Create a Source of Truth for Public Business Information

Conflicting public information usually begins with a mundane change: a new phone number, a revised service, a price update, a branch move, or a new operating schedule. One employee updates the website, another changes a profile, and a third continues using an old brochure. The business does not need a complicated data platform to reduce this drift. It needs to decide which record is authoritative for each fact and who may approve a change.

A source of truth is not necessarily one giant spreadsheet. It is a documented rule that tells staff where the approved answer lives and who is responsible for it.

Define ownership by field

Different facts have different owners. The branch manager may approve opening hours; finance may own prices; operations may confirm service availability; the business owner may approve the public business name. Marketing can publish the information, but should not invent the underlying fact.

Create a field register with the public fact, authoritative source, responsible role, approver, update trigger, affected destinations, and last verification date. Avoid naming only one individual if the process would stop when that person is away. Use a primary owner and a backup role.

Separate fact approval from publication

An update has at least two decisions: “Is this fact correct?” and “Has it been published everywhere that matters?” Keeping them separate prevents a marketing assistant from being held responsible for a price that was never approved, while still making the publishing task accountable.

For example, operations confirms that a service is no longer available at one branch. Marketing then updates the relevant profile, service page, booking options, and printed material where practical. The register links the approved fact to those destinations and records which updates are complete. It should not claim that every channel is updated until somebody checks them.

Use a change record with a unique reference

When a fact changes, create one change record rather than starting a new conversation in every channel. Include the old value, new approved value, effective date, reason, approver, publishing owner, affected destinations, and completion status. If the change is temporary, include an expiry or review date.

A simple reference such as BR-04-HOURS-2026-11 can help staff find the same decision in a spreadsheet, email, and task tracker. This is an internal convention, not a product requirement. Keep the reference free of customer personal information.

Choose destinations based on the fact

Not every change affects every channel. A phone number may need to be updated on a profile, website, invoice template, social account, and signage. A revised service condition may affect only a service page and booking form. The field register should show likely destinations, while the change record confirms which ones were actually affected.

Do not invent website URLs or assume that a page exists. Use confirmed links from the site's own inventory. If a destination is unknown, mark it for discovery instead of treating it as complete.

Set review triggers, not just calendar reminders

Some facts need scheduled checks; others need event-based review. Business hours can be checked before known holidays. A service description should be revisited when operations changes the offer. Prices should be checked when finance approves a new rate. A branch address should be reviewed when a lease, relocation, or signage change occurs.

A monthly sweep can catch missed updates, but it should not replace immediate action for high-impact changes. Define which fields are critical enough to trigger same-day review and which can wait for the next planned maintenance session.

Example register

Field	Authority	Trigger	Publishing destinations
Opening hours	Branch manager's approved schedule	Holiday or operating change	Business Profile, website, booking page
Service availability	Operations lead	Staff, equipment, or supplier change	Service list, service page, enquiry script
Public phone number	Business owner or telecom administrator	Number or routing change	Profile, website, printed materials
Price	Finance-approved price list	Approved price revision	Price page, menu, campaign assets
Business name	Legal/owner-approved real-world identity	Rebrand or documented identity change	Signage, profile, website, business documents

The exact fields will differ by business. Do not use this example as a claim that every channel must always contain every field.

Test whether the system works

Once a quarter, choose two recent changes and trace each one from approval to publication. Ask whether the owner was clear, the source was accessible, the destinations were identified, and the final values were checked. If a change was missed, repair the process rather than blaming an employee who never had the necessary information.

For a solo operator, the same principle can be simplified to one controlled document and a checklist. For an agency, each client needs a clearly named source owner so the agency does not treat an old email as permanent approval.

Access rule

Give edit rights only to staff who maintain the source record, and make approval responsibility explicit for sensitive facts such as identity, phone routing, and prices.