Mine your data to boost sales, know customers
I worked as a waitress at a small restaurant when I was a teenager. We had a great location, a good product and reasonable service. It was always busy, particularly over the holiday weekends when we would have a long line waiting out the door for pancakes.
We used paper and pens, rang up checks by hand and did math in our heads. The owners never considered finding out more about their customers. We knew our regulars, could spot a tourist a mile off and usually knew how to staff on a Friday night.
But we have an opportunity now that we didn’t 20 years ago: the opportunity to use data to improve our businesses.
Many of us collect data as a matter of doing business, unlike that restaurant of my youth. Today, a restaurant could take staffing data and compare it to number of orders entered per hour to determine an appropriate staffing ratio. They could store that data and have the ability to predict staffing ratios based on certain criteria (day of the week, weather conditions, advertised specials, etc.).
They could refine their inventory ordering, so their specials could be based on what the cooks want to prepare and not what they are forced to prepare out of leftovers. That data may even help them determine what meals sold well and which ones didn’t.
All of this can be done without a person printing out a spreadsheet and manually counting. All of this could be done with a business intelligence software application.
If the data you are entering into your systems in the ordinary course of business isn’t an integral part of your success plan, then here’s how it can be.
Seeking samples
If you currently use a computer with software that is provided by a vendor, that vendor may be able to support your information needs. Ask to see a sample of the reports and whether or not they are willing to supply you with customized reports. Be prepared to spend more money for customized reports.
For many of you, vendor-supplied reports may be all that you need. If your vendor doesn’t provide that service, or you own the computers and you are not storing the data anywhere (or aren’t sure if you are) then you will probably need to call a vendor who can determine if the data is storable. Some applications that are used for workflow purposes simply purge that data at regular intervals.
Sure, there are still businesses that are run without a computer. For instance, my local florist shop has an old-school cash register. They don’t gather any name or address information, they have no idea when my sister’s birthday is and they don’t remember my anniversary. But what if they did? Would I use them more frequently?
When my local florist competes with larger companies, particularly online floral companies that send reminders, wouldn’t knowing more about their customers be the differentiator? If my local florist sent an e-mail reminding me of my sister’s birthday and the fact that she doesn’t like roses and offered a couple of product options with easy online checkout , wouldn’t that increase profits?
If you are one of those businesses, don’t worry. There is still a way to take advantage of all that data has to offer. Start small and ask customers to sign up for a customer appreciation program. Leave a signup sheet at the register and ask for their name, address and other information pertinent to your business.
Then enter that into a computer spreadsheet program and send them reminders of dates and coupons. That’s a low-tech way to take advantage of data. Take it to the next level by noting in the spreadsheet specific items a customer purchases in order to offer them coupons for related or repeat items. For example, if they bought flower seeds, send them a coupon for fertilizer.
Use your Web site
Another opportunity to gain data and know more about your customers is through your Web site. If you don’t get any data about who visits your site, how long they visit and what they click on while there, then call up your webmaster and find out how. This type of information will let you know if people use your site for more than just seeking out your phone number. You can also ask people to register through your site so you can communicate with them through e-mail with coupons, store sales and the like.
We all use data every day, but certain aspects of that data consumption have become so ingrained in our day-to-day lives we don’t consider it as “data.” We all know how to balance our checkbook, we all keep dates of important events, we calculate the cost of the contents of our grocery carts: These are all examples of using data.
So, don’t think of data as an obstacle. Rather, consider all of the things it can help you know. It can help you target your marketing communications so you are spending money on the customers that spend money with you. It can help you with inventory, staffing, trends in business volume; the possibilities are as endless as data itself.
If you think you are too small to do this, or are concerned about the costs associated with a project like this, consider that the opposite is usually true, that large companies are too large to really get their arms around projects like this, and usually only scratch the surface of the value of their data.
If they did, perhaps some of them would have seen the worst of the financial crisis looming and made some proactive actions to weather the storm. Perhaps the truth is you can’t afford not to take advantage of your data.
Laura Madsen:
952.230.7360
lmadsen@lancetsoftware.com
www.lancetsoftware.com
