Nearly every survey tool we use allows respondents to enter free form comments, questions, and suggestions or invites the respondent to identify schools’ strengths and areas for improvement. All comments are readily available to our customers once the survey process is complete. Sometimes they can be a tough read as respondents express their honest feelings.
So, here are our suggestions and your options regarding the comments we gather.
Start with your quantitative data.
- Regardless of the questions you have asked, we highly recommend starting with the numbers.
- Your data represents the sentiment of every respondent in the survey population by capturing the precise position respondents have taken on the questions you have asked. Not all respondents choose to leave a comment. Those that do tend to be near the poles of the questions you asked.
Consider the best way to study the comments.
- We provide you with the option to access all the comments in your survey as part of our services.
- We also have an additional report we can provide called the comment theme analysis. This report will identify and summarize the most frequent comments by topic and/or theme.
Understand the Role and Context of the Comments
- Studying the comments in totality will tell you every reason respondents are happy or unhappy with the topic discussed. While every opinion should be respected, some comments are far more valuable than others, and all opinions cannot be honored in your planning; you’d never make any progress.
- The frequency of the comment topics will determine whether those feelings are one-offs or widespread. This is where the comment theme analysis comes in.
- We will compile for you the topics and opinions most frequently found in the comments and these themes will help you understand the sentiments behind the numbers. It’ll provide nuance for you. “Why did people answer the way they did?”
In the end, make a plan around the numbers.
- Comments have value, or we wouldn’t ask for them.
- Keep the isolated comments in perspective as they do not represent the opinion of the masses and understand it is impossible to please everyone.
- Plan around your data and use comment themes to understand your data at a deeper level.