Qualitative data is more descriptive and explanatory – the customer perspective – which allows you to map suggestions and complaints. Despite the differences between quantitative and qualitative feedback, both types are intertwined.
In this article, we’ll explain the differences between quantitative and qualitative feedback, how to collect both types of feedback, and what it ultimately brings you. Let’s start with quantitative feedback:
Quantitative feedback
In short, this is a way that exposes the data in a numerical way. For example, you can use quantitative feedback to map numerical trends of your website and mobile app, such as the development of customer satisfaction score. You receive these insights through Customer Effort Score (CES) , Customer Satisfaction (if requested as a score) and Net Promoter Score (NPS) .
1. Take action
Quantitative feedback lets you see at a glance whether the processes within different channels are doing what they should be doing. You just don't yet know why something went wrong. Quantitative feedback gives you more of an indication of whether customers rate a part of the site high or low, for example. That can be a reason to do further research into the 'why' question of low scores and take action.
2. Recognize trends and patterns
Analyze the scores you have collected and discover trends. For example: say you want to optimize a process in one of your online funnels: by monitoring a score over time, you can see the hospital email list changes that help you improve a certain process.
How do you collect quantitative feedback?
There are several ways to collect quantitative feedback. Commonly used metrics are: CES, CSat and NPS. Most feedback tools also send the URL and browser type with the feedback. If you determine which URL the feedback comes from, you know exactly which pages score high or low. The browser type is also interesting to measure. Not all browsers work the same. If you know on which type of browser the error messages occur, you can start working on that right away. For example, you see that low scores occur more often with Internet Explorer, and not with Chrome.
An example of CES at TUI
In the example you see a quantitative CES feedback form. Thanks to CES, TUI measures its customer service in just a few multiple choice questions.
Qualitative feedback
This data type helps you to understand the motivation behind positive or negative customer feedback. Qualitative feedback essentially answers the “why” question and exposes the causes behind certain behavior. Why did the customer give your website a low NPS? Why do customers rate a certain page so low.