Stats vs Subjective Feedback

The qualitative section of customer satisfaction surveys is not always a place with useful information. As much as it would be nice to believe that “the customer is always right,” the space itself is often used as a place to simply rant about some subjective experience that may not always be indicative to the company as a whole, nor will it necessarily be a shared experience with other customers. Analysts often try to code the qualitative data to look for recurring themes.

From a statistics perspective this is important, because only recurring themes are going to be “obvious problems” – meaning, if something comes up in a qualitative response often enough, chances are it is a very serious issue and not one colored by an anomalistic experience. But does that mean that an individual answer that stands alone has no value to the company?

The truth is somewhere in between. Single comments should not necessarily drive business decisions. If you receive a comment from one customer that says “Nancy is a terrible customer service representative” but you know for a fact that Nancy receives high praise and marks from most customers, you will not want to fire Nancy due to the one comment.

It may not be worth monitoring at all. But that does not mean that single comments cannot have value. Within these comments you may find ideas – ideas that could make your business even better.

You may find feedback that opens up a new avenue for you to target or criticism that makes logical sense about something that may not be evident to all customers. Within qualitative answers there may be points or information that, even though it is not echoed by every customer, may teach you something about the company or give you great ideas about how to make the company better.

When it comes to choosing the direction for your company, the persistent voices are the most important. A problem that only one person experienced is never going to be as important as a problem shared by all of your customers.

But that does not mean that you have to ignore the data altogether. Within these data you may find information you had never considered before that could give you a new direction for your company. You have paid for the survey to be conducted and the data is there for you to analyze.

Just because something doesn’t show up as a vital need doesn’t mean it doesn’t have value.