Found In Translation: Net Promoter Customer Comments Automatically Translated

To have another language is to possess a second soul
- Charlemagne

For some fun last week in CustomerGauge HQ, we counted up the number of languages that we can speak. The result: 13. Maybe more – I think I forgot to count Norwegian. That certainly helps us roll-out complex multi-language solutions for our clients.

And from this week,  we can now assist our clients with a low-cost, instantaneous translation system for Voice-of-the-Customer comments from Net Promoter® Score survey.

Our new CustomerGauge Automatic Translation System uses the Google Translate™ Translation Service API to translate over 60 languages. Translated comments are stored in CustomerGauge, and can be searched and reported on. No need for cut-and-paste, no buttons to press. If you have used Google Translate before, you’ll be familiar with the idea.

Technically it’s a “Gisting” service – you can get the “gist” of a comment – but it’s not a perfect translation. We always recommend that comments be routed to local language speakers to deal with; however, the service has already proved useful for client needs. Some interesting points have already be “found in translation”.

The cost of this service is EUR 0.10 per translated comment. (equiv: US $0.13, A$ 0.13, GBP 0.09). It is available from 2 December 2011 on CustomerGauge b2c sites.

Our Client Operations team are ready to set up translations on CustomerGauge sites now. Or if you are considering a Net Promoter project, let us advise you on acquiring the gift of translation for your Net Promoter project.

Download the presentation here.

Net Promoter News: NPS Now Goes to 11 – “One More Likelier”

Following hot on the heels (clogs?) of our Dutch Effect post yesterday, we were immediately contacted by a local Amsterdam enterprise, who are determined to show that the Dutch are not low markers when it comes to Net Promoter® Score.

Local businessmen Hertz van Rental, is the owner of the “Stoot Je Hoofd Niet” Snack-Restaurant [trans: "Don't Hit Your Head"], slap-bang in the centre of the old Jordaan, Amsterdam’s former working-class-gone-hip neighbourhood, and represents a collective of bars and cafes in the area. The venues sell the well known Dutch delicacy, the tasty “Kroket” (or “Kroketje” to the cognescenti), a filling food which is the ideal complement to a beer, while enjoying the bar singers belting out sentimental Johnny Jordaan or Tante Leen numbers. The organisation goes by the name of the Jordan Organisation for Kroketje Excellence, and is dedicated to high standards of quality and service for this important part of the experience.

“Our Net Promoter Scores are so high” says Mr van Rental, “that our members regularly get an NPS of more than 90″. He concedes that booze and singing might help push up the scoring a little, but showed us verbatim comments from customers along the lines of “I would give you 11 out of 10 for this Kroket”. He challenged us to help his organisation take better feedback from their customers.

I am proud to say the CustomerGauge organisation rose to the challenge.

Read more

CustomerGauge Out: XML Comment and Net Promoter Score API

This is v1.0 of our standard CustomerGauge XML comments and Net Promoter® Score API (Application Programming Interface). We have made it as simple to use as possible for widest possible use. See also our other feed documentation on our support page.

Using the XML API

You could use this to:

• display comments on intranet or external sites
• update internal systems and dashboards
• update CRM systems with score and comment using customer number as lookup

Available Fields

We provide in the feed as standard:

• Net Promoter Score (0 – 10)
• Customer Comment
• Translated Comment
• Customer Reference Number
• Various segments (country, store, channel)
• Date of comment/Score
• Product SKU (if available)
• Useful plain-english description of feed source if re-used in other places
• Date of feed
• Link to comment detail page in CustomerGauge

Security

It is available in secure mode (default) or open (no security). We are able to simply configure it depending on frequency of update and security needs.

Standard feed is secured with User Name and Password, using CURL in PHP or similar.

URL example: http://www.c1-gauge.com/sites/RSS/xxxFeedSecure.xml

Username: myfeed

password: mypass

Using the API – PHP example

Example using PHP:

<? PHP

$ch = curl_init();
$user = ‘Acme’;
$password = ‘Acme1FeedExample’;
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_URL, “http://www.c1-gauge.com/sites/RSS/AcmeFeedSecure2.xml”);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, true);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_USERPWD, “$user:$password”);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_HTTPAUTH, CURLAUTH_ANY);
$output = curl_exec($ch);
$info = curl_getinfo($ch);

curl_close($ch);

echo $output;

?>

Once configured, you can test it using a testing page:

Testing page: https://www.cg-express.com/test/CurlPassword.php

API Format:

<?xml version=”1.0″ encoding=”UTF-8″ ?>

<channel>
<title>CustomerGauge Comment API</title>
<description>CustomerGauge API</description>
<link>https://www.c1-gauge.com</link>

<item>

<title>10</title>
<link>https://www.c1-gauge.com/sites/categorising.php?RAND=145XXXXXXX/link>
<description>The whole experience buying was easy &amp; stress free.  My headphones arrived swiftly &amp; are comfortable to use.   I am a great fan of Acme as I am still using the iron I was given as a wedding present in 1971.  It has been in use daily &amp; despite needing a couple of new flexes over the years has never once let me down.  Well done Acme!</description>
<translatedComment></translatedComment>
<country>UK</country>
<channel>Public</channel>
<store>Acme Online Shop</store>
<commentDate>2010-08-06 </commentDate>
<pubDate>2010-07-20 17:27:13</pubDate>
<category>AcmeSHS390/10;</category>
<source>Testimony for customer ID 145XXXXXXX from Acme Online Shop, powered by CustomerGauge</source>
<guid>https://www.c1-gauge.com/sites/categorising.php?RAND=145XXXXXXX</guid>

</item>

…etc

Please contact us for details on help with setting it up and configuring.