Benefits of active listening in the Retail Fashion sector

Clothing and accessory brands have a huge volume of followers on social media, and use these channels as a way of building loyalty (or directly engaging) to make online sales. There is a lot of competition between them, and small details make a big difference: the Retail Fashion sector is one of the sectors that can benefit the most from active listening.  

In Zinkdo's blog we have already talked about online reputation management, one of the services most demanded by our clients. As you can read in our blog, we approach it with our own methodology: the active listening process includes the initial diagnosis of brand sentiment, the monitoring of the mentions made by users and recommendations derived from this analysis that allow clients to optimise their digital communication strategies.

B2B companies such as the chemical company BASF and companies in the health sector such as Invacare, as well as public transport companies such as the Barcelona TRAM and media such as La Vanguardia and 324.cat, have already trusted our active listening services. But in this post we want to focus on a sector that is particularly sensitive due to the fact that its target audience is the end consumer: we are talking about the Retail sector and, more specifically, the Retail Fashion sector.

Retail Fashion: common issues in online reputation management

• Shipping issues. It is common for complaints to accumulate from customers who do not receive their order on time or who receive it with defects. It is important to manage these incidents quickly and efficiently, and monitoring can be of great help.

• Incidents in physical shops. Shortage of garments or sizes, poor customer service by staff, crowds at checkouts and fitting rooms... Incidents in physical clothing shops can end up spilling over into the digital space and monitoring helps to control them.

• Product-related problems. Sometimes, it also happens that a brand launches a collection and the product features do not meet users' expectations. Monitoring these opinions will provide valuable information to correct this situation or prevent it in the future.

• Role models and inclusivity. Society's values are constantly evolving, and the use of certain models or not taking into account non-normative bodies and genders can also create online reputation problems.

• Competitions and promotions. Sometimes it seems like a great idea to launch a promotion, for example via social networks. But that draw for a pair of shoes for all those who follow the brand on Instagram or leave a comment on TikTok can be counterproductive if it is not well managed, raising suspicions and complaints from participants.

• Corporate or sector crisis. A drop in turnover, dismissal of employees, labour protests, whether particular to the company or the fashion industry in general, can affect online reputation. With monitoring, the exact extent of these crises can be gauged and appropriate communication strategies can be devised in each case.

How active listening helps the Retail Fashion sector

• Assessment of campaigns by sentiment: indicators such as reach, interactions, conversions or acquisition cost are important to assess the success of a campaign, but monitoring provides more subjective information: sentiment aroused among followers, comments, type of reactions, causes of viralisation of content, etc.

• Impact of influencer actions: in the same sense, with active listening we can know more precisely how influencer actions have worked and whether they have positively or negatively affected the performance of the campaign. Is it advisable to hire that footballer again to promote the new autumn-winter collection or the opening of a new shop?

• Product: is the new summer collection being liked? Why are there so many returns of that denim skirt that was going to be a hit? Is there interest on the part of the male or female target in reissuing a garment? These are questions to which monitoring can help to find an answer.

• Customer service: monitoring is very useful for classifying complaints, requests and suggestions from users, sorting these comments by priority and improving coordination with the team in charge of activating reputational crisis protocols.

• Main sources: from where is our brand most cited, and with what sentiment? Thanks to active listening, we know whether these mentions come from Twitter, Facebook, Instagram or TikTok, whether they appear in the media, in which countries and cities there is a higher proportion... and all of this is updated in real time.

• Benchmark: finally, another key contribution of active listening is that we can monitor the state of the digital reputation of the competition, and see how it evolves over time. This makes it easier to have a context of where we are and what digital communication actions are helping us to keep up with other brands or, on the contrary, are penalising us.

In short, active listening is a highly recommended option for making strategic decisions in digital communication, especially in sectors very close to the end user such as Retail Fashion. At Zinkdo by Adsmurai we are specialists in monitoring and we have been advising clients from all sectors for more than a decade. Are you interested? Contact us to find out more.