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[PART 1]
The majority of the FileMaker databases and solutions out in the field have a CRM-related component in them. They hold client (address) information that is used on a daily basis by sales departments for marketing, cold calling, quote or order creation.
FileMaker offers great flexibility in the way you want to store or use this data. Unfortunately, this flexibility comes with a price. CRM systems are easily poorly maintained; they quickly contain old, irrelevant, or incomplete data. The way data is entered is often inconsistent—if at all sources or creators are mentioned. Besides, in most use cases, we see a lack of assigned responsibility for data maintenance.
And yet, your CRM is only as valuable as the data it holds.
What Does Good Data Management Look Like?
Before diving into practical upgrades, let’s quickly outline the core steps for proper CRM data hygiene—something we’ll cover more extensively in future blog posts:
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- Define ownership – Make someone responsible for data quality.
- Standardize input – Use validations, dropdowns, and templates to guide consistent data entry.
- Enrich existing records – Use external sources to fill in missing info (more on this below).
- Detect duplicates – Regularly run deduplication scripts or use fuzzy matching tools.
- Clean up stale data – Archive or remove contacts that are outdated or unresponsive.
- Audit trails – Track changes and edits to ensure accountability.
- Review routines – Schedule periodic checks to keep your data healthy.
Enriching Data: Smarter Records with the help of API's and AI
Even with good input practices, most CRMs are still born incomplete. Addresses without coordinates, companies without phone numbers, leads without email verification—the gaps are real. Fortunately, the modern web offers powerful tools to enrich this data without relying on manual research.
📍 Google Places API: Turn a Company Name into a Real Address
When you have only the company name and city, Google Places API can often return:
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- Full address and coordinates
- Website and phone number
- Business category
- User reviews (sometimes surprisingly insightful)
For example, entering “Hofleverancier van der Laan, Utrecht” can return a rich structured record with just a simple API call. This is especially valuable when cleaning up lead lists, verifying company locations, or mapping contacts for sales reps.
🔍 Hunter.io & Similar Tools: Fill In the Blanks (Legally)
Hunter, Clearbit, and similar services allow you to:
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- Find email addresses linked to a company domain
- Validate whether emails are deliverable
- Discover social profiles of leads
- Identify job titles and roles
Use cases?
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- You have a list of domains but no contact emails.
- You want to verify that a contact still works at a given company.
- You want to target only marketing managers or CTOs.
With the right tools (and FileMaker’s support for REST APIs), all of this can be integrated directly into your CRM workflow—automatically enriching your records without a single Google search.
And of course, let’s not forget AI.
Integrating your CRM with AI tools like ChatGPT opens up unprecedented possibilities for data enrichment. In many cases, simply providing ChatGPT with a name or address can already yield valuable insights—though the results may vary depending on context and formatting.
When combined with automation platforms like n8n and well-crafted prompts, the quality and consistency of enrichment improve significantly. However, it’s important to note that ChatGPT is not well-suited for processing large datasets in bulk through a single prompt. For such cases, a FileMaker script with a loop—feeding individual records to ChatGPT one at a time—can offer a more stable and controlled approach to AI-assisted enrichment.
It is not hard to start cleaning up
If your CRM is a graveyard of outdated leads, unstructured company names, or broken email addresses, you’re not alone. But you also don’t have to start from scratch.
By assigning ownership, structuring inputs, and connecting to external data sources like Google Places and Hunter in combination with ChatGPT, you can transform your FileMaker system into a truly intelligent CRM—one that works for you instead of the other way around.
In the next blog posts, we’ll dive deeper into each step: from duplicate detection strategies to automated company lookups and building a simple enrichment flow using FileMaker scripts + APIs + AI.
Can't wait? Contact us and we can work on your next project!
