How do you use data in your business?

[dcon]

Hey everyone! I'm hoping to learn more about how food and beverage sellers are using data today. Would deeply appreciate any input from the community here.

1) What data tools are you using today? (either from square or third parties)

2) In an ideal world, how would you use data to guide business decisions or operations?

My goal here is to understand the real problems that sellers are dealing with today and then work to solve them.

Thanks so much for any thoughts!

Devin

[maxpete]

Thanks for your question, Devin! Super interesting and would love to hear from other sellers about how they use data too!

Tagging @BBQ_Spike, @ThatPitaGuy, and @sugarlab

[RuckusDonuts]

One I am absolutely GLUED to is New vs Return Customers as far as sales. Neither column can be significantly more than the other. I obsess about this one, looking for 60ish% : 40ish% in either direction constantly. If one is constantly 70% or more that's a huge red flag you're business is in trouble.

[dcon]

This is great @RuckusDonuts thanks for the response. How do you monitor this metric currently? And what would you do if you saw that number trending too far in one direction or the other?

[RuckusDonuts]

You're welcome! The Square Reports summary that I get emailed every business day has this metric on/in it. As far as if one was consistently at a, say, 3:1 advantage? Panic LOL 

[dcon]

Haha thanks @RuckusDonuts much appreciated! That's really helpful.

[dcon]

Also very interested in how beauty and wellness sellers are using data today! Would really appreciate any thoughts  🙏

(edited after merged posts)

[skinmead]

It's very critical for any healthcare business to be compliant with HIPAA. I'm looking to create a record/document or a space to create which I can't find particularly for estheticians. I tried JaneApp, it's not user friendly.. and you hardly can find a support adm to troubleshoot or help what the issue is. You've got to pause your day read, there's a forum and good luck if you can find your answer. I don't know if this answers your question.   

[dcon]

Thanks @skinmead! So the challenge is finding tools to manage documents/patient data that are also HIPAA compliant?

[skinmead]

Adaptable to any documentation prebuilt or adjustable to create own style and verbiage, and device-adjustable, plus HIPAA compliant 

[WST90]

I use it mostly for checking what my top selling products are. I'm able to see what's selling and what's not. Which allows me to adjust my menus. 

[dcon]

Thanks for the response @WST90 that's a great one. How do you currently check those metrics? And are you concerned mostly with the total quantity sales or some other number?

[theroyalctambo]

So for me data is very important (albeit my mother is an accountant so I think that has rubbed off). Some of my data collections are:

• Weekly reports, I compare sales week to week for the six years I have been here, so I can watch trends of our "off" and "on" seasons (we are very seasonal). I compare all the "areas" of my business, so Food Sales, Bar Sales, Merchandise Sales, etc as well as the totals. This helps me to plan staff levels, see where we need to work on, or explain extra costs etc. I download sales reports from Square, and put them into a flash report in excel that has graphs etc. I also add other info like wages and stock purchases, so I have a rough view of COGS and Wage costs
• Monthly reports, same as above, but for monthly, which are a better view of the sales, as weeks can be slightly different year in year out based on school holidays etc
• Individual sales reports over longer times. These help me set stock levels, whether it be for weekly, like food, or planning 12 months ahead on stock that I have to buy in bulk like merchandise. It also help me shape decisions based on budgets for certain stock areas, and menu planning. 
• I run competitions for staff at times on who can sell "x" amount of products, so can confirm these numbers
• When price changes occur, I can run a sales report and put the things that I sell the most of on top of the list to watch, in case I don't have the time to change all at once (I have 1000's of items)
• Modifier reports. Most of these are out of interest, and tracking trends, for example which one of our 7 sauces for steaks sell the most year in year out, how do people have their steak cooked, which sides sell the most in which months.

As above, for most of these I run the report in Square, download as excel, then put into a format I can read

Hope that helps

[dcon]

Awesome overview @theroyalctambo thank you! These are some really interesting numbers and metrics you are tracking. Sounds like you have a solid process in place to pull reports from the square dashboard -> export data ->  post process and visualize in excel. How time consuming is this for you currently? Are there other metrics that would be helpful for your business that you don't currently have access to today?

[theroyalctambo]

Not that I can think of. I quite often pull lots of things, but not consistently.

[JTPets]

Hi everyone,

In our business, we heavily rely on Google Sheets for managing various data aspects. Here’s a breakdown of how we use data tools:

1. Current Data Tools:

   • Google Sheets: We use Google Sheets extensively for various tasks. This includes:
     • Catalog Export: Managing and analyzing our catalog export data from the dashboard.
     • Margin Calculations: We create custom sheets to calculate and monitor item margins, as Square doesn’t natively support detailed margin tracking.
     • Google Merchant Center: Updating product data for Google Merchant Center.

2. Ideal Data Usage:

   • In an ideal scenario, I’d love to see a more integrated solution where all necessary data is readily accessible. For example:
     • Enhanced Catalog Exports: Including URLs for items and their images directly in the catalog export would save a lot of time and reduce manual errors.
     • Automated Margin Tracking: An integrated feature within Square that automatically calculates and tracks margins would streamline our processes and ensure accuracy.

The biggest challenges we face with Square involve accessing detailed item data, such as URLs for products and images. These are critical for maintaining accurate and up-to-date information but are not included in the current catalog export. Additionally, ensuring margin accuracy remains a manual and somewhat error-prone process due to the lack of native support for this feature in Square.

Thanks

[dcon]

Hey @JTPets thanks for the response! This is great.

Are most of your sales online or do you have an in person location as well? How often are you doing this manual reporting and analysis?

[JTPets]

we have brick and mortar and online

I am digging into data constantly, assessing which vendor is best to source items from on a weekly basis 

[dcon]

really interesting @JTPets thanks!

[Tamyra_Paunchy]

For Square specifically I'm looking at sales data to see which markets/events bring in the most $$ from sales... versus tips... beverage versus food products... and then drilling down into that data to see of the beverage items which sell the most at which market locations, which flavors are the most popular, etc. 

That info helps me decide how to prepare for future events. Then I'm looking back in time to see how did we do this week as opposed to last week as opposed to this time last year even and I can then gauge whether I need to promote more or opt out of something completely. I also use my Square sales data to gauge how much help/labor I can afford based on past revenue. If it's a day/event that's only going to generate $400 in revenue but costs $300 before supplies - I'm probably going alone (no labor costs that way) or opting out altogether.

At some point I'd love to start forecasting with the data as well but I'm not there yet.

Hope that helps! 

[dcon]

Hey @Tamyra_Paunchy this is great, thank you! Do you use those comparisons across items/categories to design menus for specific markets/events? And it sounds like you're already doing a bit of manual forecasting work to prepare for events now!