Cision Communications Cloud vs. Sprinklr Social

For a small start-up, the cost-benefit to add lift to press releases [and] particular milestone accomplishments is definitely there with the Cision [Communications] Cloud. Much of what we do, by necessity, is done internally without the benefit of outsourced press folks, so the Cision [Communications] Cloud ease of use and reporting is very important.

Incentivized

In my perspective, I would say Sprinklr Modern Sales &
Engagement is best suited for teams and organizations who are more involved in
automating social media activities, getting a great analytical report on
activity engagement, and generating lists and bolds that helps determine the
trends and events, etc. One of the best tools that one could use for clients
with every information they would need.

Incentivized

• Their upgraded press release templates and ability [to] pull in an entire, completed release makes the [process] faster and easier, and allows for more graphics, such as company mastheads, [are done well].
• The media tracking offers the ability to find relevant placements across the entire country.
• The journalist database streamlines the process of finding relevant reporters to directly connect [to] on news releases that are relevant to their beats.
• The process of setting up, creating, and distributing a release is seamless, easy to use, and not labor-intensive.

Incentivized

• Customization - Through Sprinklr's rules and robust custom field creation, you really can create a lot of customization for every facet of your business.
• Listening - Their Listening Engine and Explorer are fantastic ways to proactively find engagement-friendly conversations, in addition competitively research your brand.
• Care - Using their case formatting, messages and customer contacts can be routed and assigned easily to available reps, and their bot builder can help to automate your contacts without sacrificing a personal touch.

Incentivized

• In the media influencer database, the classic Cision allowed us to do a zip code radius search to really drill down to the neighborhood level. That's because we do localized media advisories and press releases for events at neighborhood schools. One part of a big city like Chicago really doesn't care what's happening in another part of Chicago that's too far away. The zip code radius search was a feature in the classic Cision but not with the current Cision Communications Cloud. We've asked for this to be restored several times, but nothing's happened. In fact, we were told to use DMA — which actually goes wider in a search (bigger than a city), not more narrow as needed. This reflects a basic misunderstanding of what we need.
• Another missing feature involves a merge field when sending out an email press release through Cision. This is the "select insert field" button in the upper right that's used to personalize a release with the media contact's name and other information. This is key for localization of the release. Many media outlets won't run a release unless it's local. While "county" is a feature in the influencer database when putting together a media list in Cision, "county" is not available to insert into a press release as a merge field. Counties are important because this is how many newspapers and health departments are organized and identify themselves. I've asked for this to be implemented, to no avail. As a workaround, we've had to use "contact city" or "outlet city."
• After refining a media list in Cision using filters, I've had to download the list and take it offline to see the big picture, screen for duplicates, etc. While there is a button on the bottom left intended to help with this, it doesn't do the trick. That's because there may be multiple contacts with the same email address. In addition, one media contact may represent numerous media outlets, so this same contact could show up several times. It would be nice to have a better way to see the whole list online and eliminate both duplicates as well as those who previously opted out.

Incentivized

• Overall, Sprinklr rewards users to do a lot of digging on their own to get to the more in-depth functionalities. For instance, the asset manager feature leads you to a dashboard with all the content you ever published but doesn't tell you what to do next or how to organize it
• Sprinklr offers basic social listening features, but it is much more limited than other pure social listening players like Crimson Hexagon or Brandwatch. It is perfectly usable for a quick search but I wouldn't recommend it as your sole social listening platform

Incentivized

While I am happy with the product performance overall, TrendKite's recent merger with Cision is cause for concern. When we first signed on with TrendKite, I spoke with several users and the best response I received was that the company was a startup and we could expect there to be hiccups along the way as the company grew and the platform got more robust. That has certainly been the case. However, now that they have merged with Cision — a company that has grown too fast, has not focused on improving its product and has poor customer service — I have concerns that TrendKite will lose some of the qualities that have made it a great company and great product to work with.

Incentivized

I really do feel that Sprinklr is the most complete enterprise social media program. It covers everything you would need to do to run a strategic social media program. On top of that, the success managers are really the best. Our success manager goes above and beyond for us and has been so helpful to us with setting up some very specific repots and profiles. Paul (our CSM) has been great about keeping us up to date on the latest features and functionality as well as helping us set up innovative dashboards as need

The flexibility and customization of Cision Communications Cloud (TrendKite)* is among its most important features. Changing the dashboards, using keywords in the saved searches to pull out the best stories and the integration with marketing automation tools gives me confidence that I will able to continue using this tool well into the future. The future implementation and integration of the media contact database will complete the suite, making list management and email marketing programs much smoother. *This review was written before Cision acquired TrendKite. TrendKite is now part of Cision Communications Cloud.

Incentivized

The user interface, training via Sprinklr university and detailed articles on almost every topic in the knowledge portal make Sprinklr a complete package. This is also GDPR compliant, helping us stay good with the info security. The layout of the navigation is easy and anyone new to the tool won't be overwhelmed

Incentivized

Easily accessible 24/7.

Incentivized

Our account partners at Sprinklr are not only responsive to out needs, both domestically and internationally, but have consistently approached us with ideas on how to improve our communication and collaboration in a proactive manner.

Generally, Cision performs well day to day, but it's got some annoying bugs that slow down usage/require user workarounds which is inefficient. More seriously, a few months ago, as a result of a major system upgrade, certain critical functionality was not working and I was unable to use the service for more than a day when I had time-sensitive work to execute

Perfornace is not aan issue. The issues/bugs with this software are few and far between. And when one pops up the 24/7 support team is helpful, quick and informative.

For Cision TrendKite in particilar, support always responded, but it was sometimes slow. For some of our booleans and search queries, we would need help refining and excluding terms/phrases that weren't relevant to our client or campaign. This sometimes took 1-2 days just to get a response back, which sometimes was too late when a last-minute report was due. This was only with the support staff, not necessarily our customer success manager or sales rep.

Incentivized

Support is amazing. We have had to reach out [to] them only a few times in the past few years. Each time, they were back in touch with us within the hour or two, no matter the time. We've always had our issues addressed quickly and promptly corrected. They are a great team to work with.

Incentivized

I don't recall our training in detail. I know we met in person a few times, and did some over-the-phone product walk-throughs. It may have been somewhat informal -- I don't recall having any takeaways to refer to.

The online training sessions available for the Cision Communications Cloud are helpful and informative. There's more than one option - initially, I signed up for the live webinar classes on basic functions and that is what I recommend other new users do as well. If I have specific questions or something I want to learn more about, I can search the online database and find article or online training videos to get the information I need.

Incentivized

Through multiple webinars, easily accessible training documents, and ad-hoc sessions with my account manager I am never left in the dark when I have a question.

There is no implementation at the customer's end so this doesn't really apply to my instance of Cision (possibly to all instances of it).

The implementation personnel at Sprinklr are top-notch. They will work with you to make sure they setup Sprinklr in a way that best aligns with your structural needs

It's a similar product. I think Meltwater sells itself as being a bit more niche, but I have not found many significant differences between Meltwater and Cision. Meltwater's sales process is a very high pressure and their prices are inflated.

Incentivized

As much as I get frustrated with Sprinklr, Sprinklr is a much cleaner platform than others I have used and I do obtain good data from the reports due to my custom filters, allowing me to pass along education onto product teams in regards to their specific lines.

Incentivized

Easy to use, but still room for improvement.

Incentivized

Always start simple with Sprinklr, e.g. one client. You can easily grow over time adding products/units/regions, etc

• Cision has a net positive impact on time savings for staff so we can be quicker to market
• Cision has a positive impact on internal savings as it is used internally across multiple accounts and with the internal PR team
• Cision is extremely useful when it comes to resourcing and conducting outreach in those DMA's where our agency doesn't have a physical presence

Incentivized

• Reports can be customized and exported easily in many different formats. I especially like the PowerPoint version of reports. It quickly and professionally creates a custom slideshow to show the metrics of the platforms and time periods you choose. This is a great way to keep your company's C-level executives informed on your team's progress and investing in your efforts. This is especially true for executives that do not personally use or understand the value of social media.
• Brand reputation management is always a great investment. The dashboard alerts you in real-time when your brand or product is mentioned across any of the platforms and offers a quick and efficient way to respond. The Sprinklr customer experience cloud can be implemented across your entire organization, including CRM and email systems.
• If you're not growing you're dying. That alone helps me with the ROI of using Sprinklr for my client's business objectives.