I am working with a client whose business is going through a transition. While they have years of data, which will assist in determining what is happening in the business, this is not quite enough to answer the questions.
I have started pulling the data together so we can start looking at the businesses metrics. Once we have all of the metrics in place, we can sit down and work on the analysis of what is occurring in the business.
An example of this is: the monthly sales year over year are down. We have that data, allowing us to know this and the metrics allow us to know the percentage decrease. But now we have to drill down in the details to see which customers decreased orders, which customers had no sales and which may have increased sales.
For those who decreased sales they can contact them to see what occurred are they satisfied and are there more opportunities to increase business. For those who did not order, they can contacted as a follow-up on past customer service and see if the product held up if they were satisfied and will they be ordering in the future. In other words why did they stop being a customer?
For those who increased orders, they should also be contacted to ensure they are satisfied and again any opportunities to increase business.
Customer satisfaction is necessary for all businesses whether they recognize it or not. Data, metric and analytics can help with some answers and questions alike.