Gain business insights by reviewing your company’s data

By Andrea Hill

My daughter is a nurse with two children and a third due any day. Like all moms, she’s busy, always trying to squeeze more value into the time she has. Several days a week I get to have coffee with her when she drops off the kids. Many of our conversations start something like this:

“I was reviewing my journal from last week and…”

“I was going over my calendar from last month and…”

Each of these reflections is typically followed by ideas for change and improvement.

My daughter uses a journal and a calendar to document both the factual aspects of each day, such as times, places, and people, and also the subjective things, such as feelings, experiencs, and observations. These tools not only help her keep her schedule organized, but also provide her the insight she needs to make improvements in the future.

If you’re not doing the same type of analysis with your business, you are missing a big opportunity.

Most companies are proficient at analyzing past sales and projecting future sales. You may also be disciplined about reviewing your P&L and budgets monthly. Financial analysis is extremely important, but an entire world of information exists outside your accounting system. You may not realize how many tools you have that will help you analyze your business performance and make plans for improvement. Here are some ideas to get you started:

Post-Project Analysis

Every project should be followed by a post-project discussion and analysis. This discussion should include review of achievements, timelines, and all relevant metrics. It should also include reflections about what went well and what could have gone better. Any time you launch a similar or related project, start with a review of your previous post-project analysis notes.

Your Calendar

If you sense you are not being efficient with your time, review your calendar for the past month. Are you forgetting to record appointments? Are you scheduling time for project work, analysis, and deep thinking? Are you booking your meetings back-to-back with no room to get to the day-to-day tasks? A review of your scheduling behaviors can help you become a better planner.

E-mail Metrics

By now you should be using a professional e-mail system (Mail Chimp, Constant Contact, etc.) for managing your marketing communications. Are you reviewing e-mail responses to gain insight into future marketing plans? When you review the most-read e-mails, the links that were most clicked, and even which triggered the most opt-outs, you will learn a lot about how to be a more effective marketing organization.

Google Analytics

Google Analytics monitors the behaviors and movements of your customers, and it can teach you a great deal about which information on your website your customers like, don’t like, return to repeatedly, or haven’t even found yet. These insights will help you improve your website, and they will also help you think about your overall business and make improvements that go beyond the internet.

Tracking Logs

Many years ago when I was the CEO of a large direct marketing firm, we had a technical support team that was constantly overwhelmed with calls. The team was talented and diligent, but it couldn’t keep up. It seemed like the only thing we could do was to keep adding new team members. Then we started logging every call we received to track the types of issues customers needed help with. After a few months of tracking, we were able to develop training and support materials for the most common technical support needs. Logs can be kept for a variety of issues, and regular review of them can point you to future process and product improvements.

Social Media Metrics

By reviewing which of your social media posts experience the most likes, shares, and discussions, you will gain insight into how you can better serve your customers.

Reasons for Return

Any business that makes or sells a product will experience returns. Do you track every reason a customer returns or even asks for a return authorization from you? Analyzing your reasons for return will help you improve everything from product quality to product descriptions and post-sales customer service.

Inventory Analysis

There are two types of inventory analysis. One is the financial analysis: How much inventory do we have and how old is it? The other is the operational analysis: Why do I have three different clasps that are nearly identical? Could I reduce my inventory without undermining my designs? How do I store inventory so that it can be seen and used, and can I improve my procedures to make my inventory more visible while making me more accountable?

People like to say we live in the information age, but we don’t. We live in the age of data. It only becomes information when we take the time to review it, look for patterns in it, and mine it for insights. Your business is filled with data that you can use to design more exciting products, provide better customer service, and make better decisions. What you must do is make the time to use it.