Tag Archives: Business and Economy

May 20, 2015 · 11:49 am

One Thing You Can Do Right Now For Your Customers

Attention business people! We have a problem. OK, many of us have more than one, but the one to which I refer is pretty important so listen up. In short, our customers don’t trust us. Think I’m kidding?

The latest Pew study is out and as the release about it said:

In the almost two years that have passed since the initial Snowden (former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden) revelations, the public has been awash in news stories detailing security breaches at major retailers, health insurance companies and financial institutions. These events and the doubts they have inspired have contributed to a cloud of personal “data insecurity” that now looms over many Americans’ daily decisions and activities. Many find these developments deeply troubling and want limits put in place, while some do not feel these issues affect them personally.

Some may not feel that but the vast majority do. Most folks believe it is important that they be able to maintain privacy and confidentiality in commonplace activities of their lives. Most strikingly, these views are especially pronounced when it comes to knowing what information about them is being collected and who is doing the collecting.  Compare that belief with the data:

  • 76% of adults say they are “not too confident” or “not at all confident” that records of their activity maintained by the online advertisers who place ads on the websites they visit will remain private and secure.
  • 69% of adults say they are not confident that records of their activity maintained by the social media sites they use will remain private and secure.
  • 66% of adults say they are not confident that records of their activity maintained by search engine providers will remain private and secure.
  • 66% say they are not confident that records of their activity collected by the online video sites they use will remain private and secure.

So what can you do right now to help?  Be transparent about what you’re collecting and why.  Don’t bury that information in your Terms of Service.  Explain who has access to the data, how it is shared (or not) with business partners, how long it’s retained, and offer to present the user with a copy of everything you have.  Most importantly, to the extent you can, allow the customers to opt-in and explain why that’s a good thing for them.  Turns out it just might be a good thing for your business too.

Do you do business with people you don’t trust?  Why should your customers?

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May 19, 2015 · 11:06 am

Broken Strings And Business

I would be remiss if I didn’t mention the passing of B.B. King. While I have been to hundreds of concerts in my life, at one point I had seen B.B. King more than anyone (yes, even Springsteen although that’s no longer true). He has been rightfully honored over the last few days by every guitar legend – Eric Clapton being the most prominent – as having been a huge influence on their music. When he wrapped his fingers around Lucille, his guitar, he could say more in three notes than most guitarists can say in an hour.

English: King performing at the Fox Theater in...

(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Of the dozens of times I saw him, one night in particular stands out and as it turns out there is a business point to be made as well. B.B.’s shows always began with the band playing a number or two and then the master would hit the stage. This particular night he played his first song and began his second when a string broke on Lucille.  It would have been incredibly easy for him to have signaled the band to stop because it was very apparent that a string had snapped.  Instead, as he continued to sing the lyrics, his right hand reached into his jacket pocket and out came a few strings.  Singing all the while, he proceeded to change the string, tune it as he played, and finished the song without missing a beat.  The audience stood as one when he finished, not because the song was a show highlight but because of the master class we had just seen.

The business point is one that I think we all know.  Strings break in all of our businesses from time to time.  The customers don’t really care even when they’re aware that something is amiss.  The broken string is your problem, not the customer’s.  How prepared are you?  Can you go about your business of providing an uninterrupted product or service of the expected quality or do you stop the band and make the customers wait?  B.B. King didn’t play a different guitar every other song.  He stuck with Lucille, so waving a roadie out to swap instruments wasn’t an option (and I could go on here about loyalty and consistency but you’re already there).  He probably had those strings in his jacket every show and rarely needed them (this was the only time I ever saw them come out in dozens of shows).  Do you have strings in your pocket or are you looking for a roadie to bail you out?

I’m sad The King Of The Blues is gone but thankful for all the joy he gave me and the inspiration he provided to many of the others whose music I love.  I’m also appreciative of his professionalism and have learned a little from his broken string.  You?

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May 6, 2015 · 10:39 am

Reading The Words, Missing The Meaning

Let’s start today thinking about a language you don’t speak. It’s very possible, assuming that it’s written using the Latin alphabet, that you could pick up a book and begin to read out loud in that strange tongue. Of course, you’d have absolutely no idea what you’re reading. You can say the words on the page but you can’t explain what they mean.

Keep that image in mind as we change the topic to data. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve sat with clients and gone through their analytics reports with them and the aforementioned image has popped into my head. I don’t mean that to be derogatory to the people who pay me, nor does it mean that I’m fluent in analytics and they’re not. It raises a business point that is something we all need to keep in the back of our minds as data becomes more integral with everything we do.

Here is a small example. Most of us see “direct” traffic in our analytics reports. In theory, those visitors typed in the site URL or clicked on a bookmark they set on a previous visit. That’s a partial truth. The reality is whenever a referrer is not passed, the traffic is treated as direct traffic by Google. Think that’s an unimportant bit of information? How about in the context of mobile traffic not passing referrers at all (and I bet mobile is a big and growing part of your site traffic)? The point is that it requires both the knowledge that the “direct” bucket isn’t an absolute as well as some further analysis to figure out the truth.

I’ve seen the same sort of issues crop up in attribution modeling (what source was responsible for the sale).  The groundwork for proper attribution hasn’t been laid and so the reports aren’t accurate.  Sure, any analyst can puke out the data in front of them but the good ones – the ones who can interpret the words and not just say them – will tell you why there is a problem and fix all the links you’re putting out there to accurately reflect what’s going on.

“Keith,” you say, “I’m not a data scientist.”  Neither am I.  What I can do – and you probably can too – is to ask questions, especially when someone tells you they are dead certain about what the data is saying.  Be sure they’re not just reading aloud in a language they don’t understand.  Get beyond reporting and into meaning.  It changes everything.  Agreed?

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