Measure What Matters Chapter 1

Measure What Matters by Katie Paine is a book to guide companies when using tools to understand customers, social media, engagement, and key relationships. Chapter 1 outlines why your company should use measurements and goes farther to eliminate myths in the measurement world. The six advantages to using a measurement program are:

• Data-driven decision making saves time and money- you will have logic and reason to back up your decisions; this removes any guessing.
• It helps allocate budget and staff- once you have the data you can determine what areas your business needs to focus better on and give more money to.
• Gain a better understanding of the competition- knowing what your competition is doing is half of the business. Once you know their plan you can develop yours to beat them.
• Strategic planning- this is something I am well versed in. The moment I see the word strategic in association with business I know that it is the allocation of resources to make your business stand out. Having measurement to determine what needs to be done helps this plan get developed.
• Measurement gets everyone to agree on a desired outcome- the answer is in the data. You will not have to fight to get your strategy picked, the data will determine what area needs help.
• Measurement reveals strengths and weaknesses- measurement should be done to determine where you need help and what you are doing good with. Having this knowledge in your business will help plan and help you claim your market better.

The second part of chapter 1 outlined seven myths that are associated with measurement.

Myth #1: measurement = punishment. This is not true because if something is not working it is best to find out as soon as possible to save time and money. It will also save your company’s reputation to fix it.

Myth #2: measurement will only create more work for me. This might be true but the work will be accurate and helpful for your company. Once the measurement system is in place your job will get a lot easier because you will have the data to back up your decisions.

Myth #3: measurement is expensive. You will want to put some money into the system but it is for the best. Low price systems give low results and not helpful data. Spending money upfront will help more in the long run.

Myth #4: you cannot measure the ROI, so why bother. Somethings are harder to measure. It is easy to tell sales and accounting but hard to see what relationships give you. Measuring it might be hard but you should still try.

Myth #5: measurement is strictly quantitative. Many answers will be given in number but some of the answers will determine how helpful your relationships are. Stated earlier in the chapter, they describe how customers are more likely to trust other customers when determining a sale. This is true so if you have good relationships with your previous customers, they will share that information to potential customers gaining your company better relationship. That same statement works in reverse so if you have bad relationships that message will be passed along as well.

Myth #6: measurement is something you do with a program is over. This is true that you will need to evaluate your program it is also best to have a data driven plan to begin with.

Myth #7: “I know what’s happening: I don’t need research”. You might have a good understanding of your business and market but it is impossible to know everything. Measurements can show management new things to strategize with.  There is always room to make your company better.

The next coming chapters will outline how different departments can utilize measurements in business to succeed.