Since the introduction of GDPR in 2018, it’s been clear that consumers have the right to know how their data is being used and that businesses must handle it with care. While the UK seems set to introduce its own data protection bill, it hasn’t changed the fact that it is crucial for organisations to take data seriously. In no sector is this more important than financial services, where businesses are handling incredibly sensitive data on thousands of customers every day.

This is why the latest research from Quantexa, showing only 22% of data and IT leaders believe that all business units trust the accuracy of data available to them, is particularly worrying. It’s no surprise that such a lack of trust exists, when on average, 11% of all data records across an organisation are duplicated.

When businesses do not know what data they hold on their customers, and whether it is unique or accurate, issues across the whole business will quickly arise. Such significant inconsistency of data not only risks fines from regulators, but also leaves customers feeling more inclined to switch. In the age of the empowered customer, if you don’t know your customers then they will find a competitor who does. And with the rate of UK customers switching bank increasing from 55% to 63% in 2022, financial organisations cannot afford to have incorrect data records.

It is vital for financial organisations to adopt a CXM platform that provides a single view of the customer that is easily accessed by anyone in the business. This will dramatically improve the data quality and handling of customer information, giving employees a single customer profile that can be updated and changed in real-time. No longer will duplicate customer accounts be created if employees move job, or if the customer buys services from different parts of the business.

Once this foundation has been created, then businesses can truly start to benefit from the value of data. Companies can gather insights on how a customer likes to be communicated with, the current state of their finances, and if they could be upsold additional products in the future. This means every single instance of communication with the customer will be over the right channel and at the right time. Without this holistic view, financial services organisations will find themselves frustrating customers and losing business.