{"id":3172,"date":"2016-04-14T13:53:38","date_gmt":"2016-04-14T18:53:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/etereman.com\/remanu\/?p=3172"},"modified":"2016-04-14T13:53:38","modified_gmt":"2016-04-14T18:53:38","slug":"real-data-real-dollars","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/etereman.com\/remanu\/2016\/04\/14\/real-data-real-dollars\/","title":{"rendered":"Real Data, Real Dollars"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"RU_Data\"
\nData analytics. Sounds scary (or boring), right? Spotting trends isn\u2019t as tricky as you might think and you\u2019re probably already using insights from the numbers you look at every day.
\nThe digital age is here. Everything can be tracked \u2013 and if you don\u2019t track it, you should. Your customers are telling you what they want to buy, when they want to buy it, and how much they\u2019ll spend. There is a plethora of powerful marketing and operation intelligence available – if you\u2019re willing to look closer at the information you already have<\/strong>.
\nMaybe you\u2019re not a self-proclaimed data scientist. Consider this: I bet you know the most popular parts in your shop, most frequently requested service, and what the most likely<\/span> culprit is for a click, pop, or clunk. You probably know what days you\u2019re going to need the most techs on hand or how much oil you go through in a month. All of this is good \u2013 and it\u2019s data analytics.
\n\u201cSo what?\u201d,<\/em> you ask. You know how to stock your shop and keep it staffed. Why waste time on looking for trends? People forget. Sometimes I can barely remember what I ate for lunch yesterday or if this shirt is clean.
\nGetting started can seem tricky, so begin with what you know. For most people, that\u2019s sales data. It\u2019s easily available via transactional records and is usually very uniform. It will likely have a date, product or service, customer information, and maybe something about the vehicle. Best of all? You probably have a lot of it.
\nSales information is a powerful dataset. You can use it to identify the busiest times and quantify those results with a part or service. If you can expect when to sell the most of a product or service, you can be smart about what you stock and how you schedule. Hypothetical efficiencies here can lead to real dollars for your business.
\nThis is just a tip of the iceberg example. The same data can be used to identify your target customer or vehicle owner. If you know who your best customers are, you are better suited to attract more people that are looking for your business.
\nAlthough many tools are available for digging deeper into your data, here are a couple that will get you on track to looking at your business in a whole new light:<\/p>\n