Response Data Reclassification
Today, we’re excited to launch Response Reclassification for all plans.
With this feature, Fairing users can reclassify their response data to
improve reporting accuracy in Fairing and third-party apps. This is the
first product update in a series that will eventually enable automated
response reclassification.
In January alone, Fairing brands amassed roughly half a million
open-ended and “Other” responses. These write-in responses are, by
nature, a compromise: on the one hand, you’re chipping away at
known-unknowns
and gaps in your understanding of the consumer… on the other, you’re
removing the guide rails that make zero party data easy to route through
your marketing stack.
Why “Other” Data Is So Important
In most cases, we strongly recommend having an “Other” choice in your
post-purchase surveys. Forcing consumers to fit your structured data
model erodes quite a bit of the value in gathering ground truth data —
they can’t tell you what you don’t know if you won’t provide a forum to
listen.
But that’s not to say this unstructured data can’t be easier to
operationalize, and if you can clean it efficiently, you’ve got the best
of both data worlds. That’s what we’re starting to build today with this
iteration of Response Reclassification.
Reclassification For Cleaner, Structured Data
Open-ended feedback has a lot of low-hanging fruit for reclassification,
mainly in these two categories:
- Overlooked choices: a subset of consumers write in some alternative
version of a choice you’ve already provided, because they gravitate
toward conversational interactions. Fun fact: these people have
heavy overlap with the users who would rather find a search box or
chat widget than navigate your website.
- Misaligned taxonomy: there’s no getting around the fact that your
consumers don’t know (or care) how you personally structure
something like your media mix. You want to hear “YouTube ad” in an
attribution survey... your customer wants to say “Mr. Beast.” You’re
both right, so we need to bridge that taxonomy gap.
Our Response Reclassification feature helps you address this data
easily, with an Edit button next to each response which populates an
autosuggest drop-down. Where do those suggestions come from? You. Each
question in your stream will display both its current responses and any
classification edits you’ve provided. In short: as long as you’ve
defined a response, it’ll be there in the autosuggest menu.
Fixed, But Not Forgotten
Transforming open-ended feedback into structured data can notably
improve its utility in reporting and automation, but you wouldn’t want
to sacrifice the raw responses to do so. Our Reclassification feature
retains all open-ended responses, while passing along the “correct”
version to their intended destinations. Again, best of both worlds.
If data structure has been a pain point for you, be sure to check out
this Reclassification feature in the Fairing app under Analytics >
Responses , or check out our support
docs . And by
all means, get in touch if you’d like to beta test future advancements
in this area of our product, including rules-based reclassifications and
programmatic cleanup.