Organizations do not typically reveal their customer service or product issues, competitive advantage, road maps or future updates so willingly. However, we know that valuable insights into competitor activities can be obtained using user feedback. Product and service feedback sourced from customers, reviews on competitor websites, third-party and customer discussion forums can enable organizations to better understand sentiments and develop future strategies for their products and services.

1. Gaining competitor
insights through
customer feedback
January 2017
Kiran Nandavarapu
Director - Insights

2. Agenda
2
Understand the significance of customer feedback and reviews as a valuable
source for competitive intelligence
Analyze the data through a different lens, and interpret it by supplementing it
with secondary data sources, press releases or interviews
‘Predict the unpredictable’ and ‘Reduce uncertainty’
Leverage this data to derive meaningful and actionable insights into the
competitors business
Gain insights into the competitors’ focus areas and their momentum in various
areas, including new businesses/ products, geographies, verticals & other
aspects
Key takeaways from the session

3. Customer reviews and feedback – How it is used?
3
Customer feedback and reviews on products and services enable us to assess end user sentiments and competitor activities, thereby
providing plenty of valuable insights to devise future strategy for products and services
Capture relevant customer/user feedback and reviews
Analyse the information through various lenses
Draw insights from the data and analyse in
conjunction with secondary data sources
Draw a solid representation of the company’s current status and
momentum in various aspects
Data Sources
Vendor’s official discussion forums
3rd party customer discussion forums
Authorized 3rd party sellers’ website

4. How relevant is customer reviews for competitive intelligence
4
Over the
recent years
There is a huge rise in the number of products and services
across industries
There are multiple options of products and services
with the same use and functionality
All the companies are facing intense competition
to grow rapidly
In this scenario, companies are very keen to know how
the customers are perceiving the products and services
How is the competitors’ products performing in the market
Reflected in
Customer Feedback
and Reviews
 Product strengths and limitations
Customer reviews and feedbacks reflects a factual representation of the product and services of a company. It helps in reading
between the lines, and provides plenty of valuable insights
 Customer needs
 Insights on competitor’s product roadmap
 Company’s service quality

5. A few examples considered
5
Company's service against that of
major competitors
Product/service roadmap
and limitations
Product advantages
and drawbacks
Quality of a company’s customer
support against that of a major
competitor
Errors/Issues faced with
Networking Equipment
The following examples have been considered to illustrate how to gain competitive insights from customer feedback

6. Company's service against that of
major Competitors
Aviation Industry

7. Company's service against that of major competitors
Reasonable pricingReasonable pricing and value for
moneyCompetitive and reasonablePrice
Flights are usually delayedOn time in most cases; Sometime
massive delays
On time in over 80% of the casesPunctuality
The seats are comfortableThe seats are average in comfortSeating is cramped with less leg roomComfort
Cabin is usually clean, but sometimes the
toilets are dirty
Cabin is clean but toilets are usually
dirty
Cabin is fine but toilets are not well
maintainedCleanliness
It is of moderate quality and
collection entertainment is not ample
It is of moderate quality but not well
maintained
Not maintained and of low quality
with limited entertainment options
In-flight
entertainment
7
To compare a particular company’s services against that of its major competitors, we have considered 3 leading airlines

8. Company's service against that of major competitors (Cont’d)
Meals are above average, multiple
options with adequate quantity
Meals are good, multiple options
with adequate quantity
Moderate in terms of quality, less
options and usually not warm
Meals
Customer service is not goodCustomer service is not goodCustomer service is poor
On-board staff are very polite,
presentable, helpful and professional
On-board staff are professional and
personable
Moderate service, efficient but staff
are cold to approach
On-board staff
service
Rating for
each attribute
based on the
study
0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100%
Comfort
Infotainment
Cleanliness
Customer service
Meals
Onboard staff service
Puntuality
Price
0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100%
Customer service
Comfort
Infotainment
Punctuality
Meals
Onboard staff service
Cleanliness
Price
0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100%
Customer service
Comfort
Infotainment
Punctuality
Meals
Onboard staff service
Price
Cleanliness
Good Moderate Bad
8
Customer
Service

9. Company's service against that of major competitors (Cont’d)
Rating
Reasonable
Price
Punctuality
Comfort
Cleanliness
In-flight
entertainment
Meals
Note: We have considered reviews of economy class international flights posted in 2016 only for all the three airlines
On-board staff
service
Customer
Service
9

10. Product/Service Roadmap and Limitations
Cloud Service Provider – Amazon Web Services

11. Product/Service Roadmap and Limitations
11
Roadmap for product feature update
Compute
Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2)
• To add reserved instances for Amazon Internet
Services Private Limited (AISPL) accounts
Amazon Linux
• To add php56-pecl-redis package to Amazon Linux
• To add SELinux support to Amazon Linux instance
Elastic Load Balancing (ELB)
• To add a feature to link one ELB to many services
based on path
AWS Lambda
• Lambda functions are not currently supported on
dedicated Virtual Private Cloud (VPC)
Amazon EC2 Container Registry (ECR)
• To add alternative domains for ECR
• To add image security scanning for ECR
Limitations of the products
Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2)
• Cannot delete/remove retired reserved instances
• Cannot tag elastic IP
• Cannot block known bad IP addresses based on the x-
forwarded-for field in the HTTP header
• Cannot rename security groups, update description of
security group or rename SSH key
Amazon Autoscaling
• Cannot launch an Autoscaling instance from an
existing snapshot
• Amazon Linux repos does not have pulseaudio
packages
Amazon Linux
Compute
AWS Lambda
• Does not support Node.js V6
To capture the roadmap for feature update and limitations of products/services we have considered Amazon Web Services

12. Limitations of the products Roadmap for product feature update
Product/Service Roadmap and Limitations (Cont’d)
12Storage
File Gateway
• To add the ability to run File Gateway on EC2
AWS Storage Gateway
• To add AWS Storage Gateway and VTL for
implementation in the GovCloud region
Amazon Elastic File System
• To add the ability to do a point in time snapshot in
EFS
Amazon S3
• To add the ability to mount an S3 bucket through
Storage Gateway
• To add notifications for deletes in S3
Amazon Glacier
• To add an option to directly archive S3 volumes
from a AWS Storage Gateway to Glacier
Amazon Elastic File System
• No limitations (or defined quota) on the ability to
create/upload data
• Latency with EFS is very high
Amazon S3
• Does not have HTTPS support on the S3 website
endpoint
• Does not have different event notifications for new
or overwriting S3 Put events
• Does not support websocket on CloudFront
AWS CloudFront
Storage
AWS Storage Gateway
• AWS Monthly Calculator does not support AWS
Storage Gateway

13. Product/Service Roadmap and Limitations (Cont’d)
13
79%
21%
Product Limitations
Not in Roadmap
In Roadmap
59%
41%
Product Limitations
Not in Roadmap
In Roadmap
Base – 29 Base – 17
Note 1: Customer reviews are captured from AWS official discussion forum for 2016.
StorageCompute
90%
10%
Product Limitations
Limitations
Limitations Addressed
Base – 70
Limitations Addressed
Note 2: For Limitation addressed, customer reviews captured for AWS Compute and Storage products in 2015-16
• AWS customers have requested for multiple features in various Compute and Storage services
• Majority of the feature requests are related to addition of new features to improve ease of use
• Some feature requests are related to adding new technology, standard or protocol, which have been released and adopted by its competitors
Conclusion

14. 14
Product/Service Roadmap and Limitations (Cont’d)
Customer Raising Request
Amazon Representative Notifying Addition of Feature
Amazon Representative Informing Product Roadmap
Snapshots showing customer reviews in AWS Discussion Forum

15. Product Advantages and Drawbacks
Intelligent Personal Assistants – Amazon Echo and Google Home

16. Product Advantages and Drawbacks
16
Product Name: Amazon Echo
Functions:
• Echo connects to the Alexa Voice Service to play music from
Pandora, Spotify, iHeartRadio, and TuneIn
• Its capabilities include ordering a pizza, requesting a ride from
Uber, opening garage with Garageio, providing update on
traffic, etc.
• It provides real-time answers for weather, finance, sports, local
businesses, etc.
• Amazon Echo is compatible with most of the smart home
connected devices
Amazon Echo – a hands-free
speaker controlled by human voice
Product Name: Google Home
Functions:
• Home connects to Google Assistant to play music from services
like Google Play Music, Spotify, YouTube Music, Pandora and
TuneIn
• It has capabilities like retrieving user’s flight information, setting
alarms and timers, and even updating about traffic on user’s
way to work
• It provides real-time answers for weather, finance, sports, local
businesses, etc.
• Google Home is compatible with limited smart home connected
devices
Google Home – a hands-free
speaker controlled by human voice
To check product advantages and drawbacks, two Intelligent Personal Assistants were considered – Amazon Echo and Google Home

17. Design
Usability
Product Advantages and Drawbacks (Cont’d)
17
Analysing the advantages and drawbacks of Amazon Echo and Google Home through user reviews
The device light indicator is placed at convenient position
Simple and easy to set up the device
Inability to translate English statements other languages
Ability to recognize the voice commands is poor
Wake-up command is short and simple
The device light indicator is not visible from all direction
Simple and easy to set-up the device
Has the ability to translate English statements to other
languages
Ability to recognize voice commands is good
Wake-up command is complicated
Can be set to sound an audible tone when it hears
the ‘wake’ word
Cannot be set to sound an audible tone when it hears
the wake word

18. Compatibility
Hardware
Performance
Product Advantages and Drawbacks (Cont’d)
18
Can handle only properly phrased questions or
specific statements
Unable to handle simple information queries
Compatible with most of the smart home
connected devices
It does not support wireless charging
Speaker’s sound and base quality is very good
Can handle any complex English grammatical structures
and syntax
Not compatible with many smart devices
It does not support wireless charging
Sound quality of the speaker is very good
Provides intelligent answers to all questions and can carry
out mathematical calculations
The microphones have a good range and can hear a
command from another room The microphones can pick up voice very easily

19. • Amazon Echo is facing tough competition from Google Home
• Google Home uses the intelligent Google Assistant offers
compelling features
• On the other hand, Amazon Echo has been in the market for a
while and already partnered with many of the smart connected
devices
Product Advantages and Drawbacks (Cont’d)
19
• Integration with Google and Apple products
• More language support and addition of language translator
• Wireless charging option for portability
50%
60%
50%
40%
Amazon Echo Google Home
Advantage
Drawback
• Integration with Google and Apple products
• Better language support and addition of language translator
• Wireless charging option for portability
• Capability of sending texts and receiving calls
• Ability to support more compatible smart connected devices
• Wireless charging option for portability
• A different command for device ‘wake-up’
Product Improvement Opportunities for Amazon Echo and Google Home
Conclusion on the advantages and drawbacks of Amazon Echo and Google Home

20. A company’s customer support rated
against its major competitor
IoT – Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Azure

21. Company’s customer support quality
21
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
Document support
needed
Errors in product General Information
on IoT
Limitations in
product
Problems in
understanding and
using the product
AWS AzureBase: 100
For both Microsoft and AWS
• Most of the customer queries were related to
customers’ problems in understanding and
using the product
• The next set of queries were related to product
limitations
• There were a few queries on additional
document support and on reporting product
errors while using the IoT functions
Types of queries Queries by customers of AWS and Microsoft
To analyze the companies’ support quality, an IoT product, of both Amazon Web Services and Microsoft, has been considered

22. 56%
44%
Yes No
77%
23%
Yes No
• In 2016, AWS Support team has responded to 77% of the
customer queries
• Most of the queries are responded after 24 hours of being posted
on the AWS discussion forum
Company’s customer support quality (Cont’d)
22
Base: 100
Less than12 hours
Within 12-24 hours
Beyond 24 hours
31% (24)
18% (14)
51% (39)
Time taken by AWS team to respond Time taken by Microsoft team to respond
Less than12 hours
Within 12-24 hours
Beyond 24 hours
32% (18)
16% (9)
52% (29)
Base: 100
Response time by AWS Support Team Response time by Microsoft Support Team
• In 2016, Microsoft Support team has responded to 56% of the
customer queries
• Majority of the queries are responded after 24 hours of being
posted in the Microsoft Forum
The time within which the support executives respond is given below

23. 53
3
44
Acknowledged and resolved
Acknowledged but not resolved
Not Acknowledged
67
10
23
Acknowledged and resolved
Acknowledged but not resolved
Not Acknowledged
Company’s customer support quality (Cont’d)
23
Base: 100
55
12
Solution to the query
Limitation of AWS IoT
Base: 67 Base: 100
46
7
Solution to the query
Limitation of Microsoft IoT
Base: 53
Acknowledged
and resolved
Acknowledged
and resolved
Summary of AWS customer queries Summary of Microsoft customer queries
Acknowledged and resolved solutions are of two types:
• In the first case, the customers were provided with a solution to their issues
• In the second type, the company’s customer support executive responded to the customer queries, but those did not have a solution as of then,
as they were limitations of the product
Acknowledged and resolved solutions
Even though the company support executives responds to the queries, all the issues do not get resolved while some queries extends
up-to days and weeks to get resolved due to the level of complication in the queries

24. Errors/Issues in products
Networking Equipment – Cisco Systems

25. Errors/Issues in equipment
25
34%
33%
17%
16%
Networking Error
Software Error
Hardware Error
Connection/Port Error
Base: 100
Types of Errors/Issues with Cisco Networking Equipment Summary
From the latest 100 customer posts (posted
from July-Dec 2016) on the Cisco’s official
discussion forum, it is seen that the customers
using Cisco’s products listed under LAN,
switching and routing equipment are facing
several issues and errors related to
networking, software, hardware and
connection/port. Some of these issues are
manufacturing defects while some errors
have developed later, following regular usage
Networking equipment offered by Cisco has been considered to analyze the errors in and issues with products

26. Errors/Issues in equipment (Cont’d)
26
• Most common networking error includes configuration error and
command error
• Majority of the Connection/Port errors occurred because of the lack of
understanding of the customer about the products. On many occasions,
the customer did not know how to configure the device or a customer
used the wrong port to connect the cable during configuration
Networking Error
71%
12%
18%
Configuration Error
Command Error
Others
Base: 34
Connection/Port Error
75%
25%
Customer Ignorance
Inadequate Power Supply
Base: 16
There are various reasons for the occurrence of errors in and issues with Cisco’s networking equipment. The reasons help us
understand whether the error occurred is the company’s fault or the customer’s fault in operating the equipment

27. Errors/Issues in equipment (Cont’d)
27
• Majority of the hardware errors occurred due to the wear and tear of
the equipment, which happens with time, or due to customer
tampering with the hardware
• Some of the hardware error includes some manufacturing defect,
users also faced errors as they were using outdated hardware
• Majority of the errors occurred due to bugs in OS or as the customer
was not using the latest version of OS
• Other errors include lack of customer’s understanding regarding the
usage of the equipment, which led to errors
Hardware Error
6%
6%
53%
35%
Customer Ignorance
Outdated Hardware
Dysfunctional Device
Manufacturing Defect
Software Error
12%
36%
52% Customer Ignorance
Bugs in OS
Old version of OS
Base: 33Base: 17

28. 28
Views & Discussions on the reviews captured
No. of discussions by Error type
37%
38%
13%
12%
Networking Error
Software Error
Connection/Port Error
Hardware Error
• From the number of views on networking and software errors, it can
be concluded that these are the two main errors faced by customers
in using their equipment. Cisco should hence focus on such types of
errors and work to minimize them in future
• From the above chart, number of discussion shows that the customers
are facing many mission critical issues which needs to be solved. Cisco is
addressing these issues based on priority and popularity of the issue
Below are the total number of views and discussions made on the 100 queries sample collected over past 6 months
Base: 413
No. of views by Error type
46%
39%
9%
6%
Networking Error
Software Error
Connection/Port Error
Hardware Error
Base: 818

29. Conclusion

30. 30
Steps a company should take to stay ahead…
A few steps that a company can take to have an advantage over its competitors by taking care of its customers
Companies having an enterprise product should always have a forum where customers can post their views, issues
and feedback for the product
Companies should listen to what customers are saying about their products and respond to them
Companies should forward the issues and feedback to the accountable team and make sure the issues and
feedback are taken care of
The customers should be informed about the updates made in the products
If the issues raised by the customers are some limitations of the product and it cannot be resolved currently, the
customers should be informed about it and should be provided with information on alternatives

31. United States | United Kingdom | India | United Arab Emirates
www.blueoceanmi.com
For more information, please contact
Kiran Nandavarapu| Director – Insights
Hope the session was informative…