Your business’s success is highly dependent on a combination of operations that have to run as effectively as possible to deliver expected results. In a modernised business environment, most of these operations are data-based, and that can only mean one thing. You need all your data to be accurate and reliable if you are going to rely on it to make decisions or back up specific campaigns.
It gets even more challenging if your business relies on accurate customer data such as phone numbers to reach out to customers and offer personalised experiences. In such situations, you have to do your best to verify all phone numbers that are in your contact list so you are engaging real customers, not shadows that aren’t beneficial to your business in any way.
For that, you would need an effective phone verification API to compare the data you have against verified sources. Join us in exploring the world of phone verification APIs and third-party data sources as we aim to help you enhance the quality of the data you use in your business.
What Are Phone Verification APIs?
Phone verification APIs are protocols that connect businesses to phone verification services so that operators in the business can confirm the authenticity of phone numbers provided by users. Without such tools, a business would have to go through the trouble of developing a platform that they can use to validate user phone numbers from scratch.
Depending on the situation and the business’s capabilities, such efforts can be out of the question, requiring that the business operators resort to alternative methods such as manually verifying their customer phone number data. That’s not practical in a competitive environment, right?
Luckily, phone verification APIs make it easier for businesses to identify their customers more efficiently. And that’s not all there is. Your business can even incorporate expert-developed-and-integrated data enrichment APIs like Trestle’s Phone Reverse API with Twilio phone lookup to improve the quality of data for better results. Data enrichment APIs make it possible to add supplemental data pieces like addresses, demographics, location, and others so you’re relying on complete data to make decisions.
The Role of 3rd Party Data Sources
Third-party data sources are simply entities that can provide extra data about a user even though they don’t have a direct relationship with them. They collect such data from different sources, anonymize it, and then sell it to businesses that may need such data to enhance their customer insight. As mentioned above, data from supplemental sources can include geographical data, behavioural data, address data, phone data, demographic data, and more.
How Third-Party Data Enhances a Business’s Database
Using third-party data can be beneficial in the following ways:
Enhanced Data Quality and Accuracy
At the top of the reasons that may inspire you to use third-party data is the improved quality and accuracy it adds to your phone verification and other data validation processes. While internal data is helpful, it can be quite limited or easily outdated, resulting in inaccurate verifications. Third-party data, on the other hand, is meticulously curated with stringent quality standards and governance policies guiding how it’s collected and used.
While that is the case, third-party sources typically have access to extensive telecom contact databases and regulated public information databases. That way, you can be sure that the data you get from a verified third-party source is comprehensive, reliable, and up-to-date. You can then use the data you’ve acquired to enrich customer profiles so that you can tailor your sales and marketing approaches as required.
Better Leads Scoring Accuracy
Lead scoring is a crucial process in every business since it allows the sales and marketing teams to direct their efforts in a way that guarantees maximum productivity. If you’re relying solely on internal data, your lead-scoring efforts will certainly not be highly rewarding since your information is limited.
Third-party data sources can help you address this challenge by enhancing your data collection with accurate information from reliable sources.
With external data points, you will have enough information to predict the leads that are likely to convert more reliably. As a result, you can allocate resources more efficiently and get a better ROI for your efforts.
Superior Targeting and Segmentation
It’s paramount to understand your prospects deeply if you want to improve your targeting and segmentation efforts. Acquiring third-party data goes a long way toward helping you understand the key characteristics and behaviours of various customer segments.
With such an approach, you can create precise and accurate marketing campaigns so you are sure you are reaching the right prospects at the right time and with the right message.
Easier Identification of New Market Openings
Relying on your internal data for so long can give you a false sense of completeness, making you think that’s all the opportunities there are. Bring in third-party data, however, and you’ll realise there are lots of opportunities you never even thought existed.
After analysing external data from enhanced sources, you will most likely uncover new trends and gain access to emerging markets and untapped customer segments. With the new insights, you can expand your reach and discover new avenues for growth.
Integration Challenges and Mitigation Strategies
Though third-party data sources can improve your business’s performance by a great deal, they aren’t without challenges. Here are the most common challenges you will encounter when using them, and how to navigate without issues:
Data Quality and Consistency
The most common challenge when you start using third-party data sources will be accessing data that has high quality and uses a consistent format. Remember such inconsistencies can cause verification issues or mismatches.
To avoid this, make sure you’re partnering only with reputable data providers who adhere strictly to excellent quality standards and update their data regularly. Also, leverage regular data cleaning and normalisation processes.
Security and Privacy Concerns
Using third-party data also comes with serious security risks, especially where sensitive customer data is involved. Data breaches in the process of transferring data from one platform to another aren’t unheard of. You never want to encounter such issues, since mishandling customer information can result in fines and irreversible reputational damage.
Your best solution would be to team up only with third-party data providers that are compliant with standard data security protocols like encryption and secure APIs. Training your employees can also help everyone in your business remain vigilant about data privacy regulations like CCPA and GDPR, depending on where your business is located.
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Enhance Your Customer Data the Right Way
Incorporating third-party data sources into your phone verification API and other data verification and enrichment APIs isn’t just a good practice – it’s a strategic advantage. As long as you partner with providers who are committed to providing data of the highest quality and meeting industrial standards as well as being compliant with rules and regulations, you will enjoy the benefits of verification and enrichment with no issues.
Trestle is such a provider. Thanks to a highly informed and dedicated team, you can be sure you will always have access to top-grade data that will give your business a competitive edge.
