by Ravinder Singh

Through understanding and interpreting their data, business leaders can make better informed decisions that impact on their organisation’s future and lead to improved performance.  But only if they ask good questions…

Data Analytics is an invaluable tool for your business.  It allows you to identify and then focus your investments in the areas that best benefit your business.  Analytics can also be used to identify performance inefficiencies within your organisation and can help inform decisions about staffing and resource allocation. 

It can help you better understand customer behaviour.   It can identify patterns and trends that highlight areas of improvement or growth. All leading to giving you a greater understanding of customer preferences that helps anticipate customer needs.  But there are always more questions that you could ask than you can work on, so knowing which questions to ask will greatly help you improve the effectiveness of your analytics efforts.

What do we mean by Good Data?

Data which is accurate, well-organised and relevant to the purpose for which it is collected. It is also up-to-date and free of errors. Good data can then provide insights that can be used to inform decision-making and strategy.

Accurate

Should be true and should be directly linked to a reliable source. For example, for agent voice data, accurate data could come from the Contact Centre’s Telephony System Provider.

Clean

Should be in a clean, usable format. If it is not provided in this format, your data team should clean the data using tools such as python, tableau prep or GBQ. Preferably, this process would be incorporated into the data flow from source to data warehouse.

Relevant

Should be relevant to the viewer and be presented at the level of detail appropriate for them

Automated

The data should flow from the source at scheduled intervals . This should be set up to automatically prepare this data and push it into your data warehouse, so that it’s always as up-to-date as possible. 

What do we mean by Good Insights?

Good insights refers to the ability to know which questions to ask, and then to draw meaningful conclusions from analyses that inform successful decision-making and problem solving.

Examining and analysing data sets to identify patterns, trends, correlations and relationships, as well as uncovering new information, can all then be used to inform business strategies and operations. 

To achieve Good Insights, you must be able to ask good questions, identify and extract relevant data, seek out meaningful data connections and develop visualisations that accurately depict the data in an understandable form.

Good Insights provide:

• A deeper understanding of the topic. 
• Identification of actions that can be used to drive positive decision making in the business if used correctly. 
• Improved ability of decision makers to make well informed decisions.
• Help with optimising operations, improving customer experiences, and identifying new opportunities for growth.

How we see Good Data and Good Insights linking together?

Good data is the foundation to good data insights, as without reliable and accurate data, it is impossible to obtain meaningful insights. From this, you are able to provide insights that are actionable and knowledge that can be used to drive strategic decisions and improve bottom-line results. By using good data to get good data insights, organisations can gain a better understanding of their operations, customers, and the markets in which they operate, thereby enabling companies to make informed decisions and stay ahead of the competition.

Our Top Tips for Visualising Business Data to Communicate Essential Insights

It is important to know that when deriving insights from data; 

You do not always need fancy visualisation tools

There are times when basic visualisations, such as bar charts and scatter plots, are sufficient to explore and illustrate the data. The Avocado55 Analyze team always considers the cost of more advanced visualisation tools, as the cost may outweigh the benefit of the added sophistication.

However there are times when deriving insights from data, there is a potential need for sophisticated visualisation tools, depending on the situation. For example, an organisation may require such a tool to represent complex data in an easily-interpretable manner to a broad audience. In such cases, different advanced visualisation tools may be necessary to meet the requirement.  Avocado55 Analyze has the experience to help you in using or selecting such tools for your analytics needs.

You should only produce visualisations that are relevant/useful

In order for a data visualisation to be effective, it must not only be relevant and useful, it has to accurately represent the data within it and be easy to interpret. Avocado55 makes sure that all elements of visualisations are clearly labelled and easily recognisable, helping viewers interpret results quickly and efficiently. By tailoring the design to the target audience ensuring that the use of colour, size and layout are maximised to guide interpretation.

By ensuring the visualisation is the correct layout for the company’s needs, the process of data collection can then be automated to ensure  that any changes in the data are accurately represented.

You should always take a balanced approach to data visualisations and not over-focus on one area

To ensure a successful data insight strategy, a balanced approach is required. The  Avocado55 Analyze team takes into consideration all available data points, evaluating each for its potential to provide meaningful insights. We also define the data visualisation techniques required in order to facilitate the communication and presentation of results, so all stakeholders understand the implications of the data insight. We don’t just stop at version one, we continue to review and refine the approach in order to ensure that it remains current and useful.

The Avocado55 Approach to business data & insights

Avocado55 understands Contact Centres and we know that before attempting to build insights from a business’ data, it is essential to first understand the service provider in order to ensure that the data is collected and/or interpreted in the most effective way.  

We do this to identify the context of the data, as well as any specialised data points that may be more relevant to the business than a general interpretation of the data. Knowing the key business goals helps us to tailor the analysis of the data and ensure that the insights generated are directly in line with the service provider’s objectives. This process acts as the foundation for defining the best questions to try to answer.

In order to create meaningful insights, it is necessary to gather all the relevant data. Data gathering is a complex process and requires an organised and systematic approach. To ensure accurate and reliable results, we are committed to compiling data from various sources. 

We will thoroughly assess the compiled information and take into consideration the specific needs and objectives of the stakeholders, as well as clarifying any potential ambiguity. This will eliminate any potential misunderstandings and discrepancies in the data.

As part of the Avocado55 process, all data generated will be cleansed/scrubbed (the process of identifying, correcting, and removing any inaccuracies or inconsistencies from data in order to ensure that it is accurate, consistent, and relevant for its intended use). This process can involve the identification and removal of duplicate, incomplete, or incorrect data, as well as the correction of faulty data, and the standardisation of different formats.

As part of developing a good data strategy, Avocado55 will determine whether data warehousing would be helpful. When data is taken from multiple sources, it is often required to be combined to create a single dataset, which can be analysed to produce in-depth, comprehensive reports.

Creating a data warehouse such as this will provide a business with a single, up-to-date source of truth and is designed to support quick analysis and decision-making. By combining multiple data sources into a single data source, data warehouses make it easier to quickly identify and triage issues, spot trends, and make better decisions.

Data security and governance are two critical aspects of managing data in an organisation.  This involves protecting the confidentiality, integrity and availability from unauthorised access, disclosure, modification or destruction. So, as part of our remit, to prevent unauthorised access Avocado55 will always implement measures such as encryption, access controls and firewalls. 

At Avocado55, we understand the importance of providing concise and to the point reporting and dashboards. 

Our team of highly-skilled professionals will always strive to ensure our data is communicated in a professional and timely manner. We also understand the need for accuracy and transparency when it comes to reporting, so we guarantee our reports will contain evidence-based data to ensure the most reliable information. We take pride in providing insightful visuals and dashboard summaries that can be understood quickly and without complex language. Our goal is to present data in a way that helps our audiences make informed decisions and move forward with confidence.

At Avocado55, it is our people that make the difference. Our team of handpicked experts have a breadth of knowledge across multiple industries, from automation, fintech, banking and consumer services to truly understanding the needs of contact centre reporting, including both on and off-shore business partners. 

Avocado55 empowers decision makers through data! We demystify data, painting a clear and easy to understand picture, providing the insights you need to make the best decisions.

We do this by improving data infrastructure and creating clear and insightful visualisations for clients. 

Good Decisions = Your Data + Our Team!

To find out more or discuss in more detail please contact Ravinder Singh