Some people think of a data dashboard as nothing more than a pretty visual aid, but when properly used, the dashboard can be a key tool in increasing business revenue. By monitoring meaningful metrics and responding relevantly, you can boost your business and raise your revenue. Isn’t that awesome?
Select the KPIs to Monitor
One of the critical components of a successful dashboard is the selection of the key performance indicators (KPIs) that are most important to measure. A snazzy looking dashboard is no use if you’re monitoring meaningless metrics.
The KPIs that matter most to you will vary depending on your business. You might be looking at renewal opportunities and renewal results, sales process, performance drivers, customer feedback, traffic, conversion, and any number of other indicators.
You want to create key performance indicators that highlight the aims of your organization. Maybe that means mining new potentials, identifying levels of team performance, making cold calls, and other activities that will generate higher revenue.
Don’t obscure your vision by overloading your dashboard. Pick the most meaningful KPIs, and create a dashboard that allows you to “drill down,” or click on graphs to see more detail on any specific statistic.
Customize KPIs for Areas of Improvement
No doubt you have some areas you specifically want your team to work on. Those are prime targets for creating KPIs that enable you to monitor and measure progress.
Measurement is the first step toward improvement, after all. You can’t know what needs to be done in the future unless you know what’s actually being done in the present, and how the current practices translate into business results.
With real-time reporting capabilities, a dashboard will enable you to monitor any aspect of your business performance, comparing specific KPIs to the overall results as measured in revenue.
Set Up Alerts and Notifications for Actionable Circumstances
You can look at your dashboard around the clock, and you can also choose to set up alerts and notifications to keep you abreast of certain statistics. Perhaps you want to be notified if a certain performance metric falls below a designated level, or if you have a sudden jump in conversions or sales.
Do you have any actionable circumstances to which you’ll want to react quickly? Those are excellent candidates for alerts and notifications. You can also set up a daily email with updates and a “snapshot” of where matters stand from one day to the next.
Motivate Your Team
There’s nothing like a little competition to get people motivated! By measuring performance indicators with a dashboard, you can foster a healthy sense of competition within the framework of teamwork and sales. It doesn’t hurt, either, when your team members know their performance is watched and measured; even if they’re not competing, they’re aware that their work is easily evaluated.
By using the information available at your fingertips in a dashboard, you can take actions and make decisions that will directly result in increased revenue, and an increased sense of control and command over your business.