4 Ways You Can Use Your Company Data To Make Better Decisions

We have already iterated the importance of data and how it can drive businesses forward by giving them a clear view of where they are doing things right and wrong. Aside from a hunch or customer feedback (which can also actually be collected as data, incidentally) data is the primary source of information that will actually give you insight into the performance of your business. Without it, you have no basis for improvement or change.

Thankfully, with systems like Microsoft Power BI and Google Analytics, it’s easier than ever to visually map our your data and translate it into actionable information for your business health and growth. Here are a few ways that data can help you make the most of your business.

MAKING SALES DECISIONS

Measuring the activity of your customers gives you a clear view of what sales tactics are working and what aren’t. Each customer can be analysed to see what it is about your products that they come back for, which are best for cross-selling to a particular customer type, and which product volumes need to be increased or decreased. The main point of having access to all this data, is to convert it into something actionable that can make positive change to your business.

 PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT

The uptake of a new product can be measured quite easily in terms of sales and interest, but what about when you’re in the stages of product development? How do you know if you’re on the right track? Using market research techniques and the data that is returned by these results, it becomes easier to see where your proposed product can provide value and where it might fall short. 

You can also use data to measure and keep track of how much you have spent developing a product in order to determine how much you need to earn on it to make a return on your investment.

MARKETING SUCCESS OR FAILURE

Companies usually have a budget set aside for marketing spend and obviously want to know that each and every cent is wisely spent. By analysing your data in relation to reach, conversions, acquisitions etc, you can easily tell where your marketing efforts are working and where they’re falling short. Each marketing medium has a set of must-have metrics that you should be looking at in order to determine whether or not you’re making an impact. When your reach starts dwindling or your cost-per-click starts rising, you know you need to make some adjustments.

Without data to measure your marketing successes and pitfalls, you would basically be throwing money into the wind and hoping for it to bring you some business. With the right data, you can see what marketing campaigns are bringing in the biggest return, and prioritise these over the rest.

EMPLOYEE SATISFACTION

Disengaged employees are likely to stand back from investing in your business, especially if they are not feeling fulfilled. You can use data to ensure employee satisfaction by first getting their insight into the business, company culture, the processes, people and how things are run. It might be a bitter pill to swallow, but it’s important to know first-hand how your employees are interpreting your business and leadership. If there are ways that you can improve on how the business is run, then you need to take those appropriate steps in order to prevent high employee churn.

Employees could mention that remuneration is a key problem, but you might not have the budget to pay them more. What you can do is offer more in-house benefits such as quality coffee, free lunches, a company gym, or other perks that will make an employee feel wanted and appreciated. You can’t make these changes without knowing what the problem is first. And you can’t understand the problem until you have the data behind it.

Just a few ways that company data can literally change the way you do business for the better.