GTM Glossary · Motions & Plays
Data Hygiene
The ongoing practice of keeping CRM records accurate, deduplicated, complete, and lawfully held.
[01]What It Means
It covers deduplication, bounce handling, opt-out enforcement, field standardisation, and deletion of records you no longer have a basis to keep. It is continuous work, not a one-off cleanup project.
[02]Why It Matters
Every forecast, routing rule, and report inherits the quality of the underlying records. Poor hygiene also creates legal exposure in Europe, where a subject access or deletion request must be answerable across every system.
[03]Where It Goes Wrong
Cleaning once before a migration and never again.Suppression lists that live in a sequencing tool rather than the CRM, so opt-outs leak.Enriching aggressively while never deleting, which grows both cost and risk.
[04]Related Terms