Best Text Analysis Tools & Software of 2021

Small businesses need to save time, so their text analysis tools should automatically comb through data and provide reports on the gathered information.

IBM Watson

IBM Watson features a natural language processor, tone analyzer, and personality insight tool all in one to provide a comprehensive text analysis platform. When performing sentiment analysis, the system doesn’t simply categorize each statement as good, bad, or neutral. Rather, it takes this analysis a step further and separates them by emotion, such as anger, excitement, confusion, and more.

IBM Watson also helps companies gain customer insight by analyzing which aspects of their products resonate with consumers based on their level of excitement, confusion, or other characteristics. The system can also usually ascertain people’s values to determine what motivates them to make a purchase. All of these insights can help companies improve both their products or services and their marketing efforts.

Main customer complaints

• The UI isn’t always intuitive
• It’s difficult to customize certain elements of the tool
• The features change often and the tutorials aren’t always updated to match

Also read: IBM and the Critical Need for a Trustworthy AI

MeaningCloud

MeaningCloud is a software-as-a-service (SaaS) solution that works with unstructured data to automatically extract insights. Rather than small businesses having to hire someone just to read through and analyze their reviews, MeaningCloud can do this for them, at a much faster rate. It also integrates with popular tools like Google Sheets and Excel to help businesses organize these insights.

MeaningCloud offers on-premise options for those in highly regulated industries or businesses who are worried about the security of cloud software. Additionally, there are industry-specific solutions available for companies in banking, insurance, retail, and others. The software is highly customizable and can meet the needs of a variety of businesses.

Main customer complaints

• Deployment can be difficult
• Takes time to get accurate results
• Customer support is not as strong as some users would like

Best text analysis tools for enterprise companies

Many enterprise companies have development teams that can customize software to better fit their needs. Because of this, enterprises should look for text analysis tools with APIs and other customization features.

MonkeyLearn

MonkeyLearn is a machine learning platform that automatically analyzes text and uses the data to create actionable insights. There are pre-trained text analysis models available, or a company’s developers can create their own to better fit their business. The platform also integrates with a variety of other tools, including Zapier, Google Sheets, and Zendesk.

For companies with robust development teams, MonkeyLearn offers APIs in all of the major programming languages, so the dev team doesn’t have to learn a new one to integrate it with tools they already use. However, even businesses without much coding experience on their team can take advantage of the machine learning models and start their text analysis journey with an easy setup.

Main customer complaints

• The tool only has four integrations outside of APIs
• Plans only include a certain number of queries per month which can be cost prohibitive for some users
• Accuracy isn’t perfect at first, but it gets better as you go

Also read: How Machine Learning Shapes Artificial Intelligence Technologies

Thematic

Thematic is a text analysis program that uses artificial intelligence to analyze customer feedback, like reviews and social media posts. The program offers three tools. One discerns the meanings from feedback and sorts them into different categories. Another reports on trends and patterns within these categories. Finally, the third tool helps companies create data visualizations to act on these insights.

Thematic works with tools you already use, like SurveyMonkey and others, so you can set up text analysis in less than a day. You can pull data from systems you already use to create useful insights and improve the quality of your products and services as well as the ROI on your marketing campaigns.

Main customer complaints

• Cost prohibitive for some companies
• The software needs a lot of setup work
• The reporting capabilities aren’t as robust as some users would like

Text analysis software for retail

Retail businesses need to know how their customers feel about their products and what motivates them to make purchases. Their text analysis software should include natural language processors and automated features.

Kapiche

Kapiche is an AI-powered text analysis platform that helps companies make smarter decisions for their business. Using feedback from both customers and employees, the system discerns impactful insights to improve overall satisfaction and revenue growth. No matter where the data comes from, Kapiche handles the hard work to produce more meaningful results in a shorter time frame.

Kapiche is easy to use, so most companies can get started with it in minutes. Because the system uses artificial intelligence, it eliminates human bias in collecting and analyzing data. Users can even create their own custom themes to better fit their business.

Main customer complaints

• Users need to clean data sources before uploading them
• Interface is sometimes slow
• Sharing dashboards can be difficult

Also read: How AI Will Transform Customer Service

Relative Insight

Interestingly, Relative Insight initially used their text analysis platform to keep children safe from online criminals. The software has since been reconfigured to also benefit businesses to gain insight from their customers and employees. The Relative Insight platform helps companies identify the differences between language sets, so they can get more insight into their customer base.

Relative Insight aims to support businesses across three key areas: employee engagement and satisfaction, customer experience and sales, and marketing and brand management. The platform highlights differences in the way different demographics talk, so you can better target your marketing campaigns to your ideal demographics and ensure your products are appealing to your customer base.

Main customer complaints

• Requires a certain volume of mentions around a topic to analyze it properly
• Words are sometimes categorized under topics that don’t fit
• Steep learning curve to get the product working initially

Text analysis software for service providers

Most service providers have a ton of different aspects that make up their services. Because of this, they need a text analysis platform that can identify which parts of their service customers are talking about, so they know what needs improvements.

Aylien

Aylien uses artificial intelligence and natural language processing to provide companies with actionable insights. Developers like the platform for its business intelligence features, which help in driving calculated decisions and building cohesive strategies. The system offers easy-to-use APIs and integrations to help you get the most out of text analysis.

Aylien offers text analysis models that perform language detection, content aggregation, sentiment analysis, topic discovery, and more. Aylien focuses on dissecting news stories, so it may not be appropriate for companies looking for direct customer feedback. It’s best for large companies who are mentioned a lot in the media and want to analyze and categorize those mentions.

Main customer complaints

• Very little information about the accuracy of results
• Only works for news sources and not customer reviews or social media
• Isn’t built for Mac or iOS products

Chattermill

Chattermill is an AI-powered text analysis platform that takes unstructured customer feedback and organizes it to provide useful insights. Companies can use the platform to analyze customer feedback and identify key themes and sentiments. The system tracks how customers feel about the company and identifies which areas of service have the largest impact on the customers.

Chattermill provides recent feedback from customers all in one place, so companies can examine their comments and improve their service accordingly. It categorizes the feedback into different categories that can be easily searched to find relevant information. Furthermore, Chattermill provides each piece of feedback with an estimated customer satisfaction level, helping companies prioritize the information they receive.

Main customer complaints

• The AI occasionally categorizes reviews incorrectly
• Some features are difficult to find in the software
• Automated grouping is sometimes misleading

Choosing text analysis software for your business

Text analysis is a relatively new software category that is constantly evolving as artificial intelligence and natural language processing improve. When choosing text analysis software for your business, look at the AI capabilities and decide which ones are important to your business. If you don’t need to comb news stories for mentions of your brand, focus on a platform that analyzes reviews and social media instead. Choosing the right platform can greatly improve your customer satisfaction and help you raise your ROI.