Client: Microsof

Industry: Technology
Business Impact:
Actonable insights
Market intelligence
Consumer insights
www.blueoceanmi.com
Improvement of product quality and customer experience by
implementing social media listening intelligence program
Business Challenge
Microsof needed a soluton to more efectvely analyze the thousands of
conversatons taking place online about a wide array of the companys products.
Because these products are used so widely, conversatons take place globally
24/7 and in huge volume in Microsof forums, other forums and across social
media platorms (Twiter, Facebook, blogs) and in more traditonal news sources.
While the company was already monitoring some of these sources, there was no
one integratng the conversatons and providing insights into their relevance to
improving product quality and the customer experience.
Soluton
Blueocean Market Intelligence worked with the client to develop a program
to listen to social media conversatons about Microsof products with the goal
of identfying product quality issues, training gaps and ideas for improving the
customer experience. The Social Media Listening Intelligence Program efectvely
and quickly scans a high volume of online conversatons to provide
The right informaton (unbiased actonable insights)
At the right tme (tuned to the product lifecycle; quick turnaround)
From the right sources (no noise, partcipaton of authoritatve voices)
trends
The frst step of the soluton is the listening component. However, Blueocean
Market Intelligence also successfully driven acton to improve customer
Case
Study
experience by ranking issues and communicatng
customer needs and ideas to product engineers.
How We Listen
The Blueocean Market Intelligence team processes data
from thousands of sources using a variety of free and
purchased social media tools as well as internal Microsof
tools. The program scans approximately 20 million
documents daily, including content from blogs, news,
forums, Twiter, social networks and YouTube.
The approach blends people, process and tools. While
we rely on search tools and data dashboards, we go even
further, analyzing content to uncover the story behind the
data. The teams are in contact on a daily basis, discussing
content choices, identfying new conversaton themes
and innovatve ways to package and communicate
insights.
At the height of our reportng program in fscal year
2011, we produced 26 reports each week (a mix of daily,
weekly and trending reports) on eight of the most widely-
used Microsof products. Each report runs on a schedule
atuned to the products life cycle (daily for new launches,
weekly for more stable products).
How We Drive Acton
Ultmately, listening to social media conversatons is
important, but not an end unto itself. The key value of
the program is to improve the customer experience by
helping Microsof teams identfy users most pressing
problems, pain points and suggestons.
In additon to listening for issue themes, the Blueocean
Market Intelligence team ranks large-scale issues weekly
using a variety of criteria to determine the severity of an
issue. These include volume of the conversaton, authority
of the people discussing it online and what types of users
are most impacted. We report weekly on the top issues
for a product and how these issues are trending in terms
of conversaton volume and tone.
Each issue is formally graded within the trend report on
a range of qualitatve and quanttatve criteria (reach,
scope, resoluton status, customer experience impact),
resultng in a social media severity ranking. Our criteria
is consistently applied and measured, so that we can
track the evoluton of the problem over tme. The
scoring enables us to rank issues in terms of severity that
correlate to other internal Microsof support systems,
so that they can be fully integrated with other customer
support databases. The team now adds social media data
to existng Microsof alert systems in a way that product
quality teams can immediately understand.
Outcome
Most corporate social media reports provide numbers
mentons, sentments and brand health units to track
campaigns and general attudes. Blueocean Market
Intelligence has gone beyond traditonal social media
search dashboards to provide intelligence that is more
relevant, actonable and measurable in terms of the
business and fnancial impact.
There are a number of Microsof programs that
measure social media buzz (volume, views, number of
followers, etc.) but ours uniquely focuses on identfying
product quality and support issues. While traditonal
measurement is valuable in many ways, it isnt efectve
in telling the story of the customer experience.
The Social Media Listening Intelligence Program had
to reach beyond standard marketplace tools and
measurement methodology to incorporate a listening
framework that treats tools and metrics as a means to an
end, not the end of the process. The result is actonable
intelligence versus monitored dashboard numbers.
The focus of any Blueocean Market Intelligence project
is to tell the story behind data. Our unfetered reportng
of customer issues has raised some eyebrows, but we do
not manage messages. Reports tell the story as-is with a
strong customer perspectve.
By combining typical social media brand/campaign
research techniques with added deeper content
aggregaton and trend analysis, we can connect similar
content and topics across the social media spectrum to
produce a more holistc view of each issue discussed. We
use data from high authority sources to show the depth
and reach of the conversaton, and then apply ranking
criteria that help teams prioritze and take acton.
The Social Media Listening Intelligence Program has had
many successes over the years by helping Microsof
teams address customer issues. Our reports help impact
resource allocaton decisions in many ways.
Identfy emerging issues not captured elsewhere
Reports ofen pinpoint customer issues before they
appear in other Microsof listening systems (help desk,
bug reports, etc). For example, we were able to identfy a
problem that customers experienced when they migrated
to a newer version of a popular Microsof product. Many
customers lost access to their data within a commonly
used tool due to a change in the products design and
licensing structure.

Forum and blog complaints appeared immediately
following the product launch. No other listening system
was able to capture the issue - it was not considered
a user support problem because the program was
designed that way. Backed by social media conversaton
data, the product quality team addressed complaints by
releasing a free download of the tool for people who
migrated to the newer version. Customer feedback was
overwhelmingly positve and within two months, the tool
was downloaded over 30,000 tmes.
Identfy training development opportunites
Aggregatng customer complaints from a variety of
sources enables identfcaton of areas where customers
need additonal training and/or workarounds. For
example, early social media listening was able to identfy
a situaton in which a partcular product functon failed
to install on some 64-bit systems. The exact number of
customers impacted was not clear.
Our reports were able to capture early discussion about
the problem among IT professionals beta testng the
sofware. Social media evidence convinced product
quality engineers to take acton by working with these
beta testers to develop a soluton. By the tme the frst
consumer complaint about the issue came into the help
desk, Microsof already had a tested soluton.
Guide product development
Informaton captured in our reports gives Microsof
product engineers informaton about customers top
needs and wants, helping them design more efectve
product and services. Our program routnely identfes
customer problems and captures reactons to updates
and product releases, which helps inform product
support and resource allocaton strategies.
For example, social media discussion captured in a daily
report identfed a bug present in the new beta version
of a popular product. This convinced the team to correct
the issue in the fnal version released to manufacturers
and consumers.
In some cases, social media listening early in the product
cycle can also help Microsof maintain market share by
identfying potental adopton blockers. Our reports have
been a critcal data stream for alertng product engineers
about problems in early beta versions that were solved
in the fnal product release - directly impactng long-term
company loyalty and overall revenue.
Prove ROI on customer educaton and engagement
measures
Blueocean Market Intelligence tracks ROI as a
measurement of how Social Media Listening Intelligence
facilitates a response to customer needs, thereby
lessening the need for help resources. In order to reduce
1:1 customer contact, issues must be identfed early
so that Microsof can publish solutons and take pre-
emptve acton to update products as needed.
For example, our Social Media Listening Program was able
to give Microsof an early warning of customer confusion
when the European Union required that consumers must
be provided with a choice of internet browsers. Microsof
preemptvely created training content to address specifc
themes identfed in our social media reports to explain
the requirement and typical user scenarios.
Customers viewed this content 17,000 tmes in just
one month. If this content prevented even 2% of those
users from calling customer service, it would represent
signifcant savings (350 users X $200 [average help desk
call estmate] = $70,000 monthly).
Such success stories have made our reports essental
reading for employees across the company. We recently
surveyed readers and found that 90% were satsfed with
the reports overall and two-thirds read them ofen or
consistently.
About Blueocean Market Intelligence
a 360-degree view of their customers through data
enables sound, data-driven business decisions.
business decisions come from a synthesis of data
streams and not from one-dimensional sources.
Using our 360 Discovery approach, we ensure the
comprehensive use of all available structured and
unstructured data sources, enabling us to bring
the best to bear against each engagement. Strong
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