5 Industries Transformed by Sentiment Analysis

Sentiment analysis has emerged as a powerful tool for businesses to better understand the vast quantities of data in the modern world.

By evaluating the tone, emotion and intent in textual content, sentiment analysis helps organizations to make data-driven decisions.

Whilst adoption of the technology is increasing across most industries in some format, we will look into the following five industries most impacted by the rise of sentiment analysis:

• Recruitment and Human Resources
• Customer Service
• Financial Investments
• Retail and E-Commerce
• Media and Entertainment

1) Recruitment and Human Resources

Historically, the recruitment industry has long relied on traditional methods such as resumes, cover letters and interviews to assess a candidates’ suitability for a role.

Human resource teams often used standardized testing and reference checks to inform their hiring decisions. However, these methods could be subjective, time consuming and prone to human error.

Sentiment analysis has transformed the recruitment process by automating the screening of candidates and to provide deeper insights into the personalities, attitudes and cultural fit of their potential new hires.

By analyzing the social media profiles and written communications of the candidate, sentiment analysis can help to identify key traits such as optimism, empathy and motivation.

This data-driven approach to hiring allows recruiters to:

• Reduce the unconscious biases that are susceptible during traditional hiring processes, whereas sentiment analysis can evaluate data without preconceived notions
• Enhance the candidate experience by gauging the emotional tone of candidate interactions, allowing recruiters to refine their communication
• Predict the job performance of new candidates by examining past communication styles and sentiments, recruiters will be able to better predict how candidates will perform and adapt to company culture

Compared to the traditional manual methods, sentiment analysis for recruitment is helping to provide a more efficient, objective and scalable recruiting solution. This is something we provide solutions for courtesy of NetGeist HR.

2) Customer Service

Customer service has always been at the forefront of business operations, with companies traditionally using call centers, face-to-face interactions and feedback forms to gauge customer satisfaction. 

Manual reviews of customer interactions were slow, and identifying trends required extensive resources. 

By incorporating sentiment analysis solutions into their workflows, customer service teams can analyze vast volumes of customer interactions across emails, chats, social media and reviews. 

This helps businesses to monitor sentiment in real-time, allowing them to address issues before they escalate and to adjust their strategies accordingly. 

Sentiment analysis can also help businesses to better understand their customers’ emotions, enabling them to personalize their messages, which can improve satisfaction and loyalty. 

These strategies are helping businesses to provide a comprehensive, unbiased understanding of customer sentiment in real time, helping them to deliver improved customer service. This service could be in the form of a custom virtual assistant chatbot. 

3) Financial Investments

The financial investment industry used to rely upon primarily quantitative data such as market trends, financial reports and historical performance to guide investment decisions. 

It was difficult to collate real-time qualitative data at scale, with firms instead having to rely upon expert opinions and news articles which sometimes led to inaccurate assessments and assumptions. 

Sentiment analysis has been a game-changer to investors, by offering them the tools to gain a more nuanced understanding of the market sentiment and public perception. 

By analyzing news, social media and public statements, investors can predict market movements, mitigate risk and improve their portfolio management by considering real-time qualitative data rather than relying solely upon past performances.

4) Retail and E-Commerce

Retailers have always strived to understand consumer preferences, historically they relied upon focus groups, surveys and sales data to gain insights. 

These methods were reactive and time consuming, limiting their scalability. Sentiment analysis allows retailers to stay ahead of consumer trends by examining customer reviews, social media mentions and shopping behavior in real time. 

This benefits e-commerce retailers by empowering them to:

• Enhance their product development by tailoring their product offerings to match market demand

• Improve their marketing strategies by helping businesses to understand which of their marketing message resonates best with their target audiences, allowing for more effective data-driven campaigns

• Improve customer loyalty by responding quickly to feedback, positive and negative

Retailers and other enterprises can also analyze competitors using NLP-derived methods to help gain valuable insights into areas of strengths and weaknesses. This is all available through NetGeist app review monitoring. 

5) Media and entertainment

The entertainment industry relies upon analysis of the public opinion to gauge the success of their productions. Traditional tools focused upon critic reviews, box office numbers and TV ratings, however these methods were often after-the-fact, making it difficult to adjust strategies promptly. 

Through the use of sentiment analysis tools, entertainment companies can gain real-time insights into how the viewers and audience react to content, helping the production companies to adapt their content, marketing and distribution strategies more effectively. 

Targeted advertising was deployed in the marketing of the hit Netflix series ‘House of Cards’, with sentiment analysis used to determine what sort of trailer would resonate most effectively with a viewer. This approach increased engagement and conversion rates of people who watched the trailer and then the full series. 

Compared to traditional feedback mechanisms, sentiment analysis offers a more comprehensive and immediate understanding of public perception, helping media companies to remain relevant and responsive to consumer trends. Whilst these five listed industries have been transformed by the real-time analytical power of sentiment analysis, any industry that collects and responds to large datasets could seek to benefit from the NLP solution - another being government institutions. As sentiment analysis develops further, these benefits will continue to evolve into an even stronger competitive advantage compared to those using more traditional methods to analyze consumer opinions.

At NetGeist, we strive to create custom sentiment analysis tools to suit your organizational requirements. Whether you are seeking to better understand your customers, spot trends in your industry or any number of other data-driven decision making strategies, we can help. 

Let us simplify your textual tasks with a unique NLP solution, developed specifically for you.