Actionable Data

Businesses rely on customers for their success, and considering the customers in all aspects of operations is important to ensuring customer satisfaction. Customer satisfaction increases the likelihood of repeat business and new referrals.

I'm a pilot for a membership based air-shuttle platform that arranges travel for a membership service. Based on where the members want to fly, we fly them. It is basically an "Uber" of the skies, and members use a phone app to sign up for flights. A majority of our shuttles operate several times a day between Los Angeles, Santa Barbara, Tahoe/Reno and the Bay Area. The other day I over heard a customer complaining to one of the Customer service managers.  One of the things that he repeated several times was "you need to collect actionable data, instead asking about useless information about a flight that took place three weeks ago".

While I didn't agree with what the customer was complaining about (upset about us diverting to other airports due to weather, without understanding airplane performance and operational legal safety requirements), I did agree with he fact that actionable data is required to improve customer satisfaction for the purpose of future growth. 

By collecting actionable data, you can isolate and resolve problems much faster, which will sustain higher customer satisfaction and save the company money in the long run. The Data-Information-Knowledge-Action (D-I-K-A) cycle is a tool for managers to turn data into an appropriate action. A problem that many businesses have is that they fall into the trap of "information overload" and not create anything of real business value, instead just collect and store information. However, those businesses that can focus on actionable issues and speed up the D-I-K-A cycle are far more likely to have favorable results and achieve greater levels of success. (Clampitt, 2017)






What is actionable data?

Actionable data is a "term in data analytics and big data for information that gives enough insight into the future that the actions should be taken become clear for decision makers" ("What is Actionable Insight? - Definition from Techopedia", 2019). In other words, actionable data provides the necessary information to managers to make an informed decision. 




In the situation for my company, every time a customer complains about diverting to a different
airport, we have actionable data. It is data that is credible, objective, and timely. We pilots have compiled this data and have come up with possible solutions. One idea, is to only fly into airports that can be assessable no matter what. The problem is, we are flying into airports than can only be accessed in good weather because they contain smaller runways and have stringent cloud ceiling requirements. A solution could be to no longer serve these airports due to customers not understanding the reasoning behind diverting, and not allowing the room for disappointment. Another idea is to be very transparent from the beginning about how weather effects aviation, and  continuously explain that diversion is likely to happen when certain conditions exist. It would be a good idea to provide customers with a survey about how they would like issues like diversion and delays to be handled, and continuously ask for feedback. 

As far as other actionable data, it would be important to collect information on new areas that we should provide service to, friends or family that would be interested in joining, and anything else that we can do to boost customer satisfaction. This data and information combined with the companies knowledge on the aviation industry can create actionable strategies to expand operations and increased customer satisfaction, while remaining safe and reliable. 

References:

Clampitt, P. G. (2017). Communicating for Managerial Effectiveness: Challenges, Strategies, Solutions. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications

What is Actionable Insight? - Definition from Techopedia. (2019). Retrieved from https://www.techopedia.com/definition/31721/actionable-insight