“Public feedback today appears in so many different forms and on so many different platforms,” says Richard Andrews, a lecturer in public relations and business communications at McGill University’s School of Continuing Studies. “If you’re just sitting there randomly Googling, you’re not going to get a good overall picture.”

Getting ahead of the data with reputation management

You need to have a system where public data is put together, collated and interpreted in a meaningful format.

One way smart organizations today are staying abreast of what can be an overwhelming amount of disparate customer feedback is through data collection, using AI text analytics technology that scans the web and extrapolates relevant information—from review sites to social media platforms, forums and more.

“The importance of responding to public data is that basically, if you don’t get on top of it, you’ll have mixed messages out there guiding markets and niche areas without being aware of what that message is exactly or who is receiving it,” says Andrews. “You need to have some sort of system where the whole thing is put together, collated and interpreted in a meaningful format.”

In collecting all of the public data available about a given company, businesses have greater opportunities to get a meaningful read on how their customers are responding to a given product or service, in ways that weren’t available in decades past.

Those opportunities come with a cost, however. Andrews points to the example of a restaurant critic to illustrate how the process by which perception shaping has shifted. “In the past, you had one reviewer going into a restaurant and would then have the one review published in the paper the next day. Now, what happens is that everybody who goes into that restaurant, if they want to, can post a review,” he says. “It’s become a lot harder to get on top of all those different opinions than it used to be.”

The same holds true for most customer experiences today, which have been fundamentally changed by the proliferation of online media. “In the past, when you had bad service at a store or bought a vacuum cleaner that didn’t work well, you would say, ‘well, I won’t go back there again.’ You might even tell your neighbour,” says Andrews. “Now, you don’t just tell your neighbour—you tell the whole world.”

An opportunity to optimize experience

Businesses can choose a proactive approach to dealing with the spread of customer feedback, or a passive one.

Still, that shift isn’t all bad news for businesses. That exponential multiplication of voices has given organizations an unprecedented vantage point from which to view any holes in their supply chains, weaknesses in their branding efforts, or opportunities to improve their customer experiences.

“If you can use that feedback in a positive way, instead of it just being a list of complaints by disgruntled customers, you have the opportunity to create something new and exciting,” says Andrews, who emphasizes that the critical move for companies who wish to take that proactive approach lies in their follow-through. “What I think is really important is that the organization asking for feedback shows that they are actually responding to it, and doing something about it.”

He offers the example of an Australian bank, whose customers were dissatisfied with the service they were receiving from overseas call centres. The bank responded by switching entirely to Australian call centres.

“Now, when you call up, you speak to someone in Sydney who can respond and work off more than just the play sheet most call centre employees are given,” explains Andrews.

In this instance, the organization listened to what their customer base was saying and adapted their operations in a way that solved the problem. Ultimately, businesses can choose a proactive approach to dealing with the spread of customer feedback, or a passive one. Andrews likens it to a storefront: “companies spend a lot of money on an enticing physical storefront that invites you to come inside and look at the products in detail,” he says. “Digitally, that metaphor stands.”

The post Why data collection is the key to effective reputation management appeared first on Keatext.

Mobius – a business process design, management, and performance improvement company – had been looking for a free-form text analytics partner to complement CustomerCount, its comprehensive customer feedback management platform. As Bob began his search, he realized he wasn’t entirely sure what he was looking for, but he knew two things:

• He couldn’t dedicate hours to building a massive word library.
• He needed a solution his customers could easily understand and navigate.

That partner was found in Keatext. Since then, CustomerCount’s development team has been working hand-in-hand with Keatext to craft a sophisticated solution that helps its customers leverage rich, unstructured data to make better daily business decisions.  The fit between the two organizations has also resulted in Keatext joining CustomerCount as part of its Worldwide Research Analytics Program (WRAP) alliance. 

A few simple steps permit CustomerCount clients to centralize, contextualize and analyze unstructured data from multiple channels

A bit about CustomerCount

With over 62M deployed surveys under its belt, CustomerCount is a powerful real-time surveying platform that allows hospitality brands and call centers to collect a wealth of data and unstructured feedback about everything from sales associates, to new products.

A bit about CustomerCount + Keatext

To help its customers make sense of their ever-shifting flow of data and feedback, Keatext’s technology may be leveraged to provide timely Net Promoter Score (NPS) and customer feedback analysis. With those numbers and insights in hand, hospitality teams are able to drill down on the right information, implement strategic and tactical improvements or modifications, and track their related impacts simultaneously. Illustrating the power and depth of its WRAP Program alliance, CustomerCount’s surveying capabilities and Keatext’s analytics expertise offer a powerful toolbox for any enterprise looking to proactively keep the pulse on customer sentiment and loyalty.

Why Keatext?

For the CustomerCount team, learning about Keatext’s machine learning technology and approach to breaking down data silos provided a much-needed vocabulary and framework within which to define and quantify their needs.

“Although I didn’t know it this way specifically at the time and I couldn’t quite define it, what I was looking for was a system that was intuitive (…) I needed an analytics tool that would rank feedback insights order of frequency so that the software was continuously training. That’s what brought us to the relationship with Keatext, because Keatext provides exactly that.”

CustomerCount’s surveying capabilities and Keatext’s analytics expertise offer a powerful toolbox for any enterprise looking to proactively keep the pulse on customer sentiment and loyalty

With typical text analytics solutions, teams are expected to dedicate long hours to building extensive libraries spanning thousands of words. Those words, in turn, are used to train and customize algorithms until they can make sense of the unstructured feedback included in their library. Not only is this process labor-intensive, but it’s prone to human bias and requires a constant commitment to updating and feeding the word library as it expands.

With Keatext, a few simple steps permit CustomerCount clients to centralize, contextualize and analyze unstructured data from multiple channels including social media postings, public reviews and of course – surveys. Better yet, it uses that same data to feed its algorithms and keep learning; which means it gets consistently better and more intelligent with time.

A win-win-win solution

So far, says Bob, the CustomerCount customers who’ve opted for Keatext’s additional text analytics capabilities are seeing results. And that, of course, is a win for the WRAP alliance too.

“Those who have it, love it! It offers an additional and significant piece of accountability to our already very robust reporting system.”

The most popular feature amongst their customers? The ability to positively impact their Net Promoter Score and see quantifiable sentiment analysis results in real time. After all, says Bob, it’s all well and good to have an NPS of 9 or 4, but that information isn’t particularly useful if you don’t know why. With an added layer of text analytics providing context for those scores, they’re able to turn a simple rating into actionable insight that directly impacts their bottom line.

“Keatext is an extension of our reporting capabilities, which means we’re helping customers make better business decisions that improve their performance.”

Keatext is an extension of our reporting capabilities, which means we’re helping customers make better business decisions that improve their performance

Looking ahead

As Keatext continuously updates its offerings with the latest innovations,  the WRAP alliance is particularly excited about the platform’s built-in flexibility and extended list of integrated data channels and sources.

“It gets better every day. Keatext is bringing in good, smart people who understand the need for partnerships with companies that have unique needs like ours. Our common vision is to satisfy our customers, and that’s one part that Keatext understands. They treat our clients like they’re their customers.”

The post How CustomerCount transforms unstructured data into added value appeared first on Keatext.

Sharing the stage with other notable companies experiencing explosive growth, founders and CEOs shared their advice and experiences of running a high-growth startup, managing scale and surviving the day-to-day running of their companies, to an investor-filled audience. Her esteemed place in the AI-arena also earned Narjès exclusive access to the Partners and Investors lounges, cementing Keatexts’ place alongside accomplished Collision alumni like Trello and Uber.

The conference hosted 25,711 attendees from 125 countries, with 730 speakers across 15 different tracks, debating the most pressing issues in tech and the world today. With so many topics and trends being discussed, it was no surprise the recurring theme of the show was data, a conversation that Keatext has been at the forefront of.  

Data is everywhere and everything

Companies are in a frantic race to keep their customers engaged… they are investing hundreds of thousands of dollars to listen to their customers and leverage their feedback, but so far these efforts have been rewarded with unpredictable results

With her professional and academic background giving her the credentials to speak as a recognized leader among her peers,  Narjès gave a compelling talk about Keatexts’ keen ability to synthesize and assess large amounts of feedback-based data using rich, natural language processing in order to help companies improve customer satisfaction, reduce churn and help give them the insights needed to make vital business decisions.

“Companies are in a frantic race to keep their customers engaged… they are investing hundreds of thousands of dollars to listen to their customers and leverage their feedback, but so far these efforts have been rewarded with unpredictable results” she told a crowded room.

Using text analytic tools that can capture, make correlations and get to the root causes of customer concerns means that any kind of customer peaks, valleys and modulations of any kind will be easy to catch, assess and address where needed, she went on to explain.

So, what’s up next?  The conference made clear that data is driving innovation and decision-making across industries. In an engaging and relevant talk during the ContentMakers track at the show,  Karthic Bala, Condé Nast’s CDO, spoke about the critical  importance of keeping up with high volumes of data in order to better serve consumers, “Everybody has data, everybody claims that they have data, but it’s about how you use that data, that’s the most important thing,” he explained.

Everybody has data, everybody claims that they have data, but it’s about how you use that data, that’s the most important thing

We know companies are already engaged with, and interested in exploring the capabilities of AI text analytics, but we also learned that people are curious (skeptical, even?) and there is increased scrutiny on how companies are using it. So that’s where we plan to continue the conversations because we are committed to giving you the tools to help you cultivate meaningful, trustworthy and rewarding relationships with your customers.

The post We conquered our first Collision conference appeared first on Keatext.

But there’s good news. The industry already has an ace up its sleeve: it’s no stranger to data collection and surveys. In fact, some might say it stands as a survey pioneer. But, nonetheless, many brands still struggle to collect, contextualize and understand the flow of unstructured data—be it reviews, long-form surveys or social feedback—that is constantly streaming in through a multitude of siloed feedback channels. This despite the fact that 80 percent of the data processed by brands on a daily basis is either unstructured or semi-structured. Admittedly, the hospitality industry has a bit of catching up to do.

For those who master the right tools and ask the right questions, unstructured data is a marketing goldmine.

For those who master the right tools and ask the right questions, though, unstructured data is a marketing goldmine. It allows brands to tap into valuable conversations, reinforce their messaging, strategically navigate customer discontentment and build precious brand loyalty along the way.

Among those tools are text analytics solutions like Keatext, which leverage elements of deep learning, AI and sentiment analysis—an algorithmic process developed to help identify and categorize opinions expressed in a piece of text or unstructured data. The goal: to help companies better capture and understand everything their consumers are sharing. If well harnessed and contextualized, this insight is especially valuable for a company’s marketing and communications departments, allowing them to iterate constantly, react quickly and evaluate impact in real time. Here’s how.

Building a strong brand

There’s no getting around it: the hospitality industry is an increasingly busy and noisy space. And yet, through it all, the Ritz-Carltons, Marriotts and W Hotels of this world have managed to stake their claim and keep their hotels top of mind. How? By building and maintaining powerful brands. Come decision time, a potential customer’s ability to emotionally recall what a brand represents will, in part, decide whether or not the company makes the cut.

While it’s imperative to build that brand upon a rock-solid foundation of clear values, stories and missions, it’s also important for it to adapt and shift with changing times, technological opportunities and customer expectations. That’s where text analytics comes in.

Just as the Ritz-Carlton adjusted the way its staff interacted with customers in response to a wave of feedback describing their existing interactions as “robotic,” great brands win big by paying attention and evolving accordingly.

Text analytics is one of the most reliable and powerful tools for companies to keep their finger on the consumer’s pulse.

Text analytics is one of the most reliable and powerful tools for companies to keep their finger on the consumer’s pulse. By processing and analyzing big sets of unstructured data in real time, the deeply trained algorithms are able to flag irregularities, highlight trends and constantly monitor a brand’s sentiment score. To further simplify the process, Keatext’s sophisticated AI categorizes unstructured feedback into simple categories: praises, criticisms, suggestions and questions.

Once unsiloed and put into context, all of that data shows exactly which messages are resonating, how well customer experiences are aligning with a company’s brand and which actions are having the most impact. And that, in the long run, might just be the secret weapon to building a strong, memorable and sustainable hospitality brand.

Fostering brand loyalty

While it may seem like brand loyalty is nearly impossible to foster in a world of blind bookings and dynamic pricing, statistics show that creating great customer experiences can still earn a company a dedicated following. Though pricing and location will always loom large, 66 percent of consumers still state that features, design and quality are their main reasons for brand loyalty.

With the right data and feedback, a company’s communications and marketing team can rapidly spot early (and often simple) opportunities to improve and delight in all of those areas—turning unstructured data into actionable advice that can quickly be dispatched across departments and coordinated in real time.

When criticism turns into opportunity

You’ve spotted a trend in your feedback about harsh lighting? Team up with a local designer to equip every room with a unique lamp. Then create great marketing content to promote your exciting new collaboration.

You’ve noticed an increase in online chatter about inconvenient plugs? Provide a few well-positioned power bars and extensions in each room, then update your online room features, in-room pamphlet and digital campaigns to see if it moves the needle for your ever-connected travelers.

Consumers are increasingly willing to provide valuable information and feedback in exchange for a more enjoyable, seamless and customized experience.

The fact is, consumers are increasingly willing to provide valuable information and feedback in exchange for a more enjoyable, seamless and customized experience. Case in point: numbers show that 75 percent of guests are open to sharing “personal information like age, gender, and email addresses to access tailor-made loyalty programs.” But their trust only turns into loyalty if the brand puts the information to good use.

Leveraging sentiment analysis tools and AI technology allows a company to gracefully rise to rapidly changing customer expectations as they transform and evolve. A company’s powerful brand is what gets customers through the door, but it’s their ability to actively listen and respond to their guests’ needs that keeps the guests coming back.

Weathering the storms

No matter how tuned-in a company is to its guests and consumers, they will inevitably hit some small (and large) bumps in the road. Without the right tools in place, those unexpected bouts of criticism can send communications and marketing teams into a frenzy—prompting a knee-jerk reaction to either change course immediately or hunker down in the hopes it passes. By using text analytics to track customer satisfaction and sentiment, a company not only reduces the chances of being blindsided by quiet murmurings turned into loud complaints, but they’re able to quickly access unsiloed, unbiased data that gives them a real sense of the issue’s scope.

Here’s a great example of how a Keatext client leveraged text analytics to navigate a moment of crisis. When faced with a product recall that had an impact on over 15,000 customers, the client was able to quickly turn to its Keatext analysis in order to quantify the 68 percent drop in its customer sentiment score. Rapidly moving up the chain of command with the right data in hand, the communications team swiftly implemented a few simple measures and was able to see a tangible improvement in overall sentiment after each step taken. With three simple actions and some strategic communication, the brand was able to boost its score back up by 28 percent.

In moments of customer or public discontent, panic and gut instinct can put pressure on existing decision-making processes and make response teams feel like they’re flailing in the dark. With text analytics, communications and marketing teams are able to easily reduce response times by extracting the right data to ensure quick interdepartmental buy-in and by providing the metrics and visibility to truly evaluate and demonstrate the real-time impact of the proposed action plan. With crisis management best practices suggesting that the first 15 to 60 minutes following a crisis are the most crucial to ensuring a brand makes it out alive, that kind of response acceleration can play an important role in mitigating any long-term damage to a company and its image.

The post How to market great hospitality brands with text analytics appeared first on Keatext.