CRM Hygiene

Systematically identify and resolve data quality issues in your CRM to improve forecast accuracy, reporting, and automation reliability.

When to Use This Skill

• Quarterly CRM audits
• Before major reporting periods
• When automation workflows fail
• After team changes or migrations
• Preparing for CRM integrations

Methodology Foundation

Based on Salesforce Data Quality Best Practices and RevOps Co-op Data Governance frameworks, focusing on:

• Completeness (required fields populated)
• Consistency (standardized values)
• Accuracy (correct and current data)
• Timeliness (recent updates)

What Claude Does vs What You Decide

Claude Does	You Decide
Defines audit criteria	Which fields are required
Identifies data issues	Priority of fixes
Categorizes problems by type	Who owns cleanup tasks
Suggests remediation steps	Automation vs manual fix
Creates cleanup reports	Enforcement policies

What This Skill Does

1. Audit design - Define required fields and validation rules
2. Issue identification - Find missing, inconsistent, duplicate data
3. Prioritization - Rank issues by business impact
4. Remediation planning - Action steps to fix issues
5. Governance recommendations - Prevent future issues

How to Use

For Audit Design:

Help me create a CRM hygiene audit for [CRM System].

Key objects to audit:
- [Leads, Contacts, Accounts, Opportunities]

Critical fields for each:
- Leads: [list required fields]
- Opportunities: [list required fields]

Our main issues:
- [Describe known problems]

For Data Audit:

Audit this opportunity data for hygiene issues:

[Paste export or describe data]

Required fields:
- [List fields that must be populated]

Validation rules:
- [List rules like "Stage must match Amount > $0"]

Instructions

Step 1: Define Audit Scope

Object Priority (typical):

1. Opportunities - Revenue impact
2. Accounts - Relationship foundation
3. Contacts - Communication accuracy
4. Leads - Pipeline source

Field Categories:

• Critical - Blocks processes if missing
• Important - Affects reporting/segmentation
• Nice-to-Have - Enriches but not required

Step 2: Completeness Audit

Check required fields by object:

Opportunities:

Field	Criticality	Why Required
Amount	Critical	Forecast, pipeline value
Close Date	Critical	Forecast timing
Stage	Critical	Pipeline reporting
Owner	Critical	Accountability
Account	Critical	Company linkage
Primary Contact	Important	Communication
Next Step	Important	Deal momentum
Competitor	Important	Win/loss analysis
Loss Reason	Critical (if lost)	Improvement insights

Accounts:

Field	Criticality	Why Required
Industry	Important	Segmentation
Employee Count	Important	ICP fit
Website	Important	Research, enrichment
Billing Address	Critical	Invoicing
Account Owner	Critical	Accountability

Step 3: Consistency Audit

Check for standardization issues:

Issue Type	Example	Impact
Picklist variations	"US" vs "USA" vs "United States"	Reporting breaks
Case inconsistency	"ACME" vs "Acme" vs "acme"	Duplicates
Format variations	"(555) 123-4567" vs "5551234567"	Automation fails
Null vs blank	NULL vs "" vs "N/A"	Filters don't work

Step 4: Accuracy Audit

Identify likely incorrect data:

Check	Criteria	Action
Stale close dates	Past date, still open	Update or close
Amount mismatches	$0 in late stage	Verify pricing
Stage regression	Stage 4 → Stage 2	Investigate
Impossible values	200% probability	Fix validation
Bounced emails	Marked invalid	Remove or update

Step 5: Duplicate Detection

Find potential duplicates:

Match Type	Criteria	Confidence
Exact email	Same email address	99% duplicate
Domain match	Same company domain	80% duplicate
Fuzzy name	Similar company name	Investigate
Phone match	Same phone number	90% duplicate

Step 6: Timeliness Audit

Flag stale records:

Object	Staleness Threshold	Action
Open Opportunity	No activity 30 days	Review with rep
Lead	No touch 14 days	Reassign or nurture
Account	No contact 90 days	Re-engagement
Contact	Bounced + 30 days	Archive

Examples

Example 1: Opportunity Audit

Input:

Audit these opportunities:

1. Acme Corp - Stage: Proposal, Amount: $0, Close: Jan 15 (past), Owner: Empty
2. Beta Inc - Stage: Closed Won, Amount: $50K, Close: Feb 1, Loss Reason: "Price"
3. Gamma LLC - Stage: Discovery, Amount: $100K, Close: Mar 30, No activity 45 days
4. Delta Co - Stage: Negotiation, Amount: $75K, Close: Feb 28, Next Step: Empty
5. Echo Systems - Stage: Closed Lost, Amount: $200K, Loss Reason: Empty

Output:

## CRM Hygiene Audit: Opportunities

### Summary
- **Total Records**: 5
- **Critical Issues**: 4
- **Warnings**: 2
- **Clean Records**: 0

### Critical Issues (Fix Immediately)

#### 1. Acme Corp - 3 Critical Issues
| Issue | Field | Current | Required |
|-------|-------|---------|----------|
| 🔴 Missing | Owner | Empty | Assigned rep |
| 🔴 Missing | Amount | $0 | Deal value |
| 🔴 Stale | Close Date | Jan 15 (past) | Future date |

**Action**: Assign owner, verify if deal is active, update amount and close date.

#### 2. Beta Inc - Logic Error
| Issue | Field | Current | Problem |
|-------|-------|---------|---------|
| 🔴 Inconsistent | Loss Reason | "Price" | Stage is "Closed Won" |

**Action**: Either change stage to Closed Lost, or clear Loss Reason.

#### 3. Echo Systems - Missing Required
| Issue | Field | Current | Required |
|-------|-------|---------|----------|
| 🔴 Missing | Loss Reason | Empty | Required for Closed Lost |

**Action**: Rep must document why deal was lost.

#### 4. Delta Co - Missing Next Step
| Issue | Field | Current | Impact |
|-------|-------|---------|--------|
| 🟠 Missing | Next Step | Empty | No clear action |

**Action**: Rep should define next step for Negotiation stage.

### Warnings (Review This Week)

#### 5. Gamma LLC - Stale Deal
| Issue | Indicator | Value |
|-------|-----------|-------|
| 🟡 Stale | Last Activity | 45 days ago |

**Action**: Review with rep - is this deal still active? If yes, update. If no, close lost.

### Hygiene Score: 20/100 (Poor)

### Recommended Actions by Priority

1. **Today**: Fix Acme Corp (no owner = orphaned deal)
2. **Today**: Fix Beta Inc logic error (affects win rate)
3. **This Week**: Get Echo Systems loss reason
4. **This Week**: Update Gamma LLC status
5. **This Week**: Add Delta Co next step

### Process Recommendations
- Add validation rule: Amount required when Stage > Discovery
- Add validation rule: Owner required on all opportunities
- Add validation rule: Loss Reason required when Closed Lost
- Create stale deal report (no activity 30+ days)

Example 2: Duplicate Detection

Input:

Check these accounts for duplicates:

1. Acme Corporation, acme.com, San Francisco
2. ACME Corp, acme.com, SF
3. Acme Inc, acme-inc.com, San Francisco
4. Beta Technologies, beta.io, New York
5. Beta Tech, betatech.com, NYC
6. Beta Technologies Inc, beta.io, New York

Output:

## Duplicate Detection Report

### High Confidence Duplicates (Merge)

#### Duplicate Set 1: Acme Corporation
| Record | Name | Domain | Location | Confidence |
|--------|------|--------|----------|------------|
| #1 | Acme Corporation | acme.com | San Francisco | Master |
| #2 | ACME Corp | acme.com | SF | 99% - Same domain |

**Recommendation**: Merge #2 into #1
- Same domain (acme.com)
- Same location (SF = San Francisco)
- Name variation only (Corp vs Corporation)

#### Duplicate Set 2: Beta Technologies
| Record | Name | Domain | Location | Confidence |
|--------|------|--------|----------|------------|
| #4 | Beta Technologies | beta.io | New York | Master |
| #6 | Beta Technologies Inc | beta.io | New York | 99% - Same domain |

**Recommendation**: Merge #6 into #4
- Same domain (beta.io)
- Same location (New York)
- Name variation only (Inc suffix)

### Investigate (Possible Duplicates)

#### Possible Set 1: Acme variations
| Record | Name | Domain | Location | Confidence |
|--------|------|--------|----------|------------|
| #1 | Acme Corporation | acme.com | San Francisco | - |
| #3 | Acme Inc | acme-inc.com | San Francisco | 40% |

**Recommendation**: Investigate manually
- Same location, similar name
- BUT different domains (acme.com vs acme-inc.com)
- Could be: subsidiary, different company, or typo

#### Possible Set 2: Beta variations
| Record | Name | Domain | Location | Confidence |
|--------|------|--------|----------|------------|
| #4 | Beta Technologies | beta.io | New York | - |
| #5 | Beta Tech | betatech.com | NYC | 50% |

**Recommendation**: Investigate manually
- Same location (NYC = New York)
- Similar names (Beta Tech vs Beta Technologies)
- Different domains - likely different companies

### Summary
- **Definite Duplicates**: 2 sets (4 records → 2)
- **Possible Duplicates**: 2 sets (need research)
- **Unique Records**: Pending investigation

### Merge Checklist
Before merging, verify:
- [ ] All opportunities moved to master record
- [ ] All contacts linked to master
- [ ] Activity history preserved
- [ ] Custom fields compared
- [ ] Integration IDs noted (for external systems)

Skill Boundaries

What This Skill Does Well

• Defining audit criteria systematically
• Identifying common data quality issues
• Prioritizing fixes by business impact
• Creating actionable remediation plans

What This Skill Cannot Do

• Access your actual CRM data
• Execute cleanup automatically
• Know your specific business rules
• Detect all semantic errors

When to Escalate to Human

• Merge decisions (data loss risk)
• Business rule definitions
• Enforcement policy decisions
• Cross-object relationship issues

Iteration Guide

Follow-up Prompts

• "Create a monthly hygiene report template."
• "What validation rules would prevent these issues?"
• "Prioritize the top 10 issues by revenue impact."
• "Design a data entry form that enforces these rules."

Continuous Improvement Cycle

1. Audit → Identify issues
2. Fix → Clean data
3. Prevent → Add validation rules
4. Monitor → Track hygiene score weekly
5. Iterate → Refine rules quarterly

Checklists & Templates

Weekly Hygiene Report Template

## CRM Hygiene Report - Week of [Date]

### Hygiene Score: X/100

### Critical Issues (Fix Today)
| Object | Record | Issue | Owner |
|--------|--------|-------|-------|

### Warnings (Fix This Week)
| Object | Count | Issue Type |
|--------|-------|------------|

### Trends
- Issues closed this week: X
- New issues this week: X
- Net change: +/- X

### Action Items
1.
2.
3.

Data Governance Checklist

• Required fields defined per object
• Validation rules implemented
• Duplicate rules active
• Stale record reports scheduled
• Ownership assignments current
• Integration mappings documented

References

• Salesforce Data Quality Best Practices
• RevOps Co-op Data Governance Framework
• Marketo Database Health Guide
• Gartner Data Quality Market Guide

Related Skills

• pipeline-forecasting - Clean data improves forecasts
• lead-scoring - Requires complete lead data
• deal-risk-scoring - Depends on activity data

Skill Metadata

• Domain: RevOps
• Complexity: Intermediate
• Mode: centaur
• Time to Value: 30-60 min for audit, varies for cleanup
• Prerequisites: CRM data export, field requirements list