How to Improve Products Using Sentiment Analysis and Reviews

When developing the ideal product, great ideas don’t usually happen in isolation. Product ideas require input from the people who will buy and use them before proven to be effective. Sentiment analysis is the key to product development because it pinpoints what your customers want and needs. 

What Is Sentiment Analysis?

Sentiment analysis involves interpreting texts such as social media posts and reviews and inferring how customers feel about a product, brand, or service. Upgrading products to suit consumer preferences is most effective when it uses sentiment analysis using product review data. Sentiment analysis uses AI tools to interpret the emotions and attitudes of reviewers automatically. 

Reviews are the best guides for product development because they are created by those who have actually purchased and used the item and freely offer feedback. Before review sites or even Amazon existed, companies’ limited means of discovering how customers felt about their offerings included surveys, focus groups, and customer service calls. 

Although surveys, focus groups, and customer service communication still have vital roles in product research, the lion’s share of valuable information is available on the web. People write reviews in their own time, during moments when they are focused on relevant products and brands and are offering their opinion to other shoppers. The candid nature of reviews makes them uniquely valuable. 

The way to make a product 5-star rating worthy is to leverage the power of reviews for sentiment analysis in the following areas.

Product Quality

Reviews let companies know how customers feel about the quality of their products. An item can be made from the finest components, manufactured to the highest standard, and tested carefully, yet customers may find some quality issues that need to be fixed. It is unnecessary to take every review to heart, but if specific comments surface a number of times, it may be best to heed the call. 

Unfortunately, business owners often rate the quality of their own products higher than their customers do. According to a survey from the American Society for Quality Control, three out of five chief executives at the top 1,300 companies said quality was improving. Yet, only 49% of 7,000 of their customers felt the products had improved. 

Using review data for sentiment analysis can provide a clearer picture of what quality means to customers and how to deliver products that meet those standards. 

Product Packaging

Product development can consume so much attention that it may be easy to lose sight of important details, such as packaging. If the wrong kind of packaging makes a product difficult to use or leaks or breaks, the time and effort spent developing the product may go partially to waste. 

To give an idea of how important packaging is to customers when comparing Lysol and Clorox customer reviews, packaging and leakage were discussed more often in reviews of the two brands than stain removal, whitening, and ease of use. Even customers who gave high rankings for fragrance, ease of use, and stain removal still seemed less than satisfied with packaging quality and leakage. This is a reminder that packaging is essential. 

Product Shipping & Return

Customers can look forward to receiving an item only to be disappointed when it arrives after the big event or birthday. An efficient return policy is essential for eCommerce since customers are not present when purchasing an item and want to know that it will be easy to return. 

Legendary company L.L. Bean almost did not survive its first product release. According to the New England Historical Society, 90% of its flagship product’s initial deliveries, the Bean Boot arrived with the leather upper separated from the rubber sole. L.L. Bean stood by its money-back guarantee policy, refunded all its customers, and the company remains a leader in customer service today. 

Product Life-Time Value

A product may seem promising, but in the end, it may not be worth the investment. When figuring out whether or not to discontinue a product, they are getting the straight scoop from customers is essential. Calculating the costs and revenues and doing the math may indicate whether it is worth continuing a certain line. Still, these calculations are often definitive only when losses have set in. 

Customer feedback could help a company nip an unsuccessful product in the bud or develop something further if the initial launch was successful. In the 1980s, Coca-Cola seemed certain that New Coke would take the world by storm, but its reception was so poor that New Coke became a famous failure for the company. Sentiment analysis and customer reviews can provide warnings about a lackluster product to prevent a significant failure. 

Sentiment Analysis Improves Products

Sentiment analysis gives the customer a role in product development. Rather than predicting how customers feel about a brand, it is not difficult to find out. Sentiment analysis provides information about perceptions of quality, shipping, return policies, and packaging, which are all issues they experience firsthand. 

Sentiment analysis inspires innovation and upgrades and can help companies stay in step with their customers in shaping brand reputation. 

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