Research suggests that 75% of customer feedback remains unread

Warwick Business School has found that companies are unable to manage the increasing volume and complexity of customer insight.

As well as encouraging customers to leave more feedback, organisations are now receiving unlimited amounts of comments via social media and review sites. Due to the sheer amount of data being received organisations are simply unable to make sense of what’s being said.

This has led Warwick Business School to carry out a piece of research looking into how humans analyse feedback compared to the leading text analysis software. The research reveals that without technology organisations are unable to analyse feedback in a meaningful way; processing the data manually isn’t cost effective and takes far longer than it should.
Chris Worth, an associate of Warwick Business School brought in as an independent researcher by Warwick Business School's Dr Temi Abimbola, said:

"Faced with a mass of data, human beings will make a rational choice: cut down the complexity to something manageable. When dealing with thousands of customer comments, that led to 75% of the data being tossed and the focus narrowing to a few key categories. That's dangerous, because the most profitable opportunities are often hidden in little gems of data hidden in dark corners.... which companies appear to be missing."

The research also revealed the Text Analysis software when compared to a human:

• Saved 250 hours for every 1000 analysed comments
• Used the full set of categories it had available (the humans only used a few)
• Identified more opportunities and threats than humans
• Can save an organisation receiving 3000 comments per month over £65,000 per year

The technology used in the research was Rapide’s 'Rant & Rave' Sentiment Engine. Nigel Shanahan MD of Rapide commented:

“Getting to the heart of what a customer wants is critical today as high street brands fight even harder to keep their customer base loyal. By asking for and then failing to analyse customer feedback, companies are unable to create a complete picture of their performance and their customers’ attitudes towards them. 1,000 pieces of feedback per month is a manageable number but human analysts are facing increasingly complex feedback which is not uniform, for instance a text message will use different language to a social media entry or a formal letter. As companies strive to gain more customer insight, they will increasingly be faced with a growing amount of unmanageable data. This is where Rant & Rant can analyse the data and leave the actual higher value activity of recommending how to change a business to the human analyst.”

To find out more about the report click here to visit Fresh Business Thinking

To request a copy of the full report contact Yiannis Maos or Matthew Lakey on 02476 011 911



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