Metrics of Success: Get Off Analytics and Into Client Satisfaction

As a business owner, there’s no feeling quite like logging into Google Analytics (GA) and noticing a spike in your website traffic. While it’s important to celebrate your wins, remember that analytics don’t paint a full picture of your brand. Let’s rethink how we use analytics and explore metrics of success that provide a meaningful and telling snapshot of your company’s progress.

Here’s why client satisfaction and team culture are two metrics of success that can give you a robust understanding of your company’s progress.

Why Can’t I Just Use Google Analytics?

Google Analytics is a great tool for any business with a website. But, most business owners are “drowning in data but thirsting for insights”—obsessing over numbers and figures, without quite connecting the numbers to real business goals. A spike in page views might be exciting, but it doesn’t necessarily mean new clients or conversions (e.g., purchases, sign-ups, email captures, etc.).

Business owners, here’s a Call To Action (CTA) for you: think about what success means to you—and how you can measure it.

Every business is different and your goals should be specific to the industry you’re in. To measure success, don’t separate goals and analytics—make sure they are inextricably connected.

How To Reconnect With Your Real Business Goals

Once your business is established and you’re knee-deep in all the moving parts, you might find the “why” behind your brand has become murky. Instead of focusing on how to attract your dream clients, many entrepreneurs get caught up in a numbers game of month-over-month (MoM) data ranging from churn to retention, clicks to conversions. (And, without a connection to goals, you’ll even put yourself to sleep with all the numbers. Snooze!)

Connect Analytics To the Goals of Your Website

Analytics need to connect to your business goals. For example, if a content creator is selling ad space on Instagram to drive traffic to an advertiser’s website, then we’ll want to see how many times the ad has been clicked—rather than how many unique visitors the post had.

“Sometimes business owners pay more attention to standard analytics than they do to the real analytics of their business—sales, client satisfaction, client experience. They think it’s all about data, but it’s all about the right data. Does it matter if you get a million visitors a month if no one buys from you? Of course not. You want to see that people are getting to your site and buying.” – Brandi Bernoskie, Founder of Alchemy + Aim

So if you’ve found you’re trying your best at keeping up with the Joneses, here’s how to sharpen your vision again. Ask yourself: “What core goal of my business do I want to focus on right now?” Possible answers include increasing new clients, building passive income streams, or improving conversion funnels on your website.

Get clear on the “why” and get granular on the goal. Once you have clear business goals in mind, you’re well on your way to refining the metrics of success that matter.

Rethink Your Company’s Metrics of Success

Every business owner wants to feel reassured that they’re doing well but data alone can’t do that. For data to have meaning and guide business decisions, it needs to be analyzed accordingly to your goals. Metrics of success–also known as Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)–are measurable indicators of the progression of a company’s goals.

“When we talk about metrics of success, we’re really looking at what matters most to your business and how we can create measurable goals around those items.” – Brandi Bernoskie, Founder of Alchemy + Aim

The people who purchase from your company and the people within your company can offer powerful insights into what’s working (and what isn’t). So, get off GA and start measuring client satisfaction and team culture.

Metrics of Success You Should Measure

#1 CLIENT SATISFACTION

Your customers are the lifeblood of your business. This is why it’s so important to pinpoint what their customer journey is and what they want or need from interacting with your brand. There are two key ways to get information on the client experience:

Ask Your Clients For Feedback

• Think about what you want to know about your clients.
• Seek information from clients in a way feels natural to you and your business (ie. email, forms, surveys, or direct conversations).
• Value the input of your clients. Try not to be defensive if their feedback isn’t positive.
• Don’t be afraid to ask clients questions on a call. It’s okay to learn about their experience in a conversational manner.
• Be proactive. Don’t wait for a client to provide feedback.

Find Meaningful Analytics

• Analytics are helpful if they are connected to business goals or if you have a specific question in mind. For example:
  • How do people interact with your navigation? (Hello, heat maps!)
  • How engaging is this webpage? (Check out how far down the page people scroll)
• If you use surveys or forms, and want to aggregate data, ask questions that can be answered on a rating scale (“on a scale of one to five…)
• Map a particular path through your website in real time and then check out how people behave on that path in GA

#2 TEAM CULTURE

Your team knows your business better than most. If you foster a creative, collaborative culture, this can work wonders for productivity and make for a fulfilling work environment. By staying close and connected to your team, you’ll have a constant feed of metrics that will help gauge your company’s state.

Ask Your Team Questions

If you create a safe space for open conversation, you can get really interesting info from your team. The questions (and answers) are limitless. But, here are a few questions to start with:

• Where has the company made the best progress lately?
• What are the biggest opportunities for the business and its biggest challenges?
• How could you use technology to enhance the experience for clients—or for team members?
• Is there anything new and innovative in our industry that you would like to try or learn more about?
• How can I better support you as a leader?

Take a Moment To Reflect

As the leader of your company, you set the tone for pretty much everything. It is essential that you pause and reflect (we know how hard it can feel to find the time but it is worth every minute).

• What pace are you setting with work and your company’s growth? Does it align with your values?
• Are you considering the people on your team when you make business decisions?
• Are you creating systems and dynamics that encourage creativity and freedom?
• Are you growing in the right direction?
• Are you cultivating relationships with your dream clientele?

Want to track more metrics of success? Don’t forget to measure revenue and profit and embodiment of company values to really get the big picture of your business.

How To Keep Up With Your New Metrics of Success

So you’ve connected with your team and clients? Great! The work doesn’t end there. Keep the momentum going by onboarding new clients with a survey, meeting with team members once a month to discuss the highs and lows of work, and making a habit of mapping client routes through your website.

In case you missed it: when you bring people back into measuring your success, you bring meaning to data and analytics.