Discover customer and market insights with AI

Extracting valuable insights from both social and web interactions is notoriously challenging. On paper, it’s a simple process of building a trusted relationship with your customers so that you can improve your reputation and secure a competitive advantage. However, if you’re not using the right tools, it can feel much more complicated than that.

Emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning are making it easier to leverage social and search analytics. One of the most promising AI-powered applications is sentiment analysis (also known as emotion AI), which is becoming an essential tool for organizations of all sizes to understand precisely what your customers say and feel about your brand.

Sentiment analysis can reveal much deeper insight into reactions to brand activity such as a news story or ad campaign. For example, Nike recently faced a backlash for an ad campaign featuring former NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick.  A sentiment analysis revealed that the ad impacted different age groups in different ways. When the media hype died down, the favorable response by millennials and Generation Z consumers had propelled a huge spike in sales and brand market value—a big win. Algorithms had revealed the true emotional impact across previously blurry generational lines.

You aren’t on your own in the race to win the hearts and minds of your customers, but you do need to move quickly to bring tools like sentiment analysis into your workstreams. According to IDC, by 2019, 70 percent of businesses will integrate social media behavioral and outcome metrics within their CRM and marketing automation tools, and 50 percent will have automated social media monitoring for “visual mentions” of their logos and products.

77 percent of organizations already have a social media management platform implemented or are expanding implementation. Meanwhile, 65 percent of business buyers are likely to switch brands if a company doesn’t personalize communications with them. These are just a few examples of why it’s critical to get to know your customers.

In a customer-centric age, most people reading this will know why they need to get to know their customers. Finding the right technology solutions to gather valuable insights is often the challenge. That’s why Microsoft is focusing on solutions that empower people across your organization to discover predictive insights and take informed actions to improve customer relationships.

Customer Relationship Challenges

In a digital age where experiences have become as important as the sale itself, marketing departments are beginning to feel the pressures of staying up-to-date with online conversations and revealing precisely what they mean. For example, 80 percent of Fortune 500 companies have active Facebook pages, yet only 20 percent can quantitatively prove social media’s impact.

Thousands of conversations are taking place online while you read this blog post. Locating them and responding promptly is notoriously challenging, to say the least. Your problems seemingly grow as they are reported online and amplified across all social channels.

Gain actionable insights

Thankfully, being a part of social conversations and responding to your customers more efficiently has become much easier with Microsoft Dynamics 365 AI for Market Insights. This market research application enables brands to obtain critical insights by monitoring external information sources such as social media and trending search terms on the web.

What makes the business application unique is that it helps businesses know what their consumers are saying on social media, searching in Bing, and feeling about their brand. Collectively, this information enables them to identify their customers and support their unique needs.

If a brand is serious about getting to know their customers, many of the most valuable insights are right there in front of them, ready to be discovered with the new tools inside Dynamics 365. A combination of web insights and actively listening to social conversations about your brand can be transformed into new leads or support cases to continuously strengthen customer relationships.

The future is already here, and businesses need to think beyond monitoring social media. It’s not only about what people are saying online that matters, but what they are searching for and how they feel that will truly enable you to understand your audience.

Visit AI for Market Insights to learn more and try the public preview for free. The most exciting part of AI for Market Insights is that by harnessing social sentiment and being able to analyze it instantly, you will quickly begin to see the art of what’s possible.