Word clouds – the Kim Kardashian of feedback analysis

Posted on Thursday, July 12th, 2012 by Gary Edwards

Admittedly, one of the drier aspects of the world of customer experience management is when we get down to the nitty-gritty of feedback analysis. One popular method that has emerged as a way to add some pizzazz to feedback reporting is text analytics, with a particular and simple application that is growing in popularity, the word cloud.

I’m a fan of word clouds. They look great and provide a simple way to visualize data. However, their ability to drive actions and granular, location level insights (increasingly the most important aspect of a CEM program) are limited. In that sense they are becoming the Kim Kardashian of reporting. Very nice to look at, entertaining and initially engaging, but only skin deep.

Text analytics works really well at scale, and is actionable at the brand level. By contrast,   locations have (relatively) small pools of feedback data, and complex sentiment analyses or taxonomic meaning parsing are not needed.  See the cloud… read the comments!

How to add value to location level reporting:

Word clouds and deeper text analytics are quite helpful when trying to navigate through unstructured text feedback. As a mechanism to filter and sort unstructured feedback they are an ideal complement to the structured survey feedback that drives the bulk of customer experience insights.

Location managers have limited time to navigate through their customer feedback insights. Their job is best performed on the floor, coaching and guiding staff. It’s important to keep this in mind when designing CEM programs. The immediate information delivered by location level tools should be focused around presenting targeted focus areas and tracking progress against improvement plans.

As time permits, location managers can look to the tools for guidance on what instructions and actions to emphasize with their staff – especially the ones that will yield the highest impact. Only once those actionable insights are digested should location managers take the time to thoughtfully analyze some of the less structured feedback that can be presented through word cloud reports and comment reports. A word cloud provides support by providing insights “at a glance” and putting proverbial “meat on the bones” of the scores provided.

Word clouds can be a fantastic tool to help understand the feedback from your customers.  The key is simply understanding how and where to use them to get the most benefit.

This entry was posted in What are the Best Practices for Setting Up & Running a Program? and tagged Advocates, Brand Advocacy, CEM, customer experience management, employee engagement, feedback analysis, structured survey feedback, text analytics, unstructured feedback, word cloud. Bookmark the permalink.