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The Importance of Using Data In Decision Making

Published 17 Sep 2020 by Ellice Eadie, CANDDi
Read this in about 4 minutes

Did you know that businesses that effectively use data are growing at a quicker rate, 30% quicker to be exact, than those who aren’t?

From marketing, customer success to IT departments, the teams armed with data insights have proven better at making the right call. Seems obvious, doesn’t it?

I bet you’re wondering how you can get in on the action. It’s actually pretty simple. All you need to do is start collecting actionable data related to your customer/ target customer base.

Okay maybe it’s not quite as easy as that, but if you’re looking to use a data analytics tool like CANDDi, it might as well be.

Data Analytics

Collecting data

To get started, you need to build up a catalogue of data that allows you to identify trends, monitor activity and ultimately make decisions that benefit your business. This might sound challenging, but thanks to technology, there are certain data insight tools out there that can automate this for you.

How? You might ask. Well, when it comes to collecting data, one of the best places you can start is your website. Think of the traffic that passes through daily, you’d be amazed to see what you can suss out. So, with the likes of CANDDi, we add a tiny piece of code to your website that acts as a tracker for visitors coming in, out and everything in between.

Want to know who it was that visited your site? Sorted. What about the pages they viewed? Yep. Even the length of time spent browsing per page? Of course. CANDDi can do this all in real-time, ensuring that your data is keeping up with the pace of your business. All that’s left for you to do is tie this data to your organisational goals so you know what decisions need to be made to reach them.

Using data

In order to grow, it’s no secret that sales teams keep tabs on everything related to their brand, products, and services. But it doesn’t stop there. As well as the obvious benefits to your sales funnel, there’s no point using data to boost sales if you can’t manage the process from first contact to onboarding and throughout the lifecycle. Data can help your teams internally too. How else would HR teams understand employee needs to improve engagement and retention?

You’re probably already implementing data driven decision making, as most businesses arm their staff with sales figures, customer profiles and churn rates every morning. While this type of data can keep you in the loop, it doesn’t always tell you why it’s happening, and more importantly, what to do about it.

Analytical tools

With analytical tools, you can build a number of profiles and dashboards that add context and reasoning to the data it finds. If you’re already using a website tracking tool, you’ll be able to see the names of the other organisations viewing your site, as well as firmographic data based on their IP address.

However, if you had CANDDi installed, you’d have all this information down to the individual level, including visitor name and job title. Automatically, any guesswork has been eliminated. Similarly, CANDDi uses cookies as part of it’s tracking algorithm (unlike most other tools) so you can view their entire journey through your website, every time they visit. Your CANDDi dashboard will just update itself.

CANDDi tracking doesn’t stop at your website either, you can also monitor all of your marketing activity. Gone are the days of guessing which campaign worked best, or which landing page was the most effective. But what’s the point in me telling you all this? Well, it’s this type of contextual data that leads to in-depth insights, and drives better decisions throughout a company.

Managing risk

We know everything isn’t always sweetness and light. Using data can also be helpful when things aren’t going according to plan. If you’re using data analytics in your day-to-day, you always remain ahead of the curve. If something was to go wrong, you’ll be able to identify the problem quickly and efficiently, leveraging any risk.

Rather than shooting blind, data provides the opportunity to see what’s unfolding as it happens. When you’re monitoring consumer behaviour, there’s always a chance to mitigate risk with data. You can get the heads up on any underperforming marketing campaigns, or perhaps you’ve noticed particular customers hovering over the cancellation policy or support pages on your site. Crucial decisions you can help influence all through the use of data.

Making decisions

At the end of the day, this is what it’s all about. How can data actually help when push comes to shove? More recently, the world of business has become more unpredictable than ever. This has left business owners and executives looking through two lenses at the same time.

The first has always been around. The need to revamp business models and enter new markets. The second is a little newer. As uncertainty continues to grow, there’s more focus on introducing data analytics into business decision-making processes. Whether it’s to streamline consumer trends, improve business processes, build mechanisms or monitor emerging risks, analytical transformations will allow organisations to gain a competitive edge and stay at the forefront of digital disruption.

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