Why connecting disparate data enables insights in Tableau - Business Case Study

Scenario Mode

👤 Your Role: You are a business analyst at a retail company.

📋 Request: Your manager wants you to show how combining sales data with customer feedback data can reveal better insights about product performance.

📊 Data: You have two data sources: one with monthly sales numbers by product and region, and another with customer satisfaction ratings by product and month.

🎯 Deliverable: Create a Tableau dashboard that connects these two data sources to show sales trends alongside customer satisfaction, highlighting products with high sales but low satisfaction.

Sample Data

Month	Product	Region	Sales
Jan	Widget A	North	120
Jan	Widget B	North	80
Feb	Widget A	South	150
Feb	Widget B	South	90
Mar	Widget A	North	130
Mar	Widget B	North	100

Month	Product	Customer Satisfaction
Jan	Widget A	4.2
Jan	Widget B	3.5
Feb	Widget A	4.0
Feb	Widget B	3.8
Mar	Widget A	4.1
Mar	Widget B	3.2

1

Step 1: Connect both data sources in Tableau by importing the Sales data and the Customer Satisfaction data.

Use Tableau's Data Source tab to add both tables and create a relationship on 'Month' and 'Product' fields.

Expected Result

Tableau links sales and satisfaction data by matching Month and Product.

2

Step 2: Create a worksheet showing total Sales by Month and Product.

Rows: Product, Columns: Month, Values: SUM(Sales)

Expected Result

A table or bar chart showing sales numbers for each product by month.

3

Step 3: Create a worksheet showing average Customer Satisfaction by Month and Product.

Rows: Product, Columns: Month, Values: AVG([Customer Satisfaction])

Expected Result

A table or line chart showing satisfaction scores for each product by month.

4

Step 4: Build a dashboard combining both worksheets side by side.

Drag both worksheets onto a dashboard layout in Tableau.

Expected Result

Dashboard displays sales and satisfaction trends together for easy comparison.

5

Step 5: Add a filter for Product to focus on specific products.

Add Product filter to dashboard and apply to both worksheets.

Expected Result

User can select a product and see its sales and satisfaction side by side.

6

Step 6: Highlight products with high sales but low satisfaction using color or annotations.

Create a calculated field: IF SUM(Sales) > 100 AND AVG([Customer Satisfaction]) < 3.5 THEN 'Attention' ELSE 'Normal' END. Use this field to color marks.

Expected Result

Products needing attention are visually distinct on the dashboard.

Final Result

Dashboard: 
+-----------------------------+-----------------------------+
| Sales by Product and Month   | Customer Satisfaction Trend  |
|                             |                             |
| Product | Jan | Feb | Mar    | Product | Jan | Feb | Mar    |
| Widget A| 120 | 150 | 130    | Widget A| 4.2 | 4.0 | 4.1    |
| Widget B|  80 |  90 | 100    | Widget B| 3.5 | 3.8 | 3.2    |
+-----------------------------+-----------------------------+
Filter: Product [All, Widget A, Widget B]
Highlights: Widget B marked in red for low satisfaction despite decent sales.

✓Widget A has consistently high sales and good customer satisfaction.

✓Widget B has moderate sales but lower customer satisfaction, especially in March.

✓Connecting sales and satisfaction data helps identify products that may need quality improvements.

Bonus Challenge

Add a trend line to the sales chart and satisfaction chart to show if performance is improving or declining over months.

Show Hint

Use Tableau's Analytics pane to drag a trend line onto each worksheet.