Forum Discussion

JELM_'s avatar
JELM_
Copper Contributor
Dec 21, 2022

Textual Analysis/Theme Analysis in Excel without an outside AI software?

I'm wondering if there's a way for Excel to look at comments with a formula, and then automatically label themes with a 1 in Excel if they fall into a specific theme category. For example, please loo...
BI & Data Analysis
excel
Formulas and Functions
training
Patrick2788's avatar
Patrick2788
Silver Contributor
Dec 21, 2022
I think it may be do-able but I'd need to see more examples of comments. I can see where the first comment relates to Theme 1 (Product), but I see the next comment goes with Theme 2 (Service) but does not contain "service" in the wording. It's possible to search for multiple words or phrases. A larger sample of comments would help.
  • JELM_'s avatar
    JELM_
    Copper Contributor
    Dec 21, 2022

    Patrick2788 : Thank you so much for the reply! I've provided a more robust example below. Please let me know if I can provide anything additional. Thank you!! - Julie

     

    Customer Comments

     

    Theme 1 - Product

    Theme 2 - Service 

    Theme 3 - Billing

    Theme 4 - Paperless

    Theme 5 - Frequency of Communications

    You email too much.

     

     

     

     

    1

    I enjoy the product.

    1

     

     

     

     

    I had a great call with the service team.

     

    1

     

     

     

    I'm confused about my bill.

     

     

    1

     

     

    I don't want to go paperless.

     

     

     

    1

     

    I prefer regular mail.

     

     

     

    1

     

    I can't reach a representative.

     

    1

     

     

     

    I can't log on.

    1

     

     

     

     

    I love the app.

    1

     

     

     

     

    I want to receive more updates.

     

     

     

     

    1

    My bill was very easy to understand.

     

     

    1

     

     

    I had a great experience with the call center.

     

    1

     

     

     

    I was quoted too high.

     

     

    1

     

     

    I need someone to call me.

     

    1

     

     

     

    I'm confused about my coverage.

    1

     

     

     

     

    I don't want anymore emails.

     

     

     

     

    1

    I understand how to use everything perfectly.

    1

     

     

     

     

    I need to talk to someone about my bill.

     

     

    1

     

     

    I love the product.

    1

     

     

     

     

    I enjoy having paperless notifications.

     

     

     

    1

    		 
    • Patrick2788's avatar
      Patrick2788
      Silver Contributor
      Dec 21, 2022

      JELM_ 

      I can see how your searches kept leading to AI. I went through your list of comments and pulled words or phrases and put them under the respective themes 1-5:

      I can see how one approach would be to continue to build a list of words and phrases for each theme and then create formulas to assign themes using lookups and matching. The part Excel doesn't understand would be the context of words in a given sentence.  For example, a comment may mention "update" or "updates".  The comment could be filed under theme 1 (product) or even theme 5 (frequency of communication) depending on the other words in the sentence.

       

      Theoretically, it's possible with functions in Excel but the accuracy would always be a question.  You could make extensive pool of words and phrases but then you'd have to account for sentence structure and context and that's endless. 

      • JELM_'s avatar
        JELM_
        Copper Contributor
        Dec 21, 2022
        Thank you so much for taking the time to look into this! My team and I are okay with the accuracy not being perfect, and we'd like to find a way to do the first approach that you mentioned: build a list of words or phrases for each theme, and then create formulas to assign themes using lookups and matching. Do you have any resources on how to do this? Or are you able to provide additional direction to accomplish this? Thank you SO much!

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