As the world recuperates and consumers everywhere are feeling hesitant to resume life as usual, recovery mode must be focused on supplying what customers need – and those needs have changed drastically in the past few months. Retaining customers in the long run depends on how well your brand adapts. And social listening offers insight that powers these customer retention tactics. Here’s how.
Pivoting to an Outcome-oriented Business Model
Consumers make decisions on purchases based more on emotion and the experience of it all – more so than they rely on logic. So it follows that COVID-19 has only strengthened this sense of loyalty consumers have toward brands that align with their own beliefs and values. And those that support them in ways that speak to their current comfort level.
One excellent example of this is Disney+ .
Understanding and serving consumers rational and emotional needs, Disney made the decision to release Hamilton the musical a full year early. So, on July 3rd, the release is bypassing theaters and the significant financial gain it would have inevitably seen. Consumers very much appreciate the gesture. Making it available to everyone, including many who’ve never had the chance to see it, Disney is plucking consumers heartstrings.
This thoughtful move meets Disney+ consumers where they are: at home, in need of distraction and likely staying there as long as possible.
And the outcome for Disney showing this kind of consideration for consumers, is likely a stronger bond and sense of loyalty to the brand that showed goodwill in a tense time.
Looking at BPI (Brand Passion Index) gives us a better idea of how Disney+ consumers feel in light of this development.
The circle represents the size of the conversation, while the vertical line shows passion and the horizontal line shows net sentiment. We can see over the last month Disney has been solidly dominating the sweet spot.
Adjusting our search to show the past week it’s is clear how passionate Disney’s fans are as the bubble is floating off the charts!
Using next generation AI technology, we can see the actual moods of consumers surrounding the early release of Hamilton below. They are overwhelmingly excited and fully in love with the idea:
How does Disney do it? By paying attention to consumer experience (CX) via social analytics and, of course, social listening. And this applies to every industry. One notable vertical being healthcare . . .
Social Listening for CX Understanding
Healthcare, the fifth biggest industry within the United States, has pivoted away from treating patients, to treating consumers in recent years. It makes sense. The patient/doctor experience could be viewed as essential to a consumers’ experience after all.
Right now, half of all medical offices are opting for telehealth. This offers doctors the ability to “see” patients, while offering contactless assistance, along with online access to view their results. It was available before, but significantly enhanced now – and likely not going away. And why should it? There are companies like Twilio that make it entirely workable:
Transforming customer communications, Twilio is a cloud platform that allows companies to engage customers across networks –SMS, voice, video, WhatsApp, email and more. Twilio gives healthcare professionals the ability to launch video chats with patients, update clinical documentation (HIPPA-eligible workflows), review patient histories and even schedule appointments.
Identifying an uptick in need for remote access to physicians, Twilio had the right software in the right place at the right time. Looking at the conversation around them, 30% of it focuses on TeleHealth Video Offering. Each nodule highlights a separate article or view.
And we can see privately held healthcare software companies such as Epic or Zocdoc, a medical appointment booking service, as part of those conversations, further highlighting ways that Twilio is getting it right.
And although recent mentions highlight their medical offerings, they aren’t just for doctors and hospitals.
They offer SaaS that supports everything from call identification to customized contact centers, and more. Twillio’s strength is its CX understanding. And it looks as if consumer sentiment around that understanding is paying off in cold hard cash via stocks (indicated in green).
Twilio’s first-quarter revenues rose 57% year over year to $365 million. This means Jeff Lawson, the CEO of Twilio, is once again a billionaire.
All because they were able to adapt to meet market needs. And that’s not just about luck – it involves a good bit of emerging trend identification as well . . .
Viewing Through Lens of Market Trends
Twilio wasn’t the only company recognizing potential during crisis…many of its competitors were also paying attention, adapting and profiting. One company is Vonage, a cloud communications platform.
When we do a competitor analysis, we can see Vonage is dominating conversation. They have seen a 4% increase, and they cover 50% of the published mentions, where Twilio, though clearly no dummy, has seen a recent decrease of 20%.
Vonage recently revamped its approach to cloud communications. “We began this brand revitalization by understanding what made Vonage great in the first place and modernizing it for a new set of customers and markets,” said Tom Furr, Head of Brand for Vonage. Like, Twilio, they are aware of trends setting the stage – and how consumer voices lead that charge. And wisely, they’re answering. Viewing a competitor comparison closer, we see they’re actually doing even better sentiment-wise than Twilio:
Vonage has 89% positive mentions, while Twilio has 65%.
And, not to be left in the dark is ServiceNow. Though third on our list, it has the least negative results and almost 75% positive mentions. Adding to this, it was recently announced that Vonage and Service Now are integrating to provide great customer service and enhanced productivity. Two strong competitors can pack a punch.
Could this give Twilio a run for their money? And is integration the new trend for a post COVID-19 world? The answer to both is yes!
Our New Merger & Acquisition World
In the past few months there has been no shortage of talk surrounding companies merging to reach and retain more consumers, by way of offering a better customer experience. And it’s not just tech companies. Uber and GrubHub could also become one.
Though it hasn’t been decided yet, these two food delivery giants offer expertise in different areas and have a strong stake in different regions of the country. So, it could be a union made in heaven, complete with financial bliss. Time will tell, and those who will know first will be monitoring next generation consumer and market intelligence around that vertical. Are you monitoring the same around yours?
Having the right market research and social analytics tools can help you spot emerging trends in business, as well as emerging consumer sentiment. And it’s important to watch, as it’s shifting daily along with the news.
Don’t get caught unaware, reach out for a demo!
