Data collection about customers’ orders, inquiries, profiles, behaviors, etc., is an imperative business practice now. Companies cannot maintain security on any information they collect – what’s worse most could care less. This data is valuable to those who want to purchase it on the dark web to eventually use it to steal someone’s identity. Managing this business data, regardless of whether the hoard is big or small, can be a difficult task. Below are a few tips to handle company data effectively.
Audit the Data You Already Collect
How well do you use the data you collect already? If you collect data on your customers but do nothing with it, it might be time to re-evaluate how much data you really need to collect. Any mishap with data can cost your company big time, and if the mishap happens to be with data that is not being used anyway, well, that’s just foolish.
Not only will collecting unnecessary data cost you if you unintentionally lose it, it can also cost your business more each month to store the data on a cloud server.
To better understand what you need to collect from your customers, start by defining your business goals. From there you can determine what type of information you need to collect. If you’re collecting information from customers for an email campaign, it would be pointless to collect a person’s full name and date of birth. Instead, in this circumstance, it would be better to keep the data collection to a minimum – email and first name for personalization purposes only.
Gather Information with Ethics
Recent changes in the data collection environment have made transparency of high importance. Whenever you collect any data on your customers, you should be shared with them what it is that you are collecting and what you will be doing with their information once they disclose that information to you.
Some companies go about data collection in an unethical manner by hiding the fact they are collecting information or even selling it to a third-party. If customers knew that a company was operating in this manner, customer trust would be at an all-time low and profits would surely take a hit.
This is how you can correctly collect information:
- Add a Privacy Policy to your company website
- Take a survey on what information stakeholders would feel comfortable sharing
- Only require the minimum information to be shared
Have a Backup Strategy
When it comes down to it, once you have the data, you need to have a strategy to keep that information secure. These days, a major threat to businesses is ransomware which is an attack method that steals a company’s data and holds it hostage until the business pays the ransom amount to get the data back. To limit the need to pay to get your business data back, it’s essential to regularly back up your data to multiple sources.
Bear in mind that if you handle data poorly, it will slow down progress in your business and create more challenges than it will opportunities. Yet if you collect, organize, and store data carefully, it will help the business prosper.
LibertyID is the leader in identity theft restoration, having restored the identities of tens of thousands of individuals without fail. If you retain personal information on your customers, now is the time to get data breach planning and a response program in place with our LibertyID for Small Business data breach preparation program. With LibertyID Enterprise you can now add value to existing products, services, or relationships by covering your customers, employees, or members with LibertyID’s fully managed identity theft restoration service—at a fraction of our retail price—with no enrollment and no file sharing. We have no direct communication with your group members–until they need us.
Call us now for a no obligation proposal at 844-411-LIBERTY (844-411-5423).