Are you collecting the right data?
The life of every business is the data provided, collected, and gathered from the users. These data can be gathered through surveys or by the user’s web actions.
Getting data through surveys can be through a paper given by a fast-food chain asking you to review their menu, or can be through emails asking you to provide feedback on how to improve their site performance, user experience, and user tools. Gathering data by user’s web actions can be on social media. What you search, what you like and share, and can be by which page you browse on a certain site. By gathering the right data from your customers and users, it will help your business to progress. So, how do we know that we are collecting the right data?
For a start-up restaurant business, people will try and taste the cuisines on the menu. Some customers will like it or dislike how you present the food and how it tastes. In order for you to know how the customer feels about your restaurant, you need to get their feedback. So how can we get feedback from the customers?
The first option can be by asking the customer directly for feedback. But, this option may not be that effective especially when you are gathering bulk information.
The second option is by providing the customer with a piece of paper with questions. With this option, there is a greater chance that the customer can answer what is on the piece of paper and leave feedback.
What questions to ask and how to get the right data?
A. Ask questions relevant to your study – for restaurant business as an example. Do not ask questions that are irrelevant. Like, asking about the customer’s personal status, about his/her family, work and etc. Instead ask how they will rate the food, how the food was presented, and suggestions they can provide for improvements.
B. Gather data from the right subject – if you’ll choose from the wrong subjects, there a chance that results will be unreliable. The restaurant as an example. Do not ask people who did not experience the taste of the food on the menu because it will likely that they just randomly rate and will not honestly answer the survey.
C. Calculate and properly analyze the data gathered – by achieving A and B, you can calculate and analyze the data and come up with a useful decision on what to do moving forward with your business.