Sentiment analysis – What do sentiment metrics really mean, and how should I interpret them?

Q: What’s the difference between sentiment score and sentiment trend?
A: These two metrics answer different questions:

• Sentiment score reflects how the customer felt overall, with greater weight given to their emotions at the end of the interaction. It’s a normalized weighted average of all sentiment events during the conversation.

• Sentiment trend measures how the customer’s emotional state changed over time. It calculates the difference between average sentiment at the beginning and at the end, divided by two.

Q: How should I read specific sentiment scores?
A:

• Score of 60: A lightly positive interaction. This might reflect a single positive phrase later in the call, with no major emotional highs or lows.
• Score of 80: A more sustained positive interaction. Typically, multiple positive events occurred, especially later in the call.
• Score of 100: Extremely rare. Indicates a peak emotional experience—several clear positive expressions (like praise or delight) and no negativity.

Q: What does the sentiment trend tell me?
A: It captures the emotional trajectory of the customer:

• A positive trend indicates emotional improvement.
• A negative trend may suggest increasing frustration—even if the overall score is high.

Examples:

• Score 60 + Trend +30 = Emotional improvement, mild to positive.

• Score 80 + Trend +5 = Consistently positive.

• Score 80 + Trend -20 = Started well but declined—pay attention!

For more information about fomula calculation, see Sentiment Score Formula, and Sentiment Trend Formula.