Exploring in detail Analytics and Your Business
Data isn’t new – but how it is treated has changed. It used to be hidden away in filing cabinets never to see the light of day, but now businesses can access any piece of information they need, any time. That data is now being morphed into actionable insights that enable your business to make business decisions on an informed and in-depth basis. The future is very bright and the possibilities are endless and you can read in more detail about them in our previous blog post.
Smart analytics, connected analytics whatever your buzz word of the week is, they all lead to the same thing – intelligent business decisions. Those smart analytics help to identify new business opportunity and untapped customers segments to name a few key features. But the question is, how do you harness that data for your business?
What exactly is the difference between data and analytics?
First of all, let’s clarify exactly what the difference between data and analytics is exactly. Imagine data as all that raw information, the numbers and lines of code that come back from campaigns, servers logs, completed jobs etc. Analytics turns all that raw data into business insights, beginning the process of distillation until transformational metrics are extrapolated.
What can all this data and all those analytics do for your business?
They provide key information on your customers and allow you to develop more in-depth customer personas, where are they, what are their behaviours? Do they leave your website or not complete the purchase? Are your mobile workers not providing the most efficient service at a particular time or day? These insights allow you to start being more predictive. With customers, you can establish which new products or services they would be interested in or what content they want to read. You can delve into exactly how your mobile staff are providing services to customers, where they can improve and any inefficiencies there is in the process. By evaluating customer behaviour, you can ensure that your development strategy for products and services are producing the best results and your sales strategy is as effective as possible.
This will not only benefit your business but will also enable more meaningful customer conversations, resulting in stronger loyalty and deeper engagement. In a mobile workforce environment, you are able to see efficiency levels and any areas in the process that can be improved resulting in improved customer service and staff with higher job satisfaction.
Real information & greater business intelligence
Data and analytics, provides you with real information that allows you to gain greater business intelligence and establish leaks in your internal processes. Perhaps your business strategy isn’t aligned with your customer’s needs. By addressing these you can ensure more effective marketing, new revenue opportunities, better customer service and competitive advantage.
These vital analytics can help put your business in a leading position, but leveraging the power of data and analytics has to be done carefully. Most businesses silo data and analytics per department but instead by viewing them as a collective, the business is able to identify positive trends and determine what will move the business forward.
Analytics will provide clear indications of any leaks in your conversion process, security breaches or inefficiencies that could be costing you money. Most importantly, if acted upon those analytics will provide you with competitive advantage.
Conclusion
Data is available to all businesses, distilling that data in actionable analytics is the next level of intelligent decision making and the cost of not taking action is now too great, it will give businesses the power to unlock a better understanding of the market and to create superior strategy.
All businesses need a plan on how to collect, use and protect data and analytics, but how do you begin to invest? There are a few things to bear in mind…
- Always maintain realistic expectations, data and analytics won’t provide automatic, ground-breaking, positive results, after all the data doesn’t interpret itself.
- Know exactly what you want to get from it, what key analytics would benefit your business and what is the end result you would like to see? E.g. Increase retention and job satisfaction.
- Start small. Start with one area of data, distil it into actionable analytics and review.
