Once customer feedback is collected it needs to be analysed.

There are four basic steps to analyse customer feedback: verify the data, describe the findings, evaluate the performance of the service, and report the results.

Verify Data

• Check that the samples of people who provided the data were representative of the whole population of service users. There can be significant problems if the sample of your customers (that gave you their feedback) is not representative of all the users of your service.

Check there was no bias in the way the data were collected.

Describe Findings

• Summarise the data.  Wherever possible add together relevant measurements to come up with aggregate measures.

Depending on your purpose the data will show what customers needs were or what the current demand for the service is; what the customer experience is; (their levels of satisfaction or dissatisfaction); or what results the service delivered for individuals and communities.

Evaluate Performance

• Once you have the basic findings, they can be compared with certain criteria (such as the service objectives, cost of providing the service; past results for the same service (provided in other jurisdictions, etc.).

These comparisons allow you to evaluate the performance of the service. Extending past results into the future can be used to give an estimate of future trends.

Report Results

• Results can be reported in various ways: as a one off “snap shot” of what customers were doing or said at the time the data were collected; or by comparing results over time or results from different regions or different types of customers.