Case Study: Why onvista Trusts Metrics Watch Month After Month
Case Study: Why onvista Trusts Metrics Watch Month After Month
Case Study: Why onvista Trusts Metrics Watch Month After Month
This case study was a real pleasure to create, probably because I regardthis client so highly. And while I definitely recommend reading theentire article (it’s around 10 minutes), I also understand time is afactor.
So if you’re in a hurry, go check out the section "Why Was Metrics Watchthe Solution?" If you’re shopping around for metric report software,that will likely be the most valuable section to read today.
Otherwise, I hope you enjoy this post as much as I enjoyed writing it. 😉
Who’s the Client
Today I had the pleasure of speaking with one of my favorite clients,Apostolos Tsiter (aka, Apu). He’s the project manager of a popularGerman web trading site, onvista.
Onvista works with stock exchanges all over the world, though their teamof roughly 40 people is mostly based in Cologne, Germany. When I askedhim to explain what the company does, I knew I was going to be in a bitover my head.
Here’s what he told me:
"So if you have any type of asset that can be traded on the market,then we have all the information. That would include things like prices,where it’s being sold and bought, and…Well, it’s a bit like Bloomberg ifyou want an example in the U.S. region.
The website is our core business to interact with the user. Weactually finance ourselves with the products we give to our users so…that’s like… real-time prices for assets. And a very big portion [ofour revenue] is from business to business (B2B) with other banks. Theyactually position their products (their financial constructs) within ourwebpage.
We build them quite sophisticated logics such as when someone will seethe data, who we will show it to, and what will happen afterward. Thisis where Metrics Watch comes in."
Now, to be totally honest. I wasn’t entirely sure what all this meant. Ilove metrics in all forms, but the stock market is far from mywheelhouse. Here’s what I did know to be 100% the case:
Apu works as the project manager for a website that providesreal-time data on the stock market
They work with both individuals and banks
They need to get specific pieces of data to the right clients at theright time, and this data has real financial consequences
Metrics Watch helps them accomplish that last goal
As you’ll see, throughout the conversation, a recurring theme keptpopping up:
Metrics Watch is helping onvista create custom reports **without anyfluff**
But, for now, let’s take a look at what onvista typically needs toinclude in their marketing reports.
What Does onvista Use as a Standard Report
Reporting for onvista varies from client to client. That means that notwo reports are ever the same. When I asked if there were any commonthreads between clients and the data included in his reports, Apushared:
"Just to give you an example. We have a page where I have all thestock information for Tesla or Apple. On the site, there’s a little boxthat says, "Ok, these are the top three derivatives of JP Morgan onApple."
If my client wants to participate on an upward or downward pricemovement of this stock, they can do it by derivatives. This is afinancial product that has the biggest margin for the banks. So thesecompanies are keen on having as many users as possible interested intheir products.
We market them quite well because they want to know, out of all thosestocks, how many people clicked on a product of theirs.
The clients need a list of which assets were trending at a high clickrate and which product in each group we had clicks for.
That means we have a lot of derivative groups, and for each group wehave a table. Then they can see, "Ok, with my knockout derivative, I hadX amount of clicks on Apple, Y amount of clicks on Tesla, and Z amountof clicks on whatever else… and they get the top 10 list of every assetcategory we have."
At this point, if you’re totally lost, don’t worry...so was I.
Working with data is something I am (obviously) passionate about.However, like I said before, the world of Wall Street is as foreign tome as life on Mars. So let me break this down into terms that anyone canunderstand.
onvista tracks the movements of different assets on the stock market.Their clients make critically important financial decisions and businessstrategies based on these movements.
Apu’s clients need daily reports of how many users are interested inwhich of these stock market assets so they can make the smartestdecisions possible. Based on these reports, banks might place newproducts to meet the reported demand as soon as the next business day.Again, lots of money is at stake here (and time is definitely of theessence), so these reports need to be both targeted and concise.
What Was the Problem onvista Needed Solved?
Apu has been using Metrics Watch for the past 2 years or so. Initially,they had a rudimental reporting strategy. And it was very tailored fortheir B2B customers.
Then they switched to Google Analytics, which was OK. But they didn’twant their customers to see all of their company’s data. So theywould have to export certain pieces of information, organize it in a waythat didn’t "look like hell," and the entire process was just becoming anightmare.
Then, at some point, they used Data Studio. They created a nicedashboard and let their customers pull data from there. The problem wasthat their clients’ marketing departments wanted little chunks ofinformation sent to them so they could get the information they neededfrom their phones.
In other words, Apu’s clients didn’t want to search for the informationthemselves. Like all paying customers, they wanted to be spoon-fedexactly what they needed.
As Apu told me, "Our clients needed very fast information about allthe proceedings of the last day directly to their email. Because this isthe format in which they operate. They don’t use apps or other stuff oreven a web browser where they can see a dashboard. They wanted emailwhich they already knew how to operate."
The bottom line was that onvista needs to send their clientspersonalized reports over email. No other platform would allow them toeasily do that. At least not in the way onvista wanted.
In fact, I was happily surprised to learn that Metrics Watch was farfrom the first solution Apu tried. Here’s what he said when I asked ifhe’d tried other software before Metrics Watch:
"Oh, I think something like, 20? We spent two weeks just to narrow itdown to four companies: Klipfolio, AppDirect, DataPine, and MetricsWatch."
Without mentioning the specific name of the company, Apu let me knowthat the others were either too cumbersome to use, had too many bellsand whistles he didn’t need, or simply didn’t do what he needed it to.
Why Was Metrics Watch the Solution?
When it came down to it, Apu settled on Metrics Watch. When I asked himwhy, these were the following qualities that led him to that decision:
The ability to schedule daily reports for clients
The ability to push reports via email (which was crucial)
The fact that the report wasn’t a PDF or an attachment (but wasactually in the email content itself)
It’s easy to use but still goes deep into the analytics
Metrics Watch has all the metrics from Google Analytics but alsosupports custom dimensions and filters
It turns out, most of the other tools Apu had tried simply didn’t meetthat criteria. When asked to clarify, here’s what he told me:
"To be precise, it was the combination of being able to filter customdimensions and other filters as well. The support of custom dimensionsthrough the ranks was very thin [among the competition].
Metrics Watch was quite easy to use for the functionality that itoffers. It offers a deep Google Analytics functionality but is stilldrag and drop, clicky-clicky, and everything is in place."
Side Note: I’ve often heard the phrase "drag and drop," but this wasthe first time I’ve ever heard the phrase "clicky-clicky" to describeease of use. And I absolutely love that phrase now. 😍
At the end of the day, it seemed as if Metrics Watch struck the exactbalance that Apu was looking for. A totally customizable and thoroughmarketing metrics report that could be sent (and read) via email. Itwould include the information the clients needed on a daily basis–nomore and no less.
And just like a parent listening to people talk about how cute theirbaby is, I was definitely loving this part of the conversation. However,I have two really important standards for myself and my business:
Being totally upfront and honest about Metrics Watch’s capabilities
Constantly improving any weaknesses to make the best softwarepossible
That’s why I posed a very dangerous question…
What DON’T You Like About Metrics Watch
I imagine it was difficult for Apu to answer this. Not because MetricsWatch is perfect, but because it’s rare that you have the chance to tellthe creator of a product exactly what you don’t like about it.
Nonetheless, he gave me some really helpful–yet respectful–feedback.
Right now, Apu needs to pull very specific data for his clients. Forthat, he uses a combination of personalized filters. In many cases,however, he’ll use 3-4 custom filters for a single report. For anotherreport, he’ll use the same 3-4 custom filters plus (or minus) anotherfilter.
In those cases, he would love the ability to duplicate a widget and addor subtract a single filter instead of building each of them fromscratch. As he said:
"Most of my widgets are just, you know, filter on to this, filter onto that… so it’s a combination of 4 filters, and three of those arealways the same. And I need like 12 of them. So I need to be able toduplicate a widget, go into one, and switch one filter."
I was totally blown away by this response in the best of ways. Now, I’mhappy to announce that I’ll be adding this feature before the summerrolls around (edit: this was since added to Metrics Watch!). You can thank Apu for the inspiration!
His other critique of Metrics Watch was something he’d mentioned otherclients may care about, though it wasn’t particularly pressing for him.It has to do with the simple design of the email reports.
"The overall design is not very… I don’t know. It doesn’t gooverboard with the design. Maybe improve the interface? But I wouldn’tknow what to expect more from a tool that actually does what it issupposed to do."
And he’s 100% right. Fortunately (and Apu didn’t know this at the timeof the call), you can totally customize the design of your marketingreports right now.
If you go into your account under Business Settings, you can changethe colors of the report to match your brand. Plus, you can take allMetrics Watch branding off the reports, so everything is coming from YOUand your company.
What’s the Bottom Line
I couldn’t think of a better ending for this case study than using Apu’sown words:
"With Metrics Watch, the clients only see numbers as they haverequested them. They all see the numbers they need to see. There’s notext, no ‘blah, blah,’ none of the ‘this is what we have done’ stuff.Only information, plain and simple.
The customers are very happy with the solution. They get theinformation they want, it’s readable, they can check it on their mobilephone… at the moment, there’s nothing [the clients] want more."
I feel so proud to be able to serve customers like Apu. When I firstbuilt Metrics Watch, this is exactly how I’d hope all my clients wouldfeel. They could rest assured knowing they’d have a simple, in-depthmarketing report that gives them everything they need without a bunch ofnonsense thrown into the mix.
Thank you so much, Apu, for taking the time to sit down and chat withme!
Testimonial:
What JP does really well has this constant, constant lookout for their customers. You just feel like, "Ok, everything I have as a problem" gets treated as such. You don’t get the idea that it’s just getting lost in a ticket somewhere. You get the feeling that he understands the problem and will get to it. At the time I came to Metrics Watch, JP didn’t support filtering by custom dimensions, either. He did it on-demand, in the same 24 hours. From the get-go, it was very close support and was one of the things that made our business connection so strong.
And if you’re still reading, what are you waiting for? Book a demo. I’d be happy to give you a tour of Metrics Watch andshow you why it’s as awesome as Apu says it is!
Or dive in headfirst by starting your free 14-day trial today!
This case study was a real pleasure to create, probably because I regardthis client so highly. And while I definitely recommend reading theentire article (it’s around 10 minutes), I also understand time is afactor.
So if you’re in a hurry, go check out the section "Why Was Metrics Watchthe Solution?" If you’re shopping around for metric report software,that will likely be the most valuable section to read today.
Otherwise, I hope you enjoy this post as much as I enjoyed writing it. 😉
Who’s the Client
Today I had the pleasure of speaking with one of my favorite clients,Apostolos Tsiter (aka, Apu). He’s the project manager of a popularGerman web trading site, onvista.
Onvista works with stock exchanges all over the world, though their teamof roughly 40 people is mostly based in Cologne, Germany. When I askedhim to explain what the company does, I knew I was going to be in a bitover my head.
Here’s what he told me:
"So if you have any type of asset that can be traded on the market,then we have all the information. That would include things like prices,where it’s being sold and bought, and…Well, it’s a bit like Bloomberg ifyou want an example in the U.S. region.
The website is our core business to interact with the user. Weactually finance ourselves with the products we give to our users so…that’s like… real-time prices for assets. And a very big portion [ofour revenue] is from business to business (B2B) with other banks. Theyactually position their products (their financial constructs) within ourwebpage.
We build them quite sophisticated logics such as when someone will seethe data, who we will show it to, and what will happen afterward. Thisis where Metrics Watch comes in."
Now, to be totally honest. I wasn’t entirely sure what all this meant. Ilove metrics in all forms, but the stock market is far from mywheelhouse. Here’s what I did know to be 100% the case:
Apu works as the project manager for a website that providesreal-time data on the stock market
They work with both individuals and banks
They need to get specific pieces of data to the right clients at theright time, and this data has real financial consequences
Metrics Watch helps them accomplish that last goal
As you’ll see, throughout the conversation, a recurring theme keptpopping up:
Metrics Watch is helping onvista create custom reports **without anyfluff**
But, for now, let’s take a look at what onvista typically needs toinclude in their marketing reports.
What Does onvista Use as a Standard Report
Reporting for onvista varies from client to client. That means that notwo reports are ever the same. When I asked if there were any commonthreads between clients and the data included in his reports, Apushared:
"Just to give you an example. We have a page where I have all thestock information for Tesla or Apple. On the site, there’s a little boxthat says, "Ok, these are the top three derivatives of JP Morgan onApple."
If my client wants to participate on an upward or downward pricemovement of this stock, they can do it by derivatives. This is afinancial product that has the biggest margin for the banks. So thesecompanies are keen on having as many users as possible interested intheir products.
We market them quite well because they want to know, out of all thosestocks, how many people clicked on a product of theirs.
The clients need a list of which assets were trending at a high clickrate and which product in each group we had clicks for.
That means we have a lot of derivative groups, and for each group wehave a table. Then they can see, "Ok, with my knockout derivative, I hadX amount of clicks on Apple, Y amount of clicks on Tesla, and Z amountof clicks on whatever else… and they get the top 10 list of every assetcategory we have."
At this point, if you’re totally lost, don’t worry...so was I.
Working with data is something I am (obviously) passionate about.However, like I said before, the world of Wall Street is as foreign tome as life on Mars. So let me break this down into terms that anyone canunderstand.
onvista tracks the movements of different assets on the stock market.Their clients make critically important financial decisions and businessstrategies based on these movements.
Apu’s clients need daily reports of how many users are interested inwhich of these stock market assets so they can make the smartestdecisions possible. Based on these reports, banks might place newproducts to meet the reported demand as soon as the next business day.Again, lots of money is at stake here (and time is definitely of theessence), so these reports need to be both targeted and concise.
What Was the Problem onvista Needed Solved?
Apu has been using Metrics Watch for the past 2 years or so. Initially,they had a rudimental reporting strategy. And it was very tailored fortheir B2B customers.
Then they switched to Google Analytics, which was OK. But they didn’twant their customers to see all of their company’s data. So theywould have to export certain pieces of information, organize it in a waythat didn’t "look like hell," and the entire process was just becoming anightmare.
Then, at some point, they used Data Studio. They created a nicedashboard and let their customers pull data from there. The problem wasthat their clients’ marketing departments wanted little chunks ofinformation sent to them so they could get the information they neededfrom their phones.
In other words, Apu’s clients didn’t want to search for the informationthemselves. Like all paying customers, they wanted to be spoon-fedexactly what they needed.
As Apu told me, "Our clients needed very fast information about allthe proceedings of the last day directly to their email. Because this isthe format in which they operate. They don’t use apps or other stuff oreven a web browser where they can see a dashboard. They wanted emailwhich they already knew how to operate."
The bottom line was that onvista needs to send their clientspersonalized reports over email. No other platform would allow them toeasily do that. At least not in the way onvista wanted.
In fact, I was happily surprised to learn that Metrics Watch was farfrom the first solution Apu tried. Here’s what he said when I asked ifhe’d tried other software before Metrics Watch:
"Oh, I think something like, 20? We spent two weeks just to narrow itdown to four companies: Klipfolio, AppDirect, DataPine, and MetricsWatch."
Without mentioning the specific name of the company, Apu let me knowthat the others were either too cumbersome to use, had too many bellsand whistles he didn’t need, or simply didn’t do what he needed it to.
Why Was Metrics Watch the Solution?
When it came down to it, Apu settled on Metrics Watch. When I asked himwhy, these were the following qualities that led him to that decision:
The ability to schedule daily reports for clients
The ability to push reports via email (which was crucial)
The fact that the report wasn’t a PDF or an attachment (but wasactually in the email content itself)
It’s easy to use but still goes deep into the analytics
Metrics Watch has all the metrics from Google Analytics but alsosupports custom dimensions and filters
It turns out, most of the other tools Apu had tried simply didn’t meetthat criteria. When asked to clarify, here’s what he told me:
"To be precise, it was the combination of being able to filter customdimensions and other filters as well. The support of custom dimensionsthrough the ranks was very thin [among the competition].
Metrics Watch was quite easy to use for the functionality that itoffers. It offers a deep Google Analytics functionality but is stilldrag and drop, clicky-clicky, and everything is in place."
Side Note: I’ve often heard the phrase "drag and drop," but this wasthe first time I’ve ever heard the phrase "clicky-clicky" to describeease of use. And I absolutely love that phrase now. 😍
At the end of the day, it seemed as if Metrics Watch struck the exactbalance that Apu was looking for. A totally customizable and thoroughmarketing metrics report that could be sent (and read) via email. Itwould include the information the clients needed on a daily basis–nomore and no less.
And just like a parent listening to people talk about how cute theirbaby is, I was definitely loving this part of the conversation. However,I have two really important standards for myself and my business:
Being totally upfront and honest about Metrics Watch’s capabilities
Constantly improving any weaknesses to make the best softwarepossible
That’s why I posed a very dangerous question…
What DON’T You Like About Metrics Watch
I imagine it was difficult for Apu to answer this. Not because MetricsWatch is perfect, but because it’s rare that you have the chance to tellthe creator of a product exactly what you don’t like about it.
Nonetheless, he gave me some really helpful–yet respectful–feedback.
Right now, Apu needs to pull very specific data for his clients. Forthat, he uses a combination of personalized filters. In many cases,however, he’ll use 3-4 custom filters for a single report. For anotherreport, he’ll use the same 3-4 custom filters plus (or minus) anotherfilter.
In those cases, he would love the ability to duplicate a widget and addor subtract a single filter instead of building each of them fromscratch. As he said:
"Most of my widgets are just, you know, filter on to this, filter onto that… so it’s a combination of 4 filters, and three of those arealways the same. And I need like 12 of them. So I need to be able toduplicate a widget, go into one, and switch one filter."
I was totally blown away by this response in the best of ways. Now, I’mhappy to announce that I’ll be adding this feature before the summerrolls around (edit: this was since added to Metrics Watch!). You can thank Apu for the inspiration!
His other critique of Metrics Watch was something he’d mentioned otherclients may care about, though it wasn’t particularly pressing for him.It has to do with the simple design of the email reports.
"The overall design is not very… I don’t know. It doesn’t gooverboard with the design. Maybe improve the interface? But I wouldn’tknow what to expect more from a tool that actually does what it issupposed to do."
And he’s 100% right. Fortunately (and Apu didn’t know this at the timeof the call), you can totally customize the design of your marketingreports right now.
If you go into your account under Business Settings, you can changethe colors of the report to match your brand. Plus, you can take allMetrics Watch branding off the reports, so everything is coming from YOUand your company.
What’s the Bottom Line
I couldn’t think of a better ending for this case study than using Apu’sown words:
"With Metrics Watch, the clients only see numbers as they haverequested them. They all see the numbers they need to see. There’s notext, no ‘blah, blah,’ none of the ‘this is what we have done’ stuff.Only information, plain and simple.
The customers are very happy with the solution. They get theinformation they want, it’s readable, they can check it on their mobilephone… at the moment, there’s nothing [the clients] want more."
I feel so proud to be able to serve customers like Apu. When I firstbuilt Metrics Watch, this is exactly how I’d hope all my clients wouldfeel. They could rest assured knowing they’d have a simple, in-depthmarketing report that gives them everything they need without a bunch ofnonsense thrown into the mix.
Thank you so much, Apu, for taking the time to sit down and chat withme!
Testimonial:
What JP does really well has this constant, constant lookout for their customers. You just feel like, "Ok, everything I have as a problem" gets treated as such. You don’t get the idea that it’s just getting lost in a ticket somewhere. You get the feeling that he understands the problem and will get to it. At the time I came to Metrics Watch, JP didn’t support filtering by custom dimensions, either. He did it on-demand, in the same 24 hours. From the get-go, it was very close support and was one of the things that made our business connection so strong.
And if you’re still reading, what are you waiting for? Book a demo. I’d be happy to give you a tour of Metrics Watch andshow you why it’s as awesome as Apu says it is!
Or dive in headfirst by starting your free 14-day trial today!
This case study was a real pleasure to create, probably because I regardthis client so highly. And while I definitely recommend reading theentire article (it’s around 10 minutes), I also understand time is afactor.
So if you’re in a hurry, go check out the section "Why Was Metrics Watchthe Solution?" If you’re shopping around for metric report software,that will likely be the most valuable section to read today.
Otherwise, I hope you enjoy this post as much as I enjoyed writing it. 😉
Who’s the Client
Today I had the pleasure of speaking with one of my favorite clients,Apostolos Tsiter (aka, Apu). He’s the project manager of a popularGerman web trading site, onvista.
Onvista works with stock exchanges all over the world, though their teamof roughly 40 people is mostly based in Cologne, Germany. When I askedhim to explain what the company does, I knew I was going to be in a bitover my head.
Here’s what he told me:
"So if you have any type of asset that can be traded on the market,then we have all the information. That would include things like prices,where it’s being sold and bought, and…Well, it’s a bit like Bloomberg ifyou want an example in the U.S. region.
The website is our core business to interact with the user. Weactually finance ourselves with the products we give to our users so…that’s like… real-time prices for assets. And a very big portion [ofour revenue] is from business to business (B2B) with other banks. Theyactually position their products (their financial constructs) within ourwebpage.
We build them quite sophisticated logics such as when someone will seethe data, who we will show it to, and what will happen afterward. Thisis where Metrics Watch comes in."
Now, to be totally honest. I wasn’t entirely sure what all this meant. Ilove metrics in all forms, but the stock market is far from mywheelhouse. Here’s what I did know to be 100% the case:
Apu works as the project manager for a website that providesreal-time data on the stock market
They work with both individuals and banks
They need to get specific pieces of data to the right clients at theright time, and this data has real financial consequences
Metrics Watch helps them accomplish that last goal
As you’ll see, throughout the conversation, a recurring theme keptpopping up:
Metrics Watch is helping onvista create custom reports **without anyfluff**
But, for now, let’s take a look at what onvista typically needs toinclude in their marketing reports.
What Does onvista Use as a Standard Report
Reporting for onvista varies from client to client. That means that notwo reports are ever the same. When I asked if there were any commonthreads between clients and the data included in his reports, Apushared:
"Just to give you an example. We have a page where I have all thestock information for Tesla or Apple. On the site, there’s a little boxthat says, "Ok, these are the top three derivatives of JP Morgan onApple."
If my client wants to participate on an upward or downward pricemovement of this stock, they can do it by derivatives. This is afinancial product that has the biggest margin for the banks. So thesecompanies are keen on having as many users as possible interested intheir products.
We market them quite well because they want to know, out of all thosestocks, how many people clicked on a product of theirs.
The clients need a list of which assets were trending at a high clickrate and which product in each group we had clicks for.
That means we have a lot of derivative groups, and for each group wehave a table. Then they can see, "Ok, with my knockout derivative, I hadX amount of clicks on Apple, Y amount of clicks on Tesla, and Z amountof clicks on whatever else… and they get the top 10 list of every assetcategory we have."
At this point, if you’re totally lost, don’t worry...so was I.
Working with data is something I am (obviously) passionate about.However, like I said before, the world of Wall Street is as foreign tome as life on Mars. So let me break this down into terms that anyone canunderstand.
onvista tracks the movements of different assets on the stock market.Their clients make critically important financial decisions and businessstrategies based on these movements.
Apu’s clients need daily reports of how many users are interested inwhich of these stock market assets so they can make the smartestdecisions possible. Based on these reports, banks might place newproducts to meet the reported demand as soon as the next business day.Again, lots of money is at stake here (and time is definitely of theessence), so these reports need to be both targeted and concise.
What Was the Problem onvista Needed Solved?
Apu has been using Metrics Watch for the past 2 years or so. Initially,they had a rudimental reporting strategy. And it was very tailored fortheir B2B customers.
Then they switched to Google Analytics, which was OK. But they didn’twant their customers to see all of their company’s data. So theywould have to export certain pieces of information, organize it in a waythat didn’t "look like hell," and the entire process was just becoming anightmare.
Then, at some point, they used Data Studio. They created a nicedashboard and let their customers pull data from there. The problem wasthat their clients’ marketing departments wanted little chunks ofinformation sent to them so they could get the information they neededfrom their phones.
In other words, Apu’s clients didn’t want to search for the informationthemselves. Like all paying customers, they wanted to be spoon-fedexactly what they needed.
As Apu told me, "Our clients needed very fast information about allthe proceedings of the last day directly to their email. Because this isthe format in which they operate. They don’t use apps or other stuff oreven a web browser where they can see a dashboard. They wanted emailwhich they already knew how to operate."
The bottom line was that onvista needs to send their clientspersonalized reports over email. No other platform would allow them toeasily do that. At least not in the way onvista wanted.
In fact, I was happily surprised to learn that Metrics Watch was farfrom the first solution Apu tried. Here’s what he said when I asked ifhe’d tried other software before Metrics Watch:
"Oh, I think something like, 20? We spent two weeks just to narrow itdown to four companies: Klipfolio, AppDirect, DataPine, and MetricsWatch."
Without mentioning the specific name of the company, Apu let me knowthat the others were either too cumbersome to use, had too many bellsand whistles he didn’t need, or simply didn’t do what he needed it to.
Why Was Metrics Watch the Solution?
When it came down to it, Apu settled on Metrics Watch. When I asked himwhy, these were the following qualities that led him to that decision:
The ability to schedule daily reports for clients
The ability to push reports via email (which was crucial)
The fact that the report wasn’t a PDF or an attachment (but wasactually in the email content itself)
It’s easy to use but still goes deep into the analytics
Metrics Watch has all the metrics from Google Analytics but alsosupports custom dimensions and filters
It turns out, most of the other tools Apu had tried simply didn’t meetthat criteria. When asked to clarify, here’s what he told me:
"To be precise, it was the combination of being able to filter customdimensions and other filters as well. The support of custom dimensionsthrough the ranks was very thin [among the competition].
Metrics Watch was quite easy to use for the functionality that itoffers. It offers a deep Google Analytics functionality but is stilldrag and drop, clicky-clicky, and everything is in place."
Side Note: I’ve often heard the phrase "drag and drop," but this wasthe first time I’ve ever heard the phrase "clicky-clicky" to describeease of use. And I absolutely love that phrase now. 😍
At the end of the day, it seemed as if Metrics Watch struck the exactbalance that Apu was looking for. A totally customizable and thoroughmarketing metrics report that could be sent (and read) via email. Itwould include the information the clients needed on a daily basis–nomore and no less.
And just like a parent listening to people talk about how cute theirbaby is, I was definitely loving this part of the conversation. However,I have two really important standards for myself and my business:
Being totally upfront and honest about Metrics Watch’s capabilities
Constantly improving any weaknesses to make the best softwarepossible
That’s why I posed a very dangerous question…
What DON’T You Like About Metrics Watch
I imagine it was difficult for Apu to answer this. Not because MetricsWatch is perfect, but because it’s rare that you have the chance to tellthe creator of a product exactly what you don’t like about it.
Nonetheless, he gave me some really helpful–yet respectful–feedback.
Right now, Apu needs to pull very specific data for his clients. Forthat, he uses a combination of personalized filters. In many cases,however, he’ll use 3-4 custom filters for a single report. For anotherreport, he’ll use the same 3-4 custom filters plus (or minus) anotherfilter.
In those cases, he would love the ability to duplicate a widget and addor subtract a single filter instead of building each of them fromscratch. As he said:
"Most of my widgets are just, you know, filter on to this, filter onto that… so it’s a combination of 4 filters, and three of those arealways the same. And I need like 12 of them. So I need to be able toduplicate a widget, go into one, and switch one filter."
I was totally blown away by this response in the best of ways. Now, I’mhappy to announce that I’ll be adding this feature before the summerrolls around (edit: this was since added to Metrics Watch!). You can thank Apu for the inspiration!
His other critique of Metrics Watch was something he’d mentioned otherclients may care about, though it wasn’t particularly pressing for him.It has to do with the simple design of the email reports.
"The overall design is not very… I don’t know. It doesn’t gooverboard with the design. Maybe improve the interface? But I wouldn’tknow what to expect more from a tool that actually does what it issupposed to do."
And he’s 100% right. Fortunately (and Apu didn’t know this at the timeof the call), you can totally customize the design of your marketingreports right now.
If you go into your account under Business Settings, you can changethe colors of the report to match your brand. Plus, you can take allMetrics Watch branding off the reports, so everything is coming from YOUand your company.
What’s the Bottom Line
I couldn’t think of a better ending for this case study than using Apu’sown words:
"With Metrics Watch, the clients only see numbers as they haverequested them. They all see the numbers they need to see. There’s notext, no ‘blah, blah,’ none of the ‘this is what we have done’ stuff.Only information, plain and simple.
The customers are very happy with the solution. They get theinformation they want, it’s readable, they can check it on their mobilephone… at the moment, there’s nothing [the clients] want more."
I feel so proud to be able to serve customers like Apu. When I firstbuilt Metrics Watch, this is exactly how I’d hope all my clients wouldfeel. They could rest assured knowing they’d have a simple, in-depthmarketing report that gives them everything they need without a bunch ofnonsense thrown into the mix.
Thank you so much, Apu, for taking the time to sit down and chat withme!
Testimonial:
What JP does really well has this constant, constant lookout for their customers. You just feel like, "Ok, everything I have as a problem" gets treated as such. You don’t get the idea that it’s just getting lost in a ticket somewhere. You get the feeling that he understands the problem and will get to it. At the time I came to Metrics Watch, JP didn’t support filtering by custom dimensions, either. He did it on-demand, in the same 24 hours. From the get-go, it was very close support and was one of the things that made our business connection so strong.
And if you’re still reading, what are you waiting for? Book a demo. I’d be happy to give you a tour of Metrics Watch andshow you why it’s as awesome as Apu says it is!
Or dive in headfirst by starting your free 14-day trial today!
This case study was a real pleasure to create, probably because I regardthis client so highly. And while I definitely recommend reading theentire article (it’s around 10 minutes), I also understand time is afactor.
So if you’re in a hurry, go check out the section "Why Was Metrics Watchthe Solution?" If you’re shopping around for metric report software,that will likely be the most valuable section to read today.
Otherwise, I hope you enjoy this post as much as I enjoyed writing it. 😉
Who’s the Client
Today I had the pleasure of speaking with one of my favorite clients,Apostolos Tsiter (aka, Apu). He’s the project manager of a popularGerman web trading site, onvista.
Onvista works with stock exchanges all over the world, though their teamof roughly 40 people is mostly based in Cologne, Germany. When I askedhim to explain what the company does, I knew I was going to be in a bitover my head.
Here’s what he told me:
"So if you have any type of asset that can be traded on the market,then we have all the information. That would include things like prices,where it’s being sold and bought, and…Well, it’s a bit like Bloomberg ifyou want an example in the U.S. region.
The website is our core business to interact with the user. Weactually finance ourselves with the products we give to our users so…that’s like… real-time prices for assets. And a very big portion [ofour revenue] is from business to business (B2B) with other banks. Theyactually position their products (their financial constructs) within ourwebpage.
We build them quite sophisticated logics such as when someone will seethe data, who we will show it to, and what will happen afterward. Thisis where Metrics Watch comes in."
Now, to be totally honest. I wasn’t entirely sure what all this meant. Ilove metrics in all forms, but the stock market is far from mywheelhouse. Here’s what I did know to be 100% the case:
Apu works as the project manager for a website that providesreal-time data on the stock market
They work with both individuals and banks
They need to get specific pieces of data to the right clients at theright time, and this data has real financial consequences
Metrics Watch helps them accomplish that last goal
As you’ll see, throughout the conversation, a recurring theme keptpopping up:
Metrics Watch is helping onvista create custom reports **without anyfluff**
But, for now, let’s take a look at what onvista typically needs toinclude in their marketing reports.
What Does onvista Use as a Standard Report
Reporting for onvista varies from client to client. That means that notwo reports are ever the same. When I asked if there were any commonthreads between clients and the data included in his reports, Apushared:
"Just to give you an example. We have a page where I have all thestock information for Tesla or Apple. On the site, there’s a little boxthat says, "Ok, these are the top three derivatives of JP Morgan onApple."
If my client wants to participate on an upward or downward pricemovement of this stock, they can do it by derivatives. This is afinancial product that has the biggest margin for the banks. So thesecompanies are keen on having as many users as possible interested intheir products.
We market them quite well because they want to know, out of all thosestocks, how many people clicked on a product of theirs.
The clients need a list of which assets were trending at a high clickrate and which product in each group we had clicks for.
That means we have a lot of derivative groups, and for each group wehave a table. Then they can see, "Ok, with my knockout derivative, I hadX amount of clicks on Apple, Y amount of clicks on Tesla, and Z amountof clicks on whatever else… and they get the top 10 list of every assetcategory we have."
At this point, if you’re totally lost, don’t worry...so was I.
Working with data is something I am (obviously) passionate about.However, like I said before, the world of Wall Street is as foreign tome as life on Mars. So let me break this down into terms that anyone canunderstand.
onvista tracks the movements of different assets on the stock market.Their clients make critically important financial decisions and businessstrategies based on these movements.
Apu’s clients need daily reports of how many users are interested inwhich of these stock market assets so they can make the smartestdecisions possible. Based on these reports, banks might place newproducts to meet the reported demand as soon as the next business day.Again, lots of money is at stake here (and time is definitely of theessence), so these reports need to be both targeted and concise.
What Was the Problem onvista Needed Solved?
Apu has been using Metrics Watch for the past 2 years or so. Initially,they had a rudimental reporting strategy. And it was very tailored fortheir B2B customers.
Then they switched to Google Analytics, which was OK. But they didn’twant their customers to see all of their company’s data. So theywould have to export certain pieces of information, organize it in a waythat didn’t "look like hell," and the entire process was just becoming anightmare.
Then, at some point, they used Data Studio. They created a nicedashboard and let their customers pull data from there. The problem wasthat their clients’ marketing departments wanted little chunks ofinformation sent to them so they could get the information they neededfrom their phones.
In other words, Apu’s clients didn’t want to search for the informationthemselves. Like all paying customers, they wanted to be spoon-fedexactly what they needed.
As Apu told me, "Our clients needed very fast information about allthe proceedings of the last day directly to their email. Because this isthe format in which they operate. They don’t use apps or other stuff oreven a web browser where they can see a dashboard. They wanted emailwhich they already knew how to operate."
The bottom line was that onvista needs to send their clientspersonalized reports over email. No other platform would allow them toeasily do that. At least not in the way onvista wanted.
In fact, I was happily surprised to learn that Metrics Watch was farfrom the first solution Apu tried. Here’s what he said when I asked ifhe’d tried other software before Metrics Watch:
"Oh, I think something like, 20? We spent two weeks just to narrow itdown to four companies: Klipfolio, AppDirect, DataPine, and MetricsWatch."
Without mentioning the specific name of the company, Apu let me knowthat the others were either too cumbersome to use, had too many bellsand whistles he didn’t need, or simply didn’t do what he needed it to.
Why Was Metrics Watch the Solution?
When it came down to it, Apu settled on Metrics Watch. When I asked himwhy, these were the following qualities that led him to that decision:
The ability to schedule daily reports for clients
The ability to push reports via email (which was crucial)
The fact that the report wasn’t a PDF or an attachment (but wasactually in the email content itself)
It’s easy to use but still goes deep into the analytics
Metrics Watch has all the metrics from Google Analytics but alsosupports custom dimensions and filters
It turns out, most of the other tools Apu had tried simply didn’t meetthat criteria. When asked to clarify, here’s what he told me:
"To be precise, it was the combination of being able to filter customdimensions and other filters as well. The support of custom dimensionsthrough the ranks was very thin [among the competition].
Metrics Watch was quite easy to use for the functionality that itoffers. It offers a deep Google Analytics functionality but is stilldrag and drop, clicky-clicky, and everything is in place."
Side Note: I’ve often heard the phrase "drag and drop," but this wasthe first time I’ve ever heard the phrase "clicky-clicky" to describeease of use. And I absolutely love that phrase now. 😍
At the end of the day, it seemed as if Metrics Watch struck the exactbalance that Apu was looking for. A totally customizable and thoroughmarketing metrics report that could be sent (and read) via email. Itwould include the information the clients needed on a daily basis–nomore and no less.
And just like a parent listening to people talk about how cute theirbaby is, I was definitely loving this part of the conversation. However,I have two really important standards for myself and my business:
Being totally upfront and honest about Metrics Watch’s capabilities
Constantly improving any weaknesses to make the best softwarepossible
That’s why I posed a very dangerous question…
What DON’T You Like About Metrics Watch
I imagine it was difficult for Apu to answer this. Not because MetricsWatch is perfect, but because it’s rare that you have the chance to tellthe creator of a product exactly what you don’t like about it.
Nonetheless, he gave me some really helpful–yet respectful–feedback.
Right now, Apu needs to pull very specific data for his clients. Forthat, he uses a combination of personalized filters. In many cases,however, he’ll use 3-4 custom filters for a single report. For anotherreport, he’ll use the same 3-4 custom filters plus (or minus) anotherfilter.
In those cases, he would love the ability to duplicate a widget and addor subtract a single filter instead of building each of them fromscratch. As he said:
"Most of my widgets are just, you know, filter on to this, filter onto that… so it’s a combination of 4 filters, and three of those arealways the same. And I need like 12 of them. So I need to be able toduplicate a widget, go into one, and switch one filter."
I was totally blown away by this response in the best of ways. Now, I’mhappy to announce that I’ll be adding this feature before the summerrolls around (edit: this was since added to Metrics Watch!). You can thank Apu for the inspiration!
His other critique of Metrics Watch was something he’d mentioned otherclients may care about, though it wasn’t particularly pressing for him.It has to do with the simple design of the email reports.
"The overall design is not very… I don’t know. It doesn’t gooverboard with the design. Maybe improve the interface? But I wouldn’tknow what to expect more from a tool that actually does what it issupposed to do."
And he’s 100% right. Fortunately (and Apu didn’t know this at the timeof the call), you can totally customize the design of your marketingreports right now.
If you go into your account under Business Settings, you can changethe colors of the report to match your brand. Plus, you can take allMetrics Watch branding off the reports, so everything is coming from YOUand your company.
What’s the Bottom Line
I couldn’t think of a better ending for this case study than using Apu’sown words:
"With Metrics Watch, the clients only see numbers as they haverequested them. They all see the numbers they need to see. There’s notext, no ‘blah, blah,’ none of the ‘this is what we have done’ stuff.Only information, plain and simple.
The customers are very happy with the solution. They get theinformation they want, it’s readable, they can check it on their mobilephone… at the moment, there’s nothing [the clients] want more."
I feel so proud to be able to serve customers like Apu. When I firstbuilt Metrics Watch, this is exactly how I’d hope all my clients wouldfeel. They could rest assured knowing they’d have a simple, in-depthmarketing report that gives them everything they need without a bunch ofnonsense thrown into the mix.
Thank you so much, Apu, for taking the time to sit down and chat withme!
Testimonial:
What JP does really well has this constant, constant lookout for their customers. You just feel like, "Ok, everything I have as a problem" gets treated as such. You don’t get the idea that it’s just getting lost in a ticket somewhere. You get the feeling that he understands the problem and will get to it. At the time I came to Metrics Watch, JP didn’t support filtering by custom dimensions, either. He did it on-demand, in the same 24 hours. From the get-go, it was very close support and was one of the things that made our business connection so strong.
And if you’re still reading, what are you waiting for? Book a demo. I’d be happy to give you a tour of Metrics Watch andshow you why it’s as awesome as Apu says it is!
Or dive in headfirst by starting your free 14-day trial today!
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