So, you’ve got a pile of customer feedback coming in—maybe it’s survey responses, NPS scores, or just a tidal wave of “meh” comments. You know there’s gold in there, but mining it? That’s another story. If you’re using Survicate, this guide is for you. I’ll walk you through how to actually use Survicate’s reporting tools to get real answers, not just pretty charts.
This isn’t about ticking boxes or impressing your boss with PowerPoints. It’s about finding what matters, ignoring what doesn’t, and making sure your team actually does something with the data.
1. Get Your Feedback Flowing
Before you analyze anything, make sure you’re capturing feedback in a way that’s actually useful. Survicate lets you run surveys across your website, product, email—you name it. But don’t just turn on every survey type and hope for the best.
What to do: - Pick one or two key questions. Don’t overwhelm people or yourself. “How satisfied are you with X?” or “What’s the one thing we could do better?”—that’s plenty. - Limit open-text fields. Freeform feedback is valuable, but it’s a pain to analyze at scale. Use them sparingly. - Tag your surveys. Survicate lets you label surveys (e.g., “Onboarding,” “Churn,” “Feature Feedback”). Use this, or you’ll drown in responses you can’t sort through later. - Avoid always-on popups. You’ll just annoy your users and get junk data.
Pro tip: Clean input = clean output. Garbage surveys lead to garbage analysis.
2. Get Familiar with Survicate’s Reporting Dashboard
Once data’s coming in, head to the Survicate dashboard. The interface is pretty straightforward, but there are a few quirks and limitations you should know about:
- The “Responses” tab: Shows you all raw responses, with filters for date, survey, question, and more.
- The “Analytics” tab: Gives you aggregated charts—bar graphs, pie charts, the usual suspects.
- Custom Reports: Survicate lets you build basic custom reports, but don’t expect full-blown BI capabilities.
What to ignore: - All the vanity metrics (total impressions, survey completion rate) mean nothing unless they tie to a real problem or goal. - Avoid getting lost in the weeds of every single response. You’re looking for trends, not individual horror stories (unless you’re in crisis mode).
3. Filter and Segment Your Data
The real power in Survicate’s reporting tools comes from filtering and segmentation. If you just look at everything in one lump, you’ll miss the point.
Here’s what actually helps: - Filter by time period. Look at the last week, month, or compare periods. Don’t obsess over daily swings—they’re almost always noise. - Segment by user type or plan. Are paying users angrier than free users? Do new signups love you, but long-timers seem bored? Use tags and metadata to break things down. - Drill into negative feedback. Filter for low NPS scores or “dissatisfied” responses. This is where the action is. - Export if you must. Survicate lets you export data to CSV or Google Sheets. It’s clunky, but sometimes you need more powerful tools (Excel, Google Data Studio) to slice and dice.
Pro tip: Don’t bother with super-narrow filters like “users in Canada using Safari on Tuesdays.” Broader trends are more reliable.
4. Read (and Code) Open-Ended Responses
Text feedback is where the juicy insights hide, but it’s also the hardest to wrangle. Survicate tries to help by showing word clouds and common phrases, but don’t get too excited—word clouds are mostly eye candy.
How to actually use open-ended feedback: - Read a sample yourself. Seriously, just skim 30-50 responses. Patterns will jump out way faster than any algorithm will show you. - Tag common themes. Survicate lets you tag or “code” responses. Create 4–5 buckets: “Bugs,” “Usability,” “Feature Request,” “Pricing,” etc. - Look for repeat complaints. If three people mention slow loading, that’s more actionable than 100 generic “it’s fine” responses.
What doesn’t work: Relying on automated sentiment analysis. It’s not useless, but it’s far from perfect—especially when people say “it’s sick” and mean it’s good.
5. Visualize Trends (but Don’t Get Distracted by Pretty Charts)
Survicate’s bar charts and line graphs are fine for a quick glance, but they can also be misleading if you’re not careful.
How to use the visuals: - Track changes over time. Did your NPS go up after that big release? Are complaints about onboarding dropping? - Compare segments. Are enterprise customers more satisfied than SMBs? Visuals help spot these gaps. - Ignore the noise. Don’t panic over one bad week or a weird spike. Look for sustained trends.
What to ignore: - Word clouds, as mentioned—fun, but usually not actionable. - Pie charts with a dozen slices. If you need a legend to understand it, it’s not useful.
6. Share Insights (Not Just Data)
Dumping a bunch of charts in Slack or a PDF won’t move the needle. The real value is in sharing what matters, in plain English, with the right people.
Here’s how to do it: - Summarize the “So what?” E.g., “70% of onboarding complaints are about the same confusing screen. We should fix that.” - Show examples. Paste in a few real quotes from users. They’re way more persuasive than stats. - Recommend a next step. E.g., “Let’s run a follow-up survey after the redesign,” or “Let’s meet with Support to dig into these churn reasons.” - Automate sharing. Survicate can send regular reports via email or Slack. This is handy, but don’t let it become background noise.
Pro tip: If nobody is surprised or challenged by your findings, you’re probably just repeating old news.
7. Actually Do Something With the Results
The whole point of analyzing feedback is to make things better. Don’t let your hard work die in a folder.
- Prioritize one or two changes. You can’t fix everything. Pick what’s most frequent, most painful, or easiest to solve.
- Close the loop. Tell users you heard them. Even a basic “We fixed X thanks to your feedback” email builds trust.
- Set a check-in. After any fix, collect new feedback to see if it worked.
Honest Take: What Survicate Reporting Does Well (and Where It Falls Short)
Survicate is great if you want a quick, no-nonsense way to collect and slice up customer feedback. The built-in filters and tagging are genuinely useful, and sharing insights with your team is easy.
But here’s where it stumbles: - Limited deep analysis. If you want to run statistical tests or build dashboards with lots of custom logic, you’ll need to export and use another tool. - Automated insights are basic. Don’t expect AI magic. You still have to read and think. - Data overload is real. If you don’t set up good naming and tagging from the start, you’ll get swamped.
For most teams, though, it’s more than enough—if you keep it simple and focused.
Keep It Simple, Keep Iterating
Don’t overthink it. Start with one or two key questions, tag your feedback, and look for the biggest recurring issues. Share what matters, act on it, and check back in a month. That’s it.
Customer feedback analysis isn’t rocket science—at least, not with the right tools. Use Survicate to get clear answers, not just more noise. And when in doubt, talk to your users. The best insights still come from real conversations, not dashboards.
Now, go make something better for your customers.