Abstract: 2010 Contact Center Surveying and Analytics Market Report

DMG Consulting’s fourth annual Contact Center Surveying/Feedback and Analytics Market Report provides contact center, enterprise and IT decision makers with the information required to identify the solution that best meets their short- and long-term functional, technological and financial needs. The Report includes product, technical, market share, pricing, delivery model and return on investment (ROI) information, as well as best practice advice for surveying implementations, to help ensure the solution being deployed yields the greatest results. The 275-page Contact Center Surveying/Feedback and Analytics Market Report is the industry’s most complete guide to this maturing market and its vendors.

While sales of contact center applications typically decline during a recession, the contact center surveying/feedback market has defied that trend, with implementations growing 9% between 2009 and 2010. Seats of these contact center applications also grew 7.8%, demonstrating the importance of surveying/feedback solutions for customer retention, a critical success factor during a recession. While the 9% growth rate was lower than the 2007 and 2008 growth rates of 21% and 18%, respectively, it remains significant in this economic climate. DMG Consulting projects that the surveying/feedback and analytics market will grow by 12%, 11% and 10% in 2011, 2012 and 2013, respectively.

The 2010 Contact Center Surveying/Feedback and Analytics Market Report reveals that barriers are falling between the contact center – typically the largest consumer of surveying/feedback and analytics solutions – and other business units within the enterprise. Organizations are beginning to realize the necessity of having executive management and employees across the business listen to and act in a timely manner upon customer feedback about their products, services and business practices. In fact, 75% of customers surveyed as part of DMG’s vendor satisfaction study reported that customer feedback was shared across their organization with departments such as product development, sales, marketing, research and development, operations, human resources, field services, and information technology. These disparate functions are teaming up to exchange customer information, with the goal of delivering an enhanced customer experience.

Another increasingly important customer feedback trend is the continued rise of social media. Online forums and social networking sites provide consumers with a broader medium than ever before to express their delight or discontent. Leading organizations are developing Voice of the Customer (VOC) strategies designed to monitor customer feedback – solicited and unsolicited – and to act on the data. A number of contact center surveying vendors have already introduced functionality to support the new social media channels, including capabilities for monitoring social media sites, creating online communities for providing feedback, analyzing trends of social media mentions, and deploying surveys through social media channels. While the debate about who owns social media within the enterprise continues, the Report explains why the contact center can and should play a pivotal role in social networking initiatives as a natural extension of its traditional role as the front-line face of the enterprise to the customer.

Gathering feedback through surveying tools and social media is just one step in a larger process that must lead to active, tangible change. While tying feedback to action is a challenge, vendors are responding to the market’s call for applications that enable them to do just that by offering closed-loop solutions that convert survey feedback into manageable cases. They are also creating tighter integrations with complementary contact center and enterprise applications, developing better reporting and analytics, and supporting new channels and devices like smart phones, making the closed-loop process more effective.

Report Highlights

• Surveying/feedback market bucks the poor economy and downward trend in IT sales; growth expected to continue through 2013: Implementations of surveying/feedback and analytics solutions grew 9% between 2009 and 2010, with contact center seats attributed to this sector increasing by 7.8%. This underscores the importance of these solutions in retaining customers, always a critical success factor, but perhaps more so during and following a recession. DMG Consulting projects that the surveying/feedback and analytics market will grow by 12%, 11% and 10% in the 3 years from 2011 to 2013, respectively.

• Surveying solutions are helping contact centers bridge the gap with other departments: Organizations are realizing that customer feedback gleaned by the contact center is relevant and valuable in helping achieve enterprise-wide goals. 75% of contact center surveying/feedback users participating in this analysis reported sharing their solutions and customer insights with other areas of their organization, to improve the overall customer experience.
• Social media is changing the way organizations monitor and act on customer feedback: With the advent of social networking, companies now have to consider how to manage and respond to the broad-based feedback that comes via these channels. A number of vendors are introducing functionality to support social media channels – monitoring social media sites, creating online communities for providing feedback, analyzing trends of social media mentions, and deploying surveys through social media channels – to supplement corporate Voice of the Customer initiatives focused on addressing both solicited (survey-based) and unsolicited customer feedback.
• Vendors are offering closed-loop solutions that enable organizations to act on feedback: To enhance the customer experience and deliver real value, organizations must be able to act rapidly on the customer feedback they gather with surveying tools. Vendors are responding to this requirement by offering closed-loop solutions that convert survey and social media feedback into manageable cases, creating tighter integrations with complementary contact center and enterprise applications, developing better reporting and analytics, and supporting new channels and devices.

Key Reasons to Buy this Report

• Thorough evaluation of the state of the market: Overview of the state of the contact center surveying/feedback and analytics market, including market share, adoption rates and projections through 2013, as well as trends and challenges facing both enterprises and vendors.
• In-depth review of the competitive landscape: A detailed look at the eight leaders and contenders, covering their surveying/feedback solutions, distinguishing features, challenges, and development plans, as well as service delivery options – premise-based, hosted and managed service – and important considerations for selecting the right one.
• Extensive product, company and technical analyses: Detailed side-by-side comparisons and analysis of functionality, pricing, underlying technology and implementation for solutions from the eight leading and contending vendors.
• Product innovation: A review of technology trends and innovations, new capabilities delivered in the past 12 months, and what is expected to be delivered to the market in the next 12 to 18 months.
• Best practices: Analysis of best practices for surveying/feedback program implementation, including DMG Consulting’s “best of the best,” where to look for return on investment (ROI), and the quantitative and qualitative benefits that can be derived from implementing a surveying/feedback solution.
• Voice of the Customer strategy: Detailed discussion of social networking, including information on developing a contact center social media program.
• Clarification of terminology: Definitions of contact center surveying/feedback and Enterprise Feedback Management (EFM), with a review of the functional building blocks that make up a complete surveying/feedback solution.
• Vendor satisfaction analysis: Complete vendor reference analysis with customer satisfaction ratings across six key solution components – product, implementation, service and support, training, professional services, innovation and responsiveness to enhancement requests – as well as overall vendor satisfaction.
• Pricing: Price ranges for hosted and managed service offerings to help end users plan and negotiate the best deals.
• Comprehensive surveying/feedback and analytics vendor directory

Table of Contents

Sample Figure: Surveying/Feedback Functional Building Blocks

Source: DMG Consulting LLC, August 2010

Order Information
To order a copy of the this report, contact Deborah Navarra at 516-628-1098 or deborah.navarra@dmgconsult.com. You may also purchase the Report online at www.dmgconsult.com.

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