The move from analog to digital, along with the rise of centralized hubs and platforms for media consumption — whether it’s video, music, games or keeping up with the news — has simplified performance tracking and measuring popularity.
Every leading organization in the industry is constantly studying their engagement metrics to know what’s chiming with their audience, what isn’t and what could be a hit with an extra marketing push.
But popularity only tells part of the story. How is the overall experience of the service? Are there issues and bugs that could be creating disappointment? And considering how many competitors there are in the media and entertainment space, how is the overall experience compared to that of your direct rivals?
Yes, customer effort, satisfaction and advocacy metrics can be gathered every time an audience member finds themselves on the path to issue resolution. But these metrics, though key, only tell some of the story, and they don’t tell it in real time.
Seeing the bigger picture
To capture the full picture with every positive and negative detail and to put that picture into the context of the wider industry, media, entertainment and gaming organizations need to embrace social media listening in order to measure CX, not simply content marketing performance.
In a moment in time when it appears the overarching trend — from online influencers to those who are potentially under the influence of something — is to overshare, social media monitoring has never been more important.
Indeed, without a clear approach to social listening, it’s impossible to identify trends, understand sentiment or spot potential upstream issues that could have a negative impact on customer service or brand perception if action isn’t taken.
The majority of entertainment brands are already plugged into social channels and active participants in many of the conversations taking place around their content and services. But social listening is at its most impactful and beneficial when it’s calibrated to measure overall performance against customer expectations and when the findings are correctly shared across the organization so that departments can take action. Don’t just view it as an extension of marketing.
More than marketing
Sales, product and customer service teams should not only be in the loop when it comes to sharing any social listening findings, they should be involved in the development of any approach to social media analytics and the cadence of their implementation so that they can be proactive in service of the customer.
For instance, persistent complaints about a particular issue could be eradicated immediately with simple improvement to customer self-service content. But this solution is only clear if the data is being analyzed by the chief experience officer’s team. Likewise, if the issue is due to a technical issue, then it’s beyond the remit of a CX team to resolve. All they can do is apologize as contact volumes mount and the problem remains unfixed because product or technical teams have no visibility.
Potential problems
But even with clear oversight and data sharing and a coordinated approach to learning lessons and taking action in line with business priorities, social media still presents several challenges.
With a growing number of tools and technologies available, it can be difficult to identify the solution that best fits your organization’s needs and to calibrate it so that it can capture the right insights.
Likewise, even with proven tools, it can be problematic to clearly outline the scope of any social listening project, which metrics or sentiment to attempt to track and how wide a net to cast. There’s so much potential information out there.
And this, in turn, can lead to the issue of data processing. With so much information available, converting that data into actionable insights in a timely fashion can be beyond the reach of many organizations. Also, attempting to do so in-house will put greater pressure on legal, security and data compliance departments.
Seek expert help
The easiest way of overcoming these challenges is through partnering with a customer experience delivery expert. As well as being able to calibrate tools to reflect brand vocabulary and align with sentiment captured in other customer-facing channels, they will have data analytics capacities to draw insights that can measurably improve customer service.
And, crucially, a partner should be able to deliver all of this while remaining compliant with any data protection or privacy regulation in any territory around the globe.
Social listening provides a competitive edge, but only when it isn’t treated as a plug-and-play solution, or worse still, a tool exclusively for the marketing department.
By being aware of and proactively avoiding pitfalls, and by working with the right partners, companies can keep their edge and do more than just listen — they can start to learn from their audiences and transform the customer experience that adds value to their brand.
Discover new ways to elevate your customer experience in the media, entertainment and gaming industry. Read our best practice guide, “Media, entertainment, and gaming: Entertaining new CX ideas,” to explore cutting-edge strategies that can help you stay ahead of the competition.