Understanding Your Customer From Unstructured Feedback
Here’s how Signoi helped Transport Focus to unlock the reality of the rails…

The independent transport user watchdog – Transport Focus – has an interesting problem. Every year it carries out two National Rail Passenger Surveys. These generate approximately 60,000 completed questionnaires. And in every questionnaire, most passengers are making open-ended comments…

No warm waiting facilities. No lifts or toilets, disaster. No staff out of hours for security and safety, bad area. I’ve missed trains because announcements console is incorrect…

 A terrible service, overpriced. I have changed how I live my life in order to get to work!

One of the staff at Sittingbourne helped another passenger with a young child onto the train and asked if she needed assistance at the other end. He was very helpful to her and it didn’t go unnoticed.

After four waves of survey, Transport Focus had received over 50,000 open-ended comments that needed to be analysed and assessed. The time and effort needed to read, categorise and interpret the data – and then to arrive at relevant conclusions – was daunting.

To find a solution, Transport Focus turned to the breakthrough tech company, Signoi…

A game-changing new method of analysing unstructured feedback

Signoi’s AI-powered platform has been built to mine all forms of unstructured data – images; text; opinions; reviews; news and social – to surface robust and meaningful insights and foresights. And it does this at speed and at scale.

These are groundbreaking capabilities. Signoi’s platform brings together the speed and power of today’s cutting-edge AI with algorithms that draw on the methods and understanding of the human sciences: notably psychology; ethnography and semiotics (the language of symbols).

Signoi is transforming the way agencies and brands can uncover and measure meaning from their data. Qualitative information can now be converted into actionable insight and foresight, fast and at a very competitive price.

By making these tools available to everyone, Signoi is democratising the business advantage that can be gained from being able to really listen to customers, understand how they are feeling, discover their needs and implement their feedback to create a better customer experience.

Here’s some of what Signoi found…

Key themes

At the first stage of the analysis Signoi identified 33 key themes within the Transport Focus passenger comments. The most emotive issue was the misery of rush hour. That was closely followed by passengers stressing their enjoyment of rail journeys. Then came complaints about seating; services not interconnecting and the problem of misleading information at stations.

These themes offer a broad brush look at the prevailing concerns and moods contained in the data set. They let Transport Focus see what matters most to passengers; what issues should be prioritised and where resources need to be targeted.

Key Variables

These themes were then sifted to reveal the differing needs and concerns of different demographic groups: both by age and gender and by ‘reason for travel’ – commuting; business or leisure. This provides deeper insights into which issues matter to which groups. As an example, while older female passengers were vocal about not feeling safe on trains; leisure travellers highlighted a desire for better car parking at stations.

Knowing this targeted information is critical for effective communication with passengers. Addressing the concerns that matter to them will allow train operating companies to build engagement and improve service.

To enrich the analysis even more, the data was sifted to reveal vital insights for each individual train operating company. This revealed that the types of comments each receive are very different and reflect their distinct characteristics: South Eastern passengers stressed the need for greater frequency of service, while travellers on c2c expressed concern about the quiet zone not being observed or enforced.

Marketing information that matters.

This is information that matters. ‘The comments are a potential goldmine of insight,’ says Keith Bailey, senior insight advisor at Transport Focus, adding that they, “…provide important learning for train operating companies around issues beyond the specific journey being surveyed.’

When you know how your product or service is really experienced by others, you have the capacity to communicate effectively about it; to take action when it’s needed and to gain critical insight about how to move forward. Our summary report for Transport Focus can be found on its web-site here.

Signoi is already being used by leading brands and agencies on four continents. Whether your focus is brand strategy, understanding competitors or uncovering white space and emergent trends, we uncover the insights your business needs.

See what Signoi can do for you.