Business managers require customer data to find ways to transform ordinary companies into industry leaders. Yet few managers possess the tools and know-how needed to obtain customer data quickly and effortlessly. Now, text analytics is transforming data collection for managers at companies around the world. This service empowers managers to retrieve customer feedback from multiple online sources faster than ever before. A Closer Look at Text Analytics Text analytics enables business managers to collect customer feedback from blog posts, web polls and surveys and other online sources. It offers an intuitive user interface that makes it simple for managers to retrieve customer feedback consistently. Plus, the service ensures managers can obtain customer feedback that eventually can be used to learn about customer loyalty, consumer sentiment and assorted customer behaviors and trends.With text analytics, managers can embark on data analysis as well. However, it is important to note that text analytics and data analysis are not interchangeable. And managers who understand the differences between these terms will be better equipped than others to optimize the time and resources at their disposal. Text analytics drives data analysis, but it is an all-in-one data analysis solution. In fact, after managers collect customer feedback via text analytics, they likely will need to allocate significant time and resources to transform this information into timely, relevant business insights. Typically, managers will need to commit many hours to mine even a single customer data set. They will need to look closely at the data set and search for patterns and trends within both structured and unstructured data. If managers are successful, they then can use these insights to drive meaningful business improvements. For managers who want a quick, dependable way to generate actionable business insights, text analytics alone is insufficient. Instead, managers need extra help if they want to speed up the data analysis cycle. Fortunately, a new data analysis service is available that works in conjunction with text analytics ñ Self-Service Text Analytics. This service ensures managers can quickly and effortlessly transform customer feedback into meaningful insights any time they choose. How Does Self-Service Text Analytics Work? Unlike a traditional data analysis service, Self-Service Text Analytics requires no data mining. Conversely, business managers can follow a simple process to transform customer feedback into comprehensive visualizations that highlight customer behaviors and trends. To use Self-Service Text Analytics, a manager first needs to register for the service. The registration process requires only seconds to complete and ensures a manager can leverage the service for free. Next, a manager will need to upload an Excel spreadsheet that contains user-generated content. The spreadsheet can include customer feedback from myriad online sources and will serve as the basis of a data analysis report. During the final stage, a manager will receive an interactive PDF (iPDF) report via email. The report will be sent to a manager's email address within about 15 minutes of the Excel spreadsheet upload and visualizes customer behaviors and trends. Each interactive PDF (iPDF) report may include dozens of pages of visualizations ñ all of which are based on customer data provided by a manager. The report helps managers analyze customer data and gain the insights they need to make informed business decisions. Clearly, managers need more than just text analytics if they want to generate in-depth customer insights day after day. With the combination of text analytics and Self-Service Text Analytics, managers can find out why customers may select one brand over another, how customers feel about a business' products and services and much more. That way, managers can use actionable insights to help a company bolster its customer interactions, products and services. Summary Text analytics delivers an ideal entry point into data analysis. The service enables business managers to collect a wide range of customer data from across the web, but it fails to provide managers with advanced data analysis capabilities. Today, Self-Service Text Analytics is revolutionizing the way that managers assess customer data. The free data analysis service is designed for use in combination with text analytics and ensures managers can visualize customer insights without delay. As such, the combination of text analytics and Self-Service Text Analytics can deliver immense value to managers at companies of all sizes.