Emotion and Trust and Transparency and Text Mining

Gartner just came out with a listing of the Seven Great Concerns for CEOs in 2009 - and it listed one interesting area that touches on issues of importance to the Clarablog (note highlighted area below).

CEO Issue Three: Loss of Business and Governmental Trust
The institutions that were once counted on to safeguard the economy seem to have failed, and the lack of transparency in the economic system has been exposed. There has been a subsequent loss of trust, as well, amid fears that other unknowns are awaiting. Trust is an intangible element in business but is crucial to transact business. IT can help improve transparency in the way business is done through reputation management, e-discovery and business intelligence. Gartner also expects a strengthening of "data driven" management culture as the risks of moving forward with insufficient data become far less acceptable.

They're right, of course. Everyone wants transparency. People are less tolerant of obfuscation, misleading, mishandling, and mis-marketing from the corporations they do business with.

It's in a company's best interest to "come clean" with the facts, and get messages out to the market. It's also in a company's best interest to LISTEN to customers - hear out their issues, concerns, suggestions, and even EMOTIONS.

Text Analytics, driving business intelligence, identifies, issues, emotions, sentiments, and concerns from customers and cost- and time-effectively helps raise corporate awareness of customers' concerns, perceptions, and needs.

Customer Experience Intelligence is primarily an ROI driver to help improve services and products (see earlier blog posts), but it can also serve an important role in helping companies attain and maintain public trust during times when public faith in the institutions of business and government is weakened.

- Sid