Priority list: the 9 fields to clean first
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Email
- Why it matters
- Unique identifier for contacts, drives email deliverability, report counts and most automations.
- 20-60 minute audit
- Run a report of blank or malformed emails, sample 50 recent contacts and note bounced/placeholder addresses (e.g. "no-reply@", "test@test").
- Three practical fixes
- validation (require proper @domain format or use regex where possible), picklists (n/a — instead mark valid/invalid with a dropdown), dedupe (merge duplicates by email).
- Quick test
- import 5 test contacts with corrected emails and run a newsletter send to confirm no bounces and correct engagement metrics.
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Owner (contact owner)
- Why it matters
- Handoffs, accountability and routing of leads; missing owners break SLA and assignments.
- 20-60 minute audit
- Filter for unassigned contacts or owners set to inactive users; check top 100 new leads this month.
- Three practical fixes
- validation (make owner required for new leads), picklists (use a dropdown/team property for simple ownership rules), dedupe (consolidate duplicate owner records and reassign).
- Quick test
- Create a dummy lead and confirm owner is auto-assigned or flagged for manual assignment, and that notifications go to the right person.
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Lifecycle stage
- Why it matters
- Core for funnel reports, automations and handoffs between marketing and sales.
- 20-60 minute audit
- Compare lifecycle counts month-on-month, spot records with unlikely jumps (e.g. Customer -> Lead) and list records with no stage.
- Three practical fixes
- validation (prevent backward transitions via workflow or required review), picklists (use the standard dropdown values and lock custom ones), dedupe (merge overlapping records that split stage history).
- Quick test
- Move a test contact through the expected stages and confirm expected workflows trigger and reports reflect the change.
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Source / Contact source
- Why it matters
- Attribution for marketing, channels and ROI — poor source data makes decisions guesswork.
- 20-60 minute audit
- Pull the top 50 'Unknown' or custom free-text sources; check mapping from forms, ads and manual entry.
- Three practical fixes
- validation (map incoming UTM/form values to standard options), picklists (replace free-text with a required dropdown), dedupe (merge similar source values into canonical ones).
- Quick test
- Submit a test form or ad click with known UTM and check the contact's source property is the canonical value.
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Phone number
- Why it matters
- Useful for outreach and verification; inconsistent formats harm click-to-call and reports.
- 20-60 minute audit
- Sample 100 contacts for empty or badly formatted numbers, check country codes and obvious placeholders.
- Three practical fixes
- validation (enforce country code or length rules), picklists (store country separately if helpful), dedupe (merge contacts sharing phone numbers).
- Quick test
- Call or SMS a test number or use your CRM's click-to-call to confirm the number works and displays consistently.
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Company name and company domain
- Why it matters
- Company-level reporting, account-based routing and correct company-contact linking.
- 20-60 minute audit
- List contacts with blank company or mismatched domains (company name vs email domain); spot many variants of the same company.
- Three practical fixes
- validation (require either company name or domain for B2B contacts), picklists (use a canonical account record and link contacts), dedupe (merge company records and align domain property).
- Quick test
- Open a merged company record and confirm all related contacts appear under the account and reports update.
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Billing / postal address (including postcode)
- Why it matters
- Invoicing, service area checks and compliance; postcodes enable region reporting and correct tax handling.
- 20-60 minute audit
- Find blank address fields, invalid postcodes, or records with multiple inconsistent addresses.
- Three practical fixes
- validation (postcode format checks and required fields for invoicing), picklists (use country dropdowns and standardise address lines), dedupe (remove duplicate billing contacts or consolidate addresses).
- Quick test
- Generate a sample invoice or dispatch label to confirm address fields populate correctly.
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Deal stage / custom status
- Why it matters
- Sales forecasting, handoffs and automated reminders rely on accurate stage/status values.
- 20-60 minute audit
- Compare active deals by stage, flag deals stuck in a stage beyond expected duration and list custom status values.
- Three practical fixes
- validation (require stage entry when creating a deal), picklists (standardise stages and close reasons), dedupe (merge duplicate deals and consolidate value).
- Quick test
- Move a deal through stages and check the forecast and stage-based workflows reflect changes.
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Marketing consent / subscription status
- Why it matters
- Legal compliance (GDPR) and respecting contact preferences — wrong flags can stop sends or cause complaints.
- 20-60 minute audit
- Count contacts with conflicting consent properties, missing timestamps or unclear opt-in sources.
- Three practical fixes
- validation (capture consent at source with a timestamp), picklists (use clear subscription status options), dedupe (reconcile multiple consent flags across duplicates).
- Quick test
- Opt a test contact in and out via your preferred channel and confirm subscription properties and timestamps update correctly.
Low-effort fallbacks and HubSpot checks
- Low-effort fallbacks for very small teams: review the top 20 revenue or recent contacts manually, agree a single owner per account as a team rule, and keep a one‑column spreadsheet for any quick fixes you don’t have time to build into the CRM.
- HubSpot-specific checks to save time: use HubSpot's duplicate management (email and company domain), enable required properties on forms, check "Lifecycle stage" historical changes in contact timeline, and use workflows to normalise incoming source values. For consent, prefer HubSpot's subscription types and record consent timestamps from forms.
Start in an afternoon: a 90–120 minute playbook
Spend 30 minutes running the audits above for your highest-value segment (recent leads or top customers). Spend 30–60 minutes applying the quick fixes you can do without code: mark required fields, create or tighten dropdown values, and run a small dedupe/merge on the top offenders. Use the remaining 30 minutes to run the quick tests (send a test email, move a deal, submit a test form) and note any unexpected behaviour.
If you want a hand prioritising which fields will have the biggest immediate impact for your team, Optira can help you run a focused audit and a short remediation plan tailored to your tools and workflows.