What if you conducted a form of sentiment analysis on your own company?
This article is part of our Life at Work Series — where we explore the practices, challenges, and lessons that shape our professional lives.
It is also a part of our Service Series — reflections and lessons on how service is designed, delivered, and experienced, from Frontline conversations to leadership choices.
There Are Tools that Assess How Customers Feel
There are technology tools that scan thousands of interactions and social posts to uncover the words, phrases, and emotions that customers express — offering a window into their sentiment.
But what if we turned that same thinking inward? What would we discover if we scanned our internal emails and communications with each other?
What words, phrases, and emotions would emerge — to reveal how we actually speak to each other at work?
We Created a Workshop Exercise
I remember running a series of email-writing workshops for an insurance company.
The VP who engaged us told us that she expected improvements not just in how her team members wrote to customers, but also in how they communicated internally.
So we designed an exercise to bring that point home.
On the second day of the email writing workshop, we asked participants to bring five internal emails — ones they had written earlier — to the workshop.
They brought emails they had written to their colleagues within the service team, as well as communications with other departments.
Then we asked them to apply the same evaluation criteria they’d learned for customer emails to their own intra-company communication.
The Results?
As the people in the room began to read their own emails, many started to laugh while others groaned.
We noticed that they immediately began sharing their findings with each other.
By the end of the day, many participants shared that they would change how they wrote to each other.
When they applied the same criteria they had learned for customer emails, they found a lot was lacking. And discovering this on their own was key.
No one had to boss them around or tell them what to do — they figured it out on their own.
Because if you’re serious about serving customers well, doesn’t it make sense to bring that same mindset to how you communicate with your colleagues?
Related reading: Lions, Tigers, and Bears: How to Navigate Common Customer Service Challenges
Thank You for Reading
I regularly share stories, strategies, and insights from our work across Contact Centers, Customer Service, and Customer Experience. If this resonates, I’d love to stay connected.
You can drop me a line anytime, or subscribe on our site.
Daniel Ord
[email protected]
www.omnitouchinternational.com
