Customer Data Management and Privacy
Data quality dimensions
Accuracy, completeness, consistency, timeliness, uniqueness and validity. Most CRM data decay comes from duplicates, missing fields and outdated contact details, so capture rules at the point of entry matter more than cleaning later.
Privacy principles
Notice, purpose limitation, data minimisation, accuracy, storage limitation, security and accountability. India's Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023 introduces data principals (individuals), data fiduciaries (organisations deciding the purpose), consent managers, Significant Data Fiduciaries with extra duties, and the Data Protection Board of India for enforcement. Consent must be free, specific, informed, unconditional and unambiguous, and withdrawal must be as easy as giving it. GDPR is the comparable EU framework: lawful basis, access requests, right to erasure.
Worked example
A gym collects mobile numbers to send class reminders on WhatsApp. A member later says: stop marketing messages. Correct handling: stop marketing immediately, record the opt-out with date and channel, continue only service messages needed for the membership, keep billing records for the statutory retention period, and do not pass the number to a partner supplement brand. Deleting the whole record would breach accounting rules - opt-out is not erasure.
Traps
- Treating one consent as permanent and unlimited in purpose.
- Sharing or selling lists without a lawful basis.
- Deleting contract or tax records when someone opts out.
- Assuming a password protects a spreadsheet of customer data.