Let’s be honest: most companies collect feedback and then let it rot in a spreadsheet somewhere. If you’re serious about actually improving your customer experience (and not just feeling good about a feedback form), you need a way to make sense of what people are really saying. That’s where sentiment analysis comes in — and if you’re using Qualaroo, you’ve got some useful tools at your disposal.
This guide is for product managers, UX folks, customer success leads, or anyone tired of guesswork. I’ll walk you through how to use Qualaroo’s sentiment analysis features to actually do something with your feedback — and I’ll call out what’s worth your time and what isn’t.
Step 1: Get Straight About What Sentiment Analysis Can (and Can’t) Do
Before you dive in, let’s set expectations. Sentiment analysis is a fancy way of saying “the software tries to guess if people are happy, angry, or neutral based on their words.” Sometimes it nails it. Sometimes it thinks sarcasm is praise or misses the point entirely.
What it’s good for: - Quickly spotting trends (“A lot of people are annoyed about the checkout.”) - Flagging angry customers you should probably contact (or at least pay attention to) - Seeing how people feel about new features, not just what they say
What it’s not good for: - Deep nuance (It’ll miss “This is great, but…” types of feedback) - Catching everything (Short answers like “fine” can confuse it) - Replacing talking to real humans
Pro tip: Don’t treat sentiment analysis as gospel. It’s a shortcut to get you to the interesting stuff faster, not a replacement for reading real feedback.
Step 2: Set Up Qualaroo to Actually Capture Useful Feedback
You can’t analyze what you don’t collect. Qualaroo does pop-up surveys (“Nudges”) that show up on your website or in your app. The trick is to ask the right questions, at the right time, so you get answers worth analyzing.
How to set yourself up for success:
- Ask open-ended questions: “What made you choose us today?” or “What frustrated you about your experience?” If you only ask yes/no, sentiment analysis has nothing to work with.
- Target wisely: Don’t blast everyone. Trigger surveys after someone completes a key action (like checkout), or if they seem stuck.
- Keep it short: One or two questions max. People bail on long surveys, and you’ll end up with garbage data.
- Be specific: “How can we improve?” is better than “Any comments?” — you’ll get more actionable feedback.
What to skip: Don’t waste time with generic rating scales unless you really need a metric for your boss. Sentiment analysis works best on real text.
Step 3: Turn on Sentiment Analysis and Let It Run
Qualaroo’s sentiment analysis is bundled in their reporting. Once you’ve got responses rolling in, here’s how to use it:
- Log in and head to your survey’s reporting dashboard.
- Look for the “Sentiment” or “Emotion” section. Responses are usually bucketed as Positive, Negative, or Neutral.
- You’ll see trends over time, and often a list of “most negative” or “most positive” comments.
Honest take: The buckets are just a starting point. Don’t obsess over the exact percentages. Focus on the why behind the sentiment.
Step 4: Dig Into the Actual Comments (Don’t Just Stare at Charts)
This is the part most people skip — and it’s where the gold is.
- Read the negative comments: What’s actually making people angry or frustrated? Are there patterns (e.g., checkout bugs, confusing pricing)?
- Check for “false positives” or misses: Sometimes the software thinks “This is sick!” is negative. Double-check and reclassify if needed.
- Look for “mixed” feedback: People often say things like “Love the app, but the login is painful.” Sentiment analysis might call this neutral, but you can spot the real issue.
What works: Use sentiment buckets to filter, then read the comments. It’s a lot faster than slogging through everything blindly.
Step 5: Spot Trends and Prioritize What to Fix
Now that you’ve got a sense of what’s bugging your customers (or making them happy), it’s time to turn feedback into action.
- Group feedback by theme: Are most negatives about support? Slow load times? Price confusion?
- Count (roughly) how often each theme comes up: Don’t get hung up on exact numbers, but if “slow checkout” pops up 15 times and “bad color scheme” just twice, you know what to tackle first.
- Share highlights with your team: Grab real quotes (anonymized if needed) to show what’s going on. Charts are nice, but nothing beats a direct customer voice.
Stuff to ignore: Don’t chase every single negative comment. Focus on the stuff that comes up again and again — that’s what will really move the needle.
Step 6: Close the Loop (and Let Customers Know You’re Listening)
People like to know they’ve been heard. If you actually fix something, say so.
- Update your help docs or product notes: “We heard your feedback about [pain point] and made these changes.”
- Follow up with specific users if possible: Even a quick “Thanks for your feedback — here’s what we did” can turn a critic into a fan.
- Monitor follow-up sentiment: After you change something, keep an eye on whether negative sentiment drops in that area.
Pro tip: This is how you build trust. Most companies collect feedback and vanish. If you close the loop, you stand out.
What to Watch Out For (and What to Skip)
- Don’t automate everything: Automated alerts are handy (“10 negative comments today!”), but don’t let them replace actually reading feedback.
- Be skeptical of outliers: One furious customer doesn’t mean you need to redesign your whole site. Look for patterns, not just loud voices.
- Integrate, but don’t over-engineer: Qualaroo can push data to Slack or email. That’s useful — but if you make it too complex, you’ll spend more time fiddling with tools than fixing real problems.
Wrapping Up: Keep It Simple, Iterate, Repeat
Sentiment analysis in Qualaroo isn’t magic, but it is a useful shortcut to find out what your customers care about — fast. Set up your surveys well, use the sentiment buckets to focus your reading, and act on what you find.
Don’t overthink it. Run small surveys, fix what matters, and do it again. The companies that actually listen — and act — are the ones customers stick with. Everything else is just noise.