Sixty-nine percent of global voice-of-the-customer (VoC) and customer experience (CX) measurement leaders use a customer feedback management (CFM) tool, according to Forrester’s 2022 global study of these leaders. That’s about the same number as the 70% who told us that their organization believes that the VoC/CX program is vital to its continued success.

And yet VoC and CX measurement programs continue to struggle. In fact, 47% of VoC and CX measurement program leaders rate the maturity of their program as low or very low, and only 32% agree that their program is well understood in their organization. At the same time, CFM providers are sprinting ahead with broader capabilities to attract buyers from adjacent markets such as contact centers, digital experience, and experience research. Simply put, there’s a disconnect for many CX buyers today — their maturity does not match the breadth of features offered by CFM vendors.

At the same time, CX buyers expect and need their CFM products to include advanced technologies that directly support their needs, such as natural language understanding and AI-driven features. This dichotomy between expanded offerings and CX buyer maturity is why we focused this evaluation on the core CFM product offered by each vendor while acknowledging that more advanced or broader capabilities may be available for additional purchase.

To help CFM buyers understand their options, we are pleased to announce the release of The Forrester Wave™: Customer Feedback Management, Q1 2023 (link for Forrester client access only). To assess the state of the market and gauge how the vendors’ offerings stack up, we evaluated the strengths and weaknesses of the top customer feedback management products. Our set of 31 criteria reflect top CFM use cases such as feedback collection and closing the loop and also reflect the need to consider how a vendor supports broader CX strategy and improvement via both its technology and services offerings.

Interested in learning more? Forrester clients can join my webinar on May 3 – register here.

Or, reach out to me to discuss your needs and the providers in our latest Forrester Wave™ evaluation — or those included in The Customer Feedback Management Landscape, Q3 2022 report (link for Forrester client access only).