Sentiment Monitoring

How to track the tone of your client communications over time and catch early signs of disengagement before they become churn.

What It Does#

Coppermind analyzes the emails and communications you ingest for each client and tracks sentiment over a rolling window. It compares the current period to the previous period and tells you whether the relationship tone is improving, stable, or declining.

This is not a replacement for your gut instinct - it is a signal that confirms or challenges what you are sensing. When a client's emails get shorter, less frequent, and more formal, something is shifting. Sentiment monitoring surfaces that pattern before it becomes a crisis.

Checking Sentiment#

Switch to the client, then ask:

"How's the sentiment trending for Acme?"

Or:

"Show me sentiment trend for Acme over the last 30 days"

Example output:

Sentiment: Declining
Current average:  0.42
Previous average: 0.68
Change:          -0.26
Emails analyzed:  12
Window:           30 days

Understanding the Results#

The sentiment score is a number between 0 and 1, where higher is more positive. The score comes from analyzing positive and negative markers, word count, and engagement indicators in email communications.

When to Check#

• Before a quarterly conversation - Know the tone trend before you sit down with the stakeholder
• When something feels off - Validate your instinct with data
• During your Monday planning - Flag clients who might need extra attention this week
• After a difficult meeting - See if the tone shift predates the meeting or started with it

What Drives Sentiment#

The analysis looks at several signals from ingested emails:

• Positive markers - Enthusiasm, appreciation, detailed responses, questions, meeting requests
• Negative markers - Short replies, delayed responses, formal language where it was previously casual
• Engagement indicators - Message length, frequency, action items proposed

It compares the current window (default 30 days) against the previous window of the same size.

Adjusting the Window#

The default window is 30 days. You can change it:

"Show sentiment trend for Acme over the last 14 days"

A shorter window (7-14 days) catches rapid shifts but can be noisy. A longer window (60-90 days) shows broader trends but misses recent changes. 30 days is a good default for most client relationships.

What to Do When Sentiment Declines#

A declining sentiment score is a prompt, not a diagnosis. Common next steps:

1. Check recent interactions - Search for recent memories to understand what happened
2. Review open commitments - Are there overdue action items creating frustration?
3. Schedule a touchpoint - Sometimes a quick phone call or email check-in is all it takes
4. Prep for the next meeting - Run meeting prep to surface any context you might be missing
5. Look at client health - The health scorecard gives broader context beyond just sentiment

Limitations#

• Sentiment is based on ingested email communications. If you primarily communicate via Slack, phone, or in-person, the email signal may not reflect the full picture.
• The tool needs at least 5 emails per window to compute a trend. New clients or clients with low email volume will show "insufficient data."
• Seasonal patterns (holidays, budget season) can create temporary shifts that are not relationship-related.