Data is useless without proper analysis to extract information for decision-making. Without this analysis, it provides no insights or value. So to analyse data, here are five steps to take:
1. Clarify your Goals
As with any new project, before you begin it’s important to know your goals and understand what you’re trying to get from your data. This is usually to understand a situation or solve a problem. This clarity will help you to plan your next steps.
2. Decide How to Measure your Goals
Once the goals are established, you can pick the best way to measure them. For example, if you want to get to the bottom of customer service complaints, you might want to track the performance of individual customer service agents and response times. You might use a mix of qualitative and quantitative data to delve into the high-level data.
- Gather the DataBegin by collecting the data that will help answer the question. Quantitative data is structured and usually numerical, and qualitative data is unstructured, such as images, speech, text and videos. A data analysis company such as shepper.com/ can find quality data sources for your business to interrogate. These could include anything from social media feeds to customer orders and call centre performance metrics.4. Analyse the Data
Use tools such as Excel or business intelligence software to crunch the numbers and produce charts, graphs and tables for data analysis. You can also deep dive into complete data analysis, using methods such as text, diagnostic, prescriptive and predictive analysis. The more visual the information, the better!
5. Assess the Results
Modern data analysis software packages tend to automate the creation of data visualisation resources such as graphs, tables, charts and presentations so you can easily see patterns, relationships and trends in the data itself. This helps you to understand the cause of the problem and identify focus areas for remedial solutions.
Follow these steps and you’ll find yourself with a robust approach to data gathering, analysis and interpretation for better decision-making and better business overall.
