Al – Based Software Helps Business Better Understand Customers
Al – based software is getting smarter at analyzing qualitative data, words, phrases, and understanding the relationship among these words. These programs can analyze data generated through focus group, survey, online forums, and social media and are able to generate new insights. Such new insights could help business offer better customer service and products and services that are more appealing to their customers.
Scotts Miracle – Gro, a major provider of lawn, garden and outdoor – living products and services, recently noticed that many customers were cancelling lawn – fertiliser service. Not knowing what was causing the problem, the company conducted a survey and asked customers to rank their satisfaction with the company offerings and other feedback.
Using an Al – based software called Luminoso, Scotts analysed the data, which yielded some interesting results. The reason customers were canceling the service was because they expected better customer service from the company. Although the words ‘customer service’ were not cited specifically in the survey, the software was able to associate words such as ‘listen ‘or ‘not responsive’ to come with the finding. According to David Erdman, a senior analysis at Scotts, the company is now examining its customer service to make improvements.
Luminoso performs its analyses by accessing a large database that stores common sense knowledge and relationship (such as ‘if you drop a ball, it will fall’) that help understand how words and phrases relate to each other.
1. Discussed the problems faced by Miracle – Gro.
2. Which software was utilised to analyse data collected by Scott’s?
3. How does Luminoso analyse data?
4. What are the strategic applications of Luminoso?