The digital environment in which most companies operate today requires great agility. A fast and determined capacity for response. We live in a world where we cannot afford to think twice. And to achieve that, you need to be able to trust.
Without trust in your tools, your employees and even your data, the option of being agile enough for the modern world simply does not exist. And believe it or not, a lack of confidence in data is a far more common symptom than you might imagine.
In fact, 1 in 3 business leaders in countries like the United States do not trust their data. They do not rely on it. And if they do not, who else will? Correct: absolutely nobody.
In this article we will explore the reasons that lead companies to lose confidence in their data and, ultimately, to lack that necessary agility to make accurate, high-impact decisions for their business.
Trust. What an abstract concept, right? Perhaps we should start by defining what we mean when we talk about "trusting your data". Generally, data confidence refers to having analytics that meets the following criteria:
Representative – That is: that it truly represents the reality of the business. Something very common in many companies is using data sources that do not always take the right metrics or scenarios into account, ending up distorting the business reality.
Up to date – Data always needs to be current. Data collection must always be continuous, constantly updating and correctly reflecting itself in the metrics the company handles. Only this way can data be useful.
Accessible – As much as one might think otherwise, it is very common for key data to be out of reach for a company's employees. Whether because it is dark data or because the interpretation is not correct, sometimes useful information gets lost in a sea of numbers.
Therefore, when we refer to reliable data, we mean data that meets these characteristics. In your case, does your company's analytics meet all of these requirements? Do not worry — you are not alone.
A great many companies navigate the world blindly, without reliable analytics, relying on their own intuitions. And this seems to work but, in reality, it is not sustainable.
But why does this happen? At what point does a company lose confidence in its data? What has to break? Nothing and everything at once. The loss of confidence in your data can be a gradual process that nobody notices until it is too late.
Lack of standardisation – As companies grow, objectives diversify and each part of the business may develop different priorities. This ultimately transforms into a lack of standardisation between key metrics and the way they are collected. Result: nobody trusts the data because everyone is looking for something different.
Disconnected systems – We increasingly depend on more tools for a business to function. All of them offer us valuable data and information, but each one obtains and calculates it differently. This frequently results in a lack of consistency between data or even duplicates.
Inconsistent data – And what happens when one day the data says A and another day it says B? In many cases it is common to see data that does not match when checked at a later date, or where the relationship between data points is not constant. In this case, you cannot rely on it either.
Unhelpful dashboards – Finally, it is also common to find companies with a huge amount of data but with little ability to translate it into useful information for their employees. Indecipherable dashboards, complex metrics, little flexibility… In these situations, having the data is like having nothing at all.
If a lack of confidence in your data had no direct consequences on the business, everything would be much simpler. The problem is that this distrust ends up being very expensive. In fact, according to a recent IBM study, the lack of data confidence costs 1.3 trillion dollars per year in the United States alone.
And although your business is not the world's largest economy, not having trustworthy data can also cost you money. In fact, the costs of poor data quality (and of low reliability) range from wasted time to an unclear business strategy.
If you do not want to miss valuable opportunities for your company, it is time to regain confidence in your data. The sooner you restore order to your analytics and can vouch for it, the sooner you will see results.
Earning someone's trust takes time. Especially if it has been lost at some point along the way. So for your data to become a source of information you can rely on again, you are going to have to dedicate time and effort. But it will be worth it, trust us.
The first step will consist of unifying and integrating your data in a single trusted location. This way you will solve the problem of lack of standardisation: all metrics will be the same and calculated uniformly, without each department having its own perspective.
It is inevitable. Even if you have a single source of truth, it will be fed by different sources. CRM, digital campaigns, physical store sales… Your job will be to unify them all and make sure your analytics can identify duplicate or irrelevant data.
Forget those decorative dashboards that serve no purpose. You need to create one that is truly relevant to the teams involved and offers the right information, kept up to date. Ideally, dashboards should be flexible and allow you to "play" with them as new needs arise or the business evolves.
Let us be honest: your colleagues or work teams will probably be reluctant to trust data again. That is why you will need to re-educate them by showing them that it is useful, up-to-date and relevant data. Once they see its usefulness in their day-to-day work, they will be won over.
Does having up-to-date, relevant and useful data to make decisions in your daily work sound like something interesting for your business? You are in the right place. At Boost we are experts in restoring data confidence and designing analytics that are truly worth the investment.
The first step towards turning data into high-impact actions for your business is to write to us. We will carry out an initial audit of your website or digital product and tell you where the problem lies.
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