The new Forrester WaveTM: Customer Feedback Management Platforms, Q2, 2017 (paywall) is live! CFM platforms are part of a larger VoC vendor landscape and help CX professionals manage complexity by centralizing and automating essential VoC activities. This Wave scores 10 vendors that matter based on offering, revenue and interest by Forrester clients: Clarabridge, Confirmit, InMoment, MaritzCX, Medallia, NICE, Qualtrics, Satmetrix Systems, SMG, and Verint Systems.

To score these vendors, we developed a comprehensive set of evaluation criteria in three high-level buckets: Current offering, strategy, and market presence. The criteria and their weighting is based on past research and conversations with vendor and CFM users. Client references played a large role in our evaluation: We conducted 30 hours of client reference calls and fielded a survey among 60 client references.

This Forrester Wave evaluation uncovered a market in which four providers emerged as leaders — though their strengths differ: InMoment, Medallia, Qualtrics, and Confirmit. Another three providers – Clarabridge, MaritzCX, and SMG – are Strong Performers. And Satmetrix Systems, NICE, and Verint Systems are Contenders.

If you are looking for a CFM platform provider or want to see how your current provider stacks up, this Forrester Wave on CFM is the best starting point for you. Our evaluation assumes a CX professional with a foundational to advanced VoC program, who wants some self-service capabilities for survey authoring, analysis, and reporting but also requires professional services to take some load off a small-ish VoC team. However, from hundreds of conversations with firms looking for a VoC technology provider, I know that requirements for such providers differ a lot. Therefore, I recommend that you go beyond the Forrester Wave graphic and: 
  • Download the Excel sheet associated with the graphic (AKA download Figure 4 in the report as an excel sheet)
  • View the detailed product evaluations in the excel sheet.
  • Adapt criteria weightings to fit your VoC program’s needs, and see your firm’s custom ranking.

If you want to share your experiences selecting and implementing these and other CFM platforms, let me know. And if you want Forrester's help in your CFM vendor selection process, for example through analyst inquiry or advisory or through project consulting work, just say the word.