Feedback over the internet
The Internet is a good medium for hearing what the customer has to say because the customer can be anonymous, as explicit as desired, and can write as long or short a message as desired. As a simple example of the feedback given to a restaurant, consider the following (real) example:
Over the course of a month, a restaurant may receive many message similar to this one.
There are many lessons to be learned from looking at customer feedback. But there are two challenges from collecting feedback over the Internet:
- Volume. There are so many messages from the customer. In a month’s time, there may be 50,000 to 100,000 messages for a good sized restaurant chain. Trying to read and digest 50,000 messages manually is an impossible task.
- Format. The messages are in text. The computer does not handle text well. The computer is designed to handle repetitive, transaction activities, where there is a high degree of structure to the activities...