Why Listen to Customer Sentiment?

List(S)entimonics is the art of listening effectively to your social audience -- anyone a company depends on for its success who is having online conversations about its brand -- to direct your Social CRM strategy.

Sure, I made up "List(S)entimonics," but if online conversations are not in a company's direct control, then it is vital to listen to know how and when to leverage the sentiment of those conversations to align your Social CRM strategy. Using a careful blend of social media monitoring tools and services can assist you in making sense of the online noise.

"To listen closely and reply well is the highest perfection we are able to attain in the art of conversation."
--Francois de La Rochefoucauld

Conversations online do matter. It's essential to monitor them properly. The average consumer mentions specific brands more than 90 times per week in online conversations. The majority of consumers online trust recommendations from people they know; 70 percent trust opinions of unknown users. Consumers leverage user reviews for product information or research prior to making a decision about buying. All of these conversations can have a positive or negative impact on a company's social presence and reputation.
Following a traditional CRM approach, but with a social CRM point of view, there are several ways companies can monitor online conversations to align and set their own people, process, and technology strategy.
Marketing

• Gives insight and direction about what is discussed online about an industry and brand
• Determines what keywords and phrases are used in those discussions that will assist in SEO and messaging placement
• Information on the competition offers valuable intelligence on their positioning and how it pertains to yours
• Locates advocates and influencers for your brand to leverage in information clarification and distribution
• Sales
• Provides patterns of behavior with online conversations and actions that can assist in timely lead scoring and distribution
• Ensures prospects, advocates, and naysayers are finding the right information on your brand
• Assist in providing the sales team with "trusted source" intelligence to leverage in their in their efforts
• Provides an avenue to engage in sales activities in those online conversations
• Support
• Locate where and how people are assisting each other with solutions to issues on your product or services
• Gives valuable insight on what social media channels to leverage sites like YouTube, blogs, and Twitter for support
• Using Twitter as an early warning or support update tool to lessen the strain on other customer support issues that may just be of an informational nature
• Direction on how to guide the online audience to use online tools for updates, product support, and FAQs

If you are not looking at your current strategy and drawing the social CRM lines to all people, processes, and technology you are not being effective in the conversations and engagements required to grow and maintain your social audience.

First published by 1 to 1 Media