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Here's a real-world example from a client who uses Qualtrics heavily. At regular intervals following vehicle purchase, an automotive manufacturer sends surveys

Here's a real-world example from a client who uses Qualtrics heavily. At regular intervals following vehicle purchase, an automotive manufacturer sends surveys to vehicle owners asking about their perception of the quality of the vehicle, issues that may have come up, features that were not explained properly or don't work as expected, etc. We're talking hundreds of thousands of surveys a year, each with 20+ branching questions. The surveys themselves are built in Qualtrics (something that it is quite good at), managed by Qualtrics (yes, survey management is a big deal), and the top-level data analysis of the survey results is done in Qualtrics as well to determine if there are problematic trends that need to be addressed, more issues than in previous years, segments of customers who are for some reason perceiving quality differently than others, opportunities to redesign or better market things in the future, etc. This data is directly used to update products, training, marketing, etc. at the company. This is, in my opinion, the biggest use case for Qualtrics - customer experience research based on surveys or data gathering methods managed from within the platform. You can think of it as Survey Monkey on steroids with some SPSS-lite data analysis functionality built in.

JohnJamesRambo 8y ago
>each with 20+ branching questions I just recoiled in horror at the thought of my car company asking me to fill out a survey like this and mentally closed the window on it.
- nine_k 8y ago
  Imagine that your car has a few things that bother you, and you'd like the car company to know about it. A link to a survey appears in email, and you think: "Aha! Now I'll let them know for sure, I'll tell them all I think about it!". Now you have 20 question to vent off your frustration, and likely a large text field for "anything more you might like to add".
  - TomVDB 8y ago
    It'd be cathartic if Audi sent a questionnaire to my wife to ask her about the dashboard GUI. ("Only a German engineer could design such a thing.", which is a bit harsh: there are plenty of thermostat designers who could do worse.) The fact that iOS 12 now supports 3rd party apps (==Google Maps) on CarPlay has been a life saver.
    - usaphp 8y ago
      imo Audi/VW has the best dashboard GUI in the auto business bar BMW iDrive. Try using honda or toyota and you will see that it can be much much worse than audi, laggy and badly designed.
      - TomVDB 8y ago
        They have a nice LCD panel but they decided to not make it touch-enabled. So to enter a street address you're supposed to draw the characters with your finger Palm-Pilot-style on a crappy touchpad. It's absurd. That's on a 2018 model. I think they're fixing that in some of the 2019 models.
        gaelian 8y ago
        It's not the touchpad that annoys me, it's the fact that I generally seem to have to enter the address in the most non-intuitive order for it to find anything, e.g. first postcode, then street name, then street number. First world problems, I guess.
        te0006 8y ago
        They don't do this to annoy you but to allow you to keep your eyes on the road more frequently. You are supposed to draw the characters blindly, without looking at the touchpad. They carried out user tests that demonstrated that a real touchscreen captures the driver's attention to a much stronger degree than this system. It might look limiting and obsolete on first glance, but it reduces risks to life and health of all involved parties.
- awad 8y ago
  I've done this, multiple times, when the airline I frequently fly follows up after a flight. I've noticed that they're pretty good with their timing such that they'll expedite the survey trigger after a flight that had a delay or some other kind of issue. As someone who flies this particular airline a lot, it's nice being able to voice my exact issues in a nuanced manner while also singling out what worked well. I do this with hope and expectation that my voice will be heard and may influence future decisions.
- rconti 8y ago
  Having owned a dozen cars, shopped for far more, desired features and options that the manufacturers don't give, and finally buying ONE car brand-new, I relished the opportunity to actually have my voice heard for once.
- ImprovedSilence 8y ago
  I get a survey every time I take my car to the dealer. I like it. Sometimes there are some chuckleheaded things a dealership does, or maybe they are very helpful, but either way, I can provide feedback to the manufacturer on my experience, and I like to think maybe they'll be able to change things for the better. In a world where every other site tries to infer what I like or I want or what they think i want to see on my feed next, or put me in some marketing bucket, it's a breath of fresh air to just be asked what I like or don't like or may be interested in.
usaphp 8y ago
> each with 20+ branching questions I never understood , why would anyone waste their time answering 20+ questions for free?
- dmarlow 8y ago
  People who are dissatisfied with something certainly would. Especially a large purchase.
- biztos 8y ago
  I just did that today, for a podcast I follow. I usually say "no" to popup surveys on web sites but if it's anybody I have any kind of business or consumer relationship with I'm usually more than happy to spend 10-15 minutes on a survey. Why? * Help products/companies I like to improve * Help products/companies I dislike to get less bad * Increase the chances that the product/company will skew towards my preferences * Hope someone might answer my questions some day (reciprocal altruism) * Basic decency, helpfulness * In rare cases, curiosity as to what the questions will be
- gbersac 8y ago
  Not always for free. I did it for a bike sharing company. I received a two free rides in exchange.
- derek_frome 8y ago
  You'd be amazed. I was an account manager at Medallia (Qualtrics competitor, also backed by Sequoia) and the response rates on 20-50 question surveys was typically in the double digits. When you have hundreds of thousands of customers in a month, you can generate super rich data through this process. However, the industry as a whole has been coping with something they call "survey fatigue" which is reflected in a lot of the comments here. There has been a general backslide in survey response rates, though as of a few years ago, it had mostly stabilized around a new normal that was still plenty good for generating excellent data sets to understand the customer experience.
  - njarboe 8y ago
throw2016 8y ago
For academic research the value proposition seems more credible. But even there given the reproducibility crisis the methodology and tools need to be revisited, and perhaps these kind of lazy surveys and data analysis are part of the problem. As for customers few companies if any in the world has customer service approaching 'entailing differences in customer perception', most are quite happy to have people wait on phones endlessly or fail to address glaring deficiencies in products or services. With so much low hanging fruit waiting to be addressed in customer service this obsession with surveys and 'customer experience' seems to be driven by other forces ie continuing obsession with data and metrics by sections of the workforce as panacea and distraction from real changes. But great exit for the brothers, nice targeting, if there is a demand why shouldn't they benefit.
kkotak 8y ago
To be sure though; It is still quite a superfluous software product that is a more complex version of Google forms. The key is to be able to sell to enterprises with a shiny veneer. EDIT: And that SAP is not buying the software per se. They're buying the customers and credibility.

JohnJamesRambo 8y ago

>each with 20+ branching questions I just recoiled in horror at the thought of my car company asking me to fill out a survey like this and mentally closed the window on it.

nine_k 8y ago
Imagine that your car has a few things that bother you, and you'd like the car company to know about it. A link to a survey appears in email, and you think: "Aha! Now I'll let them know for sure, I'll tell them all I think about it!". Now you have 20 question to vent off your frustration, and likely a large text field for "anything more you might like to add".
- TomVDB 8y ago
  It'd be cathartic if Audi sent a questionnaire to my wife to ask her about the dashboard GUI. ("Only a German engineer could design such a thing.", which is a bit harsh: there are plenty of thermostat designers who could do worse.) The fact that iOS 12 now supports 3rd party apps (==Google Maps) on CarPlay has been a life saver.
  - usaphp 8y ago
    imo Audi/VW has the best dashboard GUI in the auto business bar BMW iDrive. Try using honda or toyota and you will see that it can be much much worse than audi, laggy and badly designed.
    - TomVDB 8y ago
      They have a nice LCD panel but they decided to not make it touch-enabled. So to enter a street address you're supposed to draw the characters with your finger Palm-Pilot-style on a crappy touchpad. It's absurd. That's on a 2018 model. I think they're fixing that in some of the 2019 models.
      - gaelian 8y ago
        It's not the touchpad that annoys me, it's the fact that I generally seem to have to enter the address in the most non-intuitive order for it to find anything, e.g. first postcode, then street name, then street number. First world problems, I guess.
      - te0006 8y ago
        They don't do this to annoy you but to allow you to keep your eyes on the road more frequently. You are supposed to draw the characters blindly, without looking at the touchpad. They carried out user tests that demonstrated that a real touchscreen captures the driver's attention to a much stronger degree than this system. It might look limiting and obsolete on first glance, but it reduces risks to life and health of all involved parties.
awad 8y ago
I've done this, multiple times, when the airline I frequently fly follows up after a flight. I've noticed that they're pretty good with their timing such that they'll expedite the survey trigger after a flight that had a delay or some other kind of issue. As someone who flies this particular airline a lot, it's nice being able to voice my exact issues in a nuanced manner while also singling out what worked well. I do this with hope and expectation that my voice will be heard and may influence future decisions.
rconti 8y ago
Having owned a dozen cars, shopped for far more, desired features and options that the manufacturers don't give, and finally buying ONE car brand-new, I relished the opportunity to actually have my voice heard for once.
ImprovedSilence 8y ago
I get a survey every time I take my car to the dealer. I like it. Sometimes there are some chuckleheaded things a dealership does, or maybe they are very helpful, but either way, I can provide feedback to the manufacturer on my experience, and I like to think maybe they'll be able to change things for the better. In a world where every other site tries to infer what I like or I want or what they think i want to see on my feed next, or put me in some marketing bucket, it's a breath of fresh air to just be asked what I like or don't like or may be interested in.

usaphp 8y ago

> each with 20+ branching questions I never understood , why would anyone waste their time answering 20+ questions for free?

dmarlow 8y ago
People who are dissatisfied with something certainly would. Especially a large purchase.
biztos 8y ago
I just did that today, for a podcast I follow. I usually say "no" to popup surveys on web sites but if it's anybody I have any kind of business or consumer relationship with I'm usually more than happy to spend 10-15 minutes on a survey. Why? * Help products/companies I like to improve * Help products/companies I dislike to get less bad * Increase the chances that the product/company will skew towards my preferences * Hope someone might answer my questions some day (reciprocal altruism) * Basic decency, helpfulness * In rare cases, curiosity as to what the questions will be
gbersac 8y ago
Not always for free. I did it for a bike sharing company. I received a two free rides in exchange.
derek_frome 8y ago
You'd be amazed. I was an account manager at Medallia (Qualtrics competitor, also backed by Sequoia) and the response rates on 20-50 question surveys was typically in the double digits. When you have hundreds of thousands of customers in a month, you can generate super rich data through this process. However, the industry as a whole has been coping with something they call "survey fatigue" which is reflected in a lot of the comments here. There has been a general backslide in survey response rates, though as of a few years ago, it had mostly stabilized around a new normal that was still plenty good for generating excellent data sets to understand the customer experience.
- njarboe 8y ago

throw2016 8y ago

For academic research the value proposition seems more credible. But even there given the reproducibility crisis the methodology and tools need to be revisited, and perhaps these kind of lazy surveys and data analysis are part of the problem. As for customers few companies if any in the world has customer service approaching 'entailing differences in customer perception', most are quite happy to have people wait on phones endlessly or fail to address glaring deficiencies in products or services. With so much low hanging fruit waiting to be addressed in customer service this obsession with surveys and 'customer experience' seems to be driven by other forces ie continuing obsession with data and metrics by sections of the workforce as panacea and distraction from real changes. But great exit for the brothers, nice targeting, if there is a demand why shouldn't they benefit.

kkotak 8y ago

To be sure though; It is still quite a superfluous software product that is a more complex version of Google forms. The key is to be able to sell to enterprises with a shiny veneer. EDIT: And that SAP is not buying the software per se. They're buying the customers and credibility.