Databases are tricky beasts because their content is both fluid and volatile. There are likely no databases that are 100% comprehensive and 100% accurate at the same time. This problem has only been exacerbated by increasingly ambitious data products that continue to push the envelope in terms of both the breadth and depth of their coverage.
Data publishers have long had to deal with this issue. The most widely adopted approach has been what might be called “data triage.” This is when the publisher quickly updates a data record in response to a subscriber request.
I first encountered this approach with long-time data pioneer D&B. If you requested a background report on a company for which D&B had either a skeleton record or out of date information, D&B adroitly turned this potential problem into a show of commitment to its data quality. The D&B approach was to provide you with whatever stale or skimpy information it had on file in order to provide some data the subscriber might find useful. But D&B would also indicate in bold type words to the effect of, “this background report contains information that may be outdated. To maintain our data quality standards, a D&B investigator will update this report and an updated report will be sent to you within 48 hours.”
Data triage would begin immediately. D&B would have one of its more experienced researchers call the company and extract as much information as possible. The record was updated, the new information was sent to the subscriber, and anyone else requesting that background report would benefit from the updated information as well.
A variation on this approach is to offer not updates to existing records, but rather to create entirely new records on request. Not in our database? Just let us know, and we’ll do the needed research for you pronto. Boardroom Insiders, a company that sells in-depth profiles of C-suite executives, does this very successfully, as does The Red Flag Group.
The key to succeeding with data triage? First, you have to set yourself up to respond quickly. Your customers will appreciate the custom work you are doing from them, but they still want the information quickly. Secondly, use this technique to supplement your database, not substitute for it. If you are not satisfying most of your subscribers most of the time with the data you have already collected, you’re really not a data publisher, you’re a custom research shop, and that’s a far less attractive business. Finally, learn from these research requests. Why didn’t you already have the company or individual in question in your database? Are the information needs of your subscribers shifting? Are there new segments of the market you need to cover? There’s a lot you can learn from custom requests especially if you can find patterns in these requests.
Data triage is a smart tactic that many data publishers can use. But always remember, no matter how impressive the service, the subscriber still has to wait for data. Ultimately, this nice courtesy becomes a real inconvenience if the subscriber encounters it too often. What you need to do is both satisfy your customers most of the time, and be there for them when you fall short.