Text-analytics, a technique that has been used for more than two decades, most notably by the defense industry as far back as the Cold War, is now being employed by Starwood Hotels & Resorts to help them gather useful insights into how their guests feel.
Starwood hired Anderson Analytics to mine insights from around a million surveys and other forms of consumer feedback to determine what they're doing wrong and where and how they can improve. The research firm has also helped brands such as Dove improve their offerings.
AdAge has an insightful article on some of Andersons' techniques and findings and really shows that listening is far better than merely hearing if you truly want to understand how your brand's been perceived.
