If you’re starting a small business or you’re growing an existing one, it might seem like the advocacy for the reliance on data and better record keeping suddenly popped up overnight. The truth is that data has always been there with us for as long as we’ve made even a portion of our work digital. But there’s a good reason people are talking more and more about it. Your business can make use of it to improve in just about every way.
The legal side of things
First of all, businesses are growing accustomed to the legal implications of data and record management, and the penalties for having none at all. Many businesses that want to deal internationally, for instance, have to learn about the records retention regulations of the EU that make it a violation to fail to store critical data and customer records. Services like Oasis Group document storage aren’t just a way to make sure you have the space to store all that data. They help businesses complete a comprehensive retention policy that ensures they’re not getting their business in potential legal trouble.
The profitability of it all
Of course, many businesses have been using data for the longest time, even before computers came into the mix. The data that most have been focused on collecting is on the money side of things. Proper financial record keeping and accounting is crucial to seeing how well money is made and spent in the business, making cash flow projections, and helping to spot potential savings and extra revenue streams. However, the customer data you collect can be just as valuable, particularly in helping you identify your most profitable customers. Smaller businesses that work by invoice or in a B2B model can also benefit from using data to identify which customers are often late with payments. That way, you figure out where to spend more effort on retention.
The wants of the market
There are a lot of different tools used to collect data on customers. Big data is the practice of tying them all together. When it comes to understanding the needs of existing customers and the market at large, few tools are as helpful as marketing analytics. When devising a new digital marketing strategy for your business, it’s best to look at how you did in the past. Analytics allows you measure clicks not just on the site, but individual pages, understanding how people found the site, what search terms led them there, whether the site held the interest, bounce rate, and much more. Not only can you create the most effective marketing strategies to lead to the page, but the site content that retains their attention after, all based on what it seems like they’re looking for. If the site has a search bar, this can be one of the most effective ways to see what exactly customers want to see from the business.
The supply to meet the demand
Most businesses have suppliers and rely on them to ensure that customer demands are met. As Startups suggests, choosing the right suppliers and wholesalers can dictate your own sales and profits. Analysing metrics such as customer complaints and returns can help you identify some of your worst-performing suppliers. It might not necessarily be your product you’re selling, but you are the one selling it, so sticking to a bad supplier only hurts your business in the end.
The health of the customer base
Customer data also helps you better understand those you do business with, too. Some say that data might not be able to replace knowing customers on an individual basis, but it can point out who you’re losing and exactly what you’re losing them. Customer relationship management tools and surveying services like Clientheartbeat can help you pinpoint what elements of the business retain customers and why you fail to retain others. Keeping current customers returning to business is often much cheaper than having to win over new customers and guarantees more long-term profit in the end. Fail to pay attention to maintain the health of your existing customer base and it can be difficult, bordering on impossible, to grow the business.
The delivery of your services
Just as you can use data to better manage the services that supply you, you can use it to better track the services like Parcelmonkey deliveries that see your product from you to the consumer. This is especially important in ecommerce, where convenient deliveries are a cornerstone of the business. Keeping track of delivery performance and tracking analytics can help you better predict delivery dates and times for customers, how different traffic patterns and locations affect them, and even if your order fulfilment services aren’t up to your standards.
The phantom of loss
Loss is a significant problem in every retail store as well as every production and manufacturing business. Failing to track means seeing potential revenue disappear down the drain without explanation. In retail, keeping better track of your inventory through digital tags can help you prevent it. In manufacturing, however, you need to track a lot more data. For instance, data can help you measure the overall equipment efficiency, spotting which machinery errors and malfunctions are most common. It can also highlight other issues such as operative loss due to employee error. When you start spotting where most of your lost and faulty end products come from, you can implement solutions such as replacing manual functions with automated replacements or implementing a policy of proactive maintenance on the most failure prone machines. Loss is a phantom that is hard, if not impossible, to truly eliminate. But proper data management can make it at least much less of a serious problem.
It doesn’t matter what kind of goods you make or deliver, what services you provide or facilitate, data can help. Finding the objective measurements of different processes in the business and using them to solve real problems is what data is about. Many are finding there are few methods as reliable when it comes to finding out exactly why the business isn’t working as it should.
