Knowledge base

What to include in an automatic report

Automatic reports are a great way of sharing data with your colleagues. They can receive the report regularly and read it themselves, or you can use it for presentations to show how your website is performing. Regardless of how you use the reports, there's a bit more to creating them than just adding all the charts you have.

Here are some tips on how to create good and useful automatic reports.

Consider the recipients 

Depending on who the recipients of the report are, the content can be vastly different. Here are some examples of how the content can be adapted.

• Work in the web team. This group usually want as much information as possible. They probably want all the charts, including all the open answers. They need to know where the visitors struggle and what their user experience was like to know how to improve the website from a UX perspective. This report is probably general, but could contain segments too, and includes all or most of the charts. Some trend charts are most likely useful.
  
  
• Work in a specific department, such as HR or a product category. This group is not interested in the website at large but only their specific area. They want to know what the experience is like for those applying for jobs, or looking for specific products, and so on. They too may want details, such as open answers, but only if they are about their specific area. This report contains only the segment of interest, and only the charts relevant for this department. 
  
  
• CEO or other high position. The higher up the hierarchy, the less interested in details they usually get. For this groups, keeping track of the KPIs (ratings, find score, etc) is usually more interesting than comments about specific content the visitors couldn't find. This report may contain only the KPIs, with both the current date range and trends for each (for example the ratings last month and the trend for the ratings over the past year). 

Ask "Do I need this?"

This is similar as the previous tips, but it's an easy mistake to add all the charts you have without considering if they are relevant. Think about how the report is going to be used. Based on that, select only the charts that are relevant. You can also add or remove charts later on if the purpose or need changes.

Adding too many charts can exhaust the readers and they may not pay as much attention to the report as you wanted them to. By excluding unnecessary information, the recipients will be more interested in the report.

Add descriptions of the charts

In the automatic reports, you are able to add descriptions to all the charts. Use these to help the recipients of the report understand what they are looking at. 

The survey question will always be included in the charts, as will the legend explaining the segment/-s and date range. However, not all are used to reading charts and adding descriptions will help them. 

An example of a survey description could be "The find score last month compared to the month before for Job seekers (based on role). The score is calculated by subtraction share of 'No' from share of 'Yes'."

You can also add information about you goals for the KPIs (ratings, find score, NPS) or if you have made changes to the survey or website that affect the data in the chart. 

However, remember that the description will be the same in every report unless you change it before each delivery. Therefore, avoid mentioning exact numbers, such as "The find score is 53" as that will change.