, combining both contacts' list memberships, activity feed, and notes. The unselected contact's remaining details and account will be archived.
In the Duplicate Contact list, Nexl will surface contacts that appear to be the same person. You can indicate whether or not this is the case, and then select the contact that is the active, up-to-date one.
In the Duplicate Companies list, Nexl will show all companies that appear to be the same, but with a slightly different domain. Sometimes, companies will have multiple domains. With the Duplicate companies feature Nexl allows you to merge these two domains. When merging, Nexl will combine both companies' contacts. Any notes, interactions, tasks, and documents of any other company than the main one will be permanently removed. Please note that this operation cannot be undone and should therefore be done with due care.
Best Practices
That's a wrap on our new and updated Data Cleaner! We hope you found this useful and can put in place some processes that will help you keep your data in great shape!
Before we close, let me give you a few final recommendations in relation to our data cleaner.
First of all, realize that when data stewardship is not formally assigned to someone, it is unlikely to get done. Identify someone within the Firm that has a knack for data management and can take ownership of this functionality. If you don't have any resources internally, get in touch with your Nexl Client Services contact, and we can help you find a solution.
Second, it's important to determine just how clean you want your data to be. The perfect system doesn't exist, and having all of your contacts and companies complete and up to date is not a very useful objective in itself. Try to define some guidelines or boundaries that set expectations and stay in line with the resources you can dedicate to data stewardship.
You could for instance decide to keep all of your contacts with over 100 interactions fully up-to-date. By ranking your companies and contacts on Creation Date, you can also set up a process that allows you to review and update all newly created contacts in the last week, for instance.
Finally, whoever will be responsible for your data management, try to make this a long-term and consistent process. Start small, but put in place a recurring process that will over time improve the quality of your data significantly.
Conclusion
With these recommendations, we conclude our session on the data cleaner. For further information, reach out to our Client Services team with the chat in your Nexl account, or consult our online Help Center. See you later in another Nexl tutorial!