Blog | Professional Practice

Spring Cleaning your data

Data cleaning and organization tips to improve your business operations, increase sales and cultivate loyal clients.

By Team ARTERNAL on Tuesday June 6, 2023

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Leveraging data is imperative in making informed business decisions. If you are not able to access your data easily and view it in an organized way, your business is at a serious disadvantage these days.

Data, put simply, is all of the information you track and store to run your art business. Everything from Client contact info, their interests, inquiries, and acquisitions to artwork details over time such as price changes, offers and click throughs.

So how do you upgrade your data organization? Spring is the perfect time for data cleaning.

Assess your tech stack.

Are you still housing your data in a server-based system? Is it on a hard drive server and not backed up and accessible in the cloud?

Are you still storing your client and inventory data on a server? Can your team easily access the information they need and are assured it’s being regularly backed up? It might be time to consider how much disparate systems are costing your business in both efficiency and security.

Ask your team – any frustrations with accessing important information? Are they able to quickly find client and inventory details? If they express frustration, it’s time to look for new tools and effective solutions to upgrade your business.

Is your data impacted by TOOL SPRAWL?

Do you have too many different apps that contain your data and that do not connect or worse, have multiple out of date versions of your data?

Take stock of how many siloed places your team collects and accesses information in order for them to help provide highly personalized service to your collectors.

If you start creating a list like inbox, address book, Whatsapp, inventory database, spreadsheets etc. then your team is in need of integrated & connected systems.

Do your tech tools encourage data cleaning?

Can you filter through which contacts never open email offers? Can you determine which clients have made past purchases or even who’s contact profiles lack important details like last names and emails? Do you analyze client tiers?

Set aside time – monthly, quarterly, annually – to clean your data. Assign it to someone on the team or for owners, do it yourself and see how many people you are not reaching or who needs more direct contact.

Developing deeper relationships with collectors starts with getting to know them and remembering their interests to make personalized offers.

What happens if you know you need to upgrade your systems and you have very real migration concerns?

1. Identify your questions

a. Will you lose data?

b. How will you find your data?

c. Is learning a new system and workflow difficult?

d. Is it a concern to add another project to your very full plate?

2. Request info about migrations from a tech partner that speaks to your specific concerns

a. At ARTERNAL we try to explain that you don’t lose data. Remember, you have back ups and you can pull over data multiple times- it’s not about losing data…

b. It is about data visibility – working with a tech partner that understands your concerns can help explain data mapping and how and which data will appear in the new system. And this is done prior to a migration.

The migration of data from legacy systems to your new, modern system

c. Holding too tight to dead data will not help you grow your business – activate your data with tools that help you see and use vital information that provides your clients with a better experience.

d. Think of it like a plant… if you don’t trim the dead leaves off- the new growth will not happen.

ARTERNAL understands the overwhelming amount of information to manage & run a successful art gallery or advisory. That’s why our team spends time on the interface to make seeing and accessing your data easy and intuitive. Let’s face it, no one really likes spring cleaning, however most of us like the results! ARTERNAL creates tools that delight and encourage easier and more automated data organization. Interested in learning more – book a consultation today.

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