Chapter 36. Handling Free Text
Free isn’t always a good thing. In data, free text is a perfect example of this. However, there are lots of benefits to be gained from the data entered in free text fields.
What Is Free Text?
Free text is the string-based data resulting from answers people type into systems and forms. Surveys, social media posts, and operational system notes can all have free-text data points. The resulting data is normally stored within one column, with one answer per cell. By definition, free text means the answer could be anything, and this is what you get—absolutely anything. From expletives to slang, the words you will find in the data may be a challenge to interpret, but free text is the best way to collect the true voice of your customer/employee.
The free-text field is likely to contain long, rambling sentences that cannot be analyzed simply. Most entries are entirely unique, so it’s unlikely that you’ll be able to conduct any meaningful analysis by simply counting the frequency of each instance. The analytical value is in the individual words/ID numbers within the submitted sentences and paragraphs.
Why Is Free Text Useful?
Capturing simple survey results as the percentage of people who feel strongly for or against something won’t give you much insight into where your business could improve. Hearing the “voice” of your customers in their own words will tell you more than even the best analysts in the world would be able to.
Free-text forms give you the ...
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