Listening to the voice of the customer

Customers want to tell others about their experiences with your products and services.  Are you listening?

With text analytics you can quickly convert their unstructured feedback into data that can be analyzed for insights whether they be customer complaints about service, information about product defects or praise for a great customer experience.  This information can be used to quickly address problems and learn more about your customers.

There are a variety of Text Analytics tools available.  They will automatically categorize the text.  However, you will want to tailor the algorithms to capture key words for your industry or region.  If you have ever visited the Boston area, you may have been surprised by the number of times that the word “wicked” is used in conversation.  “Wicked” in this area is used to mean very as well as bad or evil. Similarly, your industry might have lingo that is special like “BOGO” which means “buy one get one”.

Text Analytics tools will also enable you to extract key words or concepts.  For example, you might want to capture your brand or products and see what people are saying about them.  They will also determine if the sentiment is positive or negative.

Overlaying what your customers are saying with their attributes – their loyalty, lifetime value and experience with your brand – will enable you to understand and compare feedback across customer groups.  This will help you prioritize and tailor your response.  Combining customer data with customer feedback will provide a context for what your customers are saying.