Meeting Title: Brainforge x David Lopez Date: Dec 15 Meeting participants: David Lopez
Transcript:
Them: Start to kind of grow out from there into the other parts of the company. So we have taken over the KPIs for the whole company. And it started off like division by division. The pest KPIs were pretty well established. That department had been running their KPI the longest. And that process has been pretty well established. There are some changes, some tweaks that are coming up starting January 1st. But for the most part, everything is set as is. And when we had that process handed over to us, we did a lot of cleanup. Efficiency wise is the way that it was being pulled and or like put together before was not to our standards, so we just kind of redid it and we made it better. But there’s still some room for improvement there, I have no doubt.
Me: Okay?
Them: And so we definitely work with those division managers really closely. Not only the pest department, but from the mechanical department, from the home improvement department of the sales department, because we work with BO hand in hand on those. And so. But typically, once the KPIs are set, they’re set. We have communication come to us. As far as, like.
Me: Yearly or is it quarterly or monthly?
Them: The KPIs are done monthly for the technicians. Yeah, except for the pest department. The pest department has done weekly.
Me: Okay? Great.
Them: And but everything else is monthly. Yeah, and I’m sure they would like to. I know that some of them would like to see that done more often. But the problem with that is the majority, again, of our KPIs are measured with data from the vault, and data from Evolve is never really accurate until the month closes out. And that’s because tickets could change, repairs could go in. Things could be in flux there. So the final number that we have are not released until the beginning of the following month. So that does make it a little bit challenging to see an accurate representation of what those KPIs could be as. The month progress.
Me: Okay?
Them: Es.
Me: Okay? I guess. Is that like a meeting that. You’re owning on a monthly basis. Is that submitted usually, like, two weeks before the month? Like what is a short process of collecting those.
Them: Of collecting the data from Evolve or for the KPIs.
Me: For the KPIs.
Them: Yeah. From the KPIs, we’re just. Once the month closes out, we’re just going and we’re fetching that data. We know what the metrics are, we know which categories we’re looking at. We know which data. Each metric has, like, a range. That will assign a point system. To that metric. So if I had 100% in my photos that I sent out, I’m gonna get, like, 13 points. If I have 70% of my photos sent out, I get seven points, yada, yada. So we know what that template is because that’s been established with those division managers already, and we kind of put together into everything, into a scorecard. So to speak. We upload that for their teams to go in and check, like on a Google sheet. And then after that, we may get some communication back as far as like, hey, this was an error, or please disregard this and we’ll kind of do updates at that point in time.
Me: Okay? Another question I had is like, so. Are you just sending out the KPIs? Is there like a meeting? Like, talk to me and we’re more. Like, I guess more interested in. More. Proactive analysis of like, hey, you missed targets. I’m like, here’s why Julie was showing.
Them: Yeah.
Me: Me the month over month. KPI spreadsheets. That I think umt produce. When there are reds, are the branch managers or service leaders, like, are they asking questions or like, what’s the sort of back and forth? Does it go beyond just showing what the changes have been?
Them: Yeah. So right now, we currently have set up a monthly meeting with a Pest Division manager. So he’s the one that runs all of the past, and we’re meeting with him on a monthly basis to talk about route completion, to talk about those KPIs and talk about any pain points that we experienced in the prior month. So that we can coach going forward on this next in the following month. That’s the only department right now that we have a scheduled monthly meet with. Since my team has just started doing the KPIs for the rest of the company, we are establishing those meetings moving forward, but we don’t currently have them on the books right now. But yes, it is.
Me: What is your. Team David, it’s you. And who else is supporting? The scope, this whole scope as a whole over there.
Them: Yeah. So right now it is me and Brian Gonzalez. I believe you met him, who was in our initial meet for Andy as well. And so it’s him and I that are doing the KPIs for N1. We do have Austin Weaver on the team as well, but he’s mostly just the call center. Real time management workforce manager in that realm. So because he’s got his hands full there, I try not to give him any of this other stuff because I know. Much resources it takes, and I know he needs to be dedicated. So for right now, it’s Brian and myself.
Me: Yeah. Do you feel? Like. Equipped enough to handle the rest of the business in terms of running these types of reports, or let’s say you were just going to have to run, do the same thing for every part of the business. What breaks first?
Them: Yeah.
Me: With me, but I’m a data person as well.
Them: Yeah.
Me: I’ve sort of my whole career. So I understand the fact that one division wants and they want to scale. And this is actually really amazing because this is the first time sort of hearing a little bit about. How you’re thinking about the day to day data operations.
Them: Yeah.
Me: And so wondering. Let’s say you were to go turn this on for every client. What breaks?
Them: Yeah. Unfortunately, like call center stuff. I feel goes out the window. And not. Be the ability to go in depth first. Because that’s kind of like my baby. Right? That’s where I started. And so there’s been a lot of systems that have been created and put in place for the call center that NASA start to expand. My attention is needed over here and over here. And so. I feel like I’m not able to focus as much with Eyvette and the call center. If everything else starts to takes me in those directions. And that sucks, because again, that’s my day one with Eyvette and I. We work together since, literally, I’ve been here at the company. So unfortunately, that stuff does. It does take a little bit longer. And right now, I do try to keep that as a priority before anything else. Because. Yeah, that’s again. Where I come from. But, yeah, that definitely starts to go first. After that, it’s kind of like a domino effect of the timeline of things. Things will still get done. They just won’t get done as an efficient or at times, sensitive manner that I would prefer.
Me: Okay? Yeah.
Them: Or that I think that people expect. Too.
Me: And. Then. But do you have sort of like a priority list? I mean. I totally get that, like, past is the biggest, most well defined. You have, okay?
Them: This one.
Me: Okay?
Them: Yeah. So as far as part of one, when the month closes, I definitely start working on the call center stuff first because a lot of that data is pulled from 8 by 8 and unlike a ball 8 byte doesn’t need to close out. They don’t need a few days to close out. Their data is already there. It’s finalized. I can start pulling that.
Me: Y. Es.
Them: So technically, the evolve closes out the month. Probably on the. Around the third. On average, the third day after the month begins, they close out, depending on when the business days fall, you know, so between that time that evolve is using the clothes out there data, I’m doing call center stuff. Because I can pull the 8 by 8 stuff. I can start to put clear scorecards together. I can put their KPIs together and get that out. Then once the month closes and evolve as official. Then I start doing the best stuff. Is first and foremost. They’re our biggest department, so they go first. After that, it’s our mechanical and our home improvement department. And then the final one is our lawn department. Sales, and sales are done on a weekly basis. They just kind of fold in as well.
Me: Yeah. Okay? And then. I guess, like. I’m trying to think about, like, the broader. Sort of process here. Like. Do you feel like ultimately, in order to get data to everybody, it will have to be some type of, like, folks start fishing for themselves? Like, do you really feel like. You and Brian are going to be able to support the whole org or, like, you know, I’m just trying to think about things that we’ve seen in the past. Is like, okay, maybe you do focus, like, for me.
Them: Yeah.
Me: It’s always important that the people with the best understanding of data are focused on the hairiest problems. The things where the very clean.
Them: Yeah.
Me: Versus we don’t want your time spent. On, like, moving things into Excel, because you’re, like, way smarter than that to me to.
Them: Yeah, definitely.
Me: Do. I want to give you more work, but you’re a data person. You know, it’s fun to work on things that actually matter versus dealing with Excel and stuff like that. Like, is that a. Is would that a fair way of thinking about.
Them: Sure. Yeah.
Me: You know how you think things should go. Or, like, just trying. To, you know, if. If. If, like Bobby were to ask me, okay, what did you learn from conversation with David? Like what? What do they need? Or what is the data team need?
Them: Yeah.
Me: Trying to think about. Like what I can explain to him.
Them: Yeah. So for sure. Like to answer your question about will Brian and I be able to do everything, like long term? Absolutely not. Ideally, like to see at least one other person on board. But I know right now the way that the company is that’s not really at their top of the priority. And I feel that in their mind. It’s kind of like, hey, things are running smoothly. They’re doing it. So, like, by all means. And sure, I think right now we are officially narc slow season. But come March, when we start to pick up, things might get a little bit. Tighter for sure. Resources are going to be stretched.
Me: Ca. T. Ca.
Them: Then they already are. But we just have a little bit more breathing room because we’re not as busy. We’re pretty slow right now.
Me: T.
Them: So I do. I would like to get things in a place where we have a little bit more breathing room right now. If either Brian or I call out, like, there’s going to be delays, For sure.
Me: Yeah.
Them: Because there’s things that he works on that I don’t, and vice versa. So that’s. Going to. Could we each do each other’s? Absolutely. But with what we’ve got on our plate already, it makes it pretty tight.
Me: Okay?
Them: I would ideally like to also have some resources or some time in place to kind of look at everything that you talk about as a whole. I can’t really sit down and study the data as much as I’d like to, to identify those trends, to put together resources for the key players. To utilize on a broad scope as I like, and that’d be one of the goals that I like to do. Get that moving forward and get that incorporated into our monthly meetings with them so that they, you know, like, for the people at the executive level,
Me: Okay?
Them: They don’t have the time to go into the new grade. Details, you know, like, that should be something that I’m providing to them, but right now,
Me: Yeah.
Them: I. I can. I’m barely getting the bare minimum, and I’d like to get even more detailed into that. I just.
Me: And like.
Them: I invoke one person.
Me: Y. Eah, that’s exactly it. Like, even here you say that is also kind of very similar to the feedback that Julie gave. And that a lot of people are giving is just the capacity. I mean, this is where, like, I want to support in thinking about what would allow you to have that capacity. And so in the past,
Them: Yeah.
Me: I think it’s clear that, okay, there has to be some attention to investment. But also I just think that there’s also probably some opportunity for, like, some upgrades and tools and how do things, ways things are structured to give you a little bit of sense of, like, how we’ve worked with companies in the past is like, you know, one big part of data is just centralizing all of it into one place where folks like you can do analysis. And as you see on the ABC project, We’re actually, like, piping all of that to that real dashboard.
Them: Yeah.
Me: You know? And one of the things that I was, you know, thinking about was like, okay. What other parts of the company is where, if we were to at least if, like our team or in collaboration was to at least get the data in a place where you could use Sequel to run a query on it, How. Much like. And that is reliable, right? Just that part where it’s like, you don’t have to go through system to pull stuff. It’s landed in the data warehouse where you can run a query.
Them: Y. Eah.
Me: Does that cut like 50%? Does that cut like 30%? Does that allow for, like, a little bit more redundancy? Maybe let’s just start with that exercise, because that’ll help me sort of quantify. Various ways we can support like what do you think about idea like that?
Them: Yeah, like having a database would be fantastic. It’s something that we’ve wanted to do for a while. Unfortunately, what we run to, what we run into is a lot of the red tape. Like when we’ve wanted to build a database to track technicians attendance, but we haven’t yet been given access to that from each R to track in our paylocity system, because that’s yet another system that we have. You know, like, as far as getting rights to that, we try to kind of onboard. I tried to onboard Brandon to training in SQL. But then we got pushback from it about the safety concerns of that and the cybersecurity or the security risk in that. And so not being able to utilize that’s been on our plates, try to get approval from it for a year. And we’ve not yet crossed that line. So there’s things that we want to do, but we’re just unfortunately limited because, yes, that would be very helpful. It would be like dream scenario, but it’s just. Yeah.
Me: Knock on wood. But if I can get something done for you, I. For me, that is also, like, a super clear opportunity. Because to tell you the truth, even as part of this, Phase. We are establishing a data warehouse. Because I can’t do my work. To look at the company without that.
Them: Nice. Absolutely. Yeah.
Me: I’m really hopeful that some of the things that we’re driving in just this few week phase. Are things that we can invest in, so. I heard you on that. So if we can get a single place where we can drop data under run queries.
Them: Yeah.
Me: Some percentage of time, tell me what the aptitude would be for. Like, I mean, even just having fixed live dashboards. The one thing I’m understanding. Which is helpful is that ABC leadership doesn’t seem like the cast of characters. That is like going to be in the data themselves a lot.
Them: No, no.
Me: I’m just trying to say the obvious out loud, but it’s helpful because we work with a lot of clients, but some are like that.
Them: Yeah.
Me: And so I like to shut doors as we’re sort of going, so I can think about options.
Them: Y. Eah. Yes.
Me: However. If they could at least be presented with the information. More frequently that does take off your plate, like the preparation aspect of KPIs, you know?
Them: Sure.
Me: Which is a big thing, and instead maybe freeze you to prep for those meetings or run more of those meetings. Where they’ve already gotten set in like a dashboard.
Them: Y. Es.
Me: And in focusing on, like, okay, let’s all dissect this one. Let’s go deeper on this one. Huge decrease this month. And for me, it’s like, how do I shift? Even on my team, how do I shift data?
Them: Yes.
Me: People from spending 80% of the time on prep. And, like, clean up and presentation and then 20% on, actually. Like, okay. Yes, I woke up david today. But let’s say I’m bobby jenkins.
Them: Yeah.
Me: What do I do? Right. I want the data people need to. Bear and.
Them: Yes.
Me: You and Brian both wake up. And do 80% in that world. And 20% in this preparation world.
Them: Yes. So. You are making my heart happy right now, Uttam, because, yes, that. There’s, like, obviously, like, the pie in the sky, the dream scenario that would. I’d be like. The birds would be singing, the clouds would be partying, the sun would be showing, like. You know, it’d be all fantastic. Yeah, but. Yes. Even just getting that to kind of dig into that. Because, yes, right now we are doing a lot of our time. It’s just about preparing. And even when we’re done preparing, we’re like. Then we get the flood of, like, corrections, of like, hey, we didn’t come in with you. This so. Update this, and then we’re back in that preparing phase. And so it does.
Me: Because, tell you the truth, The one thing that is always tough for a leader to hear is going to be, hey, I need another person. And so for me,
Them: Yeah.
Me: It’s one thing I want to try to do here is I think there are some obvious wins that don’t rely on headcount changes. I actually think that.
Them: Yeah.
Me: Having a lean, mean team is great. But you guys have been asked to do way too much. And for you guys to scale what you’re doing beyond pest.
Them: Yeah.
Me: Is going to be very challenging, at least from my observation.
Them: Yes. And when you say scorecards, you turn that out. So, like, lights me up. And in the best way possible. Because we have explored various options when it comes to scorecards, we have engaged multiple companies, one of which was like, Data Cube, to do our scorecards for us, which was just our, like, our sales team, but we want to have that. I know that’s something that the executive team does want to see, like, across the company. And so just having those easily put together to give just like that quick.
Me: Yes.
Them: Flash of, like, here, this is what’s going on. And then allowing us to delve into those things where, like, metrics have gone off, we’ve gone off the rails or something. Quite right.
Me: Yes.
Them: For us to investigate and bring that up or kind of explain that or talk that through would be fantastic. So. But right now, that’s also something that’s fallen to us, right. Of just like, okay, well, that’s something that you all can put together, which just adds that next layer. Of complication of like. Okay, that’s something else on our list of already long things to do with many things to do.
Me: Y. Eah.
Them: Yeah. But again, that could be facilitated with a central database, something that could easily pull all that information.
Me: And. Then. Yeah. Y. Eah. And then I guess another thing is, like, so. Are there. Are there process changes that you would propose? Let’s say you had the additional time. Like, it seems clear that on the sales side, you’re running these meetings with Pest. I know. Julie also mentioned there’s, like, an executive meeting. On a weekly basis that I think she may be going through metrics.
Them: Yes.
Me: Within. But also, I don’t know if there’s anything being done on the marketing side, like, does that kind of fit under your purview? Or.
Them: It does not. Marketing is done by a curry by less. But I know someone else has taken over that because it’s getting ready to retire. I think next month.
Me: Yes.
Them: But that would be ideally something that I would like to see because we often run into pain points where marketing in that executive meeting, which I am not a part of. But you know, you always hear the things going on, like where market will come out saying, hey, we’ve done this to show improvement. But the call center hasn’t followed through on their end, and then we’re kind of left like that’s happening. We had no idea. You know, like, so having that all kind of those puzzle pieces fit together would be really useful, I think, not only to give us a new perspective to the executive team, but for us too, because I have no idea what marketing is doing or what they utilizing. I know that they utilize Google on some level.
Me: Y. Es.
Them: Like doing their statistics, but I don’t have any insight to that. So I don’t know what’s working and what’s not, or what could change or what input is needed. It’s kind of very much siloed in that. In that way.
Me: Y. Es. Okay? And then. I had a question. There also is. How do you and Brian work together? Like, on a daily basis? Like, tell me how the data team sort of operates. Do you guys. Are you guys kind of keeping track of tasks to sort of just like you guys are attached to hip and sort of like just move in day to day? Okay?
Them: Exactly. So we. We are chatting back and forth all day, every day. His office is actually right across the hall from mine. So when his. When his. When he’s in office, we’re constantly. I’m going to his office, he’s coming to my office, we’re bouncing things off of each other. We’re. Notifying each other whatnot. But outside of that, there are. Because Brian and I have been working together for about three years now. We’ve kind of fallen into our rhythm again. He has his list of tasks that he’s responsible for, and right now he is responsible for the past KPIs. And the sales KPIs. I’m in charge of everything else and the call center. And so there’s things that I’ll go and check his work, we’ll get feedback. I’m looped in on those emails. And so it’s just a constant back and forth.
Me: Okay? So I think that’s also helpful to understand because, you know, one thing. And then. Okay, so that’s helpful. Just want to kind of get a sense of the cadence that you guys are working. Maybe I could talk specifically about this stuff from Andy. Like, are you using those dashboards that our team produced? Like, what do you think about what’s. There. You know, I think, you know, unfortunately, I feel like we could have done more. Collaborating with you on that. I think we did get to a point where it’s working well, but Amber is the one that’s reporting on it. For me. It’s clear. One thing I want to avoid is that anything. That our teams owns, you know, and we. We, of course, hope to work with ABC for a long time, but if our team owns it,
Them: Yeah.
Me: And you guys are like, we’re not working together, then it sort of dies. And so that’s a big thing.
Them: Yeah.
Me: I am very, very wary of. And so I want to make sure that, like, just to get your feedback and even to hear how you thought about those dashboards. And as I think a little bit about, okay, what are key changes or investments? That management can make on the data side to help you guys, I want to consider reporting and business intelligence something on the table. And so, yeah, maybe just to hear your thoughts on, like, the dashboard we put up there and, like. Yeah, and start there.
Them: Yeah. So I. I will say, um, when we were first starting to work on the dashboards, I was looped in there, and then I fell off because of everything that was happening. I’m over here trying to double everything. And so when I last saw the dashboards out. It’s been a few months. I know. The data that was fetching wasn’t accurate, and y’all were working on pinpointing, getting that down through the APIs. So I’ve not really gone back and looked at it, but I know in the grander scheme, I can see the vision of what was there. And I think if all of that has been hammered down, which again, I’ll just go back and I check on it. Even doing our call center scorecards.
Me: Yes.
Them: Being aggregated by you all would be a big help for us, too. So I think that there’s definitely work to be done there, like some things that could make it easier for us because again, a lot of the stuff for the call center come from 8 by 8, so. But not so to answer your question, I’VE not had a chance to go in there recently, so I don’t really know what it looks like, but I know in its first version, I thought that it had a lot of potential.
Me: Okay? Yeah. Okay? Okay? Well, that’s helpful. But it’s also helpful to know that, like, you’re really slammed.
Them: Yeah.
Me: Okay? So we have to try to find. So that’s the one thing I want to convey. To leadership is they’re not doing a good job. You know, we need to do a better job at giving you the time and space to think about doing more proactive, like opportunity based analysis versus just keeping the lights on type stuff.
Them: Yes, exactly. Right now it’s just kind of like, head just above water type of situation. We’re like, man. But it would be great if I could do some, like, swimming stunts, like, some freestyle, like, let me. You know, because I feel like I could really, really not get out of the park. But right now it’s just with everything.
Me: Okay? Yeah. Yeah.
Them: On there. It’s. Yeah.
Me: Has it changed in the last three years? Like, is it just gotten crazier or, like, you know, were there any, like. Step functions in the business that you recognize that really changed the complexity or the pace.
Them: Yeah. It was difficult for me to say. I know there’s definitely been a lot of change when it comes to the KPIs. It’s difficult for me to say as a whole what those things were because the metrics or the KPI, the data were being handled by additional people. So before there was Mariah and our pest department that was handling those. And then those Carrie over in our law department, which was handling those KPIs. So that information was, kind of unbeknownst to me, I wasn’t involved in that. And then as we started having those responsibilities, And the mechanical department as well, the home department as well. Then things started kind of getting under our belt. But because those responsibilities came on board, we haven’t. I again, haven’t had the chance to kind of see what those trends are. I know that overall, the company has definitely steered more towards being more data driven. Across the board. Which is why all this stuff is coming onto the data team, right? Which is great to see overall, but I still think that we’re at a point where it could definitely be utilized a whole lot better.
Me: Okay?
Them: Where I feel like only in the infancy of data at abc, there’s a lot of room for improvement of the growth.
Me: Awesome.
Them: It’s just kind of getting ourselves set up. There as well, but I definitely see more transition towards, hey, let’s look at the data. What is the data say? Let’s make decision based on that as opposed to, like, oh, we just feel this, or, like, you know, I think that will work.
Me: Okay? Yeah. Y. Eah.
Them: Like.
Me: And then. Can you? So also confirming, like, does your team ladder up into Julie’s team?
Them: We do not. Our teams are separate. Yeah.
Me: Okay? O. Kay. So then, where does the data team fit in the org structure?
Them: We are our own thing. We never existed before I came along. Um, so we’re just kind of in our own eyelids.
Me: Okay? Y. Eah. It also made me. Tell me the lower there. Like, how did you get involved with the company? And, like, you know.
Them: Yeah. Okay. So in. I used to be fitness instructor, so I used to teach yoga and CrossFit, and I did that for about 10 years until Covid hit.
Me: Okay? Wow. You name it on.
Them: As I was. Yeah, absolutely. I went to LA for my training and then I taught in a couple studios, but I here in San Antonio is where I majored myself.
Me: Gray.
Them: Covid hit gyms, shut down. That wasn’t really being like. I was like, oh, maybe this is my opportunity to switch things up. And so I went into cybersecurity for a year, and then after that, I landed as a sales inspector here at abc. And then after a year doing that, I noticed that there was an opening for a real time workforce manager in the call center.
Me: Okay?
Them: Which I applied to. I got it. And there was just. It was just me, a team of one. And then things started growing, so then I hired Brian. They started grants. A lot had Austin. And now all these things are being looped in where it’s like, okay, now let’s have the data team do pretty much everything for the. Company. And that’s where that’s a really broad.
Me: And. Where was that? On. Where was that on that three year journey? Like, when did you start to get asked to, like? When did you start to decide, okay, I need a Brian and like that, Those are sort of milestones that I’m interested in. Because for me, It’s not always clear, like, at what point. Investing in data. And then that way I want to. Basically, I’m going to build, like, a visual timeline.
Them: Yeah.
Me: For the executive team to show that, like, how. And this is the thing. We’re very lucky to have you because you’ve.
Them: So.
Me: Formed a structure in what you could. Right, I’m sure.
Them: Right. Yeah.
Me: I could tell that there’s not much leadership in this area and the company. And so you’re doing what you can. This is also the risk that I tell them is like, look, if you don’t give someone like David, you know, clear opportunity or a way to grow or, like, strategy.
Them: Yeah.
Me: Like you. Some company comes around and is like, david, we love what you’re going to do. Here’s like 20% more. There is a risk. And so that’s what I cook when I convey to folks, is that we often come into companies where there is, like, a rogue analysis team.
Them: Yeah. Yeah.
Me: And it’s fucked because you often just sell form. You just figure out what it takes.
Them: Yeah.
Me: To survive. But that’s no way to live, right? And so for me, when I go to leadership,
Them: Y. Eah. Absolutely.
Me: I’m a data person, so I’m very, very. Like. How do you give this team real scope? Real understood, like budget and capacity. And also like a North Star versus just like, becoming. A help desk for data questions.
Them: I love what you said there. Because just last week I was talking to a friend, and I was like, you know what? Like, I’m tired of surviving. I want to switch into thriving. And I don’t know what that looks like just yet.
Me: Yes.
Them: But, gosh darn it, I’m gonna get there.
Me: Well, Karen, I’m dead serious in that, like, we go to companies, we tell them, look, you survive through this phase, but it’s like if someone like David decides to leave, you’re really screwed. If you have to, you have to really give him a strategy.
Them: Yeah.
Me: And a path towards, like, what Data could look like at abc. And I also want to share.
Them: Absolutely.
Me: I want to try to have a path where, like, if that’s our team, like, how can you leverage our team? But the one thing I don’t want to do. Is we come in and we work, and then it’s, like, completely separate, because that’s how a lot of consultancies do things. Like, not at all how we think about that. It’s like, in fact, I want to find out and explain to them.
Them: Dora.
Me: Where my team comes from. And then also I’m like, guys, you have great data people already.
Them: Yeah.
Me: Take the busy work and give it to us.
Them: Yes.
Me: Give them the thrive type work, you know, and, and that’s how I want to help them think about the sort of like.
Them: Exactly. Yes.
Me: How does actually the manufacturing process of these insights work, you know?
Them: Sure? Yeah. And to go back to that timeline, it was about a year after. So I started in call center about 2021. It was a year after, in 2022, that we set out on hiring somebody else, which ended up being Brian. And that’s because, again, what started off is like, hey, let’s start tracking. This as you know, with data, you start getting that data and then go back and learn like, oh, what about that? And what about that? What about that? So, naturally, we start expanding into call center. I’m like, well, now we want to track this. Now we want to create this. We want scorecards here. We want graphs in. So then that became a lot for me to handle without these fallen off my planes. We got Brian, and then. In January. It will be the year that Austin has been with us. So about earlier this year, about 2025, early 2025, is when we got Austin because things started coming up again. Rosarity’s too much for me and Brian to handle. So we got Austin, and now we’re at that place, too. So yes, we haven’t really in the company or right now I nestled in the call center underneath that. So she is my direct supervisor. And then from there we kind of always been our own thing. Since the data team was always supposed to be a call center thing and always historic call center thing, but now everyone else is getting in on it. They’re like, oh, they can do that. Have them do this, have them do that. And so it’s become a way. The data team has kind of become a way of like, hey, let’s consolidate some things. But again, back to our original point where it’s become like, now. We’ve had so much being thrown at them that we can’t necessarily do anything on a broader scale.
Me: Y. Eah. Yeah. Okay? Yeah. Y. Eah. Yeah. Yeah. Y. Es. Y. Eah.
Them: So that’s kind of how my time here at NC and how this has kind of grown. But, yeah, so kind of coming from zero to not being N. So I do have, like, some metrics in the call center, so to speak, as far as, like, when I’m working towards, but this is kind of like, uncharted territory, so to speak, where now we’re trying, now we’re expanding to the whole company. And there we don’t really know what that looks like. It’s just kind of like we’re just stuck in the day to day stuff.
Me: Sure.
Them: Still.
Me: Who do you think? Like the things should move into. And, you know, like, what do you think? Like, you’re getting enough? I mean. Typically in an engineering organization like a data team falls under. Usually either the COO or like, the engineering organization. Right. It often does start like this. It starts in one business unit. But the business unit ends up. This is one of your clients.
Them: Yeah.
Me: Right. And you, as a data team, have multiple clients that you support. You know, you support with reporting and inside twist. Do you feel like there’s a logical person that can do that? Like. Champion, or do you still feel like. Everybody’s sort of fighting for themselves. You know?
Them: I would say probably because I got an executive level when it comes to data. I know Matt is a very data driven person. You look the numbers guy.
Me: Y. Eah.
Them: As his bomb. Although he sticks around when it comes to sales.
Me: Yeah. Y. Es.
Them: Stuff, he’s there. I would think one of them. But it’s weird the way that things are set up because it’s so ambiguous right now that everyone. We will have to tap in Matt to get something done in pass. We’ll have to type in tag in mode to get something here, Steven to get something there. And so. I don’t know that there is just one person right now.
Me: Y. Eah. Yes.
Them: But those event is a data driven person through and through as I’m sure you know. So. So there are even two to an exact so there are those couple people that I don’t know. That one clearly stands out.
Me: Y. Es. Y. Es.
Them: As being the person I would probably my go to is to be the best three like that match or bow.
Me: Okay? Okay? Okay, thanks.
Them: Yeah.
Me: Then. And then another point I had is. I wonder if also a way to leverage our specific help you build like that roadmap. Because I. What I want to convey to them is, like, part of your time needs to go to sort of thinking about, like, what is a data team.
Them: Yeah.
Me: Want to accomplish. Like this quarter.
Them: Yeah.
Me: That’s the kind of work that we do, a lot of which is setting up that roadmap. Not only the roadmap of, like, okay, we need access to this course, but also, like, we want to answer this question.
Them: Y. Eah.
Me: We want to be able to. We. Want to say, like, okay, cool. We want to expand from just wanting three teams that we support. I think that’s another way to. Leverage us is like for us to help you put together that. Like roadmap for the data team. And you guys, you guys need KPIs and things to, like, hit as well, you know, that way when you can say no to things, because without a sort of principled approach,
Them: Yes.
Me: And like a plan, work comes your way. There’s nothing you. There’s nothing you can flag is like, is this important to our find off mission, you know?
Them: Right. Yes. And I would very much appreciate that because obviously, as a data person myself, I’d want to have those, like, clear goals, like, this is where what you’re working towards, where you need to be, what all those things. And those are things that we’ve tried to incorporate, whether through training or expanding what we do here, but again, we just keep getting bogged down.
Me: Ok? Ay.
Them: And so, yes, I would personally love that.
Me: O. Kay. Great. So, I mean, we have it kind of like maybe just put a bow in a couple of things. So one is we got access to Evolve on Friday. I’m also getting access to some historical data from Julie today.
Them: Okay?
Me: She’d be going, stopping by the office. To get some, like. We’re basically trying to get the last, like, five years of data. We’re putting some stuff into a data warehouse. I haven’t yet got access to dream. Message, Nitesh, But I haven’t done kids yet, so I’ll have to follow up with him. And then from last, I’m getting access to. Marketing, all the marketing related goals and Google Analytics and things like that. I know. We already have access to some of the 8 by 8 data. So basically my. My job, you know, over the next few weeks, is we’re just gonna. We’re kind of exploring. A little bit of, like, where the opportunity is, and maybe even I could show you. The deck that we presented to leadership that actually, like, kind of kicked off this project. And, you know, any feedback you have now or whenever on this would be helpful. But I feel like I sort of understand the position you’re in, and so for us, It’s like we want to both use the opportunities. To also fight for. Hey, we need to make some changes to how the data team is, like, structured and working. Today in order to achieve it. That’s always what I know is hard when you’re in the stick of things.
Them: Yeah.
Me: To step back and share. If we only had this, we could do this. And that’s what I want. You to be able to leverage our team for. And so part of. Part of what we’re doing here is not just saying, okay, there’s like, X amount of money here. If we sell these, it’s actually showing. Here’s the time it took for us to do the analysis. And. That’s like. Exactly. And we came in and we just got, like, sort of like. God mode access to things because that just pushes through. But if you think about your team, like, they’re not able to get this,
Them: Yeah. Absolutely.
Me: I got to translate to folks that like, what is the culture of analytics at abc?
Them: Yeah.
Me: And show that. And so there’s just a little bit of, like, the deck we basically went through with them. Kind of like. We basically said, these are the kind of some of the core challenges, really, I’m clear, like, where people are coming from. Unclear, like where the conversion friction is. And that’s not only the top level. Right.
Them: Yeah.
Me: It’s not clear like how we are winning clients back. Like I looked at the. Sort of the subscription numbers that are in and out. It’s kind of like a lot of people go on a hub.
Them: Yeah. Yeah.
Me: And so there’s a lot of that stuck in those data silos. You have access to some marketing exercise, some stuff. Sort of, like, thrown things around all over the fence, you know?
Them: Yeah.
Me: I know there’s also talent transition with less going, but also like, I’m going to highlight that your team is swapped. And so it is a risk if. If your team can’t get some breathing room and can’t start to automate some of these.
Them: Yeah. So case in point with that Uttam, we also have Jim that is retiring, and just two weeks ago I met with him. And taking have taken over some of his responsibilities. Granted, not big lifts, but still. Again, it’s those little time sucks that add up. Right? And more to your point about the priorities of having a clear path forward right now, I think our standard forward declining new work is like, can we handle it right now? Unfortunately, we can.
Me: Y. Es exactly. Yes.
Them: And even then, I’ll have that conversation with you about, okay, I’ve got this on my plate. What’s priority? Because I know I want to get lessened or stuff first. And I know that this stuff also needs to go into, like, how does that fit in? You know, like, where is their breathing room? There, but. Yes, go on.
Me: Y. Eah. Y. Es. Y. Es. And. Then this is sort of like, we talked a little bit about these objectives, like, what’s happening today. What are the growth opportunities? Like, what is the action plan? And then, like, want to start being transferred from left.
Them: Yeah.
Me: And then this is sort of how. We’re, like, breaking it up, like. Top of funnel. Core conversion. And then retaining and bringing back customers, sort of from the dad.
Them: Yes.
Me: You know, so we’re, I think, in the conversion side. We have access to evolve. We’re going to go deep there on the retention side as well. As majority is involved. The awareness is where we’re going to start to get access to some of the marketing stuff. Basically here again. We’re just, like, doing a. High level audit of, like, are there anything that’s, like, a red flag?
Them: Y. Eah.
Me: But. Also looking at all the tools that we have access to, like, are they cheaper, faster things that we can invest in.
Them: Sure.
Me: You know, but also, again, like, mapping out for the leadership team, like, Okay, You’ve expanded to 17 services. You expand it to all these different places. But, like, are you able to segment, enable the prioritize really, really effectively, you know?
Them: Absolutely.
Me: So kind of like. Yeah. I mean, this is, like, really, like, what we’re going to sort of end up at, which is the last piece is actually like. What I think I’ll get a lot of your input on is. What is the gap in the existing infrastructure to support reporting?
Them: Yeah.
Me: You know what I’m not interested in doing is coming in and be like, oh, you can report on, like, 100 things, and you’re not doing that.
Them: Yeah.
Me: That’s saying that I already knew that coming into that. And so for us. I need to look for the executive team, I need to sell in order to get up the wins on the, on the, for the data team. Right. So part of this is going to be quantifying the list for certain decision.
Them: Yeah.
Me: S. Hey, we found that if you were to increase conversions on Click to Buy, And drive more traffic there. You could get X. The money is what’s going to get. Bobby.
Them: Absolutely.
Me: And you know not to say. Okay, perfect. What do you need for that? Then when I say. Okay, great. We need a data warehouse.
Them: Yeah.
Me: We need some type of reporting tool. And. We need an engagement where our team supports David’s team and, like, moving them out of this, like, day to day stuff and more into proactive. Like, that’s what. This is the sort of, like, dance that we’re going to try to do with a team.
Them: Yeah.
Me: I do think that also as part of this, I do want to do some of this analysis alongside you and the team.
Them: Okay?
Me: Like what I don’t want to do for us. To, like, miss all the. Edge cases and things that you guys know about the business. That you guys model into your data. And just have us spin our wheels and figuring things out. So Amber on our team is doing some of this initial analysis. I’ve told her that we should start being know an email thread together.
Them: Nice.
Me: As we start to go down answering one of these questions, And this made just. Again. This is going to be things that maybe in your purview or not, but you are just dub. You’re the only sort of data direct data partner that we have.
Them: Yeah.
Me: And so if we were going to go answer, what is the opportunity of improving our click through by funnel? That’s like our open question that we will start to break down and analyze.
Them: Yep.
Me: But I also want to do that alongside you so that you can hopefully glean a little bit of, like, what our process is, but then also you can immediately.
Them: Okay?
Me: Be like, okay, that’s already been done. Or like there’s nothing down there. Or. Oh, okay. There is actually some bigger opportunity. You know, like, for example, I was talking to Julie a lot of endless about what are the teams that are more receptive to data than others? Where areas that we’ve already tried to chip at, and maybe there’s not much. There versus, like, okay, we should focus all of our time on, like, figuring out how to grow San Antonio. So those are the things that I want to have discussions with and actually may end up.
Them: Right.
Me: Trying to come down. To San Antonio to stay with you guys for a few hours and, like, go through some of this. Yeah.
Them: Very fun. Yeah. So I know with challenging verse specifically when it comes to evolve and it comes like to retention and or cancellation, that stuff that we’ve tried to dig into, but unfortunately evolve it as comprehensive with the data when it comes to cancellations, I believe there’s currently five reasons involved that you can select two when a customer cancels their service. And it’s very just like, generic overview. It doesn’t give me anything to work with, and so it’s difficult other than that.
Me: Yeah.
Them: It would have to be digging into those accounts, looking at the notes, listening to phone calls, going into eight by eight, matching up the date and times to kind of really get a real reason for it. And it’s just obviously inefficient at best.
Me: Y. Es. Yeah. Y. Eah. Yeah. That’s the things I want to figure out. Like. Okay? Is the opera like? And this is where for us? We have to really prioritize and find the things that are doable and short term and move the deal. But we’re also going to find these, like, medium and long term. Things. That ideally. I want to put together as like, this is like the data team’s roadmap. So it’s important for us to get the blessing from you.
Them: Yeah.
Me: On that. And then also. This isn’t just something where we can execute alone. It’s actually what I’m going to propose is that. I want to give you and your team more ownership over this. But. Not just ownership without any resourcing. Like I’m going to be very clear to them that.
Them: Yeah. Please don’t do that.
Me: I won’t. I just want to be clear about, like, I just take it with. With us coming in also poking around, I want it to be clear that, like, we’re. We’re. We’re trying to get more attention to this problem. And show that data is the true way out of a lot of issues that ABC is facing. And that’s just like. I’m very biased. I’m a data person. But I really feel that way. And I think the computers, that they feel that way, too, but there’s this gap between how do we get there, you know, and, like, I can be that glue. Like that’s where, you know, we hope to help.
Them: There have definitely been many instances that I’ve been a part of in which, as you know, with data, like, something will happen and then I’ll be like, guys, it was here the whole time. Like, we brought it up and no one took any action on it. But you’re right, getting closing that gap between the data and the executive team are the key players that can actually drive that change.
Me: Yeah. Yeah. I know. Yeah.
Them: And have it be in an easily digestible way is going to be like it’s going to drive some real change. And it is there. We have some of the data, we need other parts, we need to plug some more gaps in some other places and, or make things more efficient. But. We can get there. And I’m sure with your help, it’s going to be even better. But, yes, there’s a lot of opportunity.
Me: Yeah.
Them: Specifically for us to date. And as a data person myself, I’m like, yes, let’s do it.
Me: Y. Eah.
Them: Just kind of like, let’s get everyone on board.
Me: But at least you have the culture of people are open to seeing this, and you have a rich history of data, you know, from a lot of it. And so that’s at least the two things that give me a lot of hope, is that people are really open to it. I think what we’re going to try to do is.
Them: Yes. Yeah. Y. Eah.
Me: Propose a couple of projects. We’re also going to propose, like the structure in which we like report. Is that like a biweekly meeting. Where we present a deck with insights. And we’ll walk through how long it takes to do that. And then it’s like, maybe something that we can handle over to your team.
Them: Y. Eah.
Me: Or that we try to think about. Okay, let’s just do this for San Antonio. For Steven, and then we sort of scale. So that’s kind of like for us to sort of put together a couple of these.
Them: Absolutely.
Me: Things where we can. We can conduct because we do this for a lot of companies, but then how do we start to be able to hand that off? You know, so you can continue to use us in like the way you’ve done matter.
Them: Sure. Yeah, and I think that’s going to be super important because, I mean, people in the company are kind of varying levels of, like, comprehension when it comes to data. So, case in point, I’m working with our lawn division to help set up KPIs for their department, and they’ve historically not had any KPIs at all. This is going to be the first time that they’re utilizing them. And they’ve been there in the background for like, a couple of months, but no one’s really ever utilized them or engaged with them. So I’m now meeting with the division managers to kind of establish what are we going to measure, how are we going to track it? And there are some people that meeting with that very little questions are like, what is a KPI and how is it going to help us?
Me: Great. Yes. Yes.
Them: And so I’m like, you know, like, we’re going to start from step one, from baby steps over here, you know, and so.
Me: Yes, yes, but, see, like, free. But you. That’s where you have to be with them the whole step of the way, the whole journey. But the thing is, if you’re also inundated with, like, pulling random, it’s like there’s no way it happens. There’s just no way it happens. And so that’s what I really. I don’t.
Them: Absolutely. Exactly. Exactly.
Me: Think. I just can tell that the leadership team doesn’t. It’s not because you haven’t explained. I just think they’re from a different world. And I want. I’m gonna go and there’d be very concrete with them. That like the team only has, you know? Mostly buying and David. And you’re tasking them so they want to and you’re tasked them to go do this across the business, but they haven’t been given the right, you know, tools to do that. But they are. They’re totally the right people. And so for me, I’m gonna try to break down to them, like, what it takes to go into a report.
Them: Yeah. Y. Eah.
Me: To make a report and then be like this. 50%. How can we get removed 50% of that off either through new process.
Them: Yeah.
Me: Or budget or utooling, you know? Yeah.
Them: Right. Yeah. And a lot of things on the data team have come out have been born out of necessity, as I’m sure is the standard case with many groups that are in our thing. But like before this, we didn’t know N. Brian or I knew anything about Power Automate, and it took a lot of trial and error, but we’re utilizing that now in addition to Power bi. We’re dipping our toes into that. And why start easy access and SQL? Again, there’s things we want to do, but being inundated with everything else kind of makes that difficult to kind of grow and. But a lot of those things have come out of nasty ones. Like, we have so much to do. How can we make it easier?
Me: Yes. Yeah. Y. Es.
Them: Let’s look at Automate. I hear that’s good. Let’s try it out. You know, like, a lot of. And we’ve engaged in conversations with, like, a bite about their workforce, management tools for creative stuff, because we’re still doing a lot of that stuff when it comes to the call center. What we call plotters. And we are doing that manually, which is taking a. Used to take about, like, eight hours. We got it down to four, but that’s still four hours that we could be utilizing elsewhere, you know, so there’s things that we’re trying to do is just a lot of things, and. Then we’re given. There’s another project that I have on my plate about how to track route completion for pest technicians.
Me: Y. Eah. Yeah. Y. Eah. Yeah, yeah.
Them: Which I know I’ve got a pretty good foundation on that, but I know that once that’s built out, this department’s going to have it in, that department’s going to want it, that department’s going to want it. So healing that up to everyone else is going to be another boost entirely.
Me: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Them: To. Yes. Having the tools or, like, just streamlining things is going to make things a whole lot more. Better, especially as we start to grow, because I think now it’s been. It’s literally at the point where, like, one person has a. They start talking, this person hears it. They want that, too, and.
Me: Y. Eah.
Them: Yeah.
Me: Is there? Are there things in Power Bi? Or are you using Power Automate already?
Them: Yes. So, yeah, both Brian and I are using it on a daily basis. I’ve incorporated it into my KPIs, too. That way it just cleans up my report and I can just drop it into another spreadsheet. It’ll fetch all the data from that and put it in. But there’s still clean up involved, especially with the long division. Their naming conventions are just outrageously inconsistent across systems and even within systems themselves. So. Yeah, so we are using Automate. I’m pretty sure we could use it.
Me: Yeah. Yeah.
Them: Like, at a different level than we’re currently at, but, yes, we are.
Me: And. Then power bi as well.
Them: Power bi. We dipped our toe into it. I used it to kind of. Yeah, I used it to display some data for a few months. I really don’t feel like that that was being utilized at all.
Me: That’s what Julie mentioned. Yeah.
Them: So.
Me: It’s also very complicated. And there’s a lot of better solutions that I would love to share.
Them: It’s.
Me: With you guys.
Them: Yeah.
Me: The UX is a lot of will be a lot easier.
Them: Yeah, I. I’m down for learning all the bangs. Yeah. So we’ve. We’ve tried to kind of expand and make things a little bit more efficient. I think Color Automate has definitely helped a lot. But there’s still again. There’s plenty of room to grow here and to do things better. Yeah.
Me: Okay? Okay? Okay? Great. I feel like I covered everything I need. If there’s anything I can be helpful with in the short term, please let me know. Are you guys seeing? You guys will be.
Them: Okay?
Me: I don’t know if you’re out. The next two weeks.
Them: Yes. Yeah, I think that everyone in the company. Not everyone, but, like, pretty much everyone is like, the last two weeks, we see.
Me: Then maybe you want to. Yeah. Let me see if I can try to come in, like, the first week of January.
Them: Yeah. Sure. Yeah.
Me: And, like, just try to. By that point, we will have looked at a lot of things.
Them: Okay?
Me: At least, and come in and present some of that. We’re not due to sort of wrap up this sort of stuff until, like, mid January, so that’d be good timing.
Them: Okay?
Me: I’m sure there’ll be a lot of stuff. On fire. Coming back in. So I would. Love to. I would love. Not that I.
Them: Of course, of course. Yeah.
Me: Would like. It would be helpful for me to just get a little bit of insight.
Them: To see what it’s really like.
Me: Yeah. And then also just spend some time with you guys and try to again, just make sure I have what we’re going to go pitch for. Really, really clear. But I do think that we can.
Them: Yeah.
Me: I think we can help out in a lot of ways, so I’m. I’m really, really looking forward to it.
Them: Okay, three. I’m down. And let me know if you have any other questions or need any other information. I’ll try my best to help out as I can. Yeah.
Me: Okay? Thank you. Thank you so much.
Them: Yeah, of course. Thanks for taking the time.
Me: Okay? Thank you. David. I appreciate it.
Them: Bye.