When we’re thinking about data quality improvement we often focus on the internal benefits in an effort to gain traction with business sponsors and the user community.

I’ve been guilty of this a lot lately with some of the articles and posts I’ve written, it’s easy to slip into this mindset as building the internal business case is the first hurdle we have to overcome.

But I think we must always keep one eye on the ultimate prize – helping the customer.

Ken O’Connor (who writes at http://kenoconnordata.wordpress.com) recently picked up a great quote from Craig Newmark, the founder of Craigslist.com:

Large organisations are normally run in a way that people tell their boss what they think their boss wants to hear, and that continues right up the ladder. Because of this, the result is that the people making decisions rarely get good-quality information.

This same information invariably flows out to our customers so the damage can spread far beyond the internal reporting lines.

What people like Craig Newmark know only too well is that the quality of their information directly relates to a successful customer experience. Great information quality helps the customer to achieve their goals as quickly and simply as possible.

This is the holy grail of data quality. Enabling our customers to deliver their services or solutions in a better, faster, cheaper way.

I remember my very first data quality assignment where we worked frantically to improve our data quality processes so that we could scale as a team and deliver more projects in a shorter timeframe.

Ultimately it was the customer that benefited.

They were able to get their data sometimes in days instead of months and this ensured they were able to make critical, strategic decisions in a fraction of the time compared to our previous efforts. They were able to select prime locations for their dealer networks and get a jump on their competitor motor manufacturers. As a result, our fledgling little startup became a world leader, commanding an unrivalled position in the industry for the quality of decision-making we could deliver.

Data quality improvement was not the only reason for the success of our customers but they surely would have failed without it.

These kind of step-change improvements in the world of our customer need to be fully understood and articulated in our data quality value proposition. You can so easily lose sight of these softer, often intangible gains when the market conditions take a turn for the worse and leaders look for areas to slash cost.

Are your data quality efforts helping customers succeed in new and exciting ways? Are you speaking to them and documenting what these benefits are? Can you get some of these testimonials on record to help convince your sponsors that all this data quality voodoo is driving bottom-line value?

Actively look for ways to help your customers deliver their services and solutions in a better, faster or cheaper way through improved data quality. In this present economic climate it pays to retain customers and helping them achieve their goals can often be far more important than focusing on internal gains alone.

How has improved data quality helped your customers succeed? Please share your experiences in the comments section below.