Online survey results, focus group feedback, anecdotal evidence collected in the tea-room, and results produced by software evaluation tools, all contribute to an overall picture of the health, success and popularity of your website.

Relying on just one evaluation methodology may give you a skewed view of the website or your e-business strategy, so before you do anything hasty, ensure that you have collected evidence from a variety of people and through a variety of methods.

If there is a consistency in the message you are getting about such things as the design, management of the site or the maintenance solution, then it is reasonable to assume that you have a problem that needs to be fixed.  

What to do

There is no magic formula for analysing the results of evaluation, but there are some things you should be wary of:

• Making changes in your website - make sure you do not change those things in your site that are working.
• Acting on one form of evaluation - your online poll on the home page may be the flavour of the month for some people to provide repeat, mischievous feedback, so do not act on polls alone. 
• Misinterpreting data - as everyone knows, statistics can be made to show almost anything, but more often they are innocently misinterpreted. So, if the interpretation of data is the basis on which decisions are to be made on changing the e-business model or other significant aspects, it would be wise to refer the data to someone skilled in analysing statistics to ensure you act on valid interpretations.
• Listening to vested interests - some will have a vested interest in telling you what is wrong with the site and how to fix it, so consider who you are listening to when analysing their feedback.
• Knee-jerk reactions - avoid reacting immediately to feedback by changing parts of the site (unless there are inaccuracies in content or things that do not actually work). Rather, collate it and report the collective picture to the website management team meeting and draw up a planned, prioritised response.
• Ignoring the future - the site might be progressing well and the feedback positive, but your users do not know what they do not know so you have to keep an eye to the future and try to anticipate what they may want one, two, three years from now.

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