Often, when I talk to business owners about the data they are tracking, I see their eyes glaze over. Many of the people I work with are creatives and visionaries with big dreams and the thought of numbers sends them down a rabbit whole of doom. And yet, tracking data allows an organisation to make informed business decisions that help improve efficiency in its operational, financial, marketing and human resource management.
Tracking and analysis not only provides insights on how the business has performed but also helps predict potential problems and inform decision-makers as to how near or far the business is from reaching its goals.
Why Tracking Your Information Is Important
Businesses collect data in their day-to-day operation whether it’s customer data, web traffic, or demographics. These data sets provide a wealth of information that ―when tracked and analysed― can provide a business valuable insights about areas for improvement and opportunities for growth.
Businesses, big and small, benefit from data tracking and analysis as it allows them to make informed decisions about finding new customers, improving customer retention rate, predicting sales, or improving customer experience. All of this will allow the business to thrive and grow.
What Information Should You Be Tracking And Analysing?
Depending on the type of business and your goals, the following are some of the key areas that you can start tracking to help your business grow.
Marketing Data
Marketing data is the information that businesses can use to develop and promote products and make decisions about sales, pricing and product distribution. Marketing data may include customer data, market research, sales, commercial transactions, customer feedback and surveys.
Financial Data
Financial data refers to the information related to the business’ financial health and is used to assess whether the financial strategies employed by the business are working or not. Financial data may include assets, liabilities, equity and cash flow.
Project Management Data
Data-driven analytics enables managers to track and analyse project-related data such as budget and project costs in order to spot bottlenecks, predict possible outcomes and make necessary adjustments to ensure the project’s success.
Human Resources Data
Businesses need human resource analytics to gain valuable insights and create adjustments to address human resources-related issues such as hiring, performance and efficiency, employee productivity, retention and attrition.
Some of the metrics measured by HR analytics include tenure, training expense per employee, training efficiency, absenteeism, turnover cost, and time to fill and hire.
Customer Service
Customer data analytics help businesses get a better understanding of their behaviour and needs so they can employ strategies to improve customer experience. Some of the metrics measured include first response time, average resolution time, backlog, customer satisfaction and customer service request volume.
Systems and tools to help you track and analyse business data
To get started with data analytics, the following are just a very small sample of the tools that you can use to automate the process of tracking your business data:
- Google Analytics – is a free web analytics software that lets users analyse website visitor behaviour.
- Teamwave – is a web-based software that integrates project management, CRM and HR tools.
- Xero – is cloud-based accounting software that offers a real-time cashflow view and tools for invoicing, inventory, purchasing, bookkeeping and other functionalities.
- CrunchHR – is a cloud-based software for workforce reporting and analytics.
- Zendesk – offers a suite of customer support applications including help desk, knowledge base and call centre.
Would you like to explore how Blue Ninja might be able to help you improve data management, reporting and analysis in your business and help make your creative visions come true? Simply book a discovery call here.
