Introduction

With the growing demand for Voice of Customer (VoC) insights, many insights teams are evolving into Centers of Excellence (CoE), offering insights as a service. As your team supports more reports and potentially provides listening as a service to other groups, it’s essential to apply best practices to avoid surprises and manage data effectively.  I have gathered some best practices for this management, but I'd love to hear how else you're doing this.

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1. Set Overall Volume Thresholds (with Alerts)

To prevent unexpected data overages, align your volume settings with your contract terms.  The example below shows an annual contract with 5M mentions.

• Navigation: Listening > Settings > Management > Default Topic Volume Threshold

• Configure alerts at 70%, 80%, 90%, and 100% thresholds to trigger email notifications, keeping your team proactive.

There are also reports to track your usage.  Please reach out to your Customer Success Manager for the exact report.

2. Limit Channels and Sources by Use Case

Tailor your channels to fit your use case:

• Social Channels: Near real-time latency—ideal for fast-paced insights.

• News & Websites: ~24-hour latency through third-party partners (e.g., LexisNexis).

• Radio & TV: ~1-hour latency.

💡 Example: For detecting crises like the JPMorgan Chase viral ATM glitch (where customers could withdraw ‘free’ money due to a system error), you’d prioritize social channels like TikTok for real-time insights that could lead to quick action.

👉 To improve performance, limit sources based on relevance rather than casting a wide net.

3. Define Time frames

When creating topics, specify the start and end dates for listening periods. This prevents unnecessary data accumulation and keeps your reports relevant.

💡 Example: If you’re tracking competitor activity around a product launch, you may only need to listen for mentions during the campaign period (e.g., two weeks before and after launch), rather than leaving it open-ended.

4. Limit Volume Per Topic

Set appropriate volume caps based on your listening needs.  Below is how to interpret the "same" example with nuances in the tips:

• 365 days at 3,000 mentions = max 3,000 over the year.

• 12 months at 3,000 mentions = max 3,000 over the year.

• Lifetime at 3,000 mentions = max 3,000.

⚠️ Tip: Volume is cumulative for the entire period, not linear. Spikes or anomalies could consume your quota faster than expected.

⚠️ Tip: For flexibility, use smaller units (days/weeks) if you expect frequent extensions.

⚠️ Tip: Avoid setting to "year" by default, as you can’t easily extend it by a few days later.

5. Tune and Optimize Your Topics Regularly

Establish a recurring review cadence (this is a process change not a technology solution) to:

• Adjust volume caps based on usage patterns.

• Deactivate unused or outdated topics to free up capacity.

• Leverage the scaling percentage setting to automatically increase/decrease volume as you refine your listening strategy.

• After your renewal, update your overall volume threshold and select "Refresh Threshold Start Date"

💡 Example: If you’re tracking a competitor’s ad campaign, you might scale up volume temporarily during launch week, then reduce it once the buzz dies down.

6. Leverage Targeted Solutions for Deeper Insights

While social listening is broad, targeted solutions offer granular, use-case-specific insights that do not leverage the same tracking metric:

• Product Insights: Tracks customer sentiment and feedback at the SKU level across digital channels.

  • 💡 Use case: A consumer electronics company could monitor sentiment shifts after a product recall, identifying which SKUs are most impacted.

• Location Insights: Analyzes location-specific feedback to uncover opportunities for improving customer experiences at local, regional, or global levels.

  • 💡 Use case: A retail chain could track customer complaints about a specific store, helping them prioritize service improvements.

• Visual Insights: Uses ML models to analyze image-based data, enhancing brand protection and customer understanding.

  • 💡 Use case: A beverage company could detect unauthorized logo usage in online images, aiding in brand protection efforts.

• Competitive Insights & Benchmarking: Provides real-time competitive intelligence across social channels, helping you track performance and tactics at a granular level.

  • 💡 Use case: You could benchmark how competitors handle customer complaints on social media, identifying gaps in your own responsiveness.

• Media Monitoring & Analytics: Monitors and analyzes earned media across social and news channels using proprietary AI models.

  • 💡 Use case: During a reputation crisis, like a data breach, you could monitor both news and social mentions to gauge public sentiment and media impact.

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✅ Key Takeaways

• Align volume thresholds with your contract and enable alerts.

• Limit channels, sources, and timeframes to your use case.

• Regularly review and tune topics to optimize efficiency.

• Use targeted solutions and real-world scenarios to enhance insights and drive better decisions.

• Connect with your Account Executive to set your roadmap and plan ahead.