Did you know we create an average of 2.5 quintillion bytes of data daily? By 2025, the amount of data generated each day is expected to reach a whopping 463 exabytes globally. For reference, an Exabyte is an enormous data unit, with one Exabyte equaling one billion gigabytes. A mind-boggling statistic that will only continue to grow with our uptake of digital devices and preference for online interactions.
Of course, more data is a positive thing, especially when improving business intelligence and customer satisfaction. However, for airport managers and marketers, the sheer volume of data available can also present challenges.
With so much data available, how can you turn it into actionable insights for your airport? Let’s take a closer look.
First things first, it’s essential to have a clear understanding between reports and analytics.
Airport marketers need reports. They have a wide range of purposes, from tracking and measuring campaigns to customer profiling, all of which helps marketers assign resources and target customers with relevant messaging. Reports are great for presenting data, but there’s a limit to what they can help you achieve.
To produce actionable insights for your airport, you need quality data analytics. It’s the data analytics that will tell you what action you should take to improve your most vital metrics.
Drawing insights from your data may seem like a relatively easy process, but you’ll be surprised to hear how many airports struggle to make their data work for them. Providing you have a secure, compliant process in place, data collection is straightforward. However, to make the data you collect useful, you’ll need to consider the steps below.
You can’t optimise something you haven’t measured, as you won’t know if your campaign was a success or failure, let alone how to make it better.
Look at your analytics in the context of specific operations. If, for example, your airport runs an ecommerce site for bookings and parking, you’ll likely want to know:
To clarify what you need to measure, you need to think about the end result and ask yourself what’s most important to your airport and customers? By starting with a clear picture of what you want to achieve, you can establish a robust set of key performance indicators and narrow your focus.
The best way to work out what your customers really want is to ask them. Asking for feedback not only gives you clear insight into customer experience but engages customers and stakeholders, ensuring they feel valued and important.
But it helps to ask the right question, so you have a good starting point from which to analyse the data that comes back.
There are numerous ways you can gather customer feedback, from integrating polls during the online booking journey to emailing out surveys and even QR code scanning at your airport.
When it comes to getting the most from your data analytics, segmentation is a powerful tool. For B2B and B2C interactions, grouping customers, subscribers, prospects and site visitors with similar attributes will assist you in building more detailed insights.
By identifying and analysing segments of your customer base, you will gain a much deeper understanding of how they behave. This will help you answer specific business questions and develop a clear optimisation plan.
The easier your data analytics is to understand, the better. Any member of your team should be able to look at it and have a clear idea of what it means. Promote clarity and cognition with user-friendly, visualised data reports. Make it easy for insights to be drawn from the data so you can make profitable and timely business decisions.
Here at Rezcomm, we like to use the acronym DMAIC to improve business strategies. DMAIC stands for ‘Define, Measure, Analyse, Improve, Control’ and is a process you can apply to any business situation or problem.
Establish the context of the data you are studying. What do the figures mean, and why are they important? How do they affect your airport business?
Without this context, the data may result in decisions based on preconceptions, opinions, or misinterpretations and deter your overall strategy. Context is essential for solid business decisions based on fact.7. Have a clear hypothesis to formulate a strategy
The starting point of any analysis should begin with a clear hypothesis that can drive action. According to SmartInsights, the best way to create a clear hypothesis is with the following statements:
Creating a clear hypothesis can be challenging but worthwhile, as it’ll save you time and produce more focused actionable insights to drive business decisions.
Creating actionable airport data analytics insights requires a good flow of communication within your team. Without this, valuable information can get stuck in the system, preventing you from making crucial business decisions.
Develop a culture of inspiration, motivation and curiosity – where your whole team is excited by the potential of data to transform your airport. Make it a top priority to solve any communication problems within your business.
Collect data from all sources and platforms and store it in a safe, single location for easier analysis. Integrating data from all sources will deliver clear insights and deepen your understanding of customers, ultimately helping your airport make better, faster decisions.
Software that collects, stores, segments and analyses data is invaluable to your airport but equally as important is your team. Find people who understand the industry and create bespoke strategies from your unique data to differentiate your airport.
The Rezcomm team are experts in accelerating airport revenue with smart, intuitive tech, neatly packaged up and available as The Rezcomm Marketplace Solution.
Support your team with single administration, centralised customer information management, business intelligence and analytics, reporting, and forecasting. Our Business modules make your life easier, with increased visibility of your entire operations. Eliminate the complexity of managing your data and enjoy easy-to-use dashboards and visual reports to help your team quickly draw actionable insights. Centralise all business intelligence for more meaningful and valuable decision making.
Experience the power of a single platform behind you and benefit from expert support on your side. Think of us as an extension of your team. With years of experience in the industry, specialist knowledge, and intuitive tech built for airports, Rezcomm is the top choice for turning your data analytics into actionable insights and driving your airport forward. Contact us today to find out more about our business modules and Rezcomm Marketplace.
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As Chief Technical Officer at Rezcomm Alwyn specialises in: Legacy to Cloud Migrations, Serverless Microservices, Streaming Real Time BI, Distributed Team Management, OLAP and Event Driven Serverless Applications.