Whether you have a webshop, a dental practice or a restaurant, you would rather not find your company name in negative reviews or comments from complaining Facebook users. Rightly so, online sentiment has a significant impact on your business results. Especially if they are negative in tone. We explain.
Online what?
Online sentiment. It is the collective name for all possible expressions that consumers leave online about your company, for example. An accumulation of different reviews creates an overall feeling and opinion about your company. It is therefore important for entrepreneurs to keep online references, reactions or even complaints under their own control as much as possible. First, we will investigate what the influence of online sentiment can be on your business results. Then, of course, we will explain to what extent you yourself have influence on these online expressions.
To analyse or not to analyse?
Great, a large online reach. It ensures name recognition for your company and in no time everyone knows your company and its services. But as soon as you are in the spotlight in the wrong way, this online attention can suddenly work against you. Consumers complain online mainly about transport companies, postal processors, telecom providers, web shops and catering. Customer service and the quality of products are often popular reasons to go wild online. Consumers prefer to use social media such as Facebook and Twitter for this, but review sites are also popular platforms to vent their dissatisfaction. Whether it is the beginning of the end or just that final push towards the abyss. Every year, several companies go under, partly as a result of negative reviews.
Those who complain therefore like to choose social media as a public pillory. Entrepreneurs therefore often choose to analyse online sentiment on social media, for example by means of a sentiment tracker. In this way they expect to get an idea of the overall assessment. Wise? That is doubtful. In general, complainers have a greater need to telegram database users list share their opinion online than satisfied customers. In addition, it is difficult for such trackers to recognise cynicism and sarcasm. (To be clear: Here we say A, but actually mean B. Or the other way around.) A computer lacks this refined sense of language and will therefore not be able to recognise these nuances. This can produce a distorted image. Do you want to perform sentiment analysis? In that case, the analysis by the human reader is still preferable.
Facebook as a decisive factor
Sometimes the influence of online sentiment is so great that no tracker or analysis system is needed to understand the overall value judgment. Eden od glavnih razlogov For example, Danny, owner of restaurant Mangia in Doetinchem wrote on Facebook: ‘An irreversible decline has started since November’. He wrote his post after his restaurant filed for bankruptcy as a result of a stream of bad online reviews. These started after a aleart news negative reference in the newspaper. Among other things, it stated that several customers had their plates returned to the kitchen because of the quality of the food. It started a stream of other comments, especially on Facebook where customers went wild.
