## 4 Results and Discussion
### A Thermodynamic Approach to Data Processing  
Figure 12 presents participant one's responses to the second section of the questionnaire, along with the evolution trend of his/her responses. To transform qualitative data into quantitative and ensure the process is understandable, full details for support documentation area (statements S14 to S18) are given. Thus, considering that in statement S14 the participant selected very satisfied, this response should be assessed on a downward scale, i.e., from very satisfied to very dissatisfied, since the response can only remain the same or worsen in the future (Table 3). Regarding statement S15, the participant selected slightly satisfied and indicated a downward trend (Figure 12). Therefore, this response should be assessed on a downward scale, considering slightly satisfied as the best-case scenario (BCS) and slightly dissatisfied as the worst-case scenario (WCS). Concerning statement S16, the participant selected satisfied and indicated an upward trend (Figure 12). Therefore, this response should be assessed on an upward scale, i.e., from very dissatisfied to very satisfied, considering very satisfied as the BCS and satisfied as the WCS (Table 3). With respect to statement S17, the participant selected very dissatisfied. This response should be assessed on the upward scale because the response can only remain the same or improve in the future. Finally, for statement S18, no options were selected, indicating a vague situation, where all scenarios are possible. Here, even though the specific values of exergy, vagueness, and energy remain unknown, it is known that their values lie between 0 and 1. Figure 13 shows the visual depiction of participant one's responses to the second section of the questionnaire under both BCS and WCS. Blue regions symbolize exergy, indicating high-energy states or usable energy; gray regions indicate vagueness, implying uncertainty or indeterminate energy states; and white regions represent anergy, where energy is not available for work [48; 49; 50]. Figure 11: Percentage breakdown of response to the third section of the questionnaire by gender, age, academic qualifications, and employment status. Figure 12: Responses from participant one in the second section of the questionnaire. By replicating the previous calculations, the values of exergy, vagueness, and anergy for the remaining areas (i.e., customer service, quality of service provided, technical support, billing and payment, and online services and tools) for all participants can be determined. Table 6 displays these values for all areas considered in the study for participant one. For  
Figure 13: A graphical interpretation of participant one’s responses across study areas (customer service, quality of service provided, support documentation, technical support, billing and payment, and online services and tools) in the best-case and worst-case scenarios. The blue, gray, and white colored areas correspond to exergy, vagueness, and anergy. (1) very dissatisfied, (2) dissatisfied, (3) slightly dissatisfied, (4) slightly satisfied, (5) satisfied, and (6) very satisfied. example, the exergy regarding the support documentation area in the BCS, on the scale from very satisfied to very dissatisfied, is determined using the values listed in Table 4, as follows:  
\[exergy_{6-1}=exergy_{6-1_{514}}+exergy_{6-1_{515}}+exergy_{6-1_{518}}=0.006+0. 05+0=0.056\]  
For the scale from very dissatisfied to very satisfied, it is:  
\[exergy_{1-6}=exergy_{1-6_{516}}+exergy_{1-6_{517}}=0.006+0.2=0.206\]  
Similarly, using the same methodology, the values for different forms of energy were calculated for all participants in the WCS. Table 7 displays these values for all areas considered in the study for participant one. The values of different forms of energy associated with each of the six specific areas considered computed for all participants in both BCS and WCS were used to build a database for training ANNs to predict customers' overall opinions regarding the lab's service (Figure 14).