The 2021 holiday sales season is quickly approaching, and most eCommerce companies face it with a mix of excitement and dread. If anything, 2020 taught us that the threat of everything falling apart is always there, even if you’re having a banner year. That means now is the time to shore up operations and put protections into place to keep revenue secure and customers satisfied.

Experts have dubbed 2021 the year of “The Great Resignation.” The pandemic has been a catalyst for many workers to reassess their values, priorities, and work situation—a 2021 study by The Predictive Index found that “48% of employees have thought about changing careers within the past 12 months.” It’s safe to say that HR departments have a lot on their plates right now.

You want to grow and strengthen your company, but you can’t do that if all of your important data is buried in spreadsheets or held by dozens of different people across the organization. Uncover key information with an executive dashboard. This display provides an overview of your most essential company metrics on a single screen, so you can easily get the insights you need to make crucial decisions. No more wasting time digging through different reports.

There are several approaches to creating a dashboard for sharing your most important metrics - we covered the most common ones in this article. Often the decision over which approach to take boils down to building your own (or hiring someone to build one for you) or going with an off-the-shelf KPI dashboard solution like Geckoboard. Here we’re going to discuss the pros and cons of build versus buy to help you make an informed decision as to what’s the right approach for you.

It’s tough to keep any sales team motivated, but it’s especially difficult for remote teams. Reps can’t thrive off each other’s energy or engage in friendly competition, so you need an alternative for keeping everyone focused on your targets. A sales dashboard gives you an overview of your team’s performance and keeps everyone motivated by showing progress toward your targets – even if you’re not all in the same office.

Customer support staffing is like a never-ending game of Jenga. If you’ve got a team of customer support reps who are all aligned on how best to help your customers and have experience doing just that, you’ve got an excellent foundation for resolving customer queries. But if you take out just a few of those reps – if they leave, get promoted, or are out sick for an extended period – then your support provision suddenly looks much less stable.

Data analysis is critical for all employees, no matter what department or role you work in. Whether you’re a marketer analyzing the return on investment of your latest campaign or a product manager reviewing usage data, the ability to identify and explore trends and fluctuations in your data is an essential skill for decision-making. Unfortunately, many companies today struggle with data organization and analysis.

The traditional way to measure customer service metrics is to track averages, such as average reply time or average resolution time. But Geckoboard’s Customer Support Experience Report found that some companies measure first response time as a service level agreement (SLA) metric rather than an average. SLA metrics are internal metrics used by customer support teams to set targets for the proportion of customers who will receive a predefined minimum level of service.

Your customer service framework is like the instructions manual for building some flat-pack furniture. Without directions, you’re guessing how your new desk goes together. Likewise, your support team will improvise how best to respond to incoming customer queries if they don’t have a guiding framework – which can lead to long delays and inconsistent customer experiences. A framework is useful for clarifying how, when, and why you provide the type of service you do. It maps out.

Helpful, friendly customer service shouldn’t be seen as “optional” by your business. It has serious implications for whether customers will return to your company and spread the word about your products. According to a Qualtrics study, 95% of consumers who rate a company’s customer experience as “very good” are likely to recommend the company.