The Case for a Multichannel Analytics System
Scenarios: You are regularly tracking social media posts in forums, following Twitter and Facebook comments, or you're looking at open-ended survey questions. You have selected a keyword tracking/social media-monitoring tool and have been consistently tracking various keywords in those conversations with some success. You are also able to engage in the conversations where they take place. However, you have reached a limit to what you can learn. You don't truly understand the sentiment, topics and trends, especially for those that are not included in your established keywords. There's no simple way around the vast amount of comments that have little relevance but are flagged because they contain one of the keywords you are tracking. You may be ready to make the jump to a multichannel analytics system.
Keyword-based monitoring tools are a quick way of getting a social media or "voice-of-the-customer" listening program going, but there are some inherent and critical limitations. Your customers speak in idioms, phrases and sentences; not keywords! To truly understand what is being said about your brands, products and services, you need a solution that understands natural language (the way we speak and write). Multichannel analytics systems accomplish this task by using natural language processing (NLP). They understand context and sentiment, and can pinpoint topics within the conversations. This is essential to identifying actionable insights for strategic business decisions. Below is an explanation of what you can expect when moving from keyword-based analysis to a multichannel analytics system.
Top Five Advantages
1. Keyword vs. topic and sentiment analysis. Keywords are just that: keywords. Their meaning is largely based on context. Furthermore, relevant comments and feedback that do not contain the established keyword set will not be recognized. Multichannel analytics systems excel here because they are based on natural language. Using NLP, multichannel analytics systems are able to identify topics and sentiment as opposed to simply identifying matching keywords. Understanding topics and sentiment is paramount to having an accurate understanding of the conversations.
2. Single channel vs. multiple channels. You may be examining a single channel like social media, SMS, feedback or email. You quite possibly could be monitoring more than one of these channels but basic social media and voice-of-the-customer monitoring tools are generally unable to aggregate this wide range of sources. Multichannel analytics systems handle all of these sources in a single place to keep everyone in the company on the same page with common metrics.
Remember: your customers speak in idioms, phrases and sentences, not keywords. Furthermore, a multichannel analytics system allows you to draw direct comparisons between the source types. Multichannel analytics gives you the ability to understand and compare all of the conversations and sources.
3. Buzz monitoring vs. deep analysis. NLP uses a statistically based analysis. Whereas keyword systems may offer some basic form of analysis, multichannel analytics systems are able to identify statistically significant patterns and trends within conversations. This allows you to get to the root cause of conversations. This deep dive is essential to identifying actionable intelligence from which to make business decisions.
4. Keyword monitoring vs. emerging topics. Another benefit to a statistically based analysis is the ability to identify emerging topics. Even the most gifted analyst is unable to read through thousands of comments in real time and identify statistically significant patterns within conversations. Multichannel analytics systems provide you with automated emerging alerts. These will appear when unforeseen topics of conversation begin appearing. The business user gains the ability to pinpoint emerging opportunities and issues when they begin. This actionable information can be used to quickly respond to situations before they become full-fledged crises.
5. Manual engagement vs. automated and intelligent engagement. Keyword systems often allow you to engage in the social media conversations triggered by the keyword library. While effective, the engagement process is limited to manual responses of comments that have been flagged. A multichannel analytics system provides a much more advanced and precise engagement workflow. Utilizing the advanced analytical capabilities, users can quickly and accurately identify, annotate, flag, assign, email and route the individual comments that matter most. Additionally, the multichannel analytics system provides the ability to automate engagement.
Customized rules based on sentiment, topics, attributes and other criteria can be set up to auto-route and respond to the important comments and conversations. A multichannel analytics system significantly improves your ability to accurately identify and effectively engage in the conversations of highest importance.
A multichannel analytics system is an important cornerstone to any customer-listening initiative. The advanced analytics capabilities coupled with a strategic engagement workflow allow you to accurately understand the conversations around your company, brand, products and services. Moving from a keyword-based system to a multichannel analytics system significantly enhances your ability to identify actionable insights to make key business decisions.
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