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How are customers interpreting your tweets, Facebook posts and other social media content? Social media stats such as shares and impressions provide basic data you can use to better tailor your message to your target audience. But beyond the surface measurements, this information rarely offers the in-depth insights your business needs to stay ahead of its rivals. 

If only there was a way to collect actionable stats from your social media content … 

Now, there is. With sentiment analysis, aka "opinion mining," you can determine whether your customers view a piece of content as positive, negative or neutral. 

How does sentiment analysis work? 

To better understand how sentiment analysis can help your business, consider the following example:

A small business wants to find out what customers think about a service it launched three months ago. Thus far, this company has committed hundreds of man-hours to conduct online surveys and cold calls to customers to get their feedback about the service. But after all of this work, the company still has no idea how customers truly feel about the service. And perhaps even worse, the business has already committed significant resources to its market research and now lacks the funds necessary to improve its service immediately. 

Sentiment analysis is revolutionary because it enables users to monitor customer sentiment over an extended period of time. Plus, sentiment analysis empowers users to locate and analyze text content in real-time, making it easy to find out how customers feel about a product or service instantly.

Why is sentiment analysis valuable?

Understanding how the customer feels, thinks and responds is essential for businesses of all sizes. Meanwhile, sentiment analysis enables users to check the pulse of the customer at a single point in time or over a span of several days, weeks or months. And as a result, sentiment analysis goes beyond basic shares, impressions and other social media stats, as it allows users to study various words and phrases and offers insights into how customers are reacting to a product or service. 

Remember, how a customer reacts to a product or service usually dictates whether he or she will choose your company over competitors. Just consider the results of a recent Forrester Consulting survey of 500 consumers and 150 retail decision-makers in the United States and the United Kingdom.

The survey indicated consumer and business perceptions are not aligned and that many companies lack the technology to measure and harness shopper data across channels. Furthermore, the survey showed the store of the future "will be powered by real-time analytics technologies that understand shopper behavior across the entire shopping journey and equip store teams to deliver consistent experiences relevant to the store format and target market."

Sentiment analysis bridges the gap between consumer and business perceptions because it provides actionable data a company can use to learn about its customers. And the better a business understands its target audience, the better this company will be able to connect with its customers day after day. 

How can you use sentiment analysis to improve the customer experience (CX)?
 
Knowledge is power, particularly when it comes to the CX. And any technologies that you can use to improve CX can deliver long-lasting value for your business.

For instance, an Oct. 2015 Accenture and Forrester Consulting survey of nearly 400 IT decision-makers showed "improving the customer experience" topped the list of business priorities for companies. Also, the survey revealed "improving customer satisfaction" was cited as one of the top motivations for digital transformation, while many companies are focusing on digital channels to make the customer experience more engaging. 

Although making CX and customer satisfaction (CSAT) improvements are top priorities for many businesses, finding the right digital tools to make drastic improvements can be challenging. Setting a digital vision and strategy and measuring digital success, meanwhile, remains a struggle for many companies as well. 

Fortunately, sentiment analysis takes the guesswork out of monitoring, and eventually, enhancing the customer experience. It allows you to track customer feedback as your products and services portfolio expands. And over an extended period of time, you'll be able to tailor your offerings to ensure they meet your clients' needs consistently. 

Let's not forget that sentiment analysis gives you the ability to streamline your customer experience efforts as well. 

While your business may have spent hundreds or thousands of dollars to conduct surveys and other market research in the past, sentiment analysis simplifies your customer experience data. Leveraging sentiment analysis tools ensures your company can get reliable insights into your customers consistently and explore new and innovative ways to bolster your customer satisfaction levels, too. 

Keeping your customers happy remains an ongoing challenge. But with sentiment analysis, you can learn about your clientele, their needs and their feelings and thoughts about your offerings. Check out the sentiment analysis tools at your disposal, and you're sure to find new ways to connect with your customers both now and in the future. 

Take advantage of sentiment analysis with Solution as a Service (SolaaS)

While sentiment analysis has great business value, the fact is that sentiment analysis is complicated and resource-intensive and requires constant upkeep. Unless you have a dedicated team of talented data scientists, sentiment analysis can be very challenging. But with Solution as a Service (SolaaS), you'll be able to better understand your customers' needs and adjust your business goals accordingly. 

SolaaS features a powerful analytics engine with the services of the industry's top data analysts. These analysts work closely with clients to learn about their customers' needs and business goals and deliver a presentation layer that addresses both. Thus, SolaaS enables you to gather business insights to make informed decisions and discover the best ways to improve CX.  

Summary 

Sentiment analysis enables users to better understand the attitudes, emotions and opinions expressed in social media content. Unlike traditional social media stats that are used to examine "what" is being said about a business, sentiment analysis explores "why" consumers are expressing specific views about a company. Therefore, sentiment analysis provides significant value, as it can offer quick, easy access to extensive insights into consumer behavior.