Data collection and analysis has been an important aspect of business for many years. However, as technology has advanced, computers have become more powerful, and we have moved online, analytics is more important than ever before.
Any piece of data, even if it’s just a single transaction, will provide some sort of insight. However, the more data that is collected, grouped and analysed, the more likely you are to see potential patterns. We are now at a place in which we can analyse massive amounts of data, which often reveal hidden trends that otherwise would have been missed. This concept is called big data, and it’s something that is being embraced across society, within science, government and within business.
Obviously, not every business is going to have huge sets of data to analyse but any analytics will help you to understand your customers more and allow you to improve efficiency, save money and boost sales.
Goals
Businesses looking to analytics should first ascertain what their focus is going to be. There is so much data out there, and your approach to that data will dictate the results that you get. Therefore, it’s important to create a list of goals and use these as a starting point. For example, what aspect of the business do you want to investigate- sales, customer feedback, product reviews, delivery times etc. You also need to have a rough idea of what you want to get out of the data- do you want to boost sales, increase the traffic to your socials, improve customer satisfaction, etc.
Goals are extremely important in data analysis as they will provide a road map for you to follow.
Collection
Once a business has decided what it wants from its data, the next step is collection. Fortunately, you probably already have much of the data that you need, you just need to categorise it. We tend to break up data in to two categories- quantitative (numbers) and qualitative (ideas). For example, most of your data will be quantitative and will include details such as sales, times and clicks. Whereas qualitative data includes details such as customer feedback, questionnaire results and social media. You can usually find all of this information within your company accounts, excel documents, website analytics etc. However, you may need to employ web scraping tools to help you to collect all the data that is available.
Remember, focus on the data that is related to your goals, for example if you’re working on customer satisfaction, look at data that relates to that topic.
Analysis
So, you’ve set your goals and collected your data, now it’s time for analysis. Fortunately, there are a plethora of expert data analysis providers out there, one of whom being Xpert Analytics. Xpert Technologies provide a complete solution, which includes deep data analytics. Results are displayed on a virtual dashboard with reports and visualisations available. Xpert Technologies pride themselves in getting the most out of your data, identifying hidden trends and insights, allowing you to transform your company. You can also share this information online with colleagues safely, without having to worry about data loss or theft.
Action
When it comes to data analysis, the final step is using the information that you have acquired to improve an aspect of your business. Obviously, this is going to be specific to the business and the data that has been analysed but it can include anything from marketing approaches, changes in product ranges and even pricing.
Business involves a lot of guesswork, and progress can be slow and arduous. However, data analysis provides a wealth of information, allowing companies to make informed decisions faster and with greater confidence.
Give Xpert Analytics a call today, to find out how we can help.
