Quantitative and Qualitative. Which type of data is more reliable?
As a business owner or manager, you are always trying to acquire new clients. Getting people through the door and into your business can be complicated. However, properly analyzing and decoding your data can offer you a competitive advantage and make your establishment grow. But the question is: which type of data is more reliable?”
Keep in mind that we there are two types of data: Quantitative and Qualitative. Quantitative refers to numbers. Anything that can be counted and measured would fall into this category. “How many customers did I have this week?”, “what were my sales?”, “at what time of the day do I receive the most customers?”. These are all questions you might ask yourself often and refer to this type of countable data. Smart tip: The more data you collect, the better off you are. Try and keep records of all type of quantitative data you might come across, this will make your business decisions much simpler. By having ample information collected, you can decide for example if a menu item that isn’t selling much should be removed, or if you should add an extra employee for certain times of the day, or certain days of the week for that matter.
Hidden between those numbers and statistics, however, lies another type of data that might be more challenging to analyze. Qualitative data refers to all that other information cannot be counted our measured. This data requires you to get into your customers’ minds and analyze what they are thinking and feeling. Although tricky at times, it is crucial that you take all of you clients into account and determine what their mindset it. This way, you have a clearer understanding of your customers’ wants and needs and cater to those needs appropriately.
A clever business owner or manager understands the importance of the two types of data. Both quantitative and qualitative are just as important and neither one of the two should be overlooked. Remember, the more data collected and analyzed, the higher the chances of making an intelligent business decision.
Nicolas Carozza
Marketing expert specialized in small business food services.
