How to Write a Business Analysis Report: Templates & Examples
Business analysis reports are a lot like preparing a delicious meal.
Sometimes, the recipe is simple enough that you only need to use the basic ingredients. Other times, you will have to follow specific instructions to ensure those tasty delicacies turn out just right.
Want to make sure your business report never turns out like a chewy piece of meat? You’ve come to the right place.
Stay tuned until the end of this blog post, and we promise you won’t be hungry… for business knowledge!
What Is a Business Analysis Report?
Why is analytical reporting important, what should be included in a business analysis report, how do you write a business analysis report, business data analysis report examples and templates.
- Improve Business Reporting with Databox
A business analysis report provides information about the current situation of your company. This report is usually created by the management to help in the decision-making process and is usually used by other departments within a company.
Business analysis reports can either focus your research on the effectiveness of an existing business process or a proposed new process. Besides, an effective business analysis report should also assess the results to determine if the process changes had a positive or negative effect on the company’s goals. In fact, according to Databox’s State of business reporting , an overwhelming majority of companies said that reporting improved their performance.
Analytical reports are the bridge that connects your company to an effective, data-driven business intelligence strategy . By leveraging analytical reports , you can make informed decisions about your organization’s most critical issues. You will no longer need to rely on gut instinct or anecdotal evidence when assessing risks, threats, and opportunities. Instead, you will have access to a wealth of reliable data to inform your decisions.
Here are some essential benefits of analytical reporting:
- Improve communication and foster collaboration – The most obvious benefit of business analysis report writing is an improvement in communication between all stakeholders involved in the project. Also, analytical business reports can help you to generate more trust and foster better collaboration among your employees and colleagues. By using data analytics reporting tools , you will be able to monitor your employees’ performance on a day-to-day basis. This will allow you to hold them accountable for their actions and give them greater freedom within the business as they know that their superiors have faith in their decision-making capabilities.
- Increase productivity – Without this level of shared insight, businesses struggle to stay on top of their most important tasks and can become less efficient. An effective analytical business report provides the information needed for more efficient internal processes and helps you find more time for strategic activities such as improving your business strategy or working on long-term goals .
- Innovation – In today’s digital age, the pressure to innovate was never greater. When consumers basically have everything they want at their fingertips, stepping up to the plate with a new and improved product or service has never been more important. With an accessible dashboard in place, you will be able to create data-driven narratives for each of your business’ critical functions. For example, if you are a software company, you can use the insights gained from report analysis done with your dashboard software to tailor your product development efforts to the actual needs of your customers. By doing so, you will be able to develop products that are better tailored to specific customer groups. You can also use the same information for developing new marketing strategies and campaigns.
- Continuous business evolution – When it comes to digital businesses, data is everything. No model lasts forever, so having access to a business dashboard software that allows you to constantly keep tabs on your business’ performance will help you refine it as time goes on. If there are any glitches in your business model, or if something isn’t panning out as expected, the insight offered by a business analysis report can help you improve upon what works while scrapping what doesn’t.
A business analysis report has several components that need to be included to give a thorough description of the topic at hand. The structure and length of business analysis reports can vary depending on the needs of the project or task.
They can be broken down into different sections that include an:
- Executive summary
- Study introduction
- Methodology
- Review of statistics
Reports of this nature may also include case studies or examples in their discussion section.
A report can be written in a formal or informal tone, depending on the audience and purpose of the document. While a formal tone is best for executives , an informal tone is more appropriate for technical audiences .
A good business analysis report is detailed and provides recommendations in the form of actionable steps. Here we have listed some simple steps that you need to follow to write a good business analysis report. Report writing is a major part of the business analysis process. In this section, you will learn how to write a report for your company:
Preparation
Presentation.
Obtain an overview of what you want to analyze in the business report . For example, if you are writing a business analysis report on how to improve customer service at an insurance company, you will want to look through all the customer service processes to determine where the problems lie. The more prepared you are when starting a project, the easier it will be to get results. Here is what your preparation should look like:
Set your goals
The first step in writing this document is to set your goals . What do you hope to accomplish with this paper? Do you need to assess the company’s finances? Are you looking for ways to make improvements? Or do you have outside investors who want to know if they should buy into the company? Once you know what your goal is, then you can begin setting up your project.
PRO TIP: How Well Are Your Marketing KPIs Performing?
Like most marketers and marketing managers, you want to know how well your efforts are translating into results each month. How much traffic and new contact conversions do you get? How many new contacts do you get from organic sessions? How are your email campaigns performing? How well are your landing pages converting? You might have to scramble to put all of this together in a single report, but now you can have it all at your fingertips in a single Databox dashboard.
Our Marketing Overview Dashboard includes data from Google Analytics and HubSpot Marketing with key performance metrics like:
- Sessions . The number of sessions can tell you how many times people are returning to your website. Obviously, the higher the better.
- New Contacts from Sessions . How well is your campaign driving new contacts and customers?
- Marketing Performance KPIs . Tracking the number of MQLs, SQLs, New Contacts and similar will help you identify how your marketing efforts contribute to sales.
- Email Performance . Measure the success of your email campaigns from HubSpot. Keep an eye on your most important email marketing metrics such as number of sent emails, number of opened emails, open rate, email click-through rate, and more.
- Blog Posts and Landing Pages . How many people have viewed your blog recently? How well are your landing pages performing?
Now you can benefit from the experience of our Google Analytics and HubSpot Marketing experts, who have put together a plug-and-play Databox template that contains all the essential metrics for monitoring your leads. It’s simple to implement and start using as a standalone dashboard or in marketing reports, and best of all, it’s free!
You can easily set it up in just a few clicks – no coding required.
To set up the dashboard, follow these 3 simple steps:
Step 1: Get the template
Step 2: Connect your HubSpot and Google Analytics accounts with Databox.
Step 3: Watch your dashboard populate in seconds.
Assess the Company’s Mission
It’s almost impossible to write a business analysis report without access to the company’s mission statement. Even if you don’t plan on using the mission statement as part of your business analysis summary, it can help you understand the company’s culture and goals. Mission statements are typically short and easy to read, but they may not include every area of focus that you want to include in your report.
Thus, it is important to use other sources when possible. For example, if you are writing a business analysis report for a small start-up company that is just beginning to market its product or service, review the company website or talk directly with management to learn what they believe will be most crucial in growing the company from the ground up.
Stakeholder Analysis
Who is your audience? Create the reader’s persona and tailor all information to their perspective. Create a stakeholder map that identifies all the groups, departments, functions, and individuals involved in this project (and any other projects related to this one). Your stakeholder map should include a description of each group’s role.
Review Financial Performance
Review the financing of the business and determine whether there are any potential threats to the company’s ability to meet its future financial obligations. This includes reviewing debt payments and ownership equity compared with other types of financing such as accounts receivable, cash reserves, and working capital. Determine whether there have been any changes in the funding over time, such as an increase in long-term debt or a decrease in owners’ equity.
Apart from reviewing your debt payments and ownership equity with other types of financing, wouldn’t it be great if you could compare your financial performance to companies that are exactly like yours? With Databox, this can be done in less than 3 minutes.
For example, by joining this benchmark group , you can better understand your gross profit margin performance and see how metrics like income, gross profit, net income, net operating increase, etc compare against businesses like yours.
One piece of data that you would be able to discover is the average gross profit a month for B2B, B2C, SaaS and eCommerce. Knowing that you perform better than the median may help you evaluate your current business strategy and identify the neccessary steps towards improving it.
Instantly and Anonymously Benchmark Your Company’s Performance Against Others Just Like You
If you ever asked yourself:
- How does our marketing stack up against our competitors?
- Are our salespeople as productive as reps from similar companies?
- Are our profit margins as high as our peers?
Databox Benchmark Groups can finally help you answer these questions and discover how your company measures up against similar companies based on your KPIs.
When you join Benchmark Groups, you will:
- Get instant, up-to-date data on how your company stacks up against similar companies based on the metrics most important to you. Explore benchmarks for dozens of metrics, built on anonymized data from thousands of companies and get a full 360° view of your company’s KPIs across sales, marketing, finance, and more.
- Understand where your business excels and where you may be falling behind so you can shift to what will make the biggest impact. Leverage industry insights to set more effective, competitive business strategies. Explore where exactly you have room for growth within your business based on objective market data.
- Keep your clients happy by using data to back up your expertise. Show your clients where you’re helping them overperform against similar companies. Use the data to show prospects where they really are… and the potential of where they could be.
- Get a valuable asset for improving yearly and quarterly planning . Get valuable insights into areas that need more work. Gain more context for strategic planning.
The best part?
- Benchmark Groups are free to access.
- The data is 100% anonymized. No other company will be able to see your performance, and you won’t be able to see the performance of individual companies either.
When it comes to showing you how your performance compares to others, here is what it might look like for the metric Average Session Duration:
And here is an example of an open group you could join:
And this is just a fraction of what you’ll get. With Databox Benchmarks, you will need only one spot to see how all of your teams stack up — marketing, sales, customer service, product development, finance, and more.
- Choose criteria so that the Benchmark is calculated using only companies like yours
- Narrow the benchmark sample using criteria that describe your company
- Display benchmarks right on your Databox dashboards
Sounds like something you want to try out? Join a Databox Benchmark Group today!
Examine the “Four P’s”
“Four P’s” — product , price , place, and promotion . Here’s how they work:
- Product — What is the product? How does it compare with those of competitors? Is it in a position to gain market share?
- Price — What is the price of the product? Is it what customers perceive as a good value?
- Place — Where will the product be sold? Will existing distribution channels suffice or should new channels be considered?
- Promotion — Are there marketing communications efforts already in place or needed to support the product launch or existing products?
Evaluate the Company Structure
A business analysis report examines the structure of a company, including its management, staff, departments, divisions, and supply chain. It also evaluates how well-managed the company is and how efficient its supply chain is. In order to develop a strong strategy, you need to be able to analyze your business structure.
When writing a business analysis report, it’s important to make sure you structure your work properly. You want to impress your readers with a clear and logical layout, so they will be able to see the strengths of your recommendations for improving certain areas of the business. A badly written report can completely ruin an impression, so follow these steps to ensure you get it right the first time.
A typical business analysis report is formatted as a cover page , an executive summary , information sections, and a summary .
- A cover page contains the title and author of the report, the date, a contact person, and reference numbers.
- The information section is backed up by data from the work you’ve done to support your findings, including charts and tables. Also, includes all the information that will help you make decisions about your project. Experience has shown that the use of reputable study materials, such as StuDocu and others, might serve you as a great assistant in your findings and project tasks.
- A summary is a short overview of the main points that you’ve made in the report. It should be written so someone who hasn’t read your entire document can understand exactly what you’re saying. Use it to highlight your main recommendations for how to change your project or organization in order to achieve its goals.
- The last section of a business analysis report is a short list of references that include any websites or documents that you used in your research. Be sure to note if you created or modified any of these documents — it’s important to give credit where credit is due.
The Process of Investigation
Explain the problem – Clearly identify the issue and determine who is affected by it. You should include a detailed description of the problem you are analyzing, as well as an in-depth analysis of its components and effects. If you’re analyzing a small issue on a local scale, make sure that your report reflects this scale. That way, if someone else reads your work who had no idea about its context or scope, they would still be able to understand it.
Explain research methods – There are two ways to do this. Firstly, you can list the methods you’ve used in the report to determine your actions’ success and failure. Secondly, you should add one or two new methods to try instead. Always tell readers how you came up with your answer or what data you used for your report. If you simply tell them that the company needs to improve customer service training then they won’t know what kind of data led you to that conclusion. Also, if there were several ways of addressing a problem, discuss each one and why it might not work or why it may not be appropriate for the company at this time.
Analyze data – Analyzing data is an integral part of any business decision, whether it’s related to the costs of manufacturing a product or predicting consumer behavior. Business analysis reports typically focus on one aspect of an organization and break down that aspect into several parts — all of which must be analyzed in order to come to a conclusion about the original topic.
The Outcome of Each Investigation Stage
The recommendations and actions will usually follow from the business objectives not being met. For example, if one of your goals was to decrease costs then your recommendations would include optimization strategies for cost reduction . If you have more than one suggestion you should make a list of the pros and cons of each one. You can make several recommendations in one report if they are related. In addition, make sure that every recommendation has supporting arguments to back them up.
Report Summary
Every business analysis report should start with a summary. It’s the first thing people see and it needs to capture their attention and interest. The report summary can be created in two ways, depending on the nature of the report:
- If the report is a brief one, that simply gives a summary of the findings, then it can be created as part of the executive summary.
- But if it’s a long report, it could be too wordy to summarise. In this case, you can create a more detailed overview that covers all the main aspects of the project from both an internal and external point of view.
Everything comes down to this section. A presentation is designed to inform, persuade and influence decision-makers to take the next action steps.
Sometimes a slide or two can make them change their mind or open new horizons. These days, digital dashboards are becoming increasingly popular when it comes to presenting data in business reports. Dashboards combine different visualizations into one place, allowing users to get an overview of the information they need at a glance rather than searching through a bunch of documents or spreadsheets trying.
Databox offers dynamic and accessible digital dashboards that will help you to convert raw data into a meaningful story. And the best part is that you can do it with a ‘blink of an eye’ even if you don’t have any coding or designs skills. There is also an option of individual report customization so that you can tailor any dashboard to your own needs.
Pre-made dashboard templates can be extremely useful when creating your own business analysis report. While examples serve as inspiration, templates allow you to create reports quickly and easily without having to spend time (and money) developing the underlying data models.
Databox dashboard templates come with some of the most common pre-built metrics and KPIs different types of businesses track across different departments. In order to create powerful business insights within minutes, all you need to do is download any of our free templates and connect your data source — the metrics will populate automatically.
Business Report Examples and Templates
Databox business dashboard examples are simple and powerful tools for tracking your business KPIs and performance. These dashboards can be used by executive teams and managers as well as by senior management, marketing, sales, customer support, IT, accounting, and other departments. If you are new to this kind of reporting, you may not know how to set up a dashboard or what metrics should be displayed on it. This is where a premade template for business dashboards comes in handy.
For example, this Google Ads Report Template is designed to give you a simple way to keep track of your campaigns’ performance over time, and it’s a great resource for anyone who uses Google’s advertising platform, regardless of whether they’re an SMB, an SME or an enterprise.
KPI Report Examples and Templates
KPIs are the foundation of any business analysis, and they can come in a multitude of forms. While we’ve defined KPIs as metrics or measurements that allow you to assess the effectiveness of a given process, department, or team, there are a number of ways to evaluate your KPIs. Through the use of color-coding, user-friendly graphs and charts, and an intuitive layout, your KPIs should be easy for anyone to understand. A good way to do this is by having a dedicated business analyst on your team who can take on the task of gathering data, analyzing it, and presenting it in a way that will drive actionable insights. However, if you don’t have a dedicated analyst or don’t want to spend money on one, you can still create KPI reporting dashboards using free KPI Databox templates and examples .
For example, this Sales Overview template is a great resource for managers who want to get an overview of their sales team’s performance and KPIs. It’s perfect for getting started with business analysis, as it is relatively easy to understand and put together.
Performance Report Examples and Templates
All businesses, regardless of size or industry, need to know how well they are performing in order to make the best decisions for their company and improve overall ROI. A performance dashboard is a strategic tool used to track key metrics across different departments and provide insight into the health of a business. Databox has a collection of 50+ Performance Dashboard Examples and Templates which are available for free download.
For example, if your business is investing a lot into customer support, we recommend tracking your customer service performance with this Helpscout Mailbox Dashboard which will give you insights into conversations, your team’s productivity, customer happiness score, and more.
Executive Report Examples and Templates
An executive dashboard is a visual representation of the current state of a business. The main purpose of an executive dashboard is to enable business leaders to quickly identify opportunities, identify areas for improvement, pinpoint issues, and make data-informed decisions for driving sales growth, new product launches, and overall business growth. When an executive dashboard is fully developed, as one of these 50+ Databox Free Executive Examples and Templates , it offers a single view of the most important metrics for a business at a glance.
For example, you probably have more than one set of financial data tracked using an executive dashboard software : invoices, revenue reports (for accounting), income statements, to mention a few. If you want to view all this data in one convenient place, or even create a custom report that gives you a better picture of your business’s financial health, this Stripe Dashboard Template is a perfect solution for you.
Metrics Report Examples and Templates
Choosing the right metrics for your business dashboard can be crucial to helping you meet your business objectives, evaluate your performance, and get insights into how your business is operating. Metrics dashboards are used by senior management to measure the performance of their company on a day-to-day basis. They are also used by mid-level managers to determine how their teams are performing against individual goals and objectives. Databox provides 50+ Free Metrics Dashboard Examples and Templates that you can use to create your company’s own dashboards. Each is unique and will depend on your business needs.
For example, if you are looking for ways to track the performance of your DevOps team, and get the latest updates on projects quickly – from commits, and repository status, to top contributors to your software development projects, this GitHub Overview Dashboard is for you.
Small Business Report Examples and Templates
A lot of small business owners don’t realize how important it is to have a proper dashboard in place until they actually use one. A dashboard can help you track and compare different metrics, benchmark your performance against industry averages, evaluate the effectiveness of your marketing and sales strategies, track financials, and much more. So if you’re looking for a tool to help you measure and manage your small business’ performance, try some of these 50+ Free Small Business Dashboard Examples and Templates .
For example, this Quickbooks Dashboard template can help you get a clear understanding of your business’s financial performance, ultimately allowing you to make better-informed decisions that will drive growth and profitability.
Agency Report Examples and Templates
Agency dashboards are not a new concept. They have been around for years and are used by companies all over the world. Agency dashboards can be powerful tools for improving your marketing performance, increasing client loyalty, and landing new clients. There is no single correct way to create an agency dashboard. Everyone has their own goals and objectives, which will ultimately determine which data points you choose to include or track using a client dashboard software , but with these Databox 100+ Free Agency Dashboard Examples and Templates you have plenty of options to start with.
For example, you can use this Harvest Clients Time Report to easily see how much time your employees spend working on projects for a particular client, including billable hours and billable amount split by projects.
Better Business Reporting with Databox
Business analysis is all about finding smart ways to evaluate your organization’s performance and future potential. And that’s where Databox comes in.
Databox can be a helpful tool for business leaders who are required to analyze data, hold frequent meetings, and generate change in their organizations. From improving the quality and accessibility of your reporting to tracking critical performance metrics in one place, and sharing performance metrics with your peers and team members in a cohesive, presentable way, allow Databox to be your personal assistant in these processes, minimize the burdens of reporting and ensure you always stay on top of your metrics game.
Sign up today for free to start streamlining your business reporting process.
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How to write an effective service report?
- Field service
Blog > Field service
Writing an effective service report: what are the best practices to follow?
20 September 2021 | 5 min read
For most technicians and field workers, the writing of service reports is a tiresome and time-consuming task. But in most companies, these reports have become essential. Highly appreciated by customers, these reports also allow a reinforced follow-up of field operations and an accelerated invoicing process. To help you create effective service reports, we’ve identified what to include and the best practices.
- List the useful information to be included in your service report
First of all, the manager in charge of the field services must establish a list of useful data for the follow-up of the operation. To save you time, we have summarized the most common information in our customers’ service reports. There is obviously nothing to prevent you from reviewing this list with your customers and other departments of the company. In fact, it is highly recommended!
- The essential information in every service report
The first objective of a service sheet is to quickly answer the essential questions: Who? What? Where? When? Why? Every report must therefore include at least the following data:
- Identity of the company: logo, corporate name, registered capital, company identification system, address, contact details, etc.
- Identify of the technician or the dispatcher in charge of the task: name, first name or number.
- Details of the client for whom the field service is planned and the name of the contact for this file.
- Purpose of the field service: repairing a dishwasher, checking fire extinguishers, assembly of a furniture, etc.
- Precise geographical location of the work site.
- Date, start and end time or duration of the service.
- Customer’s request : references of the purchase order, date of the email or phone call, scheduled monthly maintenance, etc.
- Signature or stamp of the end customer.
By providing such required fields, you limit the risk of oversight and encourage the creation of accurate and really usable service reports.
Link enabling the customer to download the service report.
- Data to be customized according to the activity of the company
The operations manager can also include optional custom fields in the service form template:
- Internal reference.
- License number and mileage.
- Type of equipment or tools used.
- Quantity of products used; level of a stock to be monitored.
- Comments on the field service or description of the issues encountered.
- Advice on putting into service or use.
- Date and type of the next recommended maintenance operation.
- Type of test or sample collected for a laboratory analysis, etc.
This additional data can take the form of lists, checkboxes or text fields to be completed. These data are specific to a trade or an industry and prove the effectiveness of your teams and that your work is carried out in accordance with standard practice.
- Dematerialize service reports
In fact, there is no rule or standard that requires a specific template for a service form to be considered correct. The choice is up to you. You can give field service reports on paper, edit them in Word, Excel, use a CRM or use a mobile application. But in practice, the digitization of service reports has many advantages.
- The automated editing of service reports: real productivity improvements
By asking your field workers to fill in their reports via a mobile application, you save a significant amount of time on the management of service sheets. This way, there is no need to understand sometimes unreadable entries or to look for misplaced documents! A delivery management software like AntsRoute allows you to generate your service reports in a few clicks . When generating the document in PDF format, the information collected by the technicians is automatically integrated, without any input from you.
The system to create service reports provided by AntsRoute.
- Adding photos to the service form
Most delivery management software also offers the possibility of completing your report with a photo as an attachment. To prove the absence of a customer during the technician’s visit or the good condition of the merchandise, nothing is more effective than photos! Taken on the site by the agent directly in the mobile application, these are then very useful to prevent litigation and discourage claims.
- Include the electronic signature
With the digitization of service reports, you also benefit from the advantages of the electronic signature. Thanks to the digital signature, which is very practical in remote locations, you can prove that an operation has been carried out properly even before the agent is back. Now, there’s no need to dig through piles of documents to find the missing proof of completion, before scanning it and sending it to the customer. Archiving, retaining and sorting digital service reports is indeed much easier.
- Use data from service reports in real-time
Thanks to the automated editing of the service reports, you can send them to your customers without wasting time or making mistakes. However, customers are not the only ones interested in the data contained in the service sheets. Many other departments of the company are concerned!
- Sending the service report to the final client
Now, with just a few clicks, the information entered by the agent is converted into a PDF document that can be sent to the customer immediately. This near real-time communication increases customer confidence and secures the transmission of service reports, eliminating any risk of lost or stolen documents.
The AntsRoute system for sending service reports to customers.
- Improving after-sales service
The electronic reports are also very useful to facilitate the work of the after-sales service, in case of multiple visits to a customer in particular. All the information relating to the operations are grouped together in the same software, to quickly retrace the history of a customer, a dispatcher or a maintenance agent. In a few clicks, the after-sales service can visualize :
- The type of field service or deliveries completed.
- The names of the technicians who worked on the site.
- The problems encountered in the field and the solutions implemented.
- The comments about field service, etc.
- The use of data from service reports by other services
The AntsRoute software offers concrete tools to unlock the information gathered by the agents in the field and encourage its use by other departments of the company.
A system such as Zapier, which connects more than 2,000 applications, makes it possible, for example, to directly connect AntsRoute and the accounting software Quickbooks. The users can set up an automated communication of customer information between the two software. They can also set up the software so that each time a new invoice is issued, the related task is added in real time to the basket in AntsRoute.
In the same way, customers using Odoo software can make their activity management setting direct communication between Odoo and AntsRoute. For example, each time a purchase order is edited in Odoo, a new task is automatically created in AntsRoute. By implementing this type of solution, you avoid your teams to increase the number of data entries, for an optimal productivity and efficiency!
Does the management of service reports take you too much time? To allow you to discover our maintenance or delivery route optimization software in the best conditions, we offer you a free 7-day trial, without commitment or credit card number. Go to this page to register !
- Create effective service reports today
Start your free 7-day trial. Create your AntsRoute account 100% online in just 5 minutes. No credit card required. No commitment.
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How to Write a Company Profile (Plus Samples and Templates to Aid You)
Writing a company profile can be intimidating. Start with these simple tips and company profile PDF templates for an easy start.
If you've never written a company profile before, your first time can be a little intimidating. A company profile's purpose, after all, is not just to include basic details about the brand. It must also highlight the strengths of your company clearly and confidently. Consider it to be something akin to your company's resume.
To help you create this incredibly important document for your business, you're going to need some expert advice. In this article, we have tips, templates, and samples to help get you started.
What Is a Company Profile? Meaning, Basics, and More
A company profile is a professional summary that describes a business and what it does. You'll need a professional company profile if you're trying to hook into investors, but you can also use it to pacify other stakeholders, including clients and people visiting your site for the first time.
A company profile may take on many styles and lengths. New start-ups might boast a company profile that runs only two pages long. More accomplished teams might include awards, certifications, and a large client portfolio in their own profiles. It all comes down to who the company is, what its mission is, and what it has already accomplished.
The bottom line: a company profile is a brand's chance to shine. The goal is to showcase the underlying spirit and passion behind everything that the company stands to offer the world.
What to Include in Your Company Profile
A well-written company profile is clear, concise, accurate, and completely up-to-date.
Good spelling and grammar are crucial—be on the lookout for typos, and be sure to read it through several times; you might even consider using a proofreading tool as another check.
Aside from these two points, your company introduction should also include the following elements:
1. The Business Details
It's called a corporate profile for a reason—company or business profile content should pull double-duty as an easy-to-read report that details all the most important aspects of your brand, business, and goals.
This most certainly includes extremely basic information, such as the contact information for your company. We've listed some of the most important things that any business profile needs to include. These tidbits should be readily available and easy to find:
- Company name
- Established date
- Physical address per location
- Phone and fax numbers
- Website URL
- Email address
2. The Company Basics
These items will vary depending on your industry and what you happen to do specifically; skip anything that's irrelevant to your company, picking and choosing only what you need to include.
This is one area where you can really showcase what your company has done and where it would like to take itself in the future. Invite the reader into your legacy. Show them the world that you're trying to build with your team.
- Description of the business, including the mission and/or vision.
- Product descriptions
- Description of services
- History, expansion, and growth
- Public relations
- Advertising
- Industry information
- Safety, health, and environmental policies
- Core team details
- Client portfolio
3. The Highlights
Now: your bragging rights. We've shown the reader where the company has been. Now, it's time to prove to them that you're already a team of winners.
- Certifications
- Special programs and projects
- Testimonials
- News or media recognition
4. Optional Items
You may see the following items in other company profiles or within the samples and templates below. If you've got the data or the pedigree to back any of the following up, these extra details might be of particular interest to your audience, especially to potential investors.
- Annual sales
- Financial targets
- Number of employees
- Photographs
With all of these different key details in mind, you can start to build a business profile template that includes them all. Fill in the blanks, and you've got the perfect foundation on which to build your company's profile.
Company Profile Samples and Templates
If you're hesitant to simply throw it all down at once, you can also borrow your company profile format from any successful brand that you follow, adapting it loosely to your needs. You can also find a free business profile sample online—plenty of business influencers and template services offer their take on the matter for you to exploit.
Read on to find the perfect company profile PDF for your small business. You'll need a PDF editing tool, converter, or application to open or edit some of these; we can suggest a few browser-based options if you're stuck.
1. Keeping Your Business Profile Format Short and Sweet
This first template from TidyForm is short and sweet. If this is your first time creating a company profile, it might be a good one to start with. It's clean and simple; the sections in blue help prompt you with what should be included in each area.
This basic business profile template from FormsBirds offers the reader a breath of fresh air with just a splash of color. With this option, you can put your own company logo at the top and edit the color theme throughout the document to match.
Another great business profile template from FormBirds . It begins with a useful table of contents; you can go through the index and simply add what you need to add as you go. If you prefer crisp, clean, and structured documents, you'll like this one a lot.
2. A Slightly More Involved Company Introduction
This TidyForm company profile format uses an outline instead of a table of contents. You can read through each page quickly; each section and level shows you exactly what you should include. It's also available as a DOC file, as well.
This business profile format is stunningly visual—it takes the reader on a vibrant and illustrative adventure, all while informing them about your company's charter vision and achievements. If you have the media to flesh it all out, it's one of our top recommendations, for pitches especially.
Another great option if you prefer a visual theme is this template , also from FormsBirds. You can add company and team photos for a personal touch, along with graphs and charts that show off your numbers.
This TidyForm business profile template is as simple and attractive as it is useful. If you're worried about overloading your audience with information, the style of this company profile PDF will be able to help you organize it into something much more approachable and readable.
3. Telling It Like It Is: The Full Monty
If you're at the helm of a company that is constantly growing and evolving, you're going to need a corporate profile of corresponding proportion. This option from TidyForm is more than capable of containing even extremely abundant accounts of accomplishments and other information.
This stylish (and hefty!) company profile PDF is completely stunning in terms of graphic design, straight-up. You'll find visual motifs and charming thematic elements throughout all 33 pages, and any of them can be customized around all the information pertaining to your company in particular.
No matter how much you have under your belt already, you'd be hard-pressed to run out of room here.
How to Write a Company Profile: First Impressions Matter a Lot
With any luck, at least one of the corporate profile samples mentioned here gives you just what you need: the perfect canvas upon which to base your own.
Once you've gotten all the clerical stuff out of the way, we encourage you to make your own profile. The goal is to reach out and touch the reader with what you do; a well-written corporate profile is a perfect way to win.
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Sample Customer Complaint Letter
Information to include in your letter, sample letter, example complaint letter, report fraud or deception.
Avoid writing an angry, sarcastic, or threatening letter. The person reading it probably didn’t cause the problem, but may be very helpful in resolving it.
Give the basics
- Include your name, address, and phone number.
- Include your account number, if you have an account with the company.
- Give the product name and its serial or model number.
- State the date and place of purchase.
Tell your story
- Explain the problem.
- Give a brief history of your efforts to resolve the problem, if the information helps explain why you’re writing to the company.
Tell the company how you want to resolve the problem
- State the solution you want, like a refund, repair, exchange, or store credit. Or, consider asking the company to suggest a resolution.
- List the documents you’re enclosing, if any. Remember — only send copies, not originals.
- Let them know how to reach you.
Be reasonable
- Say how long you’ll wait for a response. Allow time for the company to take action.
- Tell them what you plan to do next: for example, report it to the Better Business Bureau or your state attorney general or consumer protection office .
File your complaint
- Send your letter by certified mail, return receipt requested. Keep a copy for yourself.
- If you file your complaint online, print the screen or take a screenshot before you hit “submit.”
Use this sample letter to write a complaint about a product or service.
Your Address
Your City, State, Zip Code [Your email address, if sending by email]
Name of Contact Person [if available] Title [if available] Company Name Consumer Complaint Division [if you have no specific contact] Street Address City, State, ZIP Code
Re: [Your account number, if you have one]
Dear [Contact Person or Consumer Complaint Division] :
On [date] , I [bought, leased, rented, or had repaired/serviced] a [name of the product, with serial or model number or service performed] at [location and other important details of the transaction] .
Unfortunately, [your product has not performed well (or) the service was inadequate] because [state the problem, like the product doesn’t work properly, the service wasn’t performed correctly, I was billed the wrong amount, or something was not disclosed clearly or was misrepresented, etc.] .
To resolve the problem, I would appreciate a [state the action you want, like a refund, store credit, repair, exchange, etc.] . Enclosed are copies [do not send originals] of my records [include receipts, guarantees, warranties, canceled checks, contracts, model and serial numbers, and any other documents] concerning this purchase [or repair] .
I look forward to your reply and a resolution to my problem. I will wait until [set a reasonable time limit] before seeking help from a consumer protection agency or other assistance. Please contact me at the above address or by phone at [phone number with area code] .
Enclosure(s)
Here’s an example of what a complaint letter might look like:
If you think a company or seller has been dishonest, contact your state attorney general or consumer protection office . Tell the Federal Trade Commission too, at ReportFraud.ftc.gov . The FTC doesn’t resolve individual complaints, but your report helps law enforcement detect patterns of wrongdoing and may lead to an investigation.
For more help resolving a customer problem, check out these ideas and strategies .
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Business Communication - How to Write a Powerful Business Report
Business communication -, how to write a powerful business report, business communication how to write a powerful business report.
Business Communication: How to Write a Powerful Business Report
Lesson 8: how to write a powerful business report.
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How to write a powerful business report
When a company needs to make an informed decision, it can create a business report to guide its leaders. Business reports use facts and research to study data, analyze performance, and provide recommendations on a company's future.
Watch the video below to learn how to write and format a business report.
The basics of a business report
Business reports are always formal , objective , and heavily researched . Every fact must be clear and verifiable, regardless of whether the report focuses on a single situation or examines the overall performance of an entire company.
Because objectivity is crucial in a business report, avoid subjective descriptions that tell the reader how to feel. For instance, if sales were down last quarter, don’t say “Sales were terrible last quarter,” but rather let the sales data speak for itself. There should also be no personal pronouns, such as “I think we should invest more capital.” A business report should remain impersonal and framed from the company’s perspective.
The structure of a business report
Although the size of a report can range from one page to 100, structure is always important because it allows readers to navigate the document easily. While this structure can vary due to report length or company standards, we’ve listed a common, reliable structure below:
- Front matter : List your name, job title, contact information, and the date of submission. You can also create a title for the report.
- Background : State the background of the topic you’ll be addressing, along with the purpose of the report itself.
- Key findings : Provide facts , data , and key findings that are relevant to the purpose stated in the background. Be clear and specific, especially because the entire report depends on the information in this section.
- Conclusion : Summarize and interpret the key findings, identify issues found within the data, and answer questions raised by the purpose.
- Recommendations : Recommend solutions to any problems mentioned in the conclusion, and summarize how these solutions would work. Although you’re providing your own opinion in this section, avoid using personal pronouns and keep everything framed through the company’s perspective.
- References : List the sources for all the data you've cited throughout the report. This allows people to see where you got your information and investigate these same sources.
Some companies may also require an executive summary after the front matter section, which is a complete summary that includes the report’s background, key findings, and recommendations. This section lets people learn the highlights quickly without having to read the entire document. The size of an executive summary can range from a paragraph to multiple pages, depending on the length of the report.
As mentioned in Business Writing Essentials , revision is key to producing an effective document. Review your writing to keep it focused and free of proofreading errors, and ensure your factual information is correct and presented objectively. We also recommend you get feedback from a colleague before submitting your work because they can spot errors you missed or find new opportunities for analysis or discussion.
Once you’ve revised your content, think about the report’s appearance . Consider turning your front matter section into a cover page to add some visual polish. You can also create a table of contents if the report is lengthy. If you’re printing it out, use quality paper and a folder or binder to hold the report together. To diversify the presentation of your data, try using bulleted lists, graphics, and charts.
Example of a business report
To demonstrate the principles of this lesson, we’ve created a brief business report for you to review.
Let's start by looking at the first page of this two-page report.
The layout of the front matter is simple and effective, while the background sets the stage in a quick, specific manner. The key findings provide the main takeaways that warrant further investigation, along with a chart to add emphasis and visual variety.
Now let's look at the following page.
The conclusion features a little of the writer's opinion on the key findings, although the writing is still centered around the company's perspective. The recommendations are clear and supported by the data, while the references are thorough.
While business reports may seem intimidating, you have the ability to create a thorough, informative document through practice and careful research. Collect the facts and present them in an organized, objective manner, and you’ll help your business make informed decisions.
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25+ Consulting Report Templates Every Consultant Needs
By Bronwyn Kienapple , Oct 31, 2022
You’ve slaved day and night to get the work done for your client.
Now it’s time to present your findings.
The last thing you want after all this hard work is for the client to skim or not even read your report. And if you’re running sessions over the phone given the pandemic, it’s even more important to find effective ways to communicate and avoid misunderstandings.
Keep reading to browse consulting report templates you can edit using Venngage’s report creator . Or see all Venngage’s consulting report templates on one page.
Click to jump ahead:
What is a consulting report, the importance of consulting reports, why you should use a consulting report template.
- Consulting report templates + examples
How to write a consulting report
How to make a consulting report cover page, faqs about consulting report templates.
A consulting report is a document containing a consultant’s expert understanding and advice on a certain subject. For example, a competitive analysis report that looks at the strengths and weaknesses of a company’s key competitors:
Consulting reports are usually prepared by an expert for a client or company that doesn’t have the time or knowledge to do the necessary research and write up a report.
Preparing reports is usually part of a consultant’s job description.
What is a consulting report template?
A consulting report template is a pre-made design of a consulting report to help consultants create their own professional consulting reports quickly.
To create the consulting report above, for example, a consultant can use this consulting report template:
A business consulting report template shows:
- A problem the client is facing
- An examination of the problem from the consultant’s perspective
- Recommendations and/or solutions to the problem
The consultant may use a consulting report template to help them lay out and professionally present these insights.
Different types of consulting reports:
- Project status report
- Social media reports (current metrics vs. goals)
- Client’s supply chain model vs. industry leader’s supply chain model
- Competitor analysis or industry report
- Sample business plan
- Cybersecurity project management report
Keep scrolling to find templates for these different consulting report types. Click “Create” and our report maker tool will help you customize them, like this simple one-page report:
You can also browse business proposal templates if you haven’t won the job yet.
Return to Table of Contents
The best way to avoid a scenario where your client doesn’t understand what you’re bringing to the table is by using a business consulting report. It will help organize your ideas in a way the client will easily understand.
A happy by-product: you look professional and results-driven. Your credibility is reinforced.
Win-win for you and the client.
It’s also possible that a slowdown in clients’ business is resulting in a slowdown in yours. That makes it even more important now to show existing clients that you’re not just a budget line — that you drive valuable results.
This McKinsey consulting report template is just one way to showcase your work and improve your professional image:
Using a consulting report template saves you time and resources: you don’t need to come up with a fresh layout from scratch.
Plus, most consulting report templates (especially ones featured in this blog) contain visual aids such as images, icons, illustrations and data visualizations — this makes your report more engaging and easier to understand:
Using a consulting report template can also inspire your design: you now know the best way to visualize a certain piece of information or type of data . Take this project-specific consulting report template as an example:
Notice how the designer visualizes the project progress (schedule, scope, budget) using checkmark icons. If you like this type of visual aid, you can use it in your future consulting reports as well.
Now, let’s take a look at specific consulting templates for each type mentioned above — from project plans to pitch decks. If you’d like some more inspiration before you pick a template, check out this quick video:
Consulting report templates & examples
We’ll take a look at these types of consulting report templates + design tips for each:
Project status report templates
Progress report examples, social media report templates, recommendation report templates, business case study templates.
- Industry report templates
Competitor analysis report templates
Consultants need to keep clients in the loop.
Regular project status reports deliver updates and flag any issues you’re facing.
They also show what you still need to do.
The result? Better communication and a way to build and maintain trust with your client.
Pro Tip: Pick your project status report template based on the time period you’re reporting on: weekly, monthly, quarterly, etc.
Use this project status report template for any time frame:
All the essential information is neatly laid out in bite-size sections, perfect for busy clients.
The icon check mark chart make it easy for the client to check whether the project’s:
- On schedule
- Suffering from scope creep
Return to Types of Consulting Reports
Zero in on your accomplishments to date with a progress report. Lay them out in point form, making them easy to scan — and easy to reassure the client that you’re making progress .
Here’s one monthly progress report example:
Projects with multiple players can easily sink into disorganization.
The progress report example above clearly assigns ownership to different parties.
This can include the client, so they know exactly what they’re responsible for—and what you’re responsible for.
Pro Tip: Use Venngage’s team features to quickly share your project status reports with the client and other stakeholders. Email it to them directly or grab a private link. Update the consulting report and let everyone know immediately. The Venngage for Business plan gives you access to this feature.
This project report status template relies on a simple chart with check boxes to show the overall project status:
The focus of this report is on timetables — when milestones are expected to be completed, plus the overall revised completion date.
It’s best for a quick update where not a lot of explanation is needed. The report title page is simple, but easy to customize, and can be adapted for any industry.
Design Pro Tip: If you need to add more detail to any of our templates, copy existing pages or add blank pages. Add or delete elements like text boxes, charts, and icons as needed.
Marketing consultants use social media reports to report on their progress.
The tricky part? Presenting the report so your client actually understands it.
Here are 2 hacks to make a better social media report:
- Focus on the stats that actually matter
- Use a consulting report format that is easy to understand. Use a social media report template with simple charts or graphs.
This social media report template uses icons to highlight key stats:
The social media report template above uses icons to help explain results: a funnel for conversion rate, money to stress savings.
Design Pro Tip: Use icons to capture your point. Try bright and colorful illustrated icons for creative industries like marketing and simple line icons for more conservative fields like management consulting.
Here’s how icon replace works in the Venngage template editor:
Clicking “Replace” will open our library of thousands of free, creative icons. Select one to automatically replace an existing icon in the social media report template.
This social media report template has the same format as the above example, but with a different color scheme and icons:
This consulting report template takes another approach: nothing but stats.
No words are necessary — the stats speak for themselves in this progress report example:
The up and down red/green icons quickly let a marketing consultant tell the client if the stat is good or bad.
And everything in this social media report template is nicely segmented by channel.
Pie charts simply and effectively communicate user breakdowns and growth opportunities.
The client will appreciate the clear overview and your attention to progress and growth.
Here’s another version of this consulting report template, with a different color scheme:
Design Pro Tip: Marketing consultants can use this social media report template for any industry; it’s not just for marketing consultants . Click any text box to change the content. Delete or copy text boxes, as needed. Click any icon to replace it — we have thousands of professional icons you can use for free. Add or delete pages, too. And change the overall color scheme with one click. We make it easy—promise.
You may also enjoy: our post on how to put together a LinkedIn presentation post.
The client’s hired you to help solve a particular problem at their company.
You’ve sweated through hours of problem-solving. Now it’s time to present your findings.
Your next challenge is to make a recommendation report that communicates those findings in a way the client will understand.
You can use this quick one-pager consulting report template to outline your growth goals, or any other recommendations:
This recommendation report example has a bold look and is hyper-organized, with a report title page, introduction, table of contents, and divider pages, to help your client quickly grasp your ideas:
Pro tip: Add jump links to your table of contents to make navigating your document even easier. In the Venngage editor, select the text you want to hyperlink, click on the link icon in the top bar, and then select the page it should take your clients to. When you download the document, download it as an Interactive PDF .
This recommendation report example is simple but eye-catching. The background image and colors can easily be changed using our online editor and free stock photo library.
This recommendation report example works for real estate, but you can adapt the icons, text and photos to fit any industry.
Design Pro Tip : Adjust the consulting report title page for your industry. Click on the icons, then “replace” and you’ll access our icon library to quickly swap out the images. Type a keyword for your industry to search.
Or use the third page in this template to showcase your recommendations:
Here’s how you can customize the third page in the template above to make a recommendation report:
- Change “Next Steps for Lighthouse Metrics” to “Recommendations for [insert client name].”
- Use the bolded subheadings to outline each recommendation, then provide more detail.
- Use the three icons to highlight results that’ll come from using your recommendations.
- Delete the other pages, if you desire, to condense your recommendation report.
Or create a more graphic recommendation report with this case study template:
Design Pro Tip: Brand your consulting report template in one go with our My Brand Kit tool. Click the green button and enter the editor (see image below). Open the “My Brand Kit” tab. We’ll pull your (or your client’s) brand colors from any website. Or you can set the colors manually. Click once to apply this color palette to the entire recommendation report. No design experience required!
Consultants can use business case studies to promote how they helped past clients scale their marketing, growth or other efforts.
A business case study educates potential clients. It also shows the benefit they’ll get from hiring an independent consultant.
As a result, a business case study helps convert potential clients to new projects.
Here are 2 uses for business case studies:
- To present to new clients as “proof” as part of their portfolio
- To establish themselves as thought leaders e.g. offer business case studies as downloads in their business blogs, newsletters, social media ads, guest blog posts or eBooks .
Here’s a business case study template:
A business case study usually has the following content:
- A problem a company (or sometimes a specific decision maker) needs to solve
- Context of the problem
- Available solutions
- Why the winning solution was picked
- Results of using this solution, with data to back it up
The above business case study has most of these sections.
It also elevates the typical business case study with a contrasting background color (navy) and font (hot pink) and a bold rainbow graphic.
Design Pro Tip: Use different colored text to highlight important information. In the example above, hot pink is used to draw the eye to the title, customer recommendations and important stats.
The below business report works hard to establish the author as an authority:
This business report effectively sells the consultant’s services, thanks to:
- Client recommendations
- A bar graph of results (which you can customize within the template)
- Top deliverables, explained twice on the third page using icons and subheadings
Context is provided on the report title page, to show the clear need for the service.
Results are on page one—there’s no need to bury results farther down in a business report.
Design Pro Tip: Build charts and graphs within the Venngage editor and add them to your business report. Enter your data in a spreadsheet or import your data directly from a Google Sheet. Watch the chart or graph transform automatically.
The below consulting report template works as both a business report and presentation . It also makes great use of different types of charts and graphs to present information:
Click “Create” to customize this presentation. Once in the editor, click any of the charts or graphs to modify them.
You can also edit the overall color scheme by applying your brand colors.
Here’s another case study template that uses contrasting font colors and icons to highlight results:
Industry analysis templates
Industry analysis reports help clients understand the future of their business.
Consultants create an industry analysis to collect and analyze industry data. Clients can then create a plan for their business’s future.
Industry analysis reports can focus on any of these topics:
- The value competitors provide to customers
- Who competitor customers are
- New competitor products/services
- How to edge out potential new competitors in the future
- How to make sure business strategy aligns with company culture/values into the future
- Skills new recruits need to have for the business to remain competitive
Here’s an example of an industry analysis template that focuses on industry trends:
This consulting report template uses bold, illustrated icons and a vibrant color palette to say that its contents are anything but ordinary.
Design Pro Tip: Use color psychology to communicate an idea. For example, yellow is associated with confidence and creativity. If you like another industry analysis template, but want it to have more yellow, open the “My Brand Kit” tab in the editor. Pick one of our custom color palettes with yellow in it. Click to apply, then shuffle through different color combinations.
Here’s a color psychology cheat sheet, to help you pick the right shades:
Our blog post on brand colors delves even deeper into how to pick and use colors for your business.
Here’s another example of an industry analysis report that uses a bold color palette:
It nicely contrasts warm pink (“energy”) with blue (“stability”).
Meanwhile, the below industry analysis report plays it safe with black (“prestige”) and hints of blue “trust”):
Design Pro Tip: Make your charts and graphs really pop by putting them in a contrasting color to the dominant color. Above, the green charts really pop against the gray and black color scheme. Also, using different types of charts (horizontal vs. vertical stacked bar charts) keeps the reader interested.
A competitor analysis report is similar to an industry analysis or market overview report.
But, it focuses on specific competitors. That could mean one main competitor or several.
As a consultant, collecting strategic research about rival firms is old hat.
You just need an effective way to communicate that research to the client without their eyes glazing over.
Look at how this competitor analysis report template segments and visualizes key research :
Here’s how the above template structures its data:
- Page 3: Key industry stats have their own blue text box and the figures are enlarged
- Page 4: Website analytics are listed and stats are bolded
- Page 5: Social media stats are organized by bold icons and big numbers. The SWOT analysis uses bullet points and columns.
This structure helps avoid the dreaded “wall of text.”
The result: a report your client will actually read (and understand).
Design Pro Tip: Try different font sizes and weights (like bold) to highlight important data. Use subheaders and colored text boxes to section off data and make it easy to scan. Marketing consultants can use this template, but it can be adapted for any industry.
Here’s the same competitor analysis report , but with a different color scheme:
Design Pro Tip: Change the entire template’s color scheme by using our My Brand Kit tool. Or click on individual sections, open the Background tab and apply colors and gradients. Click “Undo” to nix mistakes.
The next competitor analysis report template does double duty as a report and presentation :
A consulting report template can also take advantage of using a graphic SWOT analysis to visually lay out opportunities and threats. Icons help explain key points.
Click the template to enter our online SWOT analysis maker tool and customize the template to your liking.
Design Pro Tip: Change the stock photos in any of our templates. Our in-editor photo library has thousands of high-quality, professional stock photos that are completely free to use. Search by keyword (ex: “healthcare” or “marketing”) and click to add your choices to the report. Or, upload your own photos.
Even though the content of consulting reports will be completely different, they usually follow a pretty standard structure.
Stick to this structure to keep yourself organized, allow for a logical flow of information and keep the client reading (and not confused!).
Here are tips for writing a consulting report:
- Name of report
- Name of your company
- Name of client
- Date report delivered to client
- Complete this section after you finish the rest of your report
- List each part of the report and the page number it’s on
- Write this section after you finish the rest of your report
- Sum up the issues, analysis and solutions included in the report
- More information below on how to write an executive summary (click to jump)
- Purpose of report
- Problems/issues to be addressed
- Methods to be used to analyze the problem/issue
- List the issues, describe and analyze each one
- Analysis should include statistics and data (cite your sources)
- List your recommendations as bullet points to keep them short and to the point
- Summarize all your findings and recommendations from the report
- Include any supporting documentation like references, bibliography, photographs etc. Basically, anything that supports your recommendations.
Check out this consulting report template. It has most of these major sections:
This consulting report template is missing an executive summary, recommendations and a conclusion.
You can play around with the consulting report format based on what the client hired you to do.
Still, it’s easy to add these sections to the template if you need to.
You could copy the introduction and findings pages in the Venngage editor. Then, change the headers and content.
A consulting report cover page should be professional, include all important details and give the reader some idea of what the report’s about.
Pro Tip: Don’t settle for a boring title! Make sure the title/subtitle on your cover page are compelling and make the reader want to keep reading.
Here’s how to write a consulting cover page for a report:
- Include a title, such as “Vortex Co. Case Study”
- Include a subtitle, such as “How Vortex Co. used Network’s Social Tracking Tool to Make Their B2B Conversion Skyrocket”
- Include your name i.e. the name of the consultant
- Add the name of consultant’s company
- Include the client’s name and logo
- Include the date of submission
Here’s an example of a cover page template:
Choose the color scheme, icons, font and images that you use in your consulting report cover page carefully.
They should give readers a rock-solid idea of what they’re about to read.
When in doubt: keep your design as simple as possible.
Design tips for consulting report cover pages:
- Use clean, conservative fonts: Sans Serif fonts such as Times New Roman, Arial, Calibri
- Avoid handwritten or calligraphy-style fonts. Or any fonts that are hard to read.
- Brand your cover page template by using the client’s logo, brand colors and font
- A photo that represents the industry
- A metaphorical photo, like plants to represent growth
- Your font, images and text should all work together in design harmony. The best way to avoid sending mixed messages? Yes, again: a consulting report template.
For example, the color scheme, image, and fonts in the above cover page template are strictly professional and muted.
In contrast, the below cover page template uses a bold image and color to say “futuristic” and “innovative.”
What is an executive summary?
An executive summary is a short description of the contents of a report. It goes before the introduction in a typical report.
It shouldn’t include high-level information but instead facts and figures from your findings, plus any recommendations.
Pro Tip: Decision-makers may only read the executive summary of a consulting report (and skim the rest). Spend the most time on this section.
Here’s a test to make sure you’re on the right track: show the executive summary to someone not involved in the project.
Do they feel like they get an overview of the consulting report and don’t have to read further to understand it?
If they feel confused or like they’re missing information, you need to tweak your copy.
Don’t be afraid to incorporate visuals, too. This executive summary is part of a five-page report:
It relies on an icon mind map to help explain its central concept.
A two-column report format for the text helps break up the information and a punchy color scheme keeps the reader engaged.
How to write an executive summary
Consultants should write an executive summary after < they write the rest of their report.
Only then will you really understand what information to include.
Your executive summary should include:
- The problem or issue at stake
- Your findings (including facts and figures)
- Your analysis of these findings
- Your recommendations to the client
Here’s an example of an executive summary:
It presents problems, recommendations and next steps in a concise format.
Here are some tips to write an effective executive summary:
- Keep it to two pages maximum for long consulting reports
- Keep it to a paragraph for reports that are three to four pages total
- Use subheadings and bullet points to break up the text
- Use a chart or graph to highlight your main finding or recommendation
What’s your #1 tip for writing a great business report? Let us know in the comments below.
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12+ Customer Service Report Examples [ Analysis, Research, Weekly ]
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1. Conduct a Customer Satisfaction Survey
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How to Extract Maximum Value of Your Customer Service Data with Professional Customer Service Reports
Table of Contents
1) What Is a Service Report?
2) Customer Service Reports Benefits
3) Customer Service Reports Examples
4) Tips for Customer Service Data Analysis
5) Customer Service Performance Mistakes To Avoid
Customer service and experience count now more than ever before—no compromises, no exceptions. Brands that invest in building faultless experiences and offer exceptional standards of customer service (CS) will set themselves apart from their competitors while earning genuine consumer loyalty.
When it comes to CS, in particular, today’s digital consumer is very much in charge. Due to the hyperconnected, incredibly convenient, and instantaneous nature of the modern consumer world, as well as the number of touchpoints on offer, maintaining excellent levels of service by utilizing carefully selected customer service KPIs is the ultimate key to survival.
That said, if you’re able to answer customer queries quickly and effectively, you stand to increase your brand loyalty tenfold. To optimize your CS offerings, you need access to the right data, and this is where a customer service KPI report comes into play.
This kind of report will empower your organization to understand its clients on a deeper level, consistently meeting their needs. Armed with the right insights and the right visualizations, a service report will make your organization smarter, more efficient, and ultimately, more consumer-facing (which is essential to ongoing growth in the digital age).
In this article, we will explain how data analytics can significantly improve your CS offerings while explaining the vital role reporting plays in propelling your business to new commercial heights. We’ll also look at a mix of inspiring dashboards and template examples based on different types of customer service reports.
Ready? Let's get started.
“There is only one boss. The customer.” – Sam Walton , founder of Walmart
What Is a Service Report?
A customer service report is a tool composed of a mix of customer service metrics that help organizations meet customer expectations and provide better experiences. Thanks to real-time data, businesses can optimize their service levels while increasing profits.
From average response time to NPS score , a customer service report provides deep and valuable insight into key areas of your consumer-facing efforts. In turn, this will provide you with an astute understanding of the positive areas to build upon and the areas of improvement.
To provide the best possible standards of CS on a consistent basis, understanding how your consumers interact with your company is vital. Having the right online reporting tool will ensure your data stays up-to-date and evolves as your company changes.
In the Age of Information, there are several customer service reports to explore—each with different assets, attributes, and capabilities. It’s possible to use a customer service report for a wealth of different aims, goals, and purposes, some common types include:
Internal agent reports: In many ways, your customer service team is the beating heart of your entire organization. In fact, customer service and experience are two of the most important drivers of success in today’s digital world. An internal customer service report will give you the insights required to assess as well as demonstrate how well your customer service team deals with inquiries across multiple channels. This stringent level of internal insight will give you the data to track individual progress as well as collective output so that you can provide tailored support and training where required. This is an essential report for ongoing productivity and departmental progress.
External stakeholder reports: In addition to internal customer service analytics, you should work with external service reports. Tracking this branch of customer service data is essential for managing healthy relationships with external stakeholders, including partners, sponsors, and investors. By presenting your most valuable service insights in a dynamic visual format, you can make persuasive cases for planning and investment in a way that’s universally understood and accepted. External reports will also give you the tools to benchmark your success or progress against industry standards, which is often an important factor for gaining ongoing support from investors and stakeholders.
Real-time reports: Real-time service reports are designed to maximize your ability to respond to issues and inquiries under pressure. These types of customer support reports track ‘in the moment’ insights as they change, evolve, or emerge. By gaining access to the right daily customer service report, you can nip any rising issues in the bud while making concrete decisions that will ultimately improve your service operations and strategies. Having access to this highly responsive level of information is vital, especially when your service team is responsible for managing an ever-growing demand for consumer support.
Omnichannel service reports: Omnichannel reports are designed to consolidate essential service metrics across a host of consumer channels. Using these types of reports will help you manage your service strategy and output across a wealth of touchpoints including email, phone support, online chat, and social media with complete confidence. Not only will omnichannel reporting help you maximize overall responsiveness and efficiency - it will also give you the tools to uncover patterns or trends to keep improving your strategy.
What Are the Benefits of Customer Service Reports?
Now that you know what a customer service report is and the role it plays in improving your consumer-facing processes, let’s look at the key benefits.
In the digital age, consumers are more empowered, more tech-savvy, and more demanding than ever before. If you don’t satisfy a customer’s needs or resolve their issues almost instantly or with a degree of competency that they deem unacceptable, they simply will not stick around. Add to this the fact that clients now trust the opinions of their peers more than the brand itself, and focusing on your CS offerings should be your topmost priority if you want to succeed.
There are seemingly infinite benefits to the pursuit of customer reporting. By gaining access to the right insights, you can:
- Improve your company’s best response time
The response time is the backbone of any CS department or organization. We have written a bit more on the average response time below in our article, but the main point is to keep it as short as possible. If you track this metric in your weekly or monthly reports , you can significantly improve it by identifying your bottlenecks (maybe the number of available agents during a rush-hour shift is too low, for example).
- Prevent callbacks about a repeat issue
Let’s face it, consumers don’t like to call back or repetitively point out a single issue. By utilizing comprehensive reports in which you can include the first call resolution metric (FCR) or recorded calls as they're critical, you will have immediate access to data and a better chance to act promptly, without providing low-level service that can cost you in the long run. Setting detailed reports on a single screen will enable you to increase the level of your support department and ensure customers are taken care of at all times.
- Reward your top-performing agents and boost internal morale
Top-performing agents should be rewarded. If you see beneficial results in your reports, investigate further and see whose work has brought those results. Better yet, implement a team KPI dashboard that will show you immediately how your team is performing and where you need to allocate more resources ( educational materials or workshops ) so that the whole department has more chances to improve their results. You can also ask your top agents to educate other team members and provide them with tactics that bring success and sustainable development.
- Track the level and nature of issues overtime to make informed strategic decisions
If you lose track and count of your customer issues when you manually insert information into a spreadsheet, you can cause serious issues in the long run. It’s simple to miss a row or comment made by another colleague, non-intentionally, but definitely harmful. If your reports , for example, have set intelligent alarms that will send you a notification as soon as an anomaly occurs, you can improve the tracking of issues and create an environment that will improve your decision-making processes in the future.
- Gain a deeper insight into how your company is perceived by your customers
Another benefit is measuring satisfaction. A satisfied customer is worth more than any other indicator you could possibly track or evaluate. It is fairly known that a contented customer will recommend you on average to 3 friends, while the unsatisfied ones have the power to access and write on the Internet about their experiences with your brand. By regularly evaluating how you are perceived by your customers, you have the power to predict and act on potential future obstacles.
- Evaluate and improve your net promoter score (NPS)
Net promoter score is one of the customer satisfaction metrics that are, simply put, all about referrals. The goal is to obtain as many promoters as you can which will enable you to expand your brand and enhance your loyalty rates. The more loyal consumers you have, the more rewards your company will reap. If you properly take advantage of ensuring your reports also include the net promoter score, you will be able to quickly evaluate how detractors, neutrals, and promoters affect your bottom line. In the above image, you see an example of an interactive way to display your NPS, dividing consumers into promoters, passives, and detractors.
- Enhance priceless retention and loyalty rates
Closely connected to the net promoter score, the retention and loyalty rate are all focused on gaining your customers’ trust and enabling them to spread positive words about your organization. Retaining a customer is essentially much less expensive than gaining a new one and with the help of a proper report, your CS department can thrive. By looking at your customer retention metrics you can also extract conclusions like which channels your target audience engages in the most and allocate your budget and efforts accordingly.
- Make your CS department more effective by reducing costs
A customer service report sample can also help improve financial efficiency. Reducing support costs is not about cutting down manpower or investing the lowest amount of dollars into your support department. It’s mainly about optimizing your processes and reaching the highest quality of your services with the lowest costs possible. That would mean that your agents are efficient and trained pretty well, and the agents’ schedules are corresponding with the needs of the department. To have an at a glance overview, creating a customer support report will ensure that you monitor your expenses regularly and efficiently.
It’s clear that there are a host of tangible benefits as stated in our 8 points above, and many of them will have a positive impact on other areas of the business. To get details into each mentioned KPI, you can read more about it below in our examples section of the article.
In short, they offer the power to understand your company to make informed decisions based on accurate insights rather than making estimations and taking actions that offer little value to the organization or its customers.
Companies that grow their retention rates by as little as 5% often see profit increases ranging from 25% to 95% . Like this, you’ll not only be able to boost your retention rates significantly but you’ll also be able to boost your brand’s reputation, thereby resulting in commercial growth and increased profits.
We live in a world rife with invaluable digital insights. If you fail to use this information to your advantage, you are missing out on vital opportunities that can improve the efficiency, output, and cohesion of your organization’s CS department, which could prove disastrous in the long run.
- Understand your customers’ preferred channels of communication
As we migrate towards an increasingly hyper-connected age dominated by digitally native consumers (mainly millennials and gen zers), consumers can access a wealth of information at the swipe of a screen or the click of a button. As such, today’s consumers like to interact with brands across an increasingly broad range of channels or touchpoints.
From Instagram, Facebook, and Snapchat to TikTok, YouTube, mobile apps, online chat, email, and beyond, there are so many ways you can connect with your customers in the modern age. And while there is almost an endless scope for connecting with them you will find that almost everyone who interacts with your organization has a preferred channel.
By working with the right customer service analysis metrics, you can discover, at a glance, which channels your clients prefer for particular issues or communicative reasons. By uncovering this information with ease, you can branch out to your consumers using the right method, solving their issues or pain points in a way that’s personable and meets their needs. This will boost your satisfaction rates, improve your brand reputation, and grow the company.
- Plan staffing schedules and spot the need for training
Providing your agents with the right training is essential to the ongoing growth and development of your CS department. Without adequate training and mentorship, your agents will not only thrive in their roles, but they will become more efficient, responsive, adaptable, and innovative.
With the right customer report, you can pinpoint where your agents are struggling to resolve your consumers’ issues or answer the right questions. Using this specific information to your advantage, you can provide tailored training to get straight to the root of the issue and ensure your team can tackle everything that comes their way with confidence.
Using this type of service report, you can also gain an informed understanding of how many agents you need working at one time, overseeing the entire operation with clarity to jump in and offer support or training when it’s needed. These business dashboards will also help you understand the days and times your customers are contacting you the most. Having this info is valuable as it will allow you to plan shifts and make sure you have the number of agents needed to cover the volume of tickets at any given time, boosting your service levels in the process.
Client support can prove to be a challenging role, and by offering your agents practical mentorship, it’s more than likely that you will also boost morale, motivate your team to keep improving and boost productivity across the board.
- Identify areas for product improvement
This is a commonly overlooked facet of CS success, but it's incredibly important: the quality or value of your products will have a direct impact on the success of your service strategy.
By using a service report to monitor specific queries or issues, you will swiftly paint a picture concerning any products that are failing to meet your consumers’ needs or expectations.
If you’re a fitness tech supplier, for instance, and you notice a spike in complaints centered on the interface quality of your latest outdoor pursuits watch, you can quickly notify your product team about the specific issues resulting in complaints.
By providing this level of consumer intelligence, a report on customer service essentially becomes a vessel for overall organizational improvement. It’s true that your CS department is your main point of consumer communication or resolution. But it’s vital to understand that it’s also a vessel for invaluable frontline information.
Armed with dynamic information, your CS department will become a valuable hub for organizational intelligence, helping you improve your communications, marketing messaging, and the products you develop, sell, and promote.
Customer Service Reports Examples & Templates
We’ve looked at the what and why of customer reports, and now we’re going to explore the primary customer service dashboards associated with an organization’s various CS-based activities.
1. Customer Service Team Dashboard
In this day and age, to provide an exceptional standard of service, you must exceed customer expectations.
**click to enlarge**
This first customer service report sample hones your team’s overall performance on a daily and monthly basis by focusing on response time and individual agent performance all in one centralized space. Your team’s performance is vital to the success of your entire operation and this BI dashboard will help you make valuable contributions toward driving your organization forward.
- Average response time: To enhance your customer satisfaction level and productivity rates, keeping your average response time to a minimum is a must. This particular KPI measures the time right from the moment a customer makes a call to the moment an agent responds. This along with other related service desk KPIs offer an excellent insight into your overall CS performance levels.
- First call resolution: The First call resolution rate gives a clear indication of how successful your team is at solving an issue upon the first contact. An improvement in this area might increase your call handle rate, but it will have a minor impact if your first call resolution level has improved.
- Top agents: Staff satisfaction and morale are perhaps one of the most vital drivers of positive customer support performance. By tracking this metric over several months, you’ll be able to identify which of your agents can benefit from additional support and training and which agents you should reward and recognize.
- The number of issues: By understanding the volume of incoming calls and queries coming as well as the nature of each inquiry, you’ll be able to make informed staffing decisions to cope with demand at particular times while improving your strategy to meet the needs of your customers.
2. Customer Satisfaction Dashboard
Customer satisfaction remains a number one priority for today’s businesses as it translates to an increase in brand loyalty and in many cases, an increased spend per customer.
Focused on all primary aspects of customer satisfaction, experience, perception, and retention, this particular example will help you keep your consumer happy, engaged, and loyal to your business.
- Net promoter score (NPS): Your NPS is critical to your entire operation because it shows the perception of your support levels by the public. Essentially, it determines how likely someone is to refer you to their peers. On a scale of 1 – 10, and based on their scores, customers are either considered promoters (9-10), passives (7-8), or detractors (0-6). By improving your NPS score, you’ll ultimately see an increase in growth and loyalty.
- Customer effort score: This is a particularly critical KPI as it gives you a glimpse into the standard of your overall customer experience offerings. By understanding the elements of your customer experience that are letting your company down, you’ll be able to make vital improvements and in turn, grow the company.
- Customer retention: As mentioned, customer retention is essential to the success of your organization. By setting a retention rate target and working towards it, you’ll improve your brand image and expand your customer base over time.
3. Customer Support KPI Dashboard
Regardless of your CS role or level of seniority, there’s always room for improvement.
That last customer service report template is heavily populated with information and tracks a host of indicators that are common to a helpdesk dashboard in addition to customer satisfaction or even a customer service dashboard . With a wealth of invaluable insights available on one easy-to-navigate platform, this dashboard offers managers all the support information they need at a glance with the option to drill deeper into individual performance indicators and insights.
- Service level: This particular metric calculates your capacity to complete the standards confirmed in the service level agreement (SLA) you provide to your customers. This KPI is important as it showcases your commitment to delivering on your promises and will help you identify ways in which you can improve your overall standards.
- Customer support vs revenue: A priceless support metric, this KPI helps you to calculate how much the support costs are in relation to the total revenue. If you can provide incredibly high standards of service for decreased costs, commercial growth and increased revenue are inevitable. This KPI will help you gain the insights you need to achieve this goal.
- Customer satisfaction: A satisfied customer lies at the beating heart of every successful organization. By getting a tangible gauge of what your customers currently think of you, you’ll be able to make improvements in the areas that matter most.
4. Customer Retention Dashboard
It’s no secret that retaining existing customers is more cost-effective than attracting new ones. And given the fact that loyal customers spend an average of 67% more than new consumers , investing in your retention strategies and activities will prove essential to your success.
As one of our most valuable service reports, this dynamic customer retention dashboard is designed to sustainably improve your consumer retention rates.
Visually balanced and featuring charts, graphs, and visualizations that offer at-a-glance insights into retention-centric progress and trend-based insights, this report is a go-to resource for companies across industries.
Here, you will find everything you need to benchmark your success in specific customer retention-centric areas while identifying potential strengths and weaknesses—a visual vessel for CS success.
- Customer churn: This sales KPI also plays an essential role in customer retention, as it helps you understand which portion or percentage of your customers have stopped using your business or service over a set timeframe. Here, you can identify peaks or troughs in your customer churn rates, pinpoint potential loyalty issues, and create targeted strategies to reduce them.
- Net retention rate: Your net retention rate is important as it gives you a deeper insight into new vs. repeat customer churn rates while calculating new product or service cancellations over a set period. By tracking the net retention rate consistently, you will be able to make valuable tweaks or improvements to your service or customer experience journey.
- Revenue churn: This revenue-focused KPI will help you track, monitor, and measure the percentage of revenue your business has lost from your existing customers. Here, you can trace trends, pinpoint where the revenue loss came from (a product cancellation or service downgrade, for example), and make strategic refinements to reduce your revenue churn rates consistently.
- MRR growth rate: Your MRR (monthly recurring revenue) is another essential metric. It will tell you how your retention rates are affecting your bottom line over a set period. In turn, you will gain a clear understanding of what might be affecting your MRR and tackle the issue head-on.
“Customers don’t expect you to be perfect. They do expect you to fix things when they go wrong.” – Donald Porter, V.P of British Airways
5. Agent Talk Dashboard
Despite the ever-growing number of channels available to today's customers, many people still like to communicate the 'old-fashioned' way - via the telephone.
The quality of your calls counts - and this talk-centric customer service report will tell you all you need to make your telephone-based communications more impactful and efficient based on four key areas: unsuccessful inbound calls, general efficiency, agent activity, and conversation quality.
This insightful Zendesk dashboard will give you the tools you need to answer more calls and resolve more complaints within a specific time frame without compromising on service quality. By using this customer service report example as your talk-based informational North Star, you will improve the success of your CS offerings exponentially, improving your brand reputation in the process.
- Answer time: This most telling metric will give you an accurate gauge of how long it takes your agents to answer calls. By tracking this KPI consistently, you will gain an understanding of exactly how efficient your call system is and pinpoint any potential weaknesses so you can make targeted improvements.
- Leg talk time: This particular customer service analysis example is based on how long it takes your agents to provide a resolution during a customer call. Each leg refers to a different stage of the service or sales cycle, providing you with targeted information that will empower you to make improvements or agent support exactly where it’s needed.
- Unsuccessful inbound calls: Presented as a digestible bar chart, this KPI tracks how many customers calls fail to connect or get picked up within a specific period, as well as the primary reasons why. Gaining access to this level of detailed service information will empower you to understand where your service is failing most and dig deeper into the issue, improving your overall customer experience offerings in the process.
- Quality rate: The quality rate KPI measures the general quality of your call center. Essentially, the quality rate is the percentage of calls that receive good-quality reviews based on the total number of conversations. Setting a realistic benchmark will give you a continual gauge of your call center’s result, empowering you to respond to any dips in quality quickly, preserving your service offerings as a result.
6. Customer Service Quality Dashboard
When it comes to customer service analysis, monitoring the overall quality of your efforts will ensure you remain responsive, progressive, and efficient across the board. It’s not only important to be responsive in today’s competitive digital landscape – you must also be able to provide consistent resolutions to a variety of requests or issues with clarity and confidence. That’s where this effective customer service report template comes in.
Featuring a dynamic mix of customer support analysis metrics, our customer service quality dashboard is designed to monitor your ongoing progress across your most engaged service channels, including email, telephone, online chat, and social media. Here, you can track integral trends or patterns in real-time and gauge your abandonment and resolution times and costs.
Main KPIs:
- Average resolution time: This customer service analysis report metric quantifies the length of time, in minutes, your service team takes to tie up consumer issues or requests. The reason this metric is so effective is that it takes standard as well as more specialist requests into account, offering an accurate weekly average. If you notice that your resolution times are dwindling, you can drill down into the issue and take targeted measures to streamline your processes for specific service channels.
- Cost per resolution: Often featured within a customer service weekly report template, this service metric will tell you how much it actually costs to solve your consumers’ requests or issues. It’s possible to break this information down across specific channels and pinpoint the driving factors behind cost fluctuations. The aim here is to have lower costs and higher satisfaction rates by getting to the root of the problem swiftly. Rising costs could be related to platform licensing fees, inefficient team structures, or poor internal communication. You can uncover the issue and solve it.
- Total & solved tickets by channel: This telling visualization will give you a balanced insight into your overall ticket status. Segmented into different service channels, it’s possible to keep your customer service reporting structure efficient while getting to grips with your service capacity and limitations. If you identify any dips or irregularities in your ticket handling success, you will be able to find out the reason why and get your weekly service strategy back on track.
- Abandon rate: This essential service quality metric will give you an ongoing appraisal of how many people give up on a service interaction without having their issue solved. If you notice a spike in these numbers, immediate action is required. Using this visualization, you can understand whether issues like service backlogs, clunky resolution processes, or poorly trained agents are driving your numbers up. Armed with the right knowledge, you can get your service levels back on track quickly.
13 Top Tips for Customer Service Data Analysis
While CS insights are priceless to any modern organization regardless of its industry or sector, due to the colossal volume of information available on a daily basis, creating and managing it effectively can prove to be challenging.
Here, we’re going to share 13 essential tips for effective customer service data analysis.
1. Create a detailed report plan
To generate the best possible service report, you have to create a solid customer-facing plan. You need to understand the scope of the data that you are going to report on and the roles of the stakeholders involved (from front-line reps to service development executives, communications specialists, and beyond). Creating a draft to ensure you have all the steps covered beforehand will save you a lot of time later on. With the help of a BI reporting tool , you can look at the bigger picture and identify what kind of report you are going to generate (more on that below), who are you going to address, and what is your end goal. Preparation and planning are key factors in creating a stable and gainful report practice, and you should not skip this step.
2. Structure your reports based on the end-user
Depending on whether you selected KPIs for your support team, departmental or C-level manager, structuring your data is of utmost importance. Who will use the customer report is the baseline of your report creation. This is also closely connected to selecting the right metrics (more on this below) as the team leader won’t collect and analyze the same metrics as the support agent, but focus on the team’s performance, for example, to be able to provide necessary training and ensure stable processes. Using a comprehensive online dashboard , you can monitor performance indicators related to your top agents, the number of issues, or the first call resolution time automatically, streamlining your customer service data analysis efforts in the process.
3. Use a mix of real-time and historical data
When you’re working with a customer support report template, it’s also important not to pigeonhole your analytical efforts. What we mean here is that you shouldn’t only work with one set of insights (only real-time metrics, for example). To get a well-rounded view of your service progress, capabilities, and strategy, it’s vital to explore both real-time metrics and historical insights. Taking this balanced approach will ensure you can respond to emerging issues swiftly while uncovering past patterns or trends that will help you formulate efficient service strategies across all key communication channels.
4. Choose your KPIs
Each business is different and insights that might prove particularly useful to one organization might not be the same for another. However, selecting the right KPIs for your business in a collaborative capacity is essential to the reports’ success. The average response time, for instance, will tell you how long it takes for an agent to respond to a customer call. If you respond swiftly and diligently, your brand image will remain positive, and the customer will certainly not complain. On the other hand, if you put them on hold for a longer period of time (more than a minute), the probability that they will hang up significantly increases but also the potential to harm your reputation.
Once you’ve identified the information that will help you enhance your CS offerings the most, you will be able to set up a visual data dashboard customized to your needs, goals, and objectives. To ensure that you get optimum value from certain metrics, you should set measurement time parameters that will give you a comprehensive snapshot of averages and trends. It will also give you the most accurate view of your CS data. That brings us to our next point. If you want a complete guide on how to choose the right indicators for your business, take a look at our KPIs vs metrics post!
5. Monitor and analyze your data regularly
To ensure your CS analysis report provides invaluable quality and the best possible insights, you need to regularly monitor and analyze your findings. To create a sustainable customer KPI report, utilizing modern software and online data analysis tools such as datapine will make sure your data is up to date and valid in any given situation.
By monitoring your information in real-time and graphically representing data through a series of charts you can easily manipulate and drill down into bits and pieces that would, otherwise, remain hidden. The analytical part is one of the most important steps you need to perform in order to successfully build and maintain a profitable strategy.
Through logical analysis, you will be able to meet your customers’ needs at every stage of their journey and provide a seamless service across every channel or touchpoint.
Customer reporting isn’t just collecting numerous data, but analyzing the numbers and answering important questions. If you do that, you will take your customer service offerings to the next level.
6. Use a balanced mix of service KPIs
Once you’ve established your goals, selected your most valuable KPIs, and put everything together with the help of a dashboard generator , your customer service analysis success will boil down to drilling down into the right information at the right times.
Armed with a dashboard that consolidates all of the most important data from your CS department, you will be able to regularly monitor a wealth of insights. However, if you want to extract maximum value from your data, it’s vital to work with a balanced mix of metrics . This will give you a clear indication of how valuable your existing analytical reports are in a practical context.
When we say you should use a mix of KPIs, we mean tracking:
- Historical data
- Real-time data
- Predictive data
For balanced and progressive analytics success, it’s essential that your metrics and visualizations work together to display insights that paint a picture of past trends of performance (for comparison), real-time activity (to adapt and respond to challenges as they happen), and potential future patterns (to create strategies that nip possible issues in the bud or capitalize on potential opportunities).
7. Tell a story with your data
As humans, we digest information far more effectively when it’s presented in the form of a story or narrative.
When interacting with your customer service report data, it’s important that you arrange your visualizations, KPIs, and metrics in a way that is logical and tells a story.
Doing so will provide accessible insights into how you are performing in key areas of your customer operations while giving everyone in the department the tools to use that data to improve their individual progress while communicating more effectively.
Our definitive guide to data storytelling will tell you all you need to know to get started.
8. Create customer profiles & personas
As mentioned, even when you’ve collected your customer service data, developed your reports, and started using them, you must regularly assess and refine your analytics efforts.
To put your data into a real-world context and ensure your metrics remain relevant, creating (and updating) customer profiles or personas is a valuable activity.
A customer profile or persona is a representation of your ideal target customers and consists of a description of their needs, wants, and pain points while outlining essential demographic information, including:
- Name (to humanize your customer profiles)
- Family situation
- Preferred communication method
- Level of digital literacy
By creating a set of customer profiles or personas, you will better understand your data and ensure the metrics you’re tracking are still directly relevant to your strategy. Customer profiles will also help you humanize your data and make more effective analytical decisions as a result.
9. Segment your customers
Concerning your business’s more customer-facing activities, by segmenting your consumers into distinct groups, you will be able to understand their needs, preferences, or issues on a deeper level, improving the quality of your communications as a result. You can use your customer personas or profiles to do this.
For example, by working with your customer support and satisfaction KPIs, you can segment your customers based on whether they are new or repeat customers, their service or product preferences, or the nature of their issues.
Doing this will empower you to dig deeper into your most relevant data and create initiatives that will ultimately improve the way you tackle service issues as well as the standard of experience you offer your customers.
If you want to dig deeper into customer segmentation with professional analytical methods take a look at our complete guide to data analysis .
10. Map out our customer journey
In the age of information, customer service is consistent with countless activities and functions, many of which cross over with marketing and sales.
The point here is: digitally-driven companies are becoming increasingly cohesive and, as such, departments collaborate on activities and initiatives more than ever.
That said, one of the most effective ways of improving your service department across the board is using your various dashboards to develop a customer journey map.
A customer journey map provides an outline of how a customer might interact with your brand from start to finish. By developing a map using your customer data, you will be able to understand which channels or touchpoints need attention and where possible bottlenecks or issues might arise.
You should examine your KPIs across every key function (from support performance to retention) to create your customer journey and highlight where you need to focus your efforts. When you share this data with your sales and marketing decision-makers, you can all work together to develop a journey that is rich, rewarding, and seamless from start to finish using informative, reliable insights as your guide.
11. Perform sentiment analysis
The best customer service reports templates will give you the ability to drill down into sentiment analytics. This savvy approach to service strategy is a branch of natural language processing (NLP), and it will help you gain a greater understanding of your audience. Using a sentiment-based approach will empower you to understand whether a consumer interaction is positive, negative, or neutral.
Sentiment analytics is based on text-centric interactions including feedback, testimonials, reviews, forum interactions, and social media comments or conversations. Mining for these insights will uncover a wealth of intelligence that you can use to your service-boosting advantage.
Gaining this level of intelligence will help you improve your service content and communications while getting a firm grip on how your brand is perceived by your target audience. In turn, you will be able to take consistent measures to keep your satisfaction rates high.
NLP will present your business with a huge competitive advantage, learn more about it in our BI trends blog post for 2023!
12. Automate your report generation
Not only will automating the generation of your reports save you time and boost your efficiency; it will also help you streamline the core aspects of your customer service strategy. Automating your service reports will give you the space to focus on rolling out targeted strategic initiatives like service training workshops, curating personable and engaging helpdesk content, and updating your resolution processes while keeping up to date with essential trends, patterns, or information. As a result, you will create a service analytics ecosystem that will see your department thrive in the long term.
13. Share your report and derive actionable insights
Submitting your results via scheduled, automated emails or sharing an interactive dashboard will cut the time needed to generate, consolidate, and export numerous data points you might have. Sharing information is another important aspect of creating and managing customer support reports. To be able to fully focus on what is crucial in your reporting process, you can benefit from automated reporting that way you won’t need to spend numerous hours on exporting spreadsheets or preparing presentations, but your data will be immediately accessible while you can focus on what matters the most: actionable insights.
These were some basic tips on how to create a successful customer service analysis report and improve your bottom line.
Customer Service Performance Mistakes To Avoid
At this point, you know what elements make a solid customer service reporting structure. Now, it’s time to look at which mistakes you should avoid at all costs.
1. Not measuring performance with KPIs
Without a doubt, customer service is one of the most performance-driven departments of any modern business.
When you’re looking to develop your efforts, measuring performance matters. There’s more to CS development than a happy or unhappy customer alone. There are several factors that can influence the success of your communications across channels. And without using visual KPIs to benchmark and quantify your performance in these key areas, it’s unlikely that you will ever meet your customers’ needs fully.
Choosing KPIs targets based on your specific customer service goals will ensure you have the information you need to nip any potential service issues in the bud while enhancing your communications across channels. Without this information, all you will ever do is shoot in the dark and provide an average service, falling behind your competitors in the process.
If you’re looking to improve your overall call efficiency, you will use the talked metrics we covered earlier, for example. And, if one of your core aims is to improve the quality of your products, you should focus on KPIs that show specific customer complaints over a certain timeframe.
2. Not measuring every channel
If you only hone in on customer support reports metrics based on phone or online chat or email, for instance, you will never achieve a cohesive, well-rounded, and fully-operation customer service strategy.
Many businesses fail to explore every strand of relevant data across all communication channels, meaning that their overall service quality or NPS scores suffer. To meet your customer’s needs across the board, it’s vital that you explore metrics across any potential customer service channel that your consumers use to engage with you.
Today, customers branch out to businesses via social media, mobile apps, YouTube comments, email, third-party feedback platforms, online chat, telephone, and more. So, track data across every channel to ensure your efforts continue to evolve with your customer base. Fail to do so, and you will fall behind your competitors.
3. Not getting buy-in across the business
Setting accurate service benchmarks is vital to ensure you’re consistently performing at optimum levels. But without buy-in from the top or other seniors across departments (sales and marketing are strongly linked to CS), your customer service reporting goals will become seriously stunted.
To avoid getting your data-driven efforts quashed by the C-suite, you must build a case for your customer service performance reporting tools and strategies by building a compelling case on your existing service issues, explaining how working with cutting-edge report templates will help solve them.
Work to get buy-in early on, and you will reap the maximum rewards of customer service performance reporting.
4. Not involving everyone in the department
A customer service report format is only ever as effective as the people using it. To maximize the success of your analytical efforts, you must empower everyone within the department, as well as any relevant sub-departments, with the right level of access, training, and knowledge to squeeze every last drop of value from your reports.
Not providing adequate training, workshops, and department updates will cause confusion, dilute your efforts, and offer a poor return on investment (ROI) for your efforts.
5. Not testing, tracking, and evolving your strategy
To ensure your reports are 100% consistent, relevant, and valuable, you must periodically check in with certain aspects of your service reports to ensure the insights being served up are really benefiting your business. Without frequently testing and tracking your reports, you could start to suffer from inaccurate information that will lead you down a brand reputation-crushing rabbit hole. Regularly test your reports, and you’ll keep those satisfaction levels at a consistent peak.
Key Takeaways Customer Service Reporting
In today’s hyper-connected digital world, customer service counts. In fact, this year and beyond, customer experience (CX) and service are set to become the number one brand differentiator, surpassing both price and product in terms of business value.
Meeting your customers’ needs and pain points head-on is no longer a luxury, it’s essential — and a customer service report will help you get there.
By using the unrivaled power of these reports to your advantage, you will become more productive, strategic, insightful, and approachable.
The result? A reputation for customer service innovation that will not only help you stand out in your niche but accelerate the growth of your business.
With the help of cutting-edge dashboard software , you can develop dashboards that will let you dive deep into analysis and track essential day-to-day activities as well as performance metrics that will set you apart from the pack, one initiative at a time.
We have explored essential types of service reports, outlined the benefits, and shared tips on maximizing the value of your business’s most essential insights. Now, it's your turn!
To unleash the business-boosting power of customer service reports, try our 14-day free trial today .
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- Elevator pitch
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How to craft the perfect business pitch
How to Create a Captivating Elevator Pitch
For startups and entrepreneurs, a great elevator pitch is a must. It’s the key to sparking interest in your company, raising money from investors, and networking with business partners. It’s also a handy tool to answer the question, “so what does your company do?”
To help you build the perfect elevator pitch, we’ve brought together all of the resources you need. From a guide on what to include and a free pitch deck template to advice on how to use body language to make your speech more impactful. Read on to discover what your elevator pitch should include and how to take a pitch from “good” to “great.”
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What is an elevator pitch?
An elevator pitch is usually a short, impactful speech, but it can also be delivered as a presentation or “pitch deck.” Your pitch tells your audience what your business does, who your customers are, and summarizes your key accomplishments. The goal of an elevator pitch is to intrigue the listener, inviting further conversation or inspiring them to take action.
There are situations where a more extended version of your pitch is appropriate. This longer presentation, sometimes called a “pitch presentation,” typically lasts between 5 to 20 minutes. This extra time allows you to delve deeper into your ideas, products, or services—providing more detailed information while maintaining a clear, concise, and persuasive tone.
This format is often used in formal business situations like investor pitches, business plan presentations, or when addressing larger audiences at conferences or public speaking events.
How to create an elevator pitch
Here are the steps you’ll need to take to create a convincing elevator pitch.
Cover these key components in your elevator pitch
Aside from catching your audience’s interest, there are seven specific things you must address to be sure your audience understands your business.
Get feedback on your business pitch
Are you speaking too fast? Is there vital information missing? You probably wouldn’t know unless someone takes the time to review your pitch. Here’s how to approach getting feedback on your presentation.
Know what you’ll say in your one, five, ten, and 20-minute pitch
You need to have a short and meaningful pitch. You also should be able to tailor your pitch to fit the expectations of different audiences. An easy way to do that is by knowing what should be in your pitch when you have …
Create a pitch deck that works without your elevator pitch
If you’re presenting to investors or lenders, you’ll want a visual presentation to compliment your elevator pitch. Ideally, this pitch deck should describe your business so well that it can work without a verbal explanation.
Check out the pitch deck guide
Back up your pitch with a business plan
Before you start pitching, you need to have a business plan. If investors or lenders like what you’re saying, they’ll expect you to share a plan that goes into greater detail and backs up what you’re saying.
Check out the business planning hub
Tips to nail your pitch and impress investors
There are many factors that go into creating a good elevator pitch. Whether it’s improving your poise, ability to tell a story, or simply answering investor questions—we have several guides to help strengthen these specific skills.
Things that will take your pitch from good to great
Aside from a well-developed elevator pitch here are nine other things to elevate your presentation and set yourself apart.
How to successfully pitch your business idea to investors
We’ve covered the basic sections you need to include in your pitch. But there are other things to consider covering to convince investors that your idea is worth their time and money.
Avoid these common mistakes when pitching
Don’t want to bomb your pitch? Be sure to avoid these costly mistakes.
How to hook investors with your company culture
Not every investor will be won over by an impressive bottom line and high growth potential. Some care more about the mission or culture of the companies they’re investing in. That can be a great selling point to lead w…
What to do if you can’t answer an investor question
Even with the most thorough preparation you’re bound to have questions you simply don’t have a good answer for. Here’s what to do when you can’t quickly present a good answer.
How to improve your body language when pitching
You may have a killer pitch, a captivating pitch deck, and a well-written business plan to back it all up—but if your posture, hand motions, and eye contact aren’t hitting the mark you may fall short.
Learn to harness the power of Pixar storytelling
No one knows how to craft a compelling story better than the creatives at Pixar. While their focus is on animated features that pull the heartstrings—their methods can actually help you develop a more enticing pitch.
How to raise money and pitch as a female entrepreneur
There are numerous roadblocks to getting small business funding—even more-so for women who must combat a legacy of underfunding due to the predispositions of many investors. Here’s what to prepare for and how to bypa…
Lessons from Shark Tank pitches
When pitching to investors you’re going to hear ‘no’ more than ‘yes’. It’s a necessary process for you to learn from. But, you can also take away some insights from the public pitches shown on Shark Tank.
Alternative ways to pitch your business
You’re not always going to be pitching in a formal or traditional setting. It’s important to understand the different types of pitches you may have to give including virtual, written, and spontaneously in social settings.
Learn to pitch in social situations
If you’re starting to network or rub shoulders with industry veterans there will likely be an opportunity to pitch your business. This won’t be a formal setting and you need to fine-tune your pitch to fit this sponta…
How to pitch your business virtually
Meetings over video calls are becoming the norm and that also applies to pitch meetings. While your overall pitch shouldn’t change that much, there are some nuances to doing things virtually that you should consider.
How to pitch your business through email
If you’re struggling to secure time to pitch to investors then you may be better off skipping the meeting and trying to convince them directly in their inbox.
Elevator pitch and pitch deck resources
Resources and templates to help you successfully pitch your business idea.
Free investor pitch deck template
Visualize your business pitch and wow investors with this free pitch deck template.
Download Template
Pitch deck example gallery
Check out our library of industry-specific business pitch examples to help inspire your own presentation.
Explore Pitch Decks
Business plan template
Back up your pitch with a detailed and investor-ready business plan. Get started with our fill-in-the-blank business plan template.
Plan and pitch with a single powerful tool
Create and share your investor-ready plan, pitch, and financial forecasts with LivePlan.
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7 ways to use ChatGPT at work to boost your productivity, make your job easier, and save a ton of time
- ChatGPT won't replace your job anytime soon. But it can make it a little bit easier.
- With its impressive functions, the buzzy AI chatbot could give some workers a "productivity boost."
- Insider compiled a list of seven ways workers can use the AI tool to help do their jobs.
OpenAI's ChatGPT and similar AI tools may not replace jobs anytime soon . But they can help workers across many industries – from tech to media – do their jobs better and more quickly.
"It's almost like a bit of a productivity boost that some of these occupations might get," Anu Madgavkar, a partner at economic research firm McKinsey Global Institute, told Insider.
The buzzy conversational chatbot – which attracted one million users soon after its launch last November – has been used to generate real estate advice , provide tips on how to start a business , and even write music in the style of individual artists , all with varying levels of success.
Investors have been pouring hundreds of millions of dollars into industry-specific generative AI tools out of the belief that these have the potential to solve problems that, say, hospitals and marketing departments may encounter.
Sam Altman, the CEO of the firm behind ChatGPT, would agree, as he previously said that "generative text is something we all need to adapt to."
"We adapted to calculators and changed what we tested for in math class, I imagine," Altman said during an interview with StrictlyVC in January . "This is a more extreme version of that, no doubt, but also the benefits of it are more extreme, as well."
Mark Muro, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institute who has researched the impact of AI on the workforce, echoes the sentiment.
"It's absolutely true that AI applications like ChatGPT can very much improve workers' lives," Muro told Insider.
Workers should be careful when using AI tools, as the tech can be prone to misinformation , and it can remove the human touch from tasks like writing. Most companies also haven't established formal rules around employee use of the AI tool, though firms like Microsoft – a major partner and investor of ChatGPT's parent Open AI – have recently given employees the green light to use the chatbot for work purposes, as long as they don't share sensitive information with the site.
Here's how you can use ChatGPT and AI to help make your work life easier.
Story was originally published in February 2023.
Use it as a Google alternative for research
How many times a day do you Google something at work? With ChatGPT, that may become less common.
In fact, the search-engine giant is reportedly worried that you'll eventually put your queries into ChatGPT instead. The company issued a "code red" over the bot's potential threat to its search business.
"Google may be only a year or two away from total disruption," Gmail creator Paul Buchheit tweeted on Wednesday , adding that AI will be able to "instantly do what would take many minutes for a human" to do using a search engine like Google .
While ChatGPT isn't always accurate — its knowledge only goes to 2021 — it can analyze data from millions of websites to try and answer whatever question it receives. Plus, it gets smarter the more it's used .
Rather than providing users a series of links to sift through — many of which are high up on the page simply due to advertising spend — ChatGPT provides the user with a quick answer. And if the answer is too complicated, ChatGPT can explain it in simpler terms if you ask it to.
Having quick access to information could ultimately make your job more enjoyable by freeing up time for idea generation.
"Some of the more boring parts of the job may disappear," Oxford economist Carl Benedikt Frey told Insider. "We may begin focusing more on generating the right ideas, asking the right questions, things that are more interesting."
Use it to write essays, speeches, cover letters, songs, and employee evaluations
As many students with essay assignments have already realized , ChatGPT can be quite useful as a writing tool.
While some teachers are trying to crack down on AI's use, UPenn professor Ethan Mollick recently told NPR that he's requiring his students to use ChatGPT.
He said he thinks it can help students generate ideas and improve their writing , adding that the tool could help save time when writing letters and emails, as well.
"There's a lot of positives about it," Mollick said during the NPR interview. "That doesn't minimize the fact that cheating and negativity are there, but those have been there for a long time."
Jeff Maggioncalda, CEO of online course provider Coursera, told CNN he uses ChatGPT to write work emails and even speeches.
"I use it as a writing assistant and as a thought partner," Maggioncalda said.
Creatives looking for inspiration for their books or songs have also asked ChatGPT to produce some rough drafts for them .
TikTok user @frontlineleadership , who works as an executive coach, said that he even used ChatGPT to write employee evaluations and was satisfied with the outcome.
"I only had to make slight adjustments here and there," the TikToker said in a January post. "It literally saved me probably 12 hours of work."
"ChatGPT is a game changer," he said.
Use it to analyze vast amounts of data
Many roles involve various forms of data analysis, and ChatGPT can process a lot of information quickly.
"Analyzing and interpreting vast amounts of language-based data and information is a skill that you'd expect generative AI technologies to ramp up on," Madgavkar told Insider .
"If you're an academic, it's quite nice that you don't have to do statistical analysis by hand," Benedikt Frey said. "You can produce a lot of more stuff."
It could also help those trying to use data to make investment decisions, Muro, a senior fellow at the Brooking Institute, previously told Insider .
"AI can identify trends in the market, highlight what investments in a portfolio are doing better and worse, communicate all that, and then use various other forms of data by, say, a financial company to forecast a better investment mix," he said.
Use it for scheduling tasks, planning, and time management
Getting your busy work schedule organized may be time consuming — but ChatGPT and other forms of AI can help make the process go a little bit smoother.
Economists at the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) conducted a study in 2022 on the skills that AI can replicate and found that AI tools can handle scheduling and task prioritization — in many cases, even "better than humans."
"Scheduling work and activities seems a perfect AI problem," the study said .
Some users have tried this out with promising results. Micah , a Youtuber that makes videos exploring AI, posted a video demonstrating how he used ChatGPT to automate his work scheduling.
After he asked ChatGPT to create a daily work schedule that includes tasks like finishing a performance report and scheduling a meeting with his boss, the chatbot was able to spit out an hour-by-hour breakdown of a potential schedule in a matter of seconds.
He then asked ChatGPT to reprioritize certain tasks, but ChatGPT suggested that "it may not be feasible" to do so given his time constraints.
"This is one of the underrated things ChatGPT can do," Micah said.
When looking for a second opinion: Ask it how to start a business, make strategic decisions, and support customers
If you're a current or aspiring entrepreneur, ChatGPT may be able to help you think through the process of starting a business.
Insider's Jennifer Ortakales Dawkins asked the chat bot a variety of questions and found it to be a useful tool for generating ideas, estimating startup costs, and outlining a business plan.
Coursera's Maggioncalda told CBS MoneyWatch he uses ChatGPT to think through business challenges and strategies.
"I ask ChatGPT to become aware of where my biases and blind spots might be," he said. "And the answers it gives are a really, really good starting point to check your thinking."
Even Amazon employees who tested ChatGPT said it does a "very good job" of answering customer support questions and is "very strong" at answering queries around corporate strategy.
Turn it into a coding assistant
Oded Netzer, a Columbia Business School professor, thinks AI will help coders rather than replace them.
"In terms of jobs, I think it's primarily an enhancer than full replacement of jobs," Netzer told CBS MoneyWatch . "Coding and programming is a good example of that. It actually can write code quite well."
Specifically, ChatGPT is capable of quickly generating lines of code to resolve certain coding problems. One TikTok user, @asap_blockie, asked ChatGPT to identify the error in some code he was working on as part of his job, he said in a December video .
"It spat out what was wrong with my code," he said. "And then I copied that and pasted it in, and then it worked."
But coders should proceed with caution when receiving help from an AI, as some users have found that ChatGPT incorrectly answers coding problems.
When work isn't going great: Use it to apply for a new job or to negotiate a raise
Finally, if you're not happy at your job, ChatGPT may be able to offer some support. People are using it to craft their resumes and cover letters as they undergo their job searches.
"It will make you a cover letter so you don't have to waste your time anymore," Jonathan Javier, CEO of the career consulting company Consulting, said in a January TikTok video .
If you're fairly happy at work but feel like you're underpaid, ChatGPT might even be able to help you get a raise . Insider's Sarah Jackson asked ChatGPT for advice to help her prepare for a theoretical salary negotiation, and two career coaches told her she'd probably be able to get a raise if she followed the AI's script.
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Allstate Is No Longer Offering New Policies in California
Like State Farm, which announced a similar move last week, Allstate cited worsening climate conditions that had made doing business there difficult.
By Ryan Mac
California property owners hoping to open new insurance policies are no longer able to do so with one of the nation’s largest homeowner insurance companies.
Allstate, the state’s fourth-largest property and casualty insurance provider, has stopped selling new home, condominium or commercial insurance policies in California, the company said in an emailed statement. It is the latest insurance giant to say it will no longer offer coverage, citing worsening climate and higher building costs that have made it harder to do business in the nation’s most-populous state.
California’s largest homeowner insurance provider, State Farm, made a similar decision last week, pointing to “rapidly growing catastrophe exposure.” Allstate stopped accepting new policies in the state last year, according to the statement.
“We paused new homeowners, condo and commercial insurance policies in California last year so we can continue to protect current customers,” the Allstate statement said. “The cost to insure new home customers in California is far higher than the price they would pay for policies due to wildfires, higher costs for repairing homes and higher reinsurance premiums.”
The news was earlier reported by The San Francisco Chronicle and in industry publications.
Allstate’s decision in California follows a pattern seen across the United States in which insurance companies are raising rates, restricting coverage or ending business altogether in areas vulnerable to climate change and natural disasters. In Florida, most large insurance companies have pulled out of the state, with homeowners relying on smaller private companies, whose resources are being stretched, to protect their homes in the face of severe storms that have become typical.
In the statement, Allstate cited other factors in pausing new policies in California, including state regulations and inflation, which has led to higher costs for rebuilding.
It’s not the first time Allstate limited the sale of new homeowner insurance policies in California. It did so in 1994 , after the Northridge earthquake. The company eventually returned to the state, but it paused new homeowner insurance policies there again in 2007. Ten years later, it came back to the California market.
The combined moves by Allstate and State Farm in California may lead more property owners in the state to lean on the FAIR Plan, a state-offered “ insurer of last resort ” in high-risk fire areas. As of 2022, there were more than 270,000 FAIR policies — more than double what was offered in 2018 — as worsening wildfires and an exodus of traditional insurers from fire-threatened areas led some homeowners to rely on the program, which provides temporary, and generally more expensive, fire coverage.
The FAIR Plan requires insurance companies operating in California to cover losses proportional to their market share in the state.
Ryan Mac is a technology reporter focused on corporate accountability across the global tech industry. He won a 2020 George Polk award for his coverage of Facebook and is based in Los Angeles. @ RMac18
House heads home after hard-right Republicans defy McCarthy, block legislation
The house adjourned until monday after a standoff between leaders and conservative lawmakers.
A two-day stalemate between hard-right Republicans and GOP leaders has effectively frozen the House from considering any legislation for the foreseeable future, as both groups failed to find a resolution to the standoff that would allow the majority to vote on bills.
Just past 6 p.m. Wednesday, after GOP leaders gave up on resolving the impasse this week and canceled the remaining votes for the week, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) addressed reporters and explained that part of the ongoing frustration is the hard-line faction’s inability to articulate their demands.
“This is the difficult thing,” he said. “Some of these members, they don’t know what to ask for.”
McCarthy met with several members of the House Freedom Caucus on multiple occasions Wednesday to negotiate on their demands after 11 lawmakers — still angry over McCarthy’s handling of the debt ceiling bill — voted with Democrats against passing a rule Tuesday that would have set parameters for debate of several noncontroversial bills this week.
The blockade presents a high-stakes challenge for McCarthy as he seeks to assuage the myriad demands by the far-right faction of conference; previous Republican speakers have had to confront similar challenges before they were eventually forced out of the position. The conflict not only threatens McCarthy’s tenure with the speaker’s gavel, but also the House’s ability to take up any legislation, contributing to growing irritation within the razor-thin majority.
McCarthy admitted Wednesday he had been “blindsided” by Tuesday’s blocked vote, which became the first House rule vote to fail since November 2002. But he insisted that the Republican conference would emerge stronger, in similar fashion to when the same group of lawmakers challenged his bid to becoming speaker.
Speaking to reporters after having just come from a reception for his mentor, former House speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.), who often clashed with his junior rank-and-file Republicans during his tumultuous four-year stint, McCarthy tried to project the same optimism he exhibited in January when it took 15 rounds of voting and multiple concessions for him to win the speakership.
“We’ll listen to them, we’ll solve this, just like every time we go through here,” McCarthy said. “We’ve got a small majority. There’s a little chaos going on.”
The surprise rebuke underscored the anger that several members of the Freedom Caucus and other hard-right conservatives still harbored toward Republican leadership over their willingness to allow Democrats to vote in support of the debt bill and override their concerns before sending it to the Senate, where it also passed in bipartisan fashion . President Biden signed the deal over the weekend, barely skirting a catastrophic default that had been projected for Monday.
McCarthy, Biden and their lieutenants had brokered a deal days before to suspend the debt ceiling until 2025 and cut federal spending, prompting outrage from several hard-right GOP lawmakers who argued that the bill did not cut spending enough — and who accused McCarthy of violating several promises that they say helped them elect him speaker.
At the center of the far-right’s concern is an argument that McCarthy violated an agreement several of them struck in January in exchange for supporting his speakership bid. No list of those promises made exists publicly, so it’s unclear exactly what lawmakers and McCarthy agreed to. But several members of the Freedom Caucus have claimed he violated three main components of the agreement: Supporting legislation that reduces spending back to 2022 appropriation levels; putting legislation on the floor that is not passed overwhelmingly by Democrats; and not taking up bills that don’t have unanimous support from Republicans on the House Rules Committee.
Ahead of a meeting with Freedom Caucus Chair Scott Perry (R-Pa.), McCarthy accused the group of “moving the goal post.”
“We never promised we’re going to be all at ’22 levels. I said we would strive to get to the ’22 level or the equivalent amount of cut. We’ve met all that criteria,” McCarthy said. “I think we kind of hit the sweet spot. The difficult part is, when anytime you try to work any type of agreement, you’re not going to get 100 percent of what you want. But think of what we did achieve.”
Rep. Ken Buck (R-Colo.), one of the lawmakers who voted against the rule vote on Tuesday, said Wednesday that he did so because Republican leadership had “not taken reckless spending” seriously, and again alluded to unspoken promises he said GOP leadership had made.
“There are over a thousand unauthorized government programs that continue to be funded without oversight, Congressional hearings, or a reauthorization vote,” Buck said in a statement. “Promises were made earlier this year regarding spending; I expect those commitments to be kept.”
Throughout Wednesday morning, the group of disrupters met and spoke with McCarthy and his team. Leadership remains unclear what exactly the group of 11 Republicans want, and different members want different things, making it more difficult to address their concerns, according to four people close to leadership who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss private conversations.
Holdouts are pushing for immediate consideration of a bill proposed by Rep. Andrew S. Clyde (R-Ga.) regarding pistol braces. Clyde accused Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.) of threatening to hold the bill from consideration in the full House if Clyde voted against the debt deal. Scalise has denied the accusation, saying he only informed Clyde that his bill couldn’t be brought onto the floor until it had enough GOP support.
Another bill being discussed would permanently codify the Hyde Amendment, which bars federal funds from being used for abortion services, with some exceptions. The bill was on a list Scalise had proposed would be on the floor the first two weeks of January, but it has been shelved because there are not enough votes to pass it through the Republicans’ slim majority.
Whether an agreement related to those bills has been found remains unclear, but many saw the announcement that the House would adjourn until Monday as an ominous sign no progress had been made.
While Republican leaders were trying to negotiate with members of the Freedom Caucus, an equally important discussion about the House’s future was taking place in Majority Whip Tom Emmer’s (R-Minn.) office. Emmer and his chief deputy, Rep. Guy Reschenthaler (R-Pa.), met a dozen moderate lawmakers who represent swing districts to discuss what legislation they would like to see be considered on the House floor, according to six people familiar with the meeting.
Though the meeting was not called in response to the standoff with the hard-right members, lawmakers discussed the need to vote on measures that would help voters understand that a Republican majority is passing bills that help their pocketbook. Most lawmakers were critical that what they would like to see passed could possibly be blocked if the Freedom Caucus forbids votes on bipartisan bills.
Meanwhile, other Republicans waiting to be told of what happens next were growing frustrated. Several governance-minded Republicans privately expressed their frustration that a small faction of their conference continues to hold up “the majority of the majority” from doing their basic job in elected office and voting — with little optimism that things change when lawmakers return on Monday.
“This is, in my opinion, political incontinence on our part. We are wetting ourselves and can’t do anything about. This is insane,” Rep. Steve Womack (R-Ark.) said. “This is not the way a governing majority is expected to behave. And frankly, I think there’ll be a political cost to it.”
Womack did not save criticism for leaders, noting that rank-and-file members had not heard from their leadership all day about what was happening Wednesday.
“You got the tail wagging the dog. You got a small group of people who are pissed off that are keeping the house of representatives from functioning today, and I think the American people are not going to take too kindly to that,” he added.
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6 Types of Reports There are a selection of different reports you might need to create. Each of these will follow a similar reporting writing format to what we've covering in this post. 1. Annual Reports The first type of report we'll cover is an annual report.
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Aside from these two points, your company introduction should also include the following elements: 1. The Business Details. It's called a corporate profile for a reason—company or business profile content should pull double-duty as an easy-to-read report that details all the most important aspects of your brand, business, and goals.
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or write to the Information Policy Team, The National Archives, Kew, London TW9 4DU, or email: [email protected]. Any enquiries regarding this publication should be sent to
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House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) admitted he was "blindsided" by the rebuke, but insisted the Republican caucus would emerge stronger.