Improving customer experience through technology
Published on Jan 28, 2021
The tech enhancements released over the last quarter of 2020 were designed to inspire smart changes in our clients’ business. From our expanding integration partnerships to improved visualizations in our text analytics reporting, this latest round of enhancements represents SMG’s dedication to providing brands with robust, intuitive tools that maximize the impact of their experience management (XM) program. Here are a few of Q4’s notable updates:
Leveraging strategic partnerships to connect brands with customers
With a focus on feedback innovation, the following partnerships enable brands to drive customer engagement while simultaneously receiving richer feedback and deeper insights:
Integration with Olo provides holistic view of CX
Our new partner integration with Olo provides a more holistic view of the customer experience by soliciting personalized, digital feedback and analyzing this data alongside XM data. Olo provides more than 300 multi-location restaurant brands with a white-label platform for on-demand ordering and delivery. SMG is integrating Olo data for a host of restaurant brands, including Pizza Patrón. Through the integration, the pizza franchise has streamlined the feedback process for customers while increasing response rates and surfacing richer insights about its digital experience.
WhatsApp integration enables survey delivery via messaging
This partnership enables brands to send survey invitations in-app via WhatsApp messaging and makes survey entry simpler for the customer by leveraging a familiar, intuitive touchpoint.

Microsoft Dynamics Integration Brings Visibility to All Customer Cases
With a new bi-directional case integration, we’re able to bring visibility to cases generated outside of the SMG platform to clients using the Microsoft Dynamics CRM system. This enables team members to action issues from a central location and helps raise greater awareness and accountability for location-specific issues.
Enhancing text analytics to uncover actionable insights
While the quantitative data from an experience management program is invaluable, it’s often the customer comments that help answer questions brands never thought to ask. That’s why our AI-powered text analytics platform is one of our top priorities and an area where we’ll continue to invest. The latest updates include:
New subcategory filtering for deeper analysis of comments
This addition to the text analytics comment report offers a responsive way for users to surface insights below the category level—resulting in an easier, faster path to actionable insights by eliminating the need to read numerous comments. More than 30 industry-specific subcategories are available today, and more will be added throughout 2021.
Setting default views to surface key topics faster
It’s now possible to set a default view of products or categories in the text analytics top topics card, which means users have faster access to their most important information.

Comparing sentiment changes across regions
See period-over-period comparisons in the text analytics sentiment by region card to understand how score sentiment has changed and reveal which areas need attention.
Optimizing access and usability for a unified view
With intuitive navigation and easy-to-read visualizations of real-time data, the smg360® reporting platform is designed for customizable, role-based data views. With our enhanced executive dashboard view, power users can access intuitive analysis and prescriptive information across the enterprise.
Executive dashboard as default view
Users can now set the new executive dashboard as their default and land directly on this holistic view of company performance that features KPIs alongside text analytics, ratings + reviews, case management, and other available datasets.

Continuing innovation in 2021 and beyond
We’ve made enormous progress in 2020—rolling out more new and advanced features than ever before—and we’re excited to bring you even more meaningful enhancements this year. To really get a jump on what’s to come, check out our 2021 industry trend reports. These reports use 8 months of consumer research in identifying 4 forward-looking trends to watch and act on in 2021.
If you have questions about any of these platform updates—or are seeking additional support in serving your customers + employees in the new year—please reach out.
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