CRM data hygiene best practices

Maintain clean, actionable CRM data. Required fields for contacts: name, email, phone, company, title, lead source. For opportunities: amount, close date, stage, next steps, MEDDIC scores. Daily habits: 1. Log all activities immediately (calls, emails, meetings). 2. Update opportunity stage after every touch. 3. Add notes with key takeaways. 4. Set clear next steps and due dates. Weekly: 1. Update close dates for slipping deals. 2. Archive dead opportunities. 3. Merge duplicate contacts. 4. Enrich data (add missing phone numbers, job titles). Monthly: validation reports (missing data, stale opportunities over 90 days untouched). Automation: Zapier to enrich from LinkedIn, PersistIQ for bounce detection. Clean data enables: accurate forecasting, effective reporting, team collaboration. Manager spot-checks 10 records weekly.