Introducing Insights!

The Report Card is the backbone of Elements Analysis' and Communciation toolset, and ensures that you as an Advisor have something to engage with your Client around at a minimum once a month. The psychology of this is discussed in a blog post "How to make your customers really hate you" but strictly speaking if you're not reaching out and engaging with an advisory client on at least a monhtly basis then you're likely to be at best forgotten, or far more likely give your customer the idea they're being ripped off (even if their business is running smoothly).

To this end, the Report Card is a summary of all of the basic information across each of the core areas of Elements that is sent automatically to both you and your client on the turn of the month. Its specifically focused on answering and creating conversation around two questions:

• How did I do last month? (within the context of all the things I've said I want to be doing)
• What do I need to do for next month? (in order to execute on all of the things I've said I want to be doing)

It also contains a range of opportunities for you as an Advisor to add notes about specific things you want them to be doing, as well as highlighting some key areas of discussion that have been detected in your Client's data.

Below we'll talk through the various types of report card, and the sections that you might run into when you're playing with it. If you have any further questions about the Report Card feel free to jump on the Advisor Facebook Group or Slack and we'll answer those for you.

Where do I find the Report Card?

Each business' list of Report Cards can be found as soon as you click on the "Advise Business" button from your Advisory dashboard, or if you're already looking at a customer record, by selecting the top icon in the left hand menu. A Report Card for each of your clients will also be emailed to you on the turn of the month, and if you've got a Slack Channel connected for a business the Report Card reports will automatically be posted for you for discussion in here as well.

The three types of Report Card.

There are three types of Report Card that you will come across on a day to day basis.

The "Baseline" Report Card

Baseline Report Cards are generated only once for each business at the time of signup. They provide basic analysis of the months leading up to the business being connected to Elements, and are designed to drive immediate conversation around how a given business is operating and what the first things an Advisor will work with a business to achieve.

The "Draft" Report Card

The Draft Report Card appears at the top of your Report Card screen inside Elements, and provides you the ability to enter your notes about the next report card to be sent out. Each time a Report Card is sent it is locked down and the next Draft Report Card is created.

Drafts are unique from Baseline and completed cards in that they will update with the latest information as it evolves over the month leading up to them being sent out.

If a Draft Report Card hasn't been edited a few days before its going to be sent out, Elements will automatically email you and remind you that its time to take a look at the Customers data and add your notes.

The "Finalised" Report Card

Finalised report cards (or just "Report Cards" most of the time throughout Elements) are any cards that have been compelted / sent / locked in. They are fixed data that cannot be changed as these cards have usually been published for your Client to see in one or more channels (Email, Slack etc).

All of a given clients Finalised Report Cards (as well as their Baseline card) are listed in reverse chronological order on the Report Card page, and can be unfurled and explored if you need to take a look at what was being discussed, or see the exact view of the world that you had in any given month.

How do I read a Report Card?

Growth Trends

(Baseline, Draft, Finalised)

The growth trends section looks at your Client's numbers in terms of their Growth Handles-- Active Customers, Number of Transactions and Average Transaction Value. For full information on how to read these charts and what each of these means within the business check out the Growth guide and the Blog.

Within the context of the Report Card, the Growth trend charts are always looking at a 3 month period. In the case of the Baseline Card, this is the three months leading up to the business being added to the system. In the case of Draft and Finalised charts this is the Month Before the Card's month, the Card's month itself, and the next month after the Card's month (for targetting). It should also be noted that when a Card is in draft mode these charts will change as data in the system does, but once a Card has been Finalised it will lock in those values forever (even if you change the data behind it).

Focus Cohorts

(Baseline, Draft, Finalised)

The Focus Cohorts section looks at your Client's customer segmentation and gives the user a snapshot of what defines a Good Customer and what defines a Bad Customer. This allows you to ensure your Client is putting their best efforts into supporting the customers that are going to have the most positive affect on the business.

Similar to the Growth Trends, Focus Cohorts are based on the same 3 month window. They are also dynamic inside Draft cards and so they may change before the card is finalised. In addition to the information shown in the standard Focus page, Report Card Focus Cohorts also indicate whether a trait has been added to this card that weren't there in prior months allowing you to discuss how things change over time.

Outliers

(Baseline, Draft, Finalised)

The Outliers section is designed to drive conversation around and the recording of situations where key numbers change in a dramatic way.

Notes

(Draft, Finalised)

Targetting

(Baseline)