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:

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