Data, Analytics, and Insights: Why Lacking All Three Is Costing You

Data, analytics, and insights. Though often used interchangeably, these terms have very different meanings. There are several key differences between each, so it’s important that studios, gyms, and academies think of these elements as separate factors that all work together to help fuel membership and revenue growth.

So what’s the difference between the three? And more importantly, how can using all three elements accelerate growth for businesses? First, think about the three as a series of steps:

• Step 1: Collect data
• Step 2: Apply analytics
• Step 3: Interpret Insights

With a foundation of solid data, you can use analytics and the resulting insights to transform and grow your business. Here we’ll dig into the differences between the three elements and how using them in combination can accelerate business growth.

Data: The Puzzle Pieces

Data is raw information gathered from your clients or business. With countless tools available that gather millions of data points, compiling information is easier than ever. But despite the accessibility of this multitude of data, it’s extremely difficult to make any sense of raw data points. For example, data might show that you had 15 members churn last month. But which members turned over? And why? Data alone cannot answer these questions.

That’s where analytics come into play.

Analytics: The Puzzle

Analytics is how you make sense of data in order to discover trends and patterns. With so much data available to businesses, analytics is the necessary connecting piece to help visualize what the information means.

Using the example above, analytics can show you a breakdown of your churned customers by membership plan. Analyzing data can help you understand whether more customers churned on membership “A” than membership “B,” or vice versa.

But ultimately, simply understanding this is still not enough. That’s why insights are critical.

Insights: The Decision-Maker

The final piece of the triad is insights. Insights are the results or enlightening moments that come from evaluating analytics. They’re the decision-making drivers that result from the combination of data and analytics. Without insights, why bother gathering data or running analytics on it?

After analyzing your membership data, you may see that clients that purchase membership “A” are 40% more likely to churn than those on membership “B.” Then you can apply those insights to ascertain what causes higher levels of churn in membership “A,” and reduce customer turnover.

Why Lacking Data, Analytics, Or Insights May Be Costing You

Legacy sports and fitness software platforms have historically prioritized gathering data, and left studios, gyms, and academies to fend for themselves when it comes to analyzing those huge amounts of data points and gathering revenue-driving insights from them.

This means the businesses using those legacy platforms often have to either analyze the data themselves (costing them time), or outsource analytics to another platform (costing them money).

On platforms like Mindbody (shown above), businesses can view member data points — but without the ability to drill down into the factors that contribute to those metrics, businesses lose out on valuable insights that would support revenue and member growth.

There’s no better time than the present to explore sports and fitness software options that house data, analytics, and insights all within their platform. See how Upper Hand helps businesses see a complete picture through the combination of data, analytics, and insights.

Reporting Capabilities

While not inherently athlete-centric, the use of a mobile app or sports software to manage your event will unlock powerful insights that empower quicker and more informed business decisions through accessible data. As a result, the in-event experience should elevate each year, encouraging repeat attendance at your camp or clinic. Reporting capabilities will allow event organizers to examine what areas of the event were most successful as well as any impending blockers to event success in the future.

Putting it all Together

From the first impression to the last, mobile apps and technology can be utilized to provide a personalized and premium attendee experience while also eliminating the burden of managing administrative tasks that ensure a strong event.

Just as Walt Disney said, doing something well will encourage growth. In our increasingly digital world, leveraging technology to deliver a premium attendee experience at events plays an important role in achieving that growth.

As the habits of consumers continue to shift, it becomes even more apparent that sports businesses need to embrace digital. We must recognize the role that technology will continue to play as it relates to events and find new ways to elevate the athlete experience through technology.

See why studios, gyms, and academies trust Upper Hand to deliver a premium client experience. Schedule a demo today.

This article was originally published by Club Solutions Magazine.

Related Content:

• How to Predict Monthly Recurring Revenue
• Recurring Revenue 101: Growing Bottom Line Through Memberships
• MRR and Member Retention Calculator (free resource)