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Before you can begin thinking about how to analyze survey data and the best way to present survey results, you need to understand how you will measure each question and what type of analysis is necessary for making sense of the raw data and responses.
Data visualization is an increasingly popular term, especially for those that are routinely analyzing their data. Data visualization is the process of taking your data and translating it into something visual, like a chart or map.
When you’re trying to detect patterns, trends, outliers, and other events in data, visualizing the numbers is the most effective strategy. By turning raw, statistical figures into something visual, it becomes easier for the human brain to comprehend complex data sets.
In other words, good data visualizations put meaning and context to your collected data, even when the information is complicated in nature. This is also very useful when presenting or reporting your findings to others. You want audiences to quickly reach the desired conclusion.
If you’re analyzing and presenting survey results, data visualizations are the best way to present data. Typically, you’re forced to sift through the survey results and pick out key trends and behaviors by hand. Then, you need to decide how to use the results and present the findings to your sales, marketing, and customer service teams.
If this process sounds familiar, then it may be time to look for a new approach.
In this blog you will learn:
In the following video, you will learn how to present your survey results to your stakeholders in the best way. Visualizations that will make it easy for you to present your survey results as they are very easy to create and interpret.
If you want to learn more about customizing this chart, setting properties, header, footer, and labels you can read our guide on How to Present Likert Scale Data.
This discussion will focus on the impact that data visualizations can have on analyzing and presenting survey findings and what ChartExpo can do to help.
There are a number of unique challenges that analysts face when trying to make sense of survey results. These challenges can make it difficult to visualize and present the findings. Again, surveys often deal with text and other forms of unstructured data. These insights can’t be effectively displayed with the traditional line, bar, and pie charts. You need data visualizations specifically built to present survey results.
That’s where ChartExpo enters the picture. ChartExpo is a tool used in business intelligence to visualize and present data. While there are other data visualization tools on the market, ChartExpo is specifically built to be intuitive and simple to use. After all, you don’t want to use a complex tool to solve your already-complex data issues!
With ChartExpo you can:
If you’ve tried to visualize survey findings in the past with traditional charts, you likely ran into a lot of problems and obstacles. Some of these roadblocks you were not able to overcome. That’s because survey data can be very tricky if you aren’t using the right visualization type. There is a number of visualizations that you can use as the best option to analyze and present survey results which are as follows:
We will explain all of these visualizations separately in detail in the next section. The minds behind ChartExpo understand these challenges well and have developed several charting options that are specifically designed for survey results. To demonstrate these options, let’s look at a mock use case.
Scenario: You are running a hospital or managing hospital data, you need to gain feedback from customers and patients. You have created a questionnaire and asked that patient/attendant to fill out a number of multiple-choice questions. Your survey consists of the following questions:
Once you have gathered the results, there are a lot of ways that ChartExpo can help you display and make sense of the responses you receive.
Likert Scale Charts have become a common favorite for analysts working with customer satisfaction, employee engagement, and/or employee satisfaction data. It’s a great way to obtain accurate opinions, impressions, and attitudes from respondents, especially across a spectrum of possible answers.
| Questions | Rating | Response Count |
| How do you rate the cleanliness of the hospital? | 1 | 324 |
| How do you rate the cleanliness of the hospital? | 2 | 176 |
| How do you rate the cleanliness of the hospital? | 3 | 230 |
| How do you rate the cleanliness of the hospital? | 4 | 278 |
| How do you rate the cleanliness of the hospital? | 5 | 0 |
| How do you rate the performance of the doctors? | 1 | 138 |
| How do you rate the performance of the doctors? | 2 | 186 |
| How do you rate the performance of the doctors? | 3 | 176 |
| How do you rate the performance of the doctors? | 4 | 230 |
| How do you rate the performance of the doctors? | 5 | 270 |
| How do you rate your overall experience? | 1 | 0 |
| How do you rate your overall experience? | 2 | 138 |
| How do you rate your overall experience? | 3 | 186 |
| How do you rate your overall experience? | 4 | 176 |
| How do you rate your overall experience? | 5 | 500 |
| How do you rate the quality of the hospital staff? | 1 | 0 |
| How do you rate the quality of the hospital staff? | 2 | 138 |
| How do you rate the quality of the hospital staff? | 3 | 186 |
| How do you rate the quality of the hospital staff? | 4 | 176 |
| How do you rate the quality of the hospital staff? | 5 | 500 |
| How do you rate the hospital costs? | 1 | 138 |
| How do you rate the hospital costs? | 2 | 186 |
| How do you rate the hospital costs? | 3 | 176 |
| How do you rate the hospital costs? | 4 | 238 |
| How do you rate the hospital costs? | 5 | 270 |
| How do you rate the services offered by the hospital? | 1 | 324 |
| How do you rate the services offered by the hospital? | 2 | 176 |
| How do you rate the services offered by the hospital? | 3 | 230 |
| How do you rate the services offered by the hospital? | 4 | 270 |
| How do you rate the services offered by the hospital? | 5 | 0 |
After collecting the data and organizing it with the above table, you can now turn the raw data into a Likert chart visualization, such as the one pictured below:
With this chart, it is much easier to see the breakdown of positive and negative scores, both in an overall view and for each individual survey question. This chart will help you to analyze Likert scale data.
Here are some helpful tips to follow when constructing survey questions using the Likert scale and the charting method.
Be careful with adjectives: Survey questions need to be straightforward, precise, and leave nothing up to question. This is particularly important when using a scale. It should be very clear and obvious which option is where on the scale. If your scale options are too ambiguous, survey participants may not choose the answer that actually corresponds to how they feel.
For example, if your scale is Excellent – Great – Okay – Poor – Bad, it may be unclear what the difference between poor and bad is or how excellent and greatly differ from one another. The best option is to choose extremes on both ends of the spectrum and use adjectives that reflect this (extremely satisfied / extremely unsatisfied, very happy / very sad, exceptionally good / exceptionally bad). Then, you can fill in the rest of the scale between these points with lesser degrees of the extreme.
Ask, Don’t Tell: Studies have found that human beings respond better to questions instead of statements. When developing your surveys, be sure that you are asking questions instead of making statements. Not only will this encourage more participants in the survey, but it will also better ensure that the results are accurate.
The score bar chart uses rectangular bars to measure how many respondents chose each option. The length of the bar is proportional to how many respondents selected that answer. This style of the bar chart is more reflective of the survey data. It displays each possible metric or answer with the given number of responses. This allows you to easily see which options see the most responses and whether those responses are mostly negative or positive.
For example, you want to see how people feel about the following subjects:
You use a 0-10 scale to allow survey participants to rate each metric.
| Questions | Rating | Response Count |
| Doctors | 0 | 50 |
| Doctors | 1 | 50 |
| Doctors | 2 | 450 |
| Doctors | 3 | 90 |
| Doctors | 4 | 450 |
| Doctors | 5 | 650 |
| Doctors | 6 | 950 |
| Doctors | 7 | 1050 |
| Doctors | 8 | 350 |
| Doctors | 9 | 1750 |
| Doctors | 10 | 1650 |
| Services | 0 | 250 |
| Services | 1 | 55 |
| Services | 2 | 50 |
| Services | 3 | 90 |
| Services | 4 | 450 |
| Services | 5 | 650 |
| Services | 6 | 950 |
| Services | 7 | 1050 |
| Services | 8 | 350 |
| Services | 9 | 375 |
| Services | 10 | 550 |
| Care | 0 | 250 |
| Care | 1 | 550 |
| Care | 2 | 40 |
| Care | 3 | 950 |
| Care | 4 | 540 |
| Care | 5 | 650 |
| Care | 6 | 950 |
| Care | 7 | 100 |
| Care | 8 | 350 |
| Care | 9 | 1750 |
| Care | 10 | 550 |
| Emergency | 0 | 1250 |
| Emergency | 1 | 550 |
| Emergency | 2 | 450 |
| Emergency | 3 | 950 |
| Emergency | 3 | 950 |
| Emergency | 4 | 450 |
| Emergency | 5 | 1650 |
| Emergency | 6 | 950 |
| Emergency | 7 | 150 |
| Emergency | 8 | 350 |
| Emergency | 9 | 1750 |
| Emergency | 10 | 2550 |
| Nurses | 0 | 1250 |
| Nurses | 1 | 550 |
| Nurses | 2 | 450 |
| Nurses | 3 | 950 |
| Nurses | 4 | 450 |
| Nurses | 5 | 650 |
| Nurses | 6 | 950 |
| Nurses | 7 | 1050 |
| Nurses | 8 | 350 |
| Nurses | 9 | 1750 |
| Nurses | 10 | 2550 |
| Availability | 0 | 1250 |
| Availability | 1 | 550 |
| Availability | 2 | 450 |
| Availability | 3 | 950 |
| Availability | 4 | 2450 |
| Availability | 5 | 1650 |
| Availability | 6 | 1950 |
| Availability | 7 | 2050 |
| Availability | 8 | 1350 |
| Availability | 9 | 1750 |
| Availability | 10 | 2250 |
| Staff | 0 | 1250 |
| Staff | 1 | 450 |
| Staff | 2 | 950 |
| Staff | 3 | 550 |
| Staff | 4 | 1650 |
| Staff | 5 | 450 |
| Staff | 6 | 950 |
| Staff | 7 | 1650 |
| Staff | 8 | 1450 |
| Staff | 9 | 350 |
| Staff | 10 | 2250 |
| Unsatisfied | 0 | 3250 |
| Unsatisfied | 1 | 550 |
| Unsatisfied | 2 | 450 |
| Unsatisfied | 3 | 1950 |
| Unsatisfied | 4 | 450 |
| Unsatisfied | 5 | 1650 |
| Unsatisfied | 6 | 950 |
| Unsatisfied | 7 | 350 |
| Unsatisfied | 8 | 1050 |
| Unsatisfied | 9 | 1750 |
| Unsatisfied | 10 | 2250 |
Instead of limiting yourself to a traditional bar chart, you can visualize your data with the score bar chart to see added dimensions of data that would not normally be visible.
A rating bar chart is very common in consumer reviews. Like the five-star rating system, the rating bar chart also relies on at least five points to choose from. It is typically used to measure the quality (like customer satisfaction in reviews) of a brand, product or service. This is a very familiar method for respondents to quantitatively express their feelings and perceptions about a given subject.
Let’s say that you want to check patient satisfaction at the hospital. A five-point scale is a very useful method to rating satisfaction. Similar to the scale discussed in the LiKart chart, the five-point system reflects two extremes (scores 1 and 5), two lesser extremes (2 and 4), and a neutral midpoint (3).
| Rating | Response Count |
| 2 | 210 |
| 3 | 120 |
| 4 | 120 |
| 5 | 112 |
| 1 | 205 |
When you display the survey data into the ChartExpo rating bar chart, the results look as follows with proper ordering as well:
With this visualization, you can quickly understand the results and begin making the necessary questions to alleviate your lower customer satisfaction scores.
The survey score summary chart reflects the average scores collected in a survey, particularly between Yes/No options. It displays whether the majority of respondents answered positively or negatively. When you compile multiple Likert Scale questions and the data from results into a single visualization, it can help you gain a full understanding of how customers feel about a range of topics.
For example, you pose a number of questions to hospital guests about the performance and overall experience. These questions include:
Medical lab conditions, positive or negative?
The scale is a simple positive-negative, +1 versus -1. That said, you can include more than two options with the survey score summary model and adjust accordingly
Due to the simple yes/no, positive/negative scale, the collected data is very easy to organize.
| Questions | Rating | Response Count |
| How do you rate the cleanliness of the hospital? | 1 | 324 |
| How do you rate the cleanliness of the hospital? | 2 | 176 |
| How do you rate the cleanliness of the hospital? | 3 | 230 |
| How do you rate the cleanliness of the hospital? | 4 | 278 |
| How do you rate the cleanliness of the hospital? | 5 | 0 |
| How do you rate the performance of the doctors? | 1 | 138 |
| How do you rate the performance of the doctors? | 2 | 186 |
| How do you rate the performance of the doctors? | 3 | 176 |
| How do you rate the performance of the doctors? | 4 | 230 |
| How do you rate the performance of the doctors? | 5 | 270 |
| How do you rate your overall experience? | 1 | 0 |
| How do you rate your overall experience? | 2 | 138 |
| How do you rate your overall experience? | 3 | 186 |
| How do you rate your overall experience? | 4 | 176 |
| How do you rate your overall experience? | 5 | 500 |
| How do you rate the quality of the hospital staff? | 1 | 0 |
| How do you rate the quality of the hospital staff? | 2 | 138 |
| How do you rate the quality of the hospital staff? | 3 | 186 |
| How do you rate the quality of the hospital staff? | 4 | 176 |
| How do you rate the quality of the hospital staff? | 5 | 500 |
| How do you rate the hospital costs? | 1 | 138 |
| How do you rate the hospital costs? | 2 | 186 |
| How do you rate the hospital costs? | 3 | 176 |
| How do you rate the hospital costs? | 4 | 238 |
| How do you rate the hospital costs? | 5 | 270 |
| How do you rate the services offered by the hospital? | 1 | 324 |
| How do you rate the services offered by the hospital? | 2 | 176 |
| How do you rate the services offered by the hospital? | 3 | 230 |
| How do you rate the services offered by the hospital? | 4 | 270 |
| How do you rate the services offered by the hospital? | 5 | 0 |
As you look at the visualization below, you can really see the story behind the data unfold. Each question is listed sequentially and the simple +/- scale gets right to the point of the data.
Would the majority of customers recommend the hospital? Yes
Do doctors give enough time to patients? No
Is there enough seating? Yes
Is management’s behavior okay? No
Etc.
Displaying these questions in such a way really lets you see where improvements need to be made and where you are delivering a successful experience to patients. It’s a very fast and effective way to reach actionable insights with broad data.
Whenever you ask survey participants to rate something on a scale, you can use the score detail chart to visually depict the results. The chart will calculate the NPS (net promoter score) and also display the breakdown of responses.
For the scenario, let’s say you want to dig deeper into whether or not patients would recommend the hospital to their friends and family. It wasn’t enough to just look at Yes/No responses. You want to broaden the available options to a 0-10 scale.
| Questions | Rating | Response Count |
| Would you recommend our hospital to your family or friends? | 1 | 45 |
| Would you recommend our hospital to your family or friends? | 2 | 61 |
| Would you recommend our hospital to your family or friends? | 3 | 80 |
| Would you recommend our hospital to your family or friends? | 4 | 123 |
| Would you recommend our hospital to your family or friends? | 5 | 75 |
| Would you recommend our hospital to your family or friends? | 6 | 41 |
| Would you recommend our hospital to your family or friends? | 7 | 88 |
| Would you recommend our hospital to your family or friends? | 8 | 45 |
| Would you recommend our hospital to your family or friends? | 9 | 134 |
| Would you recommend our hospital to your family or friends? | 10 | 209 |
| Would you recommend our hospital to your family or friends? | 0 | 10 |
With these results, you can quickly segment your customers into fans, neutral, and detractors. Plus, you can see how significant the swing between negative and positive sentiments is. You can immediately see that negative satisfaction vastly outweighs neutral or positive responses. Now, you can start making changes to fix these negatives in time for your next round of surveys.
The rating score chart is another visualization to look at close-ended survey questions and responses. It is very similar to the rating bar chart, but it displays results as parts of a whole. The size of each section of the bar corresponds to the percentage of all responses. If the one-star bar is the largest section of the chart, then you can see right away that there is a problem.
Rating score charts are extremely effective when you want to quantify qualities or traits that are usually difficult to bring numerical values to. For instance, rating different features of a product, evaluating various elements of the customer experience, etc.
| Rating | Response Count |
| 2 Star Rating | 210 |
| 1 Start Rating | 205 |
| 3 Start Rating | 120 |
| 4 Star Rating | 120 |
| 5 Star Rating | 112 |
This is what the data looks like with the ChartExpo rating score chart in an ordered way:
Thanks to the chart, it is easy to see relative information about the given subject and compare and analyze the results from each response. Then, you can see which metrics or components of the hospital experience need attention.
All of the charts included so far deal primarily with structured, quantitative data. What do you do with survey results that are not structured, such as open-ended responses? At the core of open-ended responses are sentiments.
Sentiments are the thoughts, feelings, and attitudes that respondents share about different dimensions of your business. For example, “I was happy that my doctor was so knowledgeable.” “Happy” is the sentiment being shared about the expertise of the doctor.
Open-ended survey responses are rich with incredibly actionable feedback. You need to know what types of sentiments and opinions customers are feeling and expressing towards your business.
The challenge is that long survey responses are difficult to analyze. Apart from reading each response individually, there are not many options. Sentiment analysis alleviates this problem by using text analytics to detect feelings and emotions in language. This allows the analyst to get right to the important parts of the survey responses.
Sentiment data can be visualized in many different ways. You can look at the trend of your overall sentiments.
For a deeper look into sentiments, you can use a Sankey or treemap chart. This shows how often certain subjects are discussed in either a positive or negative light.
These visualizations are a great way to grasp what’s really going on behind all of your open-ended survey responses. They can also be used to analyze reviews and other text-based feedback forms.
Surveys are an important strategy for acquiring audience feedback and identifying areas of promise and concern within your business. The drawback is that survey data can be painstaking to work with. Luckily, data visualization tools, like ChartExpo, provide useful charting options that are easily the best way to present survey results.
If you want to spend less time analyzing survey data for insights and more time actually making improvements based on survey feedback, then ChartExpo will be a welcomed addition to your team. You can try ChartExpo here.
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