How can businesses get the most out of data collection?

It's hardly rocket science; to please your customers and encourage purchases, you've got to give the people what they want. Of course, businesses are not made of mind readers, but customer data does come in handy as a close second. With it, you can gain insights into customer activity and behaviour to better tailor your services.  

Data is also imperative to improving business operations. In particular, it allows you to see what's working and what's not, as well as map your company performance. Furthermore, it also helps organisations identify opportunities for cost reduction, and enables them to solve enterprise challenges at speed. In short: any business worth its salt is zeroing in on its data.

However, there are a number of considerations to take into account before embarking on a data-driven journey. Firstly, you have to think about your data collection methods; the sheer volume you may have to combat could be hugely time-consuming and overwhelming to say the least. Furthermore, you must consider the quality of your data. Poor quality data renders it useless and takes away from the competitive advantage you could otherwise have.

Ultimately, you need to spend as little time as possible collecting data and ensuring its quality, and more time analysing to see any real return. However, it's a lot of plates for your data teams to spin. This can only mean one thing: you need to call in reinforcement.

It's time to get the Snowplow out

Data collection platforms have proven to be game changers in business. The results speak for themselves; many companies that use data collection platforms have enjoyed cost savings, increased revenue, improved operational efficiency, and much more. So where do you sign up?

One of our favourite offerings is Snowplow for its multitude of capabilities. For a bit of background on the company, Snowplow is based in London, but embraces a remote culture, operating as a truly global and distributed company in turn. Snowplow has been delivering its best-in-class data platform since its beginnings in 2012. 

In the same way that you design your products and customer experience with your consumers in mind, Snowplow is very much designed with your business in mind. We asked Yali Sassoon, co-founder and CPO at Snowplow, why it’s so important to get data collection right:

“The awkward truth is that although most companies now own some of their data, it is often not good data because it is not being collected properly. And many choose to invest in the rest of their data/analytics stack, without putting in place proper processes and systems to collect and store the good data in the first place. They might as well be building houses without foundations.”

Snowplow delivers a cloud-native data pipeline which empowers organisations to better leverage their data. In particular, it provides them with the tools to ask and answer what they would like of their data, giving them more confidence in decision-making. 

The solution is architected from the ground-up for data quality, alleviating the challenges of bad or missing data. It also comes with event validation, as well as bad data repair and replay functionalities, allowing you to keep a firm grip on good data quality. In turn, your data is ready for you to jump in straight away.

The Snowplow offering also brings you closer to your data than ever by enabling data teams to manage the collection and warehousing of data in real time. As a result, you can act on your data stream immediately and make quicker accurate business decisions. The reward here is that you can be more in tune with your organisation than ever and see results in no time.

How can businesses effectively action the growth of data? Find out in this podcast.