Here are some helpful tips to keep in mind while you're categorizing text answers.
But first, why should you categorize the comments?
For role and purpose, categorizing the follow-up questions will show if there are missing alternatives, or if the respondents are misinterpreting the alternatives. For cannot find and improvement suggestions, the categories will help identify problem areas on the website.
What names should you give the tag?
Follow-up questions (for example 'Other role' and 'Other purpose')
Use the alternatives for the main question when relevant. For example, if one of the options for role is 'Potential customer' and you have text answers for 'Other role' suggesting they want to purchase from you, you should categorize them as 'Potential customers'. This will make it easier to see if respondents are misinterpreting the alternatives, or if they are just not reading carefully (maybe there are too many alternatives, making the respondents skim the list).
Purpose
When naming purpose themes, try to use existing headings or actions on the website as this will make is easier to analyze where the visitors are struggling, for example 'Log in', 'Sign up for newsletter' or 'Contact information'.
Cannot find and suggestions
Use the purposes when naming the themes, as this will make the analysis easier. For example, if the cross-tabulation shows that the visitors are struggling to find job opportunities, it is helpful to be able to read the comments for those that say they cannot find jobs or that want you to improve the career pages.
Use the same tags for what visitors cannot find and their suggestions
By using the same tags as much as possible, you can easily see both what the problems are and what the visitors think you should do to fix those very problems. However, as these are two very different questions, there will always be tags that are only relevant for one of them.
General tips
When do you add a new alternative?
If you have a high share of 'Other' for the main question, that indicates that there are missing alternatives. Use the tags in the categorized follow-up question to determine which alternatives should be added. Calculate approximate share based on share that answered 'Other' and share of the tag. At least 3% is a good start.
Avoid too specific tags
With very specific tags, there will only be a few answers per tag, which makes it harder to analyze. For follow-up questions, too specific tags make it harder to determine if new alternatives should be added to the main question, as all tags will have small shares. For cannot find and suggestions, too specific tags make it harder to draw any conclusions about the problem areas.
Avoid too general tags
Too general tags are also hard to analyze as they contain too diverse information. If a tag is getting very big, see if you can split it into more specific themes. Usually, you will already have noticed
sub categories while tagging.
But! Remove the general tag when replacing it with more specific tags. Otherwise, it can be very confusing when you return to your data a while later, as you may not remember why you have tags with different hierarchical order.
You do not have to tag every answer
Even with a tag called ‘no/na’ you may not be able to find a tag for every answer without ending up with lots of tiny tags, and that is okay. The point of categorizing is to find the main themes. If you only have a couple of respondents saying one thing, they don't need their own tag.
Also tag “non-answers”
You will always get “non-answers”, such as ‘.’ or ‘no’ or ‘n/a’, especially for improvement suggestions. Tag these answers too, as for example ‘no/na’. Tagging “non-answers” will help you see if you have
gone through all the answers, as the shares in the summarizing chart will be closer to 100%.