How to Create Effective Role-Based Dashboards for Analytics and Insights

Dashboards are special pages that show important details about how a software program is being used. The dashboards have graphs and charts that make the details easy to understand. 

People in different jobs can use the dashboards to see different things. Executives can see if customers are happy. Customer success people can see who might stop using the software. Salespeople can see how much money they are making. 

The dashboards let everyone work together. They can find and fix problems fast. They can also see what is working well. 

This article will explain how to make good dashboards so companies know their software is helping customers.

Gaining Visibility Through Centralized Dashboards

Dashboards bring together information from different places into one easy-to-see screen. This gives everyone a clear view of how the software is being used.

By combining all the numbers and charts in one dashboard, people across the company can:

• See where there are issues slowing things down
• Understand what customers are doing
• Find rough spots for customers
• See how different types of users are adopting features

Different dashboard views help various teams:

• Executives watch high-level customer health signs and money coming in
• Customer success checks satisfaction, risk of losing customers, and contract renewals
• Sales tracks new leads becoming customers and how much more current customers are spending
• Marketing measures campaign results and step-by-step funnel performance

Here is an example dashboard view for a customer success manager:

This shows at a glance how the key numbers are doing compared to targets. The manager can quickly see where things need work, like getting more customers and contract renewals.

Charts and graphs turn complicated information into easy-to-understand pictures:

• Filter by date to spotlight periods
• Drill down from big numbers to see what makes them up
• Spot patterns and unusual points

Custom reports allow teams to tailor data to their needs:

• Sales can evaluate new customer quality and sales cycle length
• Support can view the number and types of tickets
• Success can find customers likely to leave and opportunities to sell more

Notifications can automatically alert teams when metrics cross set boundaries, allowing quick action to fix issues and capitalize on successes.

Customizing Analytics for Actionable Insights

Dashboards can turn complicated data into easy-to-understand charts and graphs. This lets you filter and focus on what's most important.

You can:

• Look at specific date ranges or events
• Drill down into details from big-picture numbers
• See trends and unusual numbers quickly

Using dashboards this way gives you insights to make informed decisions.

Custom Reporting

Teams can build custom reports in their dashboards. This allows everyone to track metrics that are valuable to them.

Some examples:

• The sales team can analyze:
• Lead quality
• How many leads turn into customers
• The size of deals
• Support can view:
• The number of support tickets
• How long it takes to fix issues
• Problems that happen again and again
• Customer success can spot:
• Which customers might leave
• Chances to sell more products

Alerts and Notifications

Dashboards can also send alerts about important metric thresholds.

For example, they can let teams know:

• When website traffic is unusually high or low
• If a certain number of customers cancel in a week
• When a key metric reaches a goal

This helps teams catch issues early or capitalize on successes.

Benchmarking Performance Against Industry Standards

Comparing your metrics to industry averages shows how your business stacks up. This helps you prioritize areas to improve.

You can evaluate things like:

• Customer acquisition cost - How much you spend to get a new customer. Lower is better.
• Payback period - How long before a new customer pays for what you spent to get them. Shorter periods are better.
• Net dollar retention - How much extra revenue you get from current customers. Higher percentages mean more expansion revenue.
• Monthly recurring revenue - Money from subscriptions each month. More consistent revenue lowers risk.
• Customer lifetime value - Total revenue per customer. High values mean longer relationships.

Let's look at two examples.

First is NewCo. They spent $2,000 last month on marketing to get 10 new customers. That's $200 per new customer.

The industry average cost is $150. So NewCo spends more to acquire each customer. They should try to lower their marketing costs.

Next is GrowFast. Last year they had 110% net dollar retention. That means existing customers spent 10% more with them last year.

The industry average retention rate is 90%. So GrowFast beats the average by keeping customers longer and getting more revenue from them over time.

Using Advanced Analytics

Dashboards also let you run advanced analytics like:

• Cohort analysis - Compare metrics across customer groups over time. See if newer customers perform better.
• Regression analysis - Find factors that strongly predict churn. Then focus on moving those numbers.
• Market basket analysis - See what product bundles sell best together. Use that for upsell offers.

For example, cohort analysis might show customers from Q1 2020 have much higher renewal rates than those from Q4 2019. This points to a change that improved retention in early 2020 to replicate.

Advanced analytics turn data into insights that guide strategy. Benchmarking gives perspective on performance gaps to close. Together, they focus on improvements for smarter growth.

Monitoring Adoption Across Customers

Tracking how your customers use your software after setting it up shows how much they like your product. Adoption dashboards give you visibility into this by showing you trends and patterns.

See How Features and Segments Are Used

Adoption dashboards show whether your different customer segments use the same features. For example, you can see if large companies use reporting more than small companies do. Or if customers in one industry use automation more than others.

By seeing these usage trends, you can:

• Find out which features are most popular
• See which segments use certain features more
• Improve features that some segments rarely use

Identify Your Most Engaged Users

Your most engaged users are called “power users”. These users log in frequently and use many features.

Adoption dashboards let you find power users by showing you:

• How often each user logs in
• What pages do they visit
• How many workflows do they complete
• How many actions do they take

Finding your power users is important because:

• They give feedback to improve your product
• They might write positive reviews
• They influence other users

Compare Adoption Between Customers

No two customers adopt software the same way. Adoption dashboards benchmark customers so you can see these differences.

Comparing adoption metrics helps you:

• See which customers have high adoption rates
• Find customers lagging in adoption
• See what industry segments adopt the fastest

You can then reach out to lagging customers to help them adopt better. And learn from your fast-adopting customers.

Optimize Adoption to Improve Retention

The more customers use your software, the more value they get from it. And the more likely they are to keep paying for it month after month.

Monitoring adoption with dashboards highlights areas for improvement. This helps increase usage and loyalty.

In summary, adoption analytics provide visibility into how customers interact with your software. This powers product decisions and customer success efforts for better retention and expansion growth.

Promoting Transparency and Collaboration Through Data Sharing

Sharing dashboard data builds trust between a company and its users. Customer portals give users visibility into their usage metrics and trends. This transparency helps users understand where they stand compared to benchmarks.

Secure data access also fosters collaboration within an organization. Different teams can view reports tailored to their needs. Commenting tools facilitate conversations about the data.

Customer Dashboards Show Individual Usage

Customer dashboards display personal usage patterns over time. Users can view them:

• Login frequency and pages visited
• Workflows and actions taken
• Adoption of key features

Seeing individual usage teaches customers about their interactions with the software. It shows areas to improve or expand usage.

Dashboards also compare customers against anonymized peer benchmarks. A customer can gauge where they stand versus similar users. This peer comparison motivates increased usage and satisfaction.

Annotated Reports Enhance Internal Dialogue

Dashboards give every team access to reports relevant to their goals. Sales may track new customer acquisition rates. Support monitors ticket resolution speed.

Annotating reports adds context to data fluctuations. For example, a sales manager could note an unusually large deal that skewed bookings for the month.

Annotations spark productive data-driven dialogue between teams. Conversations center around opportunities, priorities, and execution strategies.

Wrapping It Up!

By implementing centralized, customizable dashboards across your organization, you equip every role with the specific adoption and usage insights they need to drive impact. 

Implementation teams gain an aerial view of customer health and revenue trends while sales, marketing, support, and success teams receive granular analytics into funnel, retention, and expansion opportunities. 

Instead of metrics existing in departmental silos, visibility is democratized through secure data sharing, leading to improved transparency and cross-functional strategic planning. 

For teams, looking to automate their dashboards and reporting, we would suggest trying out CogniSaaS’s powerful analytics features, by requesting a demo today!