Every business generates data; precious few do anything worthwhile with it.ย
Now Delft is helping business owners leverage their data to take marketing and efficiency to a whole new level.
In 1665 Professor Antony van Leevenwenhoek invented the first โtrueโ microscope, with 300x magnification and โunbelievableโ resolution. For the first time it was possible to see tiny microbes and blood cells, and it opened the door to a new understanding of the world we live in.
The city of Delft in the Netherlands is the professorโs birthplace, which is why the founders of data-led strategy business Delft (delft.co) chose the name when they launched 18 months ago.
The understanding and insights revealed through that re-invented microscope mirrors the ethos of Delft, as they exercise their skills and technology to uncover patterns and insights from data thatโs literally right under the nose of business owners.
โWe can completely customise those insights too,โ explains Delftโs client executive Steven Baker. โEvery business is different, even if theyโre in the same industry. They have different questions to answer.โ
A companyโs footprint of data is everywhere, he explains. Thereโs data in social media, customer management systems (CMS), payment solutions (like DPS), customer interaction on your website (tracked by Google Analytics), in-store behaviour if youโre a retailer, and loyalty card behaviour, to name just a few. But that data sits in silos.
Delftโs job is to aggregate all the data, and the report on how it all ties together. โTo see what patterns exist between them that show you that your business is better or worse off in certain situations,โ says Baker.
Their data analysis can get quite detailed and โgranularโ, particularly when it comes to marketing channel analysis. For example, in a typical marketing analysis, Delft can look at the relationship between a particular marketing channel, and predict the future life-time value of a customer that came from that particular channel.ย
When a business knows which marketing channel delivers the longest lifetime value, then it can direct more marketing dollars where theyโll produce a better outcome over time.
โ[Directing spend into the right marketing channels] can make a huge difference to a business, especially when you count on that insight year on year,โ says Baker.
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Predicting demand
Drawing on its data analysis technology, Delft can also predict the demand for new products, and across a broad swathe of industry sectors. It takes that demand prediction and loads it into its own โbuying toolโ, aka automated algorithim โ providing businesses with an accurate forecast on how many products will need to be purchased to meet customer demand.
Delft is not just about โjoining the dotsโ on data for retail or marketing applications either.ย
Any part of a business where thereโs data to be found can be peeled open in order to gain insight and efficiency. For example, optimising โpick pathsโ in a warehouse; increasing the lifetime value of customers, this time by tracking how your organisation has interacted with them; as well as analysing the productivity of employees, increasing operational efficiency; even the efficiency of a businessโs website.
Delft also examines data to determine the price sensitivity of customers, helping businesses to determine optimum prices for their goods or services, and potentially adding thousands of dollars to the bottom line.
โA businessโs data is literally everywhere, and thatโs half the problem,โ says Baker. โBut, no matter where the data is, Delft will aggregate all of it; tie it all together, so business owners know exactly how things are playing out. And we place it all on a dashboard report, so everything can be easily visualised and tracked.ย
โOur live dashboards can be updated every minute.
โMany businesses might view data as a big boysโ, mysterious and unaffordable, dark box,โ he adds. โItโs not. Our goal is to talk to smaller businesses in particular, and help them to understand their business from a more granular level. Thatโs what we can do for them. Thatโs the whole reason why Delft exists.โ
โWeโre not data scientists; weโre business people too,โ continues Baker. โWeโve simply found a way of using our data [analysis skills and technology] to be both practical and useful for business. And there is no industry sector or business we canโt help.โ
Accessing a businessโs data is non evasive, he adds, and secure โ Delft treats a customerโs data as if it was their own.
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Tracking the trends
Tracking the big behavioural trends, is one of the most valuable outcomes of Delftโs work for clients. For example, what is the churn rate of customers? How is the lifetime value of customers performing โ is it going up or down? And more importantly; why?ย
Itโs invaluable information to help a business with its forward planning and marketing strategy.
However, the Delft team is ready to tackle any challenge relating to your businessโs performance that can be solved through the data that already exists โ data that has always been there right under your nose.
โWeโll organise your data into one place, to help you know more, move quicker and grow faster,โ says Baker.
โIf you have questions about your business, weโll definitely find the answers.โย ย
