Archive for October, 2008
Did Apple get it right with the new MacBook?
When Apple launched their new line of MacBook a few weeks ago, many people were excited to see some positive changes from the outdated version still in stores. Although Apple got many rave reviews on the MacBook, not every user loved everything about the newest version.
A concept map of CNET Reviews of the MacBook
Using reviews of the new MacBook from CNET, Leximancer’s The Customer Insight Portal was able to identify some of the aspects that consumers were dissatisfied with that Apple could use when they develop their newest version down the road.
A thematic summary of connected themes in the concept map
As one can see when looking at the thematic summary The Customer Insight Portal generated, the theme “bad” is the most connected at 100%. This could mean two things. This may mean that the majority of reviewers identified the product or aspects of the product as “bad”. This also may be because many users use CNET reviews as a chance to express their concerns with the new MacBook.
Another interesting thing to note is that the theme “screen” is the most prevalent theme (48%) in terms of what is truly specific to the MacBook itself. Apple opted to use a glossy screen for the new MacBook, which garnered mixed reviews.
Concept map of the theme "screen"
When zoning in on the screen theme, you can see that glossy and matte are prevalent concepts, as many reviewers prefer the new, glossy screens of the MacBook, while others think that having a matte screen is better. Digging into some of the textual evidence, you can see that there really are mixed feelings about the look of the screen.
“For me personally I was prepared to make the switch from PC to Mac but the glossy screen was a deal breaker for me.”
“I am a programmer so having a glaring screen is the real deal breaker for me, but the other then this the thing I really disliked about these computers which I have not heard anyone else mention so far is the sharpness across the front edge.”
“The glossy screen is supposed to make everything seen on the screen, well, glitter. I’ve compared a website seen on a matte screen, and on a glossy screen, and I must concur that, the same website on the glossy screen looks better in terms of aesthetics.”
“The glossy screen doesn’t bother me that much. That I could live with, and the flat glass surface on the screen is one of the best ideas in mobile computing that I have seen in years.”
“Glossy screen better than matte. (But they should’ve used Opticlear coating from NEC)”
“I have no idea why everyone suddenly went to these glossy screens. I have no idea what they are talking about when they say it has better colors.”
“The glossy display doesn’t bother me as it’s the same as my iMac’s and I absolutely love it (and don’t take my laptops outside all that much).”
Concept map of the themes "pad" and "worst"
One of the most obvious concerns for the new MacBook users was the mousepad/trackpad. While the spacious pad, made of glass may be roomier and allow for some revolutionary “gestures” similar to the iPhone, the trackpad is now buttonless, which many reviewers have found to be confusing and annoying.
As you can see, the theme pad was most closely related with the worst theme, and included concepts like horrible, sucks and disliked. This shows that for many reviewers, the trackpad was a strong source of discontent.
Close up of theme "bad"
Another interesting complaint that reviewers had, as you can see around the concept bad, was the loss the of a FireWire port. Because many digital cameras and camcorders use a FireWire to load onto a computer and some users need it for editing purposes, reviewers were upset that the new MacBook’s did not have this capability. Although the MacBook Pro and some other higher end options do have the FireWire port, the less expensive MacBook does not.
“Removing the firewire from the low end macbook seems like a really bad move when you’re looking at it now. I happen to use firewire for video editing, but I’m not sure it’s important to most people.”
“(maybe Macs too, just haven’t done any research) Sure, sure, those of us in the know are aware that firewire is much better for HDDs and such, but the average consumer doesn’t know that. Most PC users use USB external drives.”
Overall, the new Apple MacBook’s got many positive reviews from sources. However, using Leximancer’s The Customer Insight Portal, we are able to hone in on some of the aspects that reviewers aren’t as pleased with. When it is time to develop the newest version of the MacBook, Apple will be able to learn from this discontent and build a new model accordingly.
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( 1 so far )Leximancer Adds Strategic Partner in OrbisIP Limited
Leximancer Adds Strategic Partner in OrbisIP Limited
Innovative customer insight software made available to government and military customers
BOULDER, Colo. – (Oct. 21, 2008)- Leximancer, a Customer Experience Management (CEM) and analytics software development company, today announced a partnership with OrbisIP Limited, a technology transfer and licensing company that focuses on Information and Homeland Security Intellectual Property (IP) Patents and Products, expanding Leximancer’s growing customer base to include government and military sectors. The partnership comes as Leximancer recently launched its SaaS-based The Customer Insight Portal that analyzes customer feedback and unlocks critical insight.
“This strategic partnership is an exciting opportunity to leverage the impact of Leximancer software,” said Neil Hartley, Leximancer CEO. “In a time of heightened concerns about security, it is imperative that government and military personnel be able to fully analyze the data they have and find new and actionable insight-a service that is unique to our product.”
Leximancer’s software enables users to find meaning in a variety of places, including textual information on the Web, in blog posts and social media sites, or nearly any textually-based document. The software pulls out from unstructured text the main themes, ideas and relationships between words and turns this into meaningful insight for the user.
The partnership with OrbisIP will help Leximancer expand its customer base into the international security market, including government and military users. OrbisIP is a recognized leader in the information and homeland security fields and will provide Leximancer with the necessary tools to expand into this field.
“We have seen firsthand that this technology can help organizations to make sense of a wide and complex array of data sets and produce analysis quickly and accurately,” said Pete Jaco, OrbisIP CEO. “A big part of our jobs at OrbisIP is to identify and help distribute emerging technology that can help meet security targets and objectives within a nation’s security industries.”
About Leximancer
Leximancer’s patent-pending software platform is available through OEM partners or through www.thecustomerinsightportal.com. It allows customer satisfaction, brand management and competitive intelligence professionals to automatically extract the root causes of customer attitudes from Internet communications such as blogs, Web sites and social media, as well as the vast amount of data currently locked within the enterprise in the form of e-mails, service notes, call center notes, voice transcripts and survey feedback. Through its intuitive concept discovery, cause-and-effect analysis, thesaurus and search functions, Leximancer is the only solution that delivers deep insight into customer attitudes by objectively identifying “unknown unknowns.” For more information, visit the Web site, www.leximancer.com, or the blog, http://www.customerinsightblog.com.
About OrbisIP
OrbisIP is the first company to focus exclusively on the technology transfer and licensing of Information and Homeland Security Intellectual Property (IP) Patents and Products. OrbisIP is building international partnerships with universities, research laboratories and small to medium enterprises (SMEs) that specialize in producing innovative security technology and research, and assisting these partners in the licensing and distribution of their technology to global licensors of Infosec Patents and Products. OrbisIP Limited has been founded with the support of strategic investment party Imprimatur Capital.
# # #
CONTACT:
Elaine Ellis
Metzger Associates
eellis at metzger.com
303-786-7000
Comcastic Reviews on Twitter, Consumerist and Pissed Consumer
Comcast made a renewed commitment to customer service and quality earlier this year. There is no doubt that Comcast is working hard with the launch of Frank Eliason’s customer service team. Through their efforts, the team has made great strides in helping to quell customer dissatisfaction and to end sites such as ComcastMustDie.com.
While there’s no doubt Comcast’s social media efforts are making inroads in handling customer service complaints, analyzing three Web sites – Twitter, Consumerist and Pissed Consumer – gives insight into the current Comcast customer pulse. For Consumerist and Pissed Consumer, Leximancer analyzed data for the last six weeks and for Twitter analyzed data for the last five days. The immense amount of data available in such a short time made us appreciate how much information Frank’s team is currently dealing with.
So what is current sentiment for according to these three sites?
Conceptual Map Analyzing Feedback on Comcast for Twitter, Pissed Consumer and Consumerist
As Comcast, the first disconcerting themes are sucks and Comcast Sucks. For a company striving hard to improve its customer service and quality issues, these raise red flags that they have more work to do. The Customer Insight Portal allows users to drill down into specific feedback helping detect the root cause of why Comcast customers are communicating such negative sentiment.
Feedback included:
“The last one somewhere in India asked me once again to turn on my TV to check for a signal, when I said i would not do It as I have no signal he was confused and said “But sir we must follow procedure.” I asked him to enter into his computer that Comcast procedure sucks, and thanked him for his time at a very high decibel level.”
“We can just chalk this up to reason # 14,865,739,547,883,953,001 why Comcast sucks (sic).”“comcast sucks. . don’t become a customer.”
“I have comcast, It sucks pretty bad, I have to reset my router every week”
“Comcast – specifically Comcast in Philadelphia, is the worst run company I have encountered.”
Comcastcares Shows Up Prominently
Since The Customer Insight Portal allows you to tag your sources of data, you can see the files Comcast Pissed Consumer, Twitter and Consumerist. On the plus side for Comcast, note how “comcastcares,” the official Comcast Twitter account, shows up as a theme close to the Twitter file showing that Frank and his team are frequently helping to address concerns on Twitter. The term comcastshares shows up 169 times, which is a significant number showing how frequently the official account is being addressed.
Pathway Analysis Showing Correlation Between Comcast, Issue and Service
Another concerning theme is issues. Using Pathway analysis, The Customer Insight Portal shows that issue most customers have with Comcast is service. This creates actionable customer insight for Comcast, which is that service is an area where Comcast can focus to gain improved customer relations.
This is only a glimpse at the data available on what customers think of Comcast for a small time period. In two months, we’ll examine the same three sources and compare responses to see if there is an improvement in feedback. Thankfully, The Customer Insight Portal delivers analysis in minutes, so the ability to compare Q3 and Q4 opinion will be straight-forward.
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( None so far )Powerfully Simple
Two concepts you rarely see linked in software reviews are “powerful” and “easy to use,” but those concepts are the first impressions of everyone who has put The Customer Insight Portal through its paces.
Fern Halper is the latest to be surprised by the powerful simplicity of the Portal and the speed of reaching actionable insight. Fern discovered that even a new user can dive in, load data either from internal documents or the Web and in minutes have actionable insight at your fingertips.
“The portal is very easy to use. You simply login and then tell the system the files you would like to analyze. You can upload internal documents or specify the URL(s) you would like to mine. Once the analysis is complete, you can then drill in and out of the concepts and highlight the pathways between concepts.”
And dive in she did. Fern explored several articles on the current financial crisis to see what new insight she could uncover, and using the Pathway Analysis tool quickly found an unexpected link.
“I was interested to understand the ‘seats’ concept and its relationship to the economic crisis, so I highlighted the path. In a separate window all of the articles related to the concept path are highlighted. It then became obvious from the articles, that given the financial crisis, the democrats stand to gain more seats in the senate and lock up a 60 seat filibuster proof majority.”
What kind of insight and unexpected links do you think The Customer Insight Portal can unlock for your business?
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( None so far )The Customer Insight Portal Reviewed on The App Gap
Influential blogger Bill Ives wrote a great initial review/first impression of The Customer Insight Portal on The AppGap, an Intuit-sponsored blog and resource on the future of work and how new tools are addressing age-old challenges of organization, collaboration and creation.
Much to Ives’ amazement, the analysis in The Customer Insight Portal happens without setup and results are delivered extremely quickly. Ives will be digging into The Customer Insight Portal over the next several weeks and we look forward to his ongoing impressions.
As a bit of background, Bill Ives has worked with Fortune 100 companies for 25 years in knowledge management, portals and learning. For several years he led the Knowledge Management Practice within the Human Performance Service Line at Accenture and was an advisor to their internal knowledge management group. Currently, Ives focuses on business applications of Web 2.0 and enterprise 2.0 technology.
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( None so far )My Starbucks Idea – What Starbucks Customers Really Want
In the last couple months, Starbucks joined the social media scene in a big way – launching their My Starbucks Idea site, a Web site dedicated to allowing customers to voice their own ideas about that they would like to see change, improve, etc. at Starbucks.
Users can submit their own ideas related to employees, coffee and tea, merchandise and Starbucks cards. Ideas are then rated by points and reviewed by Starbucks corporate employees, some of which are seen through in action.
Jeremiah Owyang, a senior analyst at Forrester Research, called this the “start of social computing (where individuals who participate socially to build something greater) work together to craft better products, services and experiences for companies.”
Conceptual Map of My Starbucks Ideas
In the six or seven months since Starbucks launched this Web site, there have been thousands of idea entries. When using The Customer Insight Portal to analyze the top rated ideas of all times, we found some interesting themes that would provide strong actionable customer insight for Starbucks.
Coffee - a major concept as it relates to My Starbucks Idea
One major theme around My Starbucks Idea was obviously coffee. This shows that by using My Starbucks Idea, many customers have ideas centered on improving the coffee at Starbucks, whether it is through better offers and choices, bolder coffees, etc. There were also many mentions of Starbucks’ Pike’s Place blend, which will be discussed further later.
A map showing the prevalence of the theme love
Another main theme around Starbucks was love, in terms of what customers loved about Starbucks or what they would love to see at Starbucks in the future. As you can see, there are many concepts related to love, which shows that its most passionate customers still are finding much to their liking. It also creates actionable insight for Starbucks to capitalize on the things their customers love, as well as the things customers would love to see changed at the stores.
Pathway Analysis showing customers would love more vegan options
When looking further at some of the things customers love or would love to see, one can see that vegan options, like sandwiches and pastries would be preferred menu items. Although Starbucks already offers soymilk products, their food items lack vegan options. This theme was repeated through My Starbucks Idea as something customers would really like to see changed in the near future.
“Although I applaud Starbucks for finally offering soy milk for its coffee beverages, I would love it if they would offer more vegan food options.”
“While I love that Starbucks offers soy milk at every store, there are almost no totally vegan food items. That would be my addition to the store.”
“Love your silk soy, but why don’t you offer vegan snacks? if you had a dairy free muffin for example i wouldn’t have to make two stops on the way to work every morning!”
“I love that Starbucks offers soy milk, but you should start offering vegan pastries & sandwiches. Whole Foods sells a lot of vegan pastries that taste great.”
One can see from the excerpts above that Starbucks gained critical insight to retaining some of their valued, vegan customers. By adding some vegan options to their menu, many of these loyal customers would make Starbucks their one stop shop.
A map highlighting the theme Dunkin Donuts as it relates to Starbucks coffee
One interesting insight for Starbucks was the presence of Dunkin Donuts as a theme on the Starbucks data map. While not directly related to the My Starbucks Ideas per se, looking at the pathway analysis, you can see that Dunkin Donuts is related to the coffee theme, more specifically the Pike’s Place blend.
”As an avid and loyal Starbuck’s customer I am very unhappy with the new Pike Place Roast. It’s obvious that corporate leaders are trying to better compete with McDonalds, Dunkin Donuts, and White Hen, but, please do not do so at the expense of your loyal customer base.”
“Pike Place is not my first choice brew. It is too mild and I feel I could get the same type of coffee from a Dunkin Donuts or a man selling coffee from a cart on the street.”
“I just don’t understand why Pikes Mistake has to be the only option for a cup of brewed coffee. It isn’t as though there isn’t enough business to justify keeping Pikes Mistake and also offering a bold coffee for those of us that like something better than the many gas stations, McDonalds, and Dunkin Donuts coffee.”
“It is your choice, as Pikes Peak is weaker than Dunkin Donuts.”
“OK, I’ve tried the new blend 10 times to be fair and I must say – it is terrible. It tastes old the second it is brewed and the aftertaste is something reminiscent of a taste from the Dentist’s office. I am mostly a decaf drinker and the new blend has driven me to Dunkin Donuts. I love the Starbucks people, and I will miss them, but I can’t stomach another sip.”
Looking further into this correlation at the textual level brings Starbucks two actionable insights. First, one can see that Pike’s Place is not popular amongst Starbucks regulars, especially when it is the only option available. Secondly, one can see that some customers are actually choosing to go purchase their coffee from Dunkin Donuts, instead of Starbucks, as a result of this disliked blend and the lack of more options. My Starbucks Idea shows Pike’s Place is already under review, which is important considering the frequency of how often it showed up
This would show Starbucks that in order to retain their current coffee drinkers, may need to look into a) replacing Pike’s Place blend altogether or b) at least providing more than this blend as an option.
A map showing that Starbucks customers enjoy free incentives, especially when it comes to free WiFi availability
When My Starbucks Idea first launched early this year, Becky Carroll of Customers Rock noted that customer requests focused on free “loyalty” drinks and free WiFi. Six months later, free WiFi still remains one of the more popular ideas, while free “loyalty” drinks isn’t a strong theme.
“I think that there should be free Wifi in all Starbucks stores. My hometown Sbux does not have free WiFi but I am currently abroad and all the Sbux I have been to overseas have it for free, and I feel that it is a nice amenity that would make me come in more and stay longer.”
“My local library has free internet. I can’t think of how many latte’s I would have purchased over the past few years if Starbucks did not nickle and dime their potential customer base.”
“It is beyond me why Starbucks does not get that free internet across all retail stores for ALL customers would dramatically increase business.”
While free is an overarching theme on My Starbucks Idea, it should be noted that customers are always going want free options but Starbucks will have to determine if their business model can support it.
By using Leximancer’s The Customer Insight Portal, Starbucks can use their My Starbucks Idea Web site to even better satisfy their customers and increase retention. As Maria Palma of Customer is Always notes, Panera started getting more of her business after she got tired of paying $30 for WiFi that didn’t always work. Free WiFi is a concept that Starbucks customers are clearly calling for.
With thousands of ideas to sift through, using The Customer Insight Portal allows Starbucks to know exactly what their customers would like to see, and would they would like not to see, ultimately allowing the Starbucks corporation to better understand what ideas they should focus on putting into place.
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Leximancer CEO Neil Hartley Interviewed by B-eye Network
Leximancer recently was featured on the industry renowned B-eye Network. Mary Jo Nott, executive editor of the B-eye Network interviewed Leximancer CEO Neil Hartley about Leximancer’s growth and technology.
The pair talked about short- and long-term business strategy, current and future trends in the market place and the importance of being able to extract actionable customer insight from social media – including specifics of what Leximancer is doing to address this customer need.
Bottom line is that many text analytics options are both cost-prohibitive and time-prohibitive. According to Hartley:
“First, it needs to be usable by a business person who can pick it up and get to usable set of results extremely quickly. Second, it needs to be able to process masses of data regardless of the language or the source where the data is coming from and without the need for any setup. And it needs to go the extra mile in getting to the root cause of problems – particularly in that customer insight space, just listening or knowing what customer attitudes are is not enough. You need to get to the why your customers are happy or why they are unhappy, so you can make the insight actionable. After all, the link between cause and effect is not always a straight-forward, one-to-one connection.”
To learn more, please join us for a live Web demo. In the meantime, send us your data and we will help you uncover valuable customer insight specific to your business.
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( 1 so far )A-Twitter About Sprint
Sprint, known for its lackluster customer service, recently came in last on the latest JD Power wireless service study. Its CEO has publicly voiced that Sprint is beginning new initiatives to get its customer service program back on track. To accomplish excellent customer service and identify actionable customer insights, Sprint will need to listen to its customers in all of the ways they communicate including social networks, Twitter and blogs.
Twitter, a microblogging service, serves as an immediate pulse for any company on how their customer service teams are performing. As a company, Sprint can monitor Twitter for every mention of their company to get a live stream of feedback that will be paramount to their recovery. What’s more, they can follow the lead of Frank Eliason and his Comcast team and respond to concerns in real time with official company Twitters.
Conceptual Map of Feedback on Sprint on Twitter
Leximancer searched for mentions of Sprint on Twitter within 50 miles of five major cities – New York, Los Angeles, Seattle, San Francisco and Washington DC. Analyzing this data on The Customer Insight Portal allows users to identify central themes and concepts in the ways its customers are talking about Sprint on Twitter.
The Theme Hate is Closely Correlated With Feedback From NYC
The first red flag is the theme hate, which is closely correlated to the Twitters from New York City. Users from New York City mention “I truly hate sprint right now” and “boooo sprint booo!! I hate them!!”
For Sprint, this presents an excellent opportunity to continually monitor Twitter to see if feedback improves over time and to compare feedback from month to month.
The Theme Service
Service is a major theme for Sprint on Twitter. Using the Query feature on The Customer Insight Portal, we find that comments run the gamut (examples below). The quote on Heroes that “There’s no service here. I should have gone with Sprint” received multiple mentions showing Sprint’s product placement helped create buzz.
- I pretended it was a joke. Sprint service is not so good in my personal experience, though that was 6 years ago.
- in Sprint customer service time, 1 min really means 10 mins. i’ve been on hold for 20 mins, he came back on 2 x to say 1 min, plz
- my contract ran out in May. If not, I’d have claimed I was moving to middle of Nevada, where there’s no Sprint service.
- “there’s no service here. I shoulda gone with sprint”- quote on heroes.
- Live chatting with a Sprint customer service rep. This is a nice
- Sprint takes wireless service to the max in Baltimore ( Leslie Cauley/ USA. . http://tinyurl.com/3pfgom (expand)
- working to save sprint customer service from going down the drain.
Sprint Launches a New Service
In addition, Sprint’s launch of the XOHM Wimax service in Baltimore showed up as a major theme speaking to the buzz the launch received.
So cutting through the noise with The Customer Insight Portal makes it easy to uncover both issues and praise—and provides an opportunity to get to specific customers to respond in an engaging way for the benefit of the brand.
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( 1 so far )Why the W? Examining Reviews for the W Hotel
With plenty of hotel chains, vacation resorts and eclectic bed and breakfasts’ throughout the country, consumers have numerous choices of places to stay, especially in large cities. In order for boutique hotels, like the popular W line, a brand of Starwood Hotel & Resorts, to retain customers amid all of the competition, it would be important to listen to customer feedback, particularly indirect feedback and online discussions or review to understand what changes their customers may want to see.
- Conceptual Map of Customer Feedback on Trip Advisor, Expedia and Hotel Chatter
Using Leximancer’s The Customer Insight Portal, we analyzed Trip Advisor customer feedback as well as comments from Hotel Chatter and Expedia to gain actionable insight from W customers in four major markets – Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco and New York City.
Pathway Analysis to show dislikes of W Hotel NYC
One of the first, and perhaps one of the most important actionable insights we found is that W customers dislike – the bathrooms. Who would have guessed?!
Through some further investigation of the Chicago and New York City locations, you can see that W customers thought that the bathrooms and showers were tiny in size, the bathroom lighting was dark and customers overall disliked how the bathroom and bedroom were partitioned from one another. Digging farther into some of the text excerpts shows that this was a prevalent theme associated with dislike:
Conceptual Map highlighting Room theme and outlying concepts.
Pathway Analysis from Staff to Friendly
Pathway Analysis from Chicago to View
