Process: Feedback Analysis

Process: Feedback Analysis

Owner: Customer Feedback Analyst (Fiona) Type: Manual Frequency: Monthly (trend reports) + per-feedback (urgent items)

Purpose

Defines how collected feedback is analyzed to extract actionable insights. Transforms raw feedback data into categorized, prioritized intelligence that the factory can act on. Covers categorization, trend identification, severity assessment, and root cause analysis.

Overview

Aggregate Feedback -> Categorize -> Identify Trends -> Assess Severity -> Root Cause Analysis -> Compile Report

Steps

1. Aggregate feedback

At the start of each monthly analysis cycle (by the 2nd business day of the month):

Actions:

  • Collect all feedback log entries from the previous month
  • Collect all post-delivery review ratings from Dana
  • Collect all NPS scores received
  • Collect all support ticket summaries
  • Organize by client, then by category

Output: Complete monthly feedback dataset.

2. Categorize

Every feedback item is categorized along two dimensions: topic and sentiment.

Topic categories:

Category Covers
Quality Digital employee performance, accuracy, reliability, bugs
Communication Clarity, timeliness, and frequency of project updates
Timeline On-time delivery, delays, schedule management
Onboarding Handover process, documentation, training, getting started
Capability Feature requests, capability gaps, "I wish it could..."
Support Post-delivery support responsiveness, issue resolution
Value Pricing, ROI, cost-effectiveness
Process Intake experience, requirements gathering, overall engagement process

Sentiment classification:

Sentiment Definition
Positive Client expresses satisfaction, praise, or appreciation
Neutral Factual feedback without strong sentiment, or mixed signals
Negative Client expresses dissatisfaction, frustration, or complaint

Actions:

  • Assign every feedback item a primary topic category (and optional secondary)
  • Assign a sentiment classification
  • Tag with client name and date for traceability

3. Identify trends

Look for patterns across the aggregated, categorized data.

Trend analysis questions:

  • Which categories have the most feedback volume?
  • Which categories have the highest proportion of negative sentiment?
  • Are any categories trending worse (or better) compared to previous months?
  • Are specific clients consistently dissatisfied? In which areas?
  • Are multiple clients independently raising the same issue?
  • What is the NPS distribution? How does it compare to last quarter?
  • Are there seasonal or phase-related patterns?

Actions:

  • Calculate monthly metrics:
    • Overall satisfaction average (from survey scores)
    • NPS score (Promoters % minus Detractors %)
    • Category breakdown (count and sentiment per category)
    • Response rate
  • Compare to previous month and to the rolling 3-month average
  • Flag any category where negative sentiment exceeds 30%
  • Flag any category with a month-over-month decline of more than 10 percentage points

Output: Trend summary with flagged areas of concern.

4. Assess severity

Not all feedback is equally urgent. Assess severity to guide prioritization.

Severity levels:

Level Definition Response
Critical Client at risk of churn, public complaint, or contractual issue Immediate escalation (same day)
High Recurring negative pattern affecting multiple clients or a key client Include in monthly report with urgency flag
Medium Isolated negative feedback or emerging pattern (2-3 occurrences) Include in monthly report, monitor next month
Low Minor suggestion or one-off neutral comment Log for quarterly review, no immediate action

Actions:

  • Assign a severity level to each flagged trend or significant feedback item
  • Critical items are escalated immediately — do not wait for the monthly cycle
  • High items are highlighted at the top of the monthly report

5. Root cause analysis

For High and Critical items, dig deeper to understand why.

Root cause framework (5 Whys, adapted):

For each High/Critical item, answer:

  1. What happened? Describe the client experience or complaint in specific terms.
  2. When did it happen? At which stage of the engagement (intake, production, delivery, post-delivery)?
  3. Who was involved? Which factory roles touched this area?
  4. Why did it happen? Trace back through the process to find the breakdown point.
  5. Is this systemic or isolated? Does the root cause affect other deliveries or just this one?

Actions:

  • Document root cause findings for each High/Critical item
  • Cross-reference with Max's maintenance logs for technical root causes
  • Cross-reference with Dana's post-delivery reviews for delivery process root causes
  • If the root cause spans multiple roles, note all roles involved

Output: Root cause analysis for each High/Critical trend or issue.

6. Compile the monthly trend report

Monthly trend report template:

# Monthly Feedback Trend Report — [Month YYYY]

**Analyst:** Fiona (Customer Feedback Analyst)
**Report date:** [Date]
**Period covered:** [Start date] — [End date]

## Executive Summary

[2-3 sentences: overall health of client satisfaction, top finding, key action needed]

## Key Metrics

| Metric | This month | Last month | 3-month avg | Trend |
|--------|-----------|------------|-------------|-------|
| Overall satisfaction (avg) | | | | |
| NPS score | | | | |
| Feedback volume | | | | |
| Survey response rate | | | | |
| Positive sentiment % | | | | |
| Negative sentiment % | | | | |

## Category Breakdown

| Category | Volume | Positive | Neutral | Negative | Flag |
|----------|--------|----------|---------|----------|------|
| Quality | | | | | |
| Communication | | | | | |
| Timeline | | | | | |
| Onboarding | | | | | |
| Capability | | | | | |
| Support | | | | | |
| Value | | | | | |
| Process | | | | | |

## Flagged Trends

### [Trend 1 — Severity: High/Critical]

- **Pattern:** [Description]
- **Evidence:** [Data points, quotes, counts]
- **Root cause:** [Analysis]
- **Recommended action:** [See improvement-recommendations.md for full recommendation]

### [Trend 2 — ...]

## Client-Level Highlights

| Client | Sentiment | Key feedback | Action needed |
|--------|-----------|-------------|---------------|
| | | | |

## Positive Highlights

[What clients are praising — capture and amplify]

## Appendix: Raw Data Summary

[Reference to feedback log files for the period]

Storage: departments/client-services/customer-feedback-analyst/reports/

Naming convention: YYYY-MM-trend-report.md

Quality Gate

A monthly analysis cycle is complete when:

  • All feedback from the period is aggregated and categorized
  • Metrics are calculated and compared to previous periods
  • Trends are identified and severity-assessed
  • Root cause analysis completed for all High/Critical items
  • Monthly trend report published by the 5th business day
  • Critical items escalated immediately (not held for the monthly cycle)
  • Report distributed to CTO (Clara), CEO, and relevant stakeholders

Escalation

  • Critical severity item identified: Escalate to Dana and Clara immediately, do not wait for the monthly cycle
  • NPS drops below 0 (more detractors than promoters): Escalate to CEO and Clara — factory-wide satisfaction crisis
  • Insufficient data for meaningful analysis (< 3 feedback items): Flag to Dana — feedback collection may need reinforcement