Analytics: It's Not Just For Geeks!
Transform the way your business operates by building employees in the field what they need!
For a long time, smart people have been building smart analytical solutions for other smart people.
That’s okay, but they have done all of the hard work building the analytics and most people are still missing out. Despite all the talk of analytics being for everyone, the bulk of head-office intelligence work is still not making it to the edges of the business. So those people use tools like Excel to do their own analysis in isolation, and it rarely works.
This is frustrating, as it is the edge of the business where much of the exciting work takes place. It's where sales people speak to prospects, where service staff help customers, and where meaningful information at the right time can lead to higher customer satisfaction, and profitability.
So why is it that firms are so bad at getting this right?
It’s important to consider how the information is consumed. Analysis which is complex to interpret, or overloaded with data is going to be badly received by the field. You might get away with it in a group function, but in a sales or service environment the analysis needs to be relevant, timely, and easy to interpret. And it needs to look nice. No pressure then ;-)
I always advise analytics teams to bring people from the field into project teams, so they can explain how their day-to-day job works, and the kinds of information that would make a difference to their performance. It is so important to understand, and yet so many companies I meet don’t do the homework - they don’t even know the people in the field.
My view on this is simple. If you enable all the people in your organization with useful analytical information, at the right time, and in a consumable way, then you will serve your customers better, retain staff longer, and make more profit.
Get to know the people in the field, get to know how they work, and build them what they need. Embed analytical insights into their existing processes, and use those insights to transform the way they work.
Of course, having a good software platform that allows you to get the relevant information to the right people at the right time helps. But that’s just the start.
