We’re thrilled to announce the Shreveport – Bossier Convention & Tourist Bureau as our newest managed reporting customer. Within a few days we’ll be up to our eyes in SBCTB’s data and we’ll reciprocate by providing them with rich graphical dashboards and reports (also known as the world’s best reports for for the Tourism industry) pulled from every data source they have.  Welcome aboard Shreveport – Bossier, we’re looking forward to serving Louisian’s other side.

If you had a spreadsheet with the unemployment rates for all fifty states for the last thirty years, how long do you think it would take for you to make sense of it? For example, imagine trying to compare each state to see who was better or worse, or what type of trend they’re showing. If you printed the spreadsheet out, it would probably be twenty pages. Now, imagine being able to see all of the data on one sheet of paper so that you could easily make comparisons, see trends and gain insight.

Jorge Camoe has put together a lovely example of how this can be accomplished using small multiples.

US Unemployment by State

A small-multiple version allows the user to focus on specific states, compare them to the normal band, etc. States are ranked by labor force size and, as you can see, in the first row seven out of ten are above the US average in April. In the last row, only one is above the US average. You can also see that Michigan was not well (unemployment-wire) long before the current crisis, or a spike in Luisiana (Katrina). It pays to study this chart carefully.

Depending on what you’re trying to find, data can be presented in ways that makes insight instantaneous….ideal for the time pressed DMO. The attached report uses a technique called small multiples, a technique that allows your eye to play “which one of these is not like the others.”

Instead of comparing the unemployment rates of states, imagine using the same technique to compare the average occupancy of the various districts in your tourism region. Polish the presentation to make it palatable for your audience and it’s analytical gold.

In the past two years we have managed the roll-out of a loyalty program for a major retailer and advised other organizations on loyalty programs. Given that interest in loyalty programs remains high, I thought it would be useful to summarize some lessons learned:

• Learnings should drive spend, not the opposite.  The whole point of a loyalty program is to learn more about your customers so you can do nice (and relevant) things for them — that’s what builds real loyalty. Sorry boss, but points do not drive loyalty. What builds loyalty is the hard stuff — outstanding customer service, great and innovative products and unique experiences. In other words, if you spend your entire budget on a points program, you’ll have nothing left to spend on what actually makes a difference to the customer. I love the Tesco “duck pate” example in the article Developing an Effective Customer Loyalty Program by Berman. This is a great example of using data mining insights to do something that truly makes a difference to your best customers.

• Strategy should shape the loyalty program, not the opposite. Strategy is about competing so it’s important to know how your organization competes before designing your loyalty program. If you differentiate on price, your loyalty program clearly needs to offer savings to customers. If you compete on customer service, a customer should be able to understand how membership in the loyalty program will improve their service levels.

• Customer trust trumps gimmicks. I sometimes call loyalty programs “dollars for data” since organizations are paying customers in exchange for the privilege to collect their data. This may be a valid approach for some organizations; however, I emphasise again that collecting the data is not what builds loyalty, it’s what you do with the data. For example, Apple collects a lot of data about their customers, but they don’t pay for this data with a points program. Instead, they use value-added services such as e-mailed receipts and iTunes as a means to justify why you should trust them with your data.

In summary, it critical for organizations to not buy expensive, “off-the-shelf” loyalty programs that are not aligned to their strategy or their customers. Loyalty programs need to be designed around your customers and need to support your continued efforts to amaze and astound these customers.

In the song Imagine by John Lennon, he writes “Imagine there’s no countries…It isn’t hard to do… Imagine no possessions…I wonder if you can…” In the rather mundane world of management reporting, there is a quiet revolution happening that is rapidly breaking down “countries” and “possessions”. In this revolution, which I’m coining Management Reporting 2.0, there seem to be four fundamental truths:

1.    Data knows no boundaries. In a world where all of an organization’s secrets can be zipped into a file and e-mailed anywhere in the world, our views on data security and sharing data must change. On one hand, organizations must be more vigilant with their most sensitive data, but on the other hand, they must be less possessive and more willing to be open in their sharing of data with customers, partners and suppliers. In fact, many organizations may find that they are receiving more data from external sources than they generate themselves internally. For this reason, organizations are exploring options such as cloud computing for their data warehouses since the “cloud” becomes the most logical consolidation point for all data.

2.    Time does matter. If everyone, including your competitors, has better access to information, then how quickly you absorb, process and report that information may be your competitive differentiator. One client we worked with recently said that they only required their reports/dashboards on a quarterly basis. When we pointed out that higher frequencies were possible, they said that perhaps they could try “monthly reporting” but that would be “timely enough”. Two years later, that same client is now having all reports/dashboards produced daily.

3.    Data has value and more value if it’s shared. More and more data is changing hands and the world is waking up to the fact that this data has value. For example, a retailer that wants comparative sales results from other retailers in their region needs to “give to get”. That is, they need to provide their sales data to a data aggregator so that the aggregator can provide summary analysis and sell this information back to retailers. In this case, the data has value to both the retailer and the aggregator, but only if it’s shared.

4.    Management reporting is not a project. The world is changing so quickly that it’s hard to imagine any management report remaining completely static for long. The old world of static, printed reports that remain unchanged for years will simply not survive. Instead, management will be actively evolve reports and dashboards to suit their needs. This isn’t to say that consistent reporting of performance metrics over a long period is no longer relevant, but management must recognize that performance metrics change. For example, our clients are demanding more ROI type performance metrics, even at the departmental level, in response to the current global economic challenges.

In closing, I’ll once again quote Lennon “You may say that I’m a dreamer..But I’m not the only one…I hope someday you’ll join us…And the world will live as one.” I see the future of management reporting as much more dynamic and interactive and with much more movement of data between organizations — perhaps not as altruistic as Lennon’s vision, but nevertheless a change for the better.

The Destination Marketing International  Association, a Washington based group that represents tourism boards, has called for it members to support elected government officials with intelligent data.   In response to portions of the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) which is requireing those support recipient corporations “to adopt a company-wide policy on expenditures related to, among other things, conferences and events.” The assiciation chair, Maura Allen Gast, goes on to say,

If we are going to have any chance of success in defeating potentially further threatening legislation, we have got to arm our elected officials with intelligent data they can relate to.  We have got to frame it in the language they understand – jobs, investment, infrastructure, and stable community revenues.

And in the latest news that the global economy suffering more and more each day, word comes from Japan and of the tough times for their hostess clubs.

In their heyday during the economic bubble of the 1980s, Tokyo’s exclusive hostess bars boomed as well-heeled customers quaffed Moet and even sprinkled gold in drinks. But in times of recession, big spenders become more scarce.

Kanryo Matsui smiles as he remembers the good old days of Japan’s bubble era when customers at his hostess bar would spend a thousand dollars in one night on champagne.

“Those kind of clients rarely come anymore,” he says wistfully.

Japanese club hostess

IGENO will be among the attendees at the 2009 Destination Marketing Association International’s annual convention, held this year in Atlanta, Georgia. In addition, IGENO will also be hosting a booth on the convention floor to reach its customers. “2009 is a very big year for us in terms of the value we’re bringing to the market,” explains IGENO CEO Mark Clancy. “Tough times call for tough measures and finding that our message resonates with a lot of people, particularly during these difficult times.” IGENO will be among over three hundred exhibitors and sponsors at the event which has been held annually since 1914.

It’s that time of year again.  We’ve updated our website to reflect the more visual direction that we’re moving.  In addition, we’ve added this blog to keep track of news and press releases, recruiting announcements and anything else we’d like to share with the world.