It’s a classic scenario. Two people meet at a party. They chat and then exchange information. However, they never speak or meet again. It is as though the contact information was never exchanged. So, what happened? Was there never intent to follow up? Or, did the information get lost, forgotten, or placed in a pile that never got acted upon?
There is a similar scenario I see play out often when it comes to text analytics. Most text analytics are focused on analyzing text right now for immediate tactical insights. Then, the text is virtually forgotten, if not literally deleted. Think about it. Sentiment analysis is a summary of general attitudes right now. Customer service organizations track feedback to identify emerging product problems. Marketing managers look at customer feedback to identify if a promotion is getting the hoped-for attention.
Whether social media, email, online chat, or transcribed phone calls, text is being used more and more frequently today. While the previously mentioned analytics absolutely provide value and are worth pursuing, there are additional opportunities that should not be missed. By throwing this information away after the initial analysis is completed, you may be missing opportunities to impact the business in very creative ways.
By all means, your organization should continue to pursue tactical text analytics that look at things like sentiment and customer service trends right now. However, don’t fail to think about the more strategic, longer term value that the information in text can provide. Just like throwing away that contact information from the party could cause you to miss out on a potential spouse, so can throwing away text after using it for immediate purposes cause you to miss out on big future opportunities.
We’ll begin with a simple example. Let’s say I mention on social media that I love to grill Rib Eye steak. Since my favorite foods do not change very often, this could be added to my customer profile. Then, when Rib Eye steak goes on sale at my local grocery store in the future, wouldn’t it make sense to let me know about it?
In another case, I might complain to a call center that my new car rides a little rougher than I’d like. By making that fact part of my customer profile, the manufacturer will know to emphasize the smooth ride when marketing my next car to me and making sure that the car does have a smoother ride than my first one.
We could go through many more examples, but the point is that people often reveal important information in the text that they generate. Simply using those comments for tactical analysis today leaves a lot of value on the table. By looking for comments that reveal various preferences or traits, we can expand our knowledge of, and relationship with, customers.
This excerpt is from IIA. To view the whole article click here.
Bill Franks is Chief Analytics Officer for Teradata, where he provides insight on trends in the analytics and big data space and helps clients understand how Teradata and its analytic partners can support their efforts. His focus is to translate complex analytics into terms that business users can understand and work with organizations to implement their analytics effectively. His work has spanned many industries for companies ranging from Fortune 100 companies to small non-profits. Franks also helps determine Teradata’s strategies in the areas of analytics and big data.Franks is the author of the book Taming The Big Data Tidal Wave (John Wiley & Sons, Inc., April, 2012). In the book, he applies his two decades of experience working with clients on large-scale analytics initiatives to outline what it takes to succeed in today’s world of big data and analytics. The book made Tom Peter’s list of 2014 “Must Read” books and also the Top 10 Most Influential Translated Technology Books list from CSDN in China. Franks’ second book The Analytics Revolution (John Wiley & Sons, Inc., September, 2014) lays out how to move beyond using analytics to find important insights in data (both big and small) and into operationalizing those insights at scale to truly impact a business.He is a faculty member of the International Institute for Analytics, founded by leading analytics expert Tom Davenport, and an active speaker who has presented at dozens of events in recent years. His blog, Analytics Matters, addresses the transformation required to make analytics a core component of business decisions. Franks earned a Bachelor’s degree in Applied Statistics from Virginia Tech and a Master’s degree in Applied Statistics from North Carolina State University. More information is available at www.bill-franks.com.
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