Catch up: Why data analytics is everyone’s business
Catch up: Why data analytics is everyone’s business
On Thursday 30th September, we hosted the second instalment of our #TigerTalks webinar series – exploring why data analytics is everyone’s business.
Joining the panel, we had Mark Lambert, telecoms engineer at leading motor retailer, Lookers, and Tiger’s sales director, Caroline Lewis – hosted by our marketing manager, Louise Bennett.
If you missed the session, below are some key takeaway points. You can also access the recording, here.
Polling the audience
To help paint a picture of how data is treated within an organisation, we opened the discussion with a poll asking delegates who handles data within their company. Interestingly, almost half (45%) of respondents said it was the IT department – with other proportions of the audience citing finance (19%) and senior management (12%).
This sparked debate around why data – correct, relevant intelligence – needs to be accessible to everyone within a business. Mark explained that if decision-makers don’t have this level of insight, they’re making decisions based on gut feeling of best guesses, without truly knowing what’s happening across the firm.
Caroline introduced another prong to the argument too – credibility. She mentioned how data analytics can not only help staff to drive decisions forward in their own minds, but how it can help give their proposals substance in the boardroom.
Using data analytics to support new working models
Talk started with the pandemic and how many companies had to demonstrate agility and adaptability in order to not only thrive but survive.
Caroline discussed the working from home and hybrid models that are now seemingly commonplace across organisations, and also the new behaviours and customer interaction methods that have arisen as a result.
An important point Caroline raised was around disparate workforces and ‘faceless’ offices presenting challenges for leaders, as it’s harder for them to gauge the temperature of the business. She caveated this with the notion that when data is unified and in the hands of all those who need it to make decisions, this can really help a company to enhance and improve.
Here, Mark gave an example of Lookers’ experience with data. The business naturally wanted to get people working from home as quickly and seamlessly as possible, but when in place, this meant managers didn’t know which staff were being productive and collaborative, or who needed additional support. He shared how Tiger Prism provided Lookers with the insight about how teams were performing and if any individuals needed extra help.
Harnessing data as a motivational tool
While chatting about data being a gateway to team insight, Caroline emphasised the importance of visibility – ensuring all staff have a view of the intelligence so as not to breed a ‘Big Brother’ culture.
She explained that ‘data democracy’ is vital, but that this level of transparency shouldn’t stop there. Leaders should be communicating company objectives with their teams, so that everyone can view and own certain aspects of the data, to press forward and achieve the aims collectively – fostering a shared sense of purpose.
Mark reiterated this point and stressed that data isn’t there to ‘beat anyone up’, rather to motivate them.
He gave the example that someone may not be answering as many calls as their colleagues, but this doesn’t necessarily reflect that they don’t want to do the work, but it could be that they’re struggling with childcare or have other personal matters going on. He said that when leaders clearly communicate why they’re using the data and what for, it helps to create a better, more personalised and supportive bond between employers and employees.
Caroline rounded off this part of the discussion by recapping on the visibility element for wellbeing too. For instance, if HR teams have access to relevant intelligence on staff performance, it can be used in a supportive way to help employees when they need it the most.
Shining the data spotlight on Lookers
Mark contextualised the above point in relation to his firm, too. Lookers monitors call flow – via one telecoms platform – for reception, sales, and service teams across its 160 sites, and the data dashboards in Tiger Prism have allowed the team to identify bottlenecks and streamline operations, to improve the customer experience.
Moving from 30% of calls being answered before investing in Tiger’s workplace data analytics software, to now over 90% in many parts of the business, has not only improved customer communications, but empower staff to own their responsibilities.
Mark explained how Lookers’ management team now uses the weekly dashboard data to present to the board of directors – drilling down into the separate franchises, dealerships, and individual teams, where appropriate.
Within Lookers’ telecoms department too, they used to have calls coming in via SIP and they had no way of reporting how many SIP trunks were being utilised and who were the most frequent users – ultimately meaning they didn’t know where they were spending the most money.
Using Tiger, Mark explained how they can now split their BT bill down into franchises – uncovering that calls to mobile phones were their biggest expenditure, at £600,000 per annum. Armed with the data, the team were then able to negotiate a better SIP trunk usage and mobile rate deal.
Mark concluded his point by reiterating that while using data effectively can not only improve the employee and customer experience, but it can also help businesses get the most out of their partnerships with suppliers.
Looking ahead to future data trends
During the final section of the webinar, the second poll took place – asking delegates what the biggest data challenges for leaders are.
Interestingly, 32% chose a lack of understanding, while a further 22% across the board opted for managing the volume, budgets, and using it to drive business decision making.
As a result, Caroline emphasised the importance of having knowledge-based experts to interpret the data, and how when the intelligence is in more than one person’s hands within the enterprise, it can help any vast volumes to feel more manageable.
Rounding off the discussion, both Caroline and Mark shared their data predictions with the group Caroline explore how, with data usage increasing across many organisations, there’ll be an increased call for data analysts and consultants to help leaders best use the data – found across many different platforms – to drive positive change.
Mark agreed and explained how it’s only once people understand and trust the data that they’re able to get a better feel for where the business is going and where they can take it.
The overriding theme was that data is everywhere and it’s everyone’s business – it doesn’t solely belong to one department – and that we’ll certainly be seeing greater usage and dependency upon it as we look ahead to 2022 and beyond.
If you missed the session and want to watch the recording, you can stream it here. And if you have any questions, please get in touch with the team on hello@tiger.io.
Interested in delving into more data-driven topics? Here’s what we’re focused on for our autumn webinar series.