Hold Free Networks Releases Social Sentiment Module
After piloting the application for several months, Hold Free Networks today released the Social Sentiment module for enterprise apps, the first of its mobile and social CRM initiatives planned for 2012.
The Social Sentiment module lets consumers submit feedback on the customer service experience immediately after interacting with an agent or automated system, right on the same smartphone that thy used during the interaction. That feedback can then be published to social networks or routed directly to the enterprise for action. Customer participation in the survey is entirely optional.
The Social Sentiment module also includes an engagement console that lets agents view comments and generate responses while remaining apprised of service level thresholds, context surrounding individual comments, and overall trends affecting the enterprise. The company can build and control what the customer sees, what gets posted to public sites, and what gets sent to the company.
The product, which will be delivered under a software-as-a-service (SaaS) model, is being initially offered as a stand-alone product but will be rolled into a larger suite of offerings later on, according to Joe Katz, co-founder and chief marketing officer at Hold Free Networks. Companies can have it appear as a pop-up after the interaction or as a standard feature within their smartphone apps.
"It's a way for companies to receive feedback from consumers," Katz explains. "They can type in their feedback about the social interaction they just participated in."
According to Katz, Social Sentiment is targeted at larger companies that already have smartphone applications for customer service. "It's for companies that that have not yet figured out what their strategies will be," he says. "We're also looking at companies that have already been listening to social media."
The stated goal of the application is to give the consumer an added voice so that he feels that he is being heard while at the same time giving the enterprise a chance to react appropriately before it goes public. "It's about trying to give a sense of closure," Katz maintains.
Companies involved in the pilots reported two or three times higher response rates than with traditional surveys, he adds. "It's positioned as an opportunity to be heard by the company in a more meaningful way."