Empowering Growth with Real Data

It’s the time of year when energies are high and attitudes are positive, all charged with a renewed focus on fresh starts and resolutions to make this year THE year. What organization doesn’t want to be more effective? More impactful? Who doesn’t want to do better? Looking for ways to improve upon past performance is the keystone of strategic planning for most organizations. Making sure to include your benchmarking studies in your goals can be very effective in improving the data quality, participation rates and user engagement with your benchmarking studies, and should become an integral part of your benchmarking process.

December marked an amazing close to another outstanding year. Our entire team worked tirelessly through the month to assist our clients in the various stages of their studies while also taking some time to give back to our community and plan for the year ahead.

Key Performance Indicators, or KPIs, evaluate the success of an organization or of a particular activity in which it engages. All businesses share categories of KPIs - profitability, depreciation, operating costs - but need to measure them with an eye towards how their particular industry operates. No one would expect a restaurant and a hospital to use the same KPIs to measure the success of their operations, nor would a resort casino and a non-profit agency place value on the same kinds of data sets. This is why it’s so important to carefully lay the groundwork for your operational study to ensure it will meet the needs of your audience. 

How are you promoting your benchmarking study results? Unlike the iconic Field of Dreams, unfortunately, just building a study does not necessarily mean your members will come! Even the most valuable tools and information need a little help in the marketing department, and benchmarking is no exception. Let’s take a look at a few important steps you should be taking to ensure that you’re not only gathering the best information, but also making sure it’s being utilized to its fullest advantage.