Why You Need a Single Source of Truth for Company Data

Feel like you’re scattered across platforms or sheets, each with a slightly different view of your business? Worried it’s causing errors and wasting time. I totally get you, and you’re not alone. If I had 50 cents for each time I’ve suggested a company simplify or integrate, I wouldn’t be writing blogs on the internet anymore. I’d be living it up on my private island. The good news? A single source of truth for company data can stop your worrying and save you time.

What is a Single Source of Truth for Company Data

Ok, let’s take it back a tick. What does it actually mean to have a single source of truth? Well, each of the tech platforms your company is using, usually has some form of company data being stored on it. And if you’re pulling insights from a particular platform, that will mean that you’ve got a view based on that “source” of the data.

Now, this isn’t inherently an issue if we kept all of our information perfectly aligned across sources. But, reality seldom works that way unless you’re doing a lot of extra work.

As an example, imagine having a separate notebook for sales and contracts. In the sales notebook, there is a sale to “John Smith” from 9 months ago. And in the contracts’ notebook, we need to renew with “Johan Smith” in 3 months. Thing is, “John” and “Johan” are actually the same person. It’s just that his name was written down incorrectly in one of the books (or spreadsheets 😏). And now it becomes a nightmare to track how “John-han” has actually interacted with our company.

So the single source of truth means having one notebook with sales and contracts (and tasks, and events) which are all noted next to the same Johan Smith. So we can see his whole lifecycle with the company. And if his email address changes, that we can do it in one place, and not 2 (or 5).

Why SMBs Struggle Without a Single Source of Truth

So how do you know if you’re struggling without a single source of truth? Here are some common problems:

• Duplicated work: When an email address (or other customer info) is changed, it needs to be noted in multiple places, or communicated to multiple people. This not only wastes time, but also increases the chance of errors.
• Frustrating Reporting: You’re trying to consolidate information across multiple data sources, clarifying which one is correct and manipulating details to try and keep everything accurate. Or simply giving up and going on gut-feel instead.
• Lacklustre customer experience: Sales and customer service (or any teams across your organisation) aren’t in sync. So you’re doing things like reaching out to irate customers to sell, or unsure of what product you’re solving problems for. That’s not only frustrating for your customers (and your reputation), but for your team too.

How to Create a Single Source of Truth

And now you’re thinking “well sure, I know those pains, but what do I actually DO about it”. Well firstly, you gotta keep reading. But, there is light at the end of the tunnel.

Step 1 – Define: This is the back to basics and making sure that there is alignment between what your business needs to do and how your tools are supporting it. So we define our business model, our important processes, and the tools you’re currently using. Identifying overlaps, gaps and how we operationalise around our vision to achieve our goals.

P.S. My Systems Audit is designed to walk this step with you. Leaving you with a Systems Clarity Map which will guide you toward the actions you need to achieve system alignment.

Step 2 – Action: With the definitions and important areas clear, you need to action it all so that the current picture supports your business. That might mean creating processes, improving visibility or removing unnecessary bloat. The goal is to make sure that how you’re working actually reflects how you want to feel in your business.

Step 3 – Integrate: And this is the technical piece at the end. The making sure that the tools we’ve decided to stick with actually talk to one another. There are tonnes of options out there to help with this, and you don’t need a computer engineering degree to figure it out. One of my favourites is Make.com because it’s the perfect blend between accessing more technical end points and a visual drag and drop interface which is user-friendly even if you don’t identify as a techie.

But remember, with all of this it’s incremental. And we don’t always have to do it all at once. Creating the perfect calm business you’re after shouldn’t create more stress than it alleviates.

Case Study: From platform sprawl to a single view of the customer

A prominent non-profit organisation’s marketing team felt like they were struggling to keep their heads above water, despite putting in the effort. They were manually extracting Meta lead lists to upload into their Sales CRM to allow for the sales team to engage them. While also trying to identify members on their CRM which needed to be added to their dedicated mailing platform to receive their newsletter. All while trying to consolidate email address changes and subscription behaviour across the different platforms.

Not only this, they knew there must be a better way to get a single view of their donors and how they engage with the organisation. Moving to a space that they can market based not only on demographics but behavioural traits like shop purchases or past donations.

They audited their platforms and purposes and did some research into options that could work with their CRM data. They found an option that allowed them to communicate straight from their CRM, using that data, without the need to keep using their separate mailing platform. In addition, they could bring in the data from multiple lead sources and engagement channels straight onto a single platform.

So with the plan in mind, we started actioning. The first step was to move all of the mailing capability over to the CRM platform and be able to build out the relevant segments and content to do so. Once the mails were coming from a single place we started working on the integration into other engagement channels to build out the full view of the client.

The result was hours saved, more personalised engagement and as a result, more donations raised.

Think I can help?

Or even if you just want some more information. Feel free to reach out and let’s get you from feeling like the bottleneck, to feeling like you can breathe again.