5 things social listening software should do in the fuel retail industry
Social media has taken everyone by storm, every industry, brand, and company - small or big is now a part of various social media channels. This is where brands are now targeting customers. Customers too, more than ever, address their pleasures and grievances with products/services here, publically. Customers voicing out their opinions or grievances have also made it more difficult for brands to carry on illegitimate procedures. Some of the leading companies in the world have received backlash from consumers about major hidden issues like child labour, animal cruelty and more which has led to the downfall of the brands. We have also seen some brands become the centre of social media with quick humorous responses, the right kind of marketing and being at par with the trends of society.
It is safe to say that social media is now the space where companies can validate themselves, grow and bring about a positive connotation about their brand. The advantages are massive and the options are vast. Today more than half the world and your primary target audience are on social networking channels which makes it necessary for brands to showcase their presence online. Although, industries that have been around for centuries and never had difficulty obtaining new customers have had a bit of a struggle adjusting to the incorporation of social media. The fuel retail industry, too, has had to adapt to this rather unusual business perspective - social media listening.
What is social media listening?
Social media listening - the new word/trend in the market is up for grabs for businesses that want to expand and be palatable to the people watching. It means tracking social media platforms for all the mentions and conversations people are having about your brand and using them as an insight to discover new opportunities in the market. It is a simple two-step process. You first monitor the social media channels to know what people are saying about you, your brand, your products and your competitors; using keywords related to your business and you. Then you critically analyze the data gathered to learn and make better decisions for your customers. This can mean responding to happy customers and also shifting your brand positioning. What social media listening does is allow you to strategically use psychology as the primary factor and help you use the right social listening solutions.
If you are a brand that is aware or is willing to dip its feet in the vast ocean of opportunities that social media listening can provide you with then these are the five things that your social listening software should do:
- Utilize the power of psychology
- Discover competitive advantages
- Deliver insights into the voice of customer
- Monitor reviews
- Competitor analysis
Utilize the power of psychology
Why is social media so successful in gathering the right kind of audience and attracting users?
This is simply because it uses psychology to attract them. As stated recently by a leading customer experience company a Harvard neuroscience study talks about and finds that people find immense pleasure in talking about themselves. Social media is the place where they can unabashedly talk about themselves. They also found that talking about oneself releases a pleasure response in the brain to the extent that customers can let go of compensation. 17% of compensation decrease can be found in such a case. Therefore it does not come as a shock that 30 - 40% of one’s everyday speech and 80% of all social media posts are primarily dedicated to talking about oneself. This information combined with the fact that people express themselves as what they purchase and use social media to share their honest opinion about products, brands or businesses becomes a gold mine for businesses to restructure their models successfully. Therefore as a fuel retail industry and a fuel retail brand you too are expected to make your presence known across every social media channel to gather data in the form of reviews, comments, messages and likes to get an idea about what your customers are enjoying and what seems to be ticking them off. This can not only help you build a good customer relationship but also work on your brand awareness while simultaneously reworking the pain points of customers with your fuel retail brand.
Discover competitive advantages
Your customers, at least 80% of them, according to Meta are searching for products that they want, researching for the prices and brands that can offer better before they even decide to make a purchase. With this information being provided we can now understand why we first find a trend through social media analysis before we come across it directly. To be the first one in the game your social listening must be at par with what your potential customers are doing on social media. One major challenge for companies is how to track social data; the right solution can get you that insight and allow you to start tracking social data to the T. Moreover, all the new products and services that your competitors are showing off come out on social media first. This kind of information can give you a heads-up to start strategizing and onboarding better products or services for your clients. Those that can give your competitors a run for their money.
Deliver insights into the voice of customer
Good social listening softwares track, measure and analyze every trend and topic that is most visible on social media at the time or are most relevant. The social data found is categorized and used in a way that can be extremely helpful for your brand to extract the voice of customer and make necessary changes that can lead to brand reputation, loyalty, and awareness. What are you looking for as a fuel retail business? Customer satisfaction, customer success and ensuring the customer journey is smooth and unhindered. You can achieve all these factors by social listening tools that find all the right posts and direct them your way. This allows you to analyze in detail and find scope for growth and increase customer satisfaction and customer loyalty.
Monitor reviews
A social listening platform where you can monitor reviews in real-time can truly change the way your business is viewed by customers. Responding to them quickly, solving queries and getting to the bottom of problems can be fruitful for your growth in the fuel industry. You can increase over 35% of revenue by simply doing damage control and the right social listening platform can do that for you by filtering out the reviews that your customers are leaving before they become major concerns. This also allows you as a company to improve your customer experience.
Influencer reviews are also things that are taken very seriously by consumers. This may seem odd for a fuel retail store. But, we cannot disregard the fact that there are so many influencers and they are spread across every locality. 37% of people have said that they trust the influencers and people they watch daily on their mobile screens just as much as their friends and family. Meanwhile, 49% have said that they go through and regard online reviews before buying things they require. Reviews about your fuel retail store or your c-store most importantly can see up to a 31% increase in customer spending.
Competitor analysis
Social listening tools for fuel retail industry can help you measure and analyze not only your fuel brand but also your competitors. This can help you get a better idea about the market that you are in. You can utilize such critical information to hike up your marketing strategies or promote certain brands more, add more to your fuel convenience store and spruce it up in a manner that customers are attracted to it. The idea is to match up to your competitor and do it better than them.
What you need to do is connect, emote and sympathize with your customer wholly. Social media or social media listening tools can help you do that. Social media listening allows you as a fuel retail brand or a c-store to analyze the insights, strategize based on those insights and finally act upon your strategies. You should find the most convenient yet result-oriented social listening tool. One that is easy to use and has customizable dashboards. As a fuel retail business, you should be able to work on the business solely while the social listening tool can make necessary changes for you and your employees who can then work independently. This way your team can also do analysis as and when required for the business and on the competitor’s business to attain more information. Customer experience companies and customer experience as a whole work on making a business as functionally, operationally and logistically effortless and facile as possible while ensuring that customers are satisfied. Social listening utilizing a social listening tool that sits right for you as a fuel retail store and c-store is the perfect way to get deeper insights into customers in the long-term.
Our CX solutions are focused on transforming the total customer experience through surveys, metrics, analytics and auditing by using the CXM framework to combine physical measurements with digital Platformation™ capabilities. We are committed to finding the right customer experience strategy that can lead to a competitive advantage.
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