How to truly become a data-driven company

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How to truly become a data-driven company
Table of Contents

Introduction

Data-driven companies are the new gold standard. They know how to use data to make better decisions, they’re more efficient than their competitors, and they’re highly competitive in their space. But how do you get there? How do you make sure that everyone in your company understands what data means to them? In this post we’ll look at why becoming data-driven is so important for your business—and how you can get started today.

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Why data-driven initiatives fail.

The most common reason is the lack of buy-in, which means that employees don’t care about the initiative or its goals and objectives. When this happens, it’s difficult for leaders to motivate them toward change because they don’t understand why their work matters or what changes need to be made in order for them (or their team) to succeed. 

Lack of realism

You can’t just achieve the data dream in a few weeks, without the right processes, tools and expertise. You are going to need clarity so that everyone knows exactly where they stand today compared with where they’ll be tomorrow morning.  

Lack of focus

What are our top objectives and how those objectives can be declined across the different levels of your organization? It’s important not only that you set clear objectives but also track your progress as you move forward with implementing them throughout every stage of implementation—from planning through execution. —and measure how well those objectives were accomplished at each step along the way. 

Make sure everyone is on board.

One essential step to becoming a data-driven company is making sure that everyone is on board. You can’t expect your employees to do what you want them to do if they don’t know why it’s important and how it will help them in their jobs. Make sure everyone knows the goals of your initiative so there aren’t any surprises later down the road.

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The role of your CEO.

One of the most important steps in creating a data-driven culture is for your CEO to set the tone for what is important. As a leader, you can help define how your company will act on data and create an environment where everyone feels comfortable sharing information with those who need it. 

You can also help create a data-driven culture by helping set the vision for your organization. A clear vision helps guide decisions about where you want to go with technology, which makes it easier for everyone involved in developing new products or services—from engineers on down—to have clarity about their goals and what they’re working toward as they move forward with implementation (“What does this feature do?”).

The role of your employees.

Your employees are the ones who will have to do most of the heavy lifting. They need to understand how data works and how it can be used, so they can ask for it if they want it or interpret what’s available as best suits their needs. Your data analyst is going to be your single most important employee in this regard—you’ll need someone on staff who knows how to use different types of analytics, understands what a raw number tells you about an individual customer’s habits (or lack thereof), and knows where those numbers come from. 

If there are any questions about how these processes work from a technical perspective—whether it’s through an API or otherwise—make sure that everyone who comes into contact with them has all their bases covered before moving forward with any kind of project where data collection plays an important role in its completion.

Get your data organized and share KPIs with everyone in the company.

Get your data organized. This could mean you need to hire someone, and that you need to take the time and effort to get it all together so that everyone understands what’s going on in their department. If there are gaps or inconsistencies between departments’ KPIs, then there will be confusion and no one will know what they’re doing. Once everyone has access to the same information about where the company stands financially or operationally (or whatever metric matters most), then everyone can make informed decisions about how best to move forward as a team.

Becoming data-driven takes a change in mindset, culture, and practices

Becoming a data-driven company is not just about using data to make decisions. It’s also about changing your mindset, culture and practices to make sure you are more efficient, effective and profitable. 

Data-driven companies have happier employees because they understand that their work can have an impact on the business. They know that if they do well at work, then their employers will benefit as well—and this goes both ways! 

Yes, becoming data-driven is truly hard work, but it will pay off in the long term. 

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Anne Sobecki

Anne is the VP, Customer Experience at Voxco. With a decade of experience in guiding businesses towards creating improved customer experiences, Anne specializes in strategies that help businesses drive growth, maximize loyalty and optimize omnichannel customer experiences.

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