Is your gut feeling leading your business astray?
The business world is too competitive to rely on guesswork. There is no way you will make better decisions for your business and sell as much as you want to if that is what you’ve been doing all along.
So let’s ditch the guesswork and show you 5 key steps in making data-driven decisions for your business
What is Data Driven Decision Making?
Think of data-driven decision making as using a flashlight instead of walking in the dark. Instead of stumbling around and probably ending up in a ditch.
You can see clearly because you have the right tool to help you. In the same way, with data driven decision making, you use real data to make the best choices for your business.
This data can come from things like sales records, customer feedback, or website traffic.
By looking at this information, you can see what’s working well and what’s not, and then use that knowledge to make smarter decisions about your business.
Here are 5 Key Steps In Data-Driven Decision Making
- Define the big picture
- Collect Important data
- Organize and Analyze your data
- Put the data into actual action
- Evaluate and Monitor the Results
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Case Study
Mrs Oyewole runs a logistics​ company. She notices that, in comparison to her competitors, her company’s delivery time takes longer and this has caused a reduction in sales and customer drop-off. However, she can’t take just any action to solve this problem, she needs to do some things first before making some data-driven decisions. So here’s what she should do:
1. Define the big picture
The foundation of any good decision starts with a clear goal. What is the big picture? What is your business trying to achieve? Whether it’s increasing sales by 20% or improving customer satisfaction, define specific and measurable objectives that are realistic enough for you to achieve to make data driven decisions
For Mrs Oyewole, she needs to set an objective, but she needs to tick these boxes: Specific, measurable, and achievable
Specific: Her objective is to reduce delivery times and improve customer satisfaction. This is clear and specific.
Measurable: She wants to reduce average delivery times by 30% within the next six months
Achievable: She has compared how many minutes exactly it takes her competitors to deliver to the exact locations as her company and has seen that the delivery time she set as a target is achievable.
After ticking these boxes, Mrs Oyewole has defined the big picture by setting an objective for her company. This is the first and most important step in a data driven decision making process
2. Collect Important Data
Have you gone through your sales figures, website traffic, and customer reviews to see what’s working and what’s not? It is when you do this that you understand how best to make informed decisions for your business. Data helps you navigate the business world with confidence.
For Mrs Oyewole, she needs to collect data such as GPS data on delivery routes and times, historical data on delivery times and the average time a delivery takes depending on the location. It is from this data that she can begin to sort out which is relevant and which is not.
With a PressOne business number, she will have access to advanced features like call recording, call analytics and call tracking to help her collect more data on her business calls.
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3. Organize & Analyze Your data
Data itself isn’t enough for smarter decisions. It’s like having a messy pile of papers. Organizing sorts the mess, while analyzing makes sense of it all. You find patterns and trends that help you understand what works and what doesn’t. This clear picture lets you make informed choices that drive your business forward.
For example, Mrs Oyewole has to sort the data she has collected into customer sentiment analysis, and average delivery time. After this, she can begin to analyze the data. She will also take into consideration the reviews she has been getting from customers.
With PressOne’s call recording, she can review call interactions between her dispatch riders and customers to know what exactly the customers are saying and how her dispatch riders reply to them. She will also understand how much customers complain about the delivery of their purchases.
Also, with PressOne’s call analytics feature, she can know what the dropped call rate is. What are the problems her dispatch riders face during delivery? She will analyze the impact of traffic, road conditions and weather on the delivery time. After this, she sees if there is a link between delivery times and customer satisfaction ratings.
4. Put the Data into Action
Since you’ve successfully identified the problems, it becomes easy to know which of your efforts need to be worked on and which you need to hit the pedal on. Identifying the problem is not enough, and holding on to the first solution that comes to your mind, is not advisable either.
For example, for Mrs Oyewole, since she has identified that traffic and bad roads cause longer delivery, she will set out to look for routes that are shorter and convenient. To make sure customers understand that their purchases are a priority, she should add a feature that allows customers to track their delivery on her logistics app.
She would also have a team meeting with her staff to compare how her competitors deliver easily and what exactly they have been doing.
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5. Evaluate and Monitor Results
This is the last process of making data driven decisions. You need to crosscheck and monitor if the solutions you came up with are not only working, but working efficiently.
Are they bringing the returns you want? At the rate the solution works, would it help you achieve the target you’ve set? These are all questions you should ask when monitoring your decision.
Conclusion on Data Driven Decision Making
After successfully embarking on these steps, you will have made a data-driven decision to ensure the success of your business.
You need features to help you track your progress, especially with sales and customer support calls. PressOne provides this. Try it out now
