Traveler Sentiment Tracking Gets Spotlight With Medallia’s Intent to Go Public
Photo Credit: In this photo, employees map a typical customer's journey online. Qualtrics, a tech company in Provo, Utah, and Medallia, a customer experience tech company in San Mateo, California, feature travel brands among their most valuable clients for their customer experience technology. Qualtrics
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Customer-experience software companies Medallia, which is planning to go public this year, and Qualtrics, which SAP has just acquired for $8 billion, are receiving cash injections that should rev up their services. That's significant news for travel businesses that depend heavily on positive customer sentiment but increasingly face customer survey fatigue.
If you've ever taken a flight or stayed at a hotel and then received a follow-up email with a customer service survey, you've encountered Medallia or Qualtrics — two companies that sell survey and feedback software to companies in travel and other verticals. The rapid growth of these subscription-based software companies is impacting the so-called customer experience technologies used by companies — particularly the major travel brands that are among the largest customers.
Medallia is on course to file an initial public offering (IPO) this year, company executives said. The San Mateo-based company's most recent funding round — led by venture firm Sequoia — placed a $1.25 billion valuation on the company. In August, Medallia appointed Leslie Stretch to the CEO role, who replaced co-founder Borge Hald. Stretch previously led CallidusCloud, a software company, into an acquisition by SAP. Sequoia picked him as a stable hand to lead an effort to go public.
Last November Qualtr
