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Communications Mining User Guide
Last updated Nov 27, 2024

Using reports

The Reports page serves as the hub for in-platform reporting on your dataset, offering valuable insights and statistics. These reports are highly customizable, allowing you to focus on the views that fit your use cases the most. Accessible via the top navigation bar, the Reports page allows you to better understand your data.

Depending on your data type, the Reports page has up to six distinct tabs, each designed to address different reporting needs:

  • Dashboard - Create custom dashboard views using data from other tabs.
  • Label Summary - Provides high-level summary statistics for labels.
  • Trends - Displays charts for message volume, label volume, and sentiment over a selected time period.
  • Segments - Offers charts comparing label volumes to message metadata fields, e.g., sender domain.
  • Threads - Shows charts of thread volumes and label volumes within a thread (accessible when the Thread filter is applied).
  • Comparison - Allows you to compare different cohorts of data against each other.

Using dashboards

User permissions required: ‘View Sources’ AND ‘View Labels’.

Introduction

The Dashboard page is where you can create fully customisable dashboards containing all of the charts and visuals in the platform that are most useful or relevant to them for this dataset.

Dashboards are specific to the dataset itself. Each user has a default dashboard automatically created, and you can create new, delete existing and edit existing dashboards too (the titles of the dashboards can be renamed to suit your use case).

This page is particularly useful when you have a live integration set up for the source(s) in your dataset, and you can periodically check in to see how things have changed over time.

As a default, each dashboard has a few example visuals already added, however, users have complete control over what gets shown on each dashboard.

You can customize a dashboard by adding (or removing) charts with your choice of filters applied, or specific data visuals from the Dataset settings page. You can also edit the filters applied to charts in the dashboard from within the dashboard itself.

You can also rename the dashboard by simply clicking the title and typing.

Selecting a dashboard

As you can edit multiple dashboards, you first need to ensure that you have the intended dashboard selected.

To select the right dashboard, go to the Dashboard page, select the drop-down in the top right-hand corner of the page, and select the dashboard you want to update.

When you go to Reports to add charts or visuals, they are added to the dashboard you just selected on the Dashboard page.

Renaming the dashboard

To rename any dashboard, simply click on its title at the top of the page, and type in the new name. This will then be reflected in the drop-down menu too.

Note: Dashboards are dataset-specific and not user-specific. Users will still be able to edit all dashboards if they have the correct permission.

Adding charts

As a default, a dashboard contains the default visuals shown below. These can all be removed, as you can see in the next section.

Default Dashboards page

When you add a chart to a dashboard, the platform will intuitively try to fit it in the most obvious space available. If there is space to accommodate the default chart size, the platform will add the chart as close to the top of the page as it can.

  1. Ensure you have the intended dashboard selected in the Dashboard page (see above)
  2. Navigate to the Reports page via the left-hand dataset navigation bar or where it says Reports on the empty Dashboard page (as shown above)
  3. Apply the relevant filters to find the chart that you want (see here)
  4. Select the + icon that appears in the bottom or top right-hand corner of the chart when you hover over it with your mouse
  5. This will add the chart to the selected dashboard with the filters and chart type selected at that point in time
  6. Repeat this process from the Reports page until you’ve added all of the chart views that you want in your dashboard

When you add a chart from Reports with filters applied, you will see the icon (as shown below). You can click it to reveal which filters are applied. The icon will change to look like this: (as shown below).



Filtered report from Dashboard page with and without filters showing

To add or remove dashboard cards, click on the icon from the top right corner of the page, then select from the check-boxes the cards that you want to display:



The Recent message card also has some additional options available in the dashboard.

By clicking the icon in the top right-hand corner of this card, you are able to:

  • Hide the predicted labels for the recent message.
  • Hide the user properties (i.e. metadata) of the recent message.
  • Toggle between showing a single message or multiple messages (this will increase the number shown from 1 to 5).
  • Edit the filter(s) applied to the card.
  • Remove chart from the dashboard (this is a standard option for all charts).
Recent message dashboard card options

For any chart that you’ve added to a dashboard from the Reports page, you can click the icon in the corner of the chart to be taken to a view of that chart (with its applied filters) in the Reports page.

From there you can download an image of the chart or the underlying data, or you can click through to the underlying messages in Explore.

Filtering the dashboard

After a dashboard has been created, users have the option to edit or add further filters to their dashboard, depending on what they would like to achieve. Users can apply a global filter to their dashboard, augmenting all existing dashboards cards with a new filter. They can also edit individual card filters if they would like to update the existing filter without having to create a new card from scratch in Reports.

To add a global filter, navigate to the icon in the top right side of the Dashboards page. You will find it next to the delete icon.

To edit the existing filter on a card, you will find a similar filtering symbol in the top right side of each card.

Re-arranging your dashboard

The charts and visuals you add to a dashboard can be rearranged by clicking the top of the chart and dragging and dropping them wherever you want on the page.

The Dashboard page layout is defined by a column system – between 1 and 6 columns wide depending on the size of your screen. A smaller laptop screen may only fit 3 columns, whilst a much larger screen or TV could fit 6.

This means that, depending on how you resize them, the width of any of your charts will snap to be any number between 1 and 6 columns wide. If your screen only accommodates 3 columns, you could have a chart that is 1 column wide side by side with a chart that is 2 columns wide, or 3 that are 1 column wide, and so on.

Vertically, the charts can be whatever height you want.

Please Note:

  • When you set up the arrangement of your dashboard, this will be for the specific screen width you are using at the time (e.g. 3 columns).
  • If you regularly switch between 2 differently sized screens, you should set an arrangement for each of those screen sizes.
  • The platform will then automatically revert between the two depending on which screen you’re using at the time.
  • The first time you switch to a new screen size, the dashboard will arrange all of the charts in a vertical list as default.

Removing a chart from your dashboard

  • Click the docs image icon in the top right-hand corner of the chart.
  • Then click Remove Card.
  • You can always re-add the chart later from the Reports page if you change your mind.

Resizing a chart on your dashboard

To actually change the size of your charts is really simple. Just click on the small arrow icon in the bottom right hand corner of any chart and drag it to the column width or any height that you want.

The area surrounding the chart will be highlighted blue until the chart is the size that you want, and you release the mouse.

The blue area indicates the width that the chart will snap to, based on the number of available columns on your screen. Remember, your dashboard will be between one and six columns wide, depending on the width of your screen.

Changing a chart's size on a customized dashboard

Using Label summary

Under the Label Summary tab, there are a number of different charts and tables available:

  • Tree map
  • Top X highest volume leaf labels
  • Top X highest volume leaf labels

Tree map

The tree map is a way of visually showing your taxonomy hierarchy, while also displaying quantities for each label via the area size.

Each root label is assigned a rectangular area with their leaf labels (sub-labels) displayed as rectangles nested inside of it. When a label count is assigned to a label, its area is displayed in proportion to that label count number and to the other quantities within the same parent category.

If you hover over a label name, it will highlight the label count and the percentage of messages that are predicted to have this label. The count figure, however, is a sum of probabilities. This means that if there are two messages and they both have the ‘Reason’ label predicted with a 50% confidence (0.5), then summed together this counts as 1 message.

Tree Map

When you click on a label name it will take you down a level to the leaf labels that are nested within. To get back to the top level you click on the bar at the top with the root label name:

Tree map - 1 level down from the root label 'Policy'

Top X highest volume leaf labels - chart

This chart shows as default the top 10 highest volume leaf labels over the whole dataset. This is also calculated on a sum of probabilities of the predicted labels.

Top 10 highest volume of leaf ;abels - no sentiment

When sentiment is applied the chart will show both positive and negative labels. The top 10 is a split between the top 5 positive labels, and the top 5 unique negative labels.

This means that if the top negative label is already included in the top 5 positive labels, then it takes the next highest one as the top negative label and so on. This way the chart is always showing 10 unique labels.

Top 10 highest volume leaf labels - sentiment applied

Top X highest volume leaf labels – table

The top X highest volume leaf labels table shows the same as the chart but in table format, with each label and corresponding label count. It defaults to show 10 labels, but you can adjust it to show the top 5 or 20 labels if preferred.

This is also calculated on a sum of probabilities of the predicted labels.



When sentiment is applied the table shows a split of the top 10 positive labels and the top 10 unique negative labels.

Top 10 highest volume leaf labels table – sentiment applied

Using Trends

User permissions required: ‘View Sources’ AND ‘View Labels’.

Under the Trends tab, there are a number of different charts and tables available.

  • Message volume over time
  • Label volume and sentiment trends
  • Label trends

This page is particularly useful for reviewing how labels have changed over a given time period.

Message volume over time

Monthly message volume over time

You can adjust the time sequence (i.e. daily, weekly, monthly, annually) of the chart period using the dropdown at the top of the Reports page or filter the chart to a specific time series using the filter bar or by selecting an area on the chart. See instructions on how to do so here.

Label volume and sentiment trends

The label volume trends chart shows the trend of the top 6 highest volume labels over the whole dataset as a default. As with the tree map, the percentage numbers are calculated as a sum of probabilities of predicted labels.

You can also filter the time period on this chart by using the dropdown menu or selecting the time period in the chart.

Label volume trends - most frequent labels

If you want to plot specific labels on this or other label specific charts, you can select those labels via the 'Charted labels' dropdown at the top of the page.

If sentiment analysis is enabled on your dataset, there will also be a label sentiment trend over time chart available in Trends.

Label trends

The label trends table shows you how the top 10 labels for a given time period perform compared to the previous period and their change in rank.

The time series in scope is set by the user in the filter bar, and the time sequencing of the chart (i.e. daily, weekly, etc.) in the top right dropdown menu.

For the time period selected, the table shows the top 10 labels based on the sum of probabilities of predicted labels. It also highlights how those labels have changed in rank from the previous period.

If sentiment analysis is enabled, it totals covering both positive and negative sentiment labels.

By adjusting the time sequence filter, this is a useful way of seeing if there were spikes or dips in volumes in a certain label, or group of labels, in a given period.

Label trends

For each time sequence it will show the following period:

  • Daily: The top 10 labels yesterday compared with the previous 7 days.
  • Weekly: The top 10 labels from the previous week compared with the previous 4 weeks.
  • Monthly: The top 10 labels from the previous month, compared with the previous 12 months.
  • Yearly: The top 10 labels from the last year (based on yesterday’s date) with the previous year.

Using Segments

User permissions required: ‘View Sources’ AND ‘View Labels’.

Overview

The Segments tab shows charts of label volumes split by message metadata category (also known as user properties), as well as a chart with the associated top 6 labels for each of those categories.

When data is uploaded to the platform it normally contains metadata attached to each message. Some examples for different types of data include:

  • Email – number of emails in chain, recipient name, inbound/outbound, emails in thread, mailbox name, recipient domain.
  • Feedback – satisfaction rating score, product code, location, business unit, NPS score.
  • Surveys – age, gender, year, question, business area, location, status, country.
  • Chat – agent, chat purpose, client business.
  • Call recordings - agent, chat purpose, client business.

If the metadata can be grouped into categories (e.g. distinct sender domains), then a chart can be created showing the volume of messages, split by category (each sender domain).

Enabling and understanding user property charts

The platform will load certain charts as default, some are hidden and listed at the top of the page. Simply click them to unhide them (see this article for more details).

Note: The platform will only load charts for properties that have distinct values (i.e. string properties) and not numeric properties.

The chart will limit the categories on the chart to the top 20. To the right of this chart will show the top 6 labels for each of those categories.

Segment chart and associated label volumes – example shows ‘Sender Domain’

The Label volume chart shows the top 6 labels for each user property (category). For each label in that category it shows the percentage messages in that category that the label is predicted for. This is also a sum of probabilities of predicted labels.

In the example below the label Claim has a figure of 83.1% for the sender domain customer.com.
This means that when the probabilities of the predicted labels are summed together, 83.1% of messages with the sender domain customer.com are predicted to have the label Claim.
Label volume by user property (category)

Under the Segments tab you can’t create a chart from a category that is number based, with the exception of NPS score. If the metadata has numbers that have been categorised, say feedback scores of 1 to 5 or years, then it can be uploaded as string values and this would be shown in the Segments charts.

Filtering user property charts

Where there are numeric properties such as monetary amounts, percentages, number of participants or recipients of an email, etc., then a chart will not be created but these can be used as filters.

This can be done by using the left-hand filter, and when applied the charts in segment will be filtered on these criteria:

Email thread participant count filter

To understand more about the user property filters, see here. To find out about advanced prediction filters for labels, see here.

Using Threads

User permissions required: ‘View Sources’ AND ‘View Labels’.

Under the Threads tab of the Reports page there are a number of different charts available if you have threaded messages (e.g.: email chains, chats, etc.) within your dataset:

  • Number of Messages
  • Thread Duration
  • Number of Participants
  • Response Time

This page is particularly useful for reviewing some of the thread-specific metrics.

Enabling the Threads tab

At the top of the filter bar, users can toggle between Messages and Threads. This allows you to apply analytics at the level of conversations, instead of individual messages.

The threads filter is applicable for longer-form conversations like email threads, phone calls and live chats. Once the Threads filter is selected, the fifth Threads tab will become available.

Messages-Threads toggle on the filter bar

Number of Messages

The platform will display the threaded volume by number of messages, as well as the top label volumes by number of messages.

The number of messages is calculated by taking a count of the number of messages that are part of the same thread.

Volume of Threads by Number of Messages

Thread Duration

The platform will display the thread volume by duration, as well as the top label volumes by duration.

The thread duration is the time between the first and the last message that was sent in the thread.

Volume of Threads by Duration

Number of Participants

The platform will display the thread volume by number of participants, as well as the label volume by number of participants.

The number of participants is calculated by adding up all parties 'to', 'from', 'cc', and 'bcc' (if the mailbox(es) attached as sources have been copied in).

Volume of Threads by Number of Participants

Thread Response Time

The platform will display the thread volume by response time, as well as the label volume by response time.

The thread response time is calculated by checking how long it takes for the original sender of the message to receive a response (from someone other than the original sender).

Volume of Threads by Response Time

Using Comparison

User permissions required: ‘View Sources’ AND ‘View Labels’.

The Comparison page can be used to compare cohorts of messages or threads and conduct A/B testing. This functionality has many useful applications, such as testing the impact of a new marketing initiative or change programme over a time series, or between different regions or customer groups.

To compare two different cohorts navigate to the Comparison page via the Reports tab on the navigation bar. You can toggle between messages and threads depending on the analytics you would like to extract: you can compare individual messages or you can compare at a thread level (e.g. for email threads, phone calls and live chats).

You can then filter the two different cohorts, A and B, using the filter bar on the left hand side.

The filter bar works in the same way as the filters in Explore and Reports, except that you can't filter by entities or labels, only metadata (including dates).

You can also copy the filters from one group to another if preferred, before tweaking one group further, to save selecting similar filters twice.

Compare page showing applied data filters

Once you’ve set the filters, you can see a comparison between the two groups, which shows per label:

  • Total message count - across all messages in both Group A and Group B.
  • Proportion (%) – the percentage of the messages in both Group A and Group B with this label.
  • Differences (%) – the proportional differences for each label between Group A and Group B, calculated as Group B minus Group A.

Sorting the comparison table:

  • The comparison table is sorted as default in descending order by message count in Group A
  • You can sort the table in ascending or descending order for any of the value columns by clicking the column name and then clicking the arrow that appears
  • Click it again to switch between the two

Label filter:

  • You can further filter what you are shown in Compare by using the label filter bar at the top left-hand corner of the page. Type in a root or leaf label that you want to see displayed in the label column and all other labels will be filtered out
Label filter bar

Downloading the comparison table

The Compare page also gives users the ability to download the comparison table that they see on screen as a CSV file. The CSV file contains the details of the filters that were applied to create Group A and Group B.

To do so, simply click the download icon in the top right-hand corner of the page to download the taxonomy and the cohort analysis.

Note: This function will always download the full taxonomy of labels in the CSV file, even if you have filtered your view on the Compare Page by using the label search bar at the top of the page.
Tip: This is the easiest way for users to extract a copy of their taxonomy into a spreadsheet or other similar application, as the first column in the CSV file will be all of the labels in the order they see in the platform (alphabetically by root label).

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