Qualtrics

What is Qualtrics XM

Qualtrics XM is a leading software platform for experience management (XM). Its main purpose is to help organizations collect, analyze, and act on feedback from customers and employees. This allows businesses to understand sentiments, identify problems, and improve the experiences they provide. The platform uses powerful AI to find important insights from large amounts of data, like survey responses and open-text feedback. Qualtrics was founded in 2002 by Ryan Smith, Jared Smith, Stuart Orgill, and Scott M. Smith. The company is headquartered in Provo, Utah, and Seattle, Washington, and serves thousands of customers globally, from small businesses to large corporations.

Qualtrics XM Features

Qualtrics XM offers a wide range of features organized into different suites:

• Customer Experience (CX): Tools to monitor and improve every customer interaction. This includes collecting feedback through surveys, web intercepts, and social media, then analyzing it to understand customer satisfaction, loyalty, and effort.
• Employee Experience (EX): Helps organizations understand and improve the employee lifecycle. It includes tools for employee engagement surveys, onboarding and exit feedback, and 360-degree performance reviews to boost morale and reduce turnover.
• Strategy & Research: Provides advanced tools for market research, brand tracking, and product development. Users can design complex studies, test concepts, and analyze market trends to make better business decisions.
• Qualtrics AI: This is integrated across the platform. It uses artificial intelligence and machine learning to analyze text feedback (Text iQ), predict customer behavior, and automatically recommend actions to improve experiences.
• Survey Designer: An intuitive drag-and-drop interface to create simple or complex surveys with various question types, logic, and branding.
• Dashboards and Reporting: Customizable dashboards that visualize data in real-time. Users can create reports and share them with stakeholders to track key metrics and performance.
• Action Planning: A built-in system that helps teams create and track actions based on the feedback received. This closes the loop between feedback and improvement.

Qualtrics XM Pricing Plans

Qualtrics XM pricing is customized for each organization and is not publicly listed in standard tiers. The cost depends on several factors, including which products you need (Customer Experience, Employee Experience, etc.), the number of users, the volume of responses or interactions you expect, and the level of support required.

Typically, a sales representative works with a potential customer to understand their specific needs and then creates a personalized quote. This model is common for enterprise-level software where solutions are tailored to the complex needs of large organizations. Smaller teams or businesses might start with the free plan and then contact sales to discuss their growth needs.

Qualtrics XM Free Plan

Qualtrics offers a free account that is a good starting point for individuals, students, or small teams. The free plan allows users to access the core survey design and data collection tools. It typically includes:

• A limited number of active surveys.
• A cap on the number of questions per survey.
• A maximum number of responses you can collect.
• Basic reporting and data analysis features.

This free version is ideal for simple projects, academic research, or for evaluating the platform's basic functionality before committing to a paid plan. For more advanced features like complex logic, AI analytics, and integrations, an upgrade to a paid license is necessary.

How to use Qualtrics XM

Getting started with Qualtrics XM follows a clear workflow:

1. Create a Project: After signing up, you start by creating a new project. You can choose from many templates, such as customer satisfaction, employee engagement, or market research, or start from scratch.
2. Design Your Survey: Use the drag-and-drop editor to add and arrange questions. You can choose from multiple-choice, text entry, matrix tables, and more. Use logic to show or hide questions based on previous answers.
3. Distribute Your Survey: Qualtrics provides multiple ways to share your survey. You can send it via email, generate an anonymous link, create a QR code, or embed it on a website.
4. Collect and Monitor Responses: As people respond, you can see the data come in live from your dashboard.
5. Analyze the Data: Go to the 'Reports' section to see automatically generated charts and graphs. For deeper insights, use the 'Data & Analysis' tab to filter results, create cross-tabulations, and use Text iQ to analyze open-ended comments.
6. Share Insights: Create custom dashboards to share key findings with your team or leadership. You can export reports to PDF, CSV, or other formats.
7. Take Action: Use the insights to make informed decisions and create action plans to improve your customer or employee experiences.

Pros and Cons of Qualtrics XM

Pros:

• Comprehensive Platform: It covers a very wide range of experience management needs, from customer feedback to employee engagement and market research.
• Powerful Analytics: The AI and text analysis features are excellent for getting deep insights from unstructured data.
• High Customization: You can customize surveys, dashboards, and workflows to fit your exact needs.
• Scalability: The platform is built for large enterprises and can handle millions of responses and complex organizational structures.
• Strong Security: Offers enterprise-grade security and compliance features, which is important for handling sensitive data.

Cons:

• High Cost: The pricing can be very expensive, making it inaccessible for many small businesses.
• Steep Learning Curve: While basic features are easy to use, mastering the advanced capabilities requires significant training and time.
• Complex Interface: For users who only need to create a simple survey, the number of options can be overwhelming.
• Resource Intensive: Getting the most value from Qualtrics often requires a dedicated person or team to manage the platform.

Qualtrics XM Integrations

Qualtrics XM integrates with a wide variety of business systems to connect experience data with operational data. This provides a more complete view of the customer and employee. Key integrations include:

• Salesforce: Sync feedback data with customer records in your CRM to personalize service and sales interactions.
• Adobe Experience Cloud: Combine customer feedback with analytics and marketing automation data for a richer customer profile.
• SAP: As part of SAP, it has deep integrations with SAP C/4HANA and S/4HANA to embed experience data into core business processes.
• Microsoft Dynamics: Connect survey data with your Microsoft CRM to enhance customer relationship management.
• Slack: Set up automated workflows to send real-time notifications to Slack channels based on survey responses, like a negative customer review.
• Zendesk: Create tickets in Zendesk automatically from survey feedback to ensure customer issues are addressed quickly.
• Marketo: Use feedback to trigger marketing campaigns and personalize communication.

Integrations are typically configured in the Qualtrics admin section, often requiring API keys and authentication with the other platform.

Qualtrics XM Alternatives

• SurveyMonkey: A popular alternative that is generally easier to use and more affordable. It is excellent for straightforward surveys and small to medium-sized businesses, but lacks the deep enterprise XM capabilities of Qualtrics.
• Medallia: A direct competitor to Qualtrics in the enterprise customer experience market. Medallia is also a very powerful platform, with strong capabilities in capturing signals from various touchpoints and driving operational improvements.
• Forsta: A comprehensive platform for market research and enterprise feedback. It combines quantitative, qualitative, and voice-of-customer technologies, making it a strong alternative for research professionals and large organizations.
• Gainsight XM: Focused specifically on customer experience and success for B2B SaaS companies. It is a good alternative for businesses looking to integrate feedback directly into their customer success workflows.

Qualtrics XM API

Yes, Qualtrics provides a comprehensive set of REST APIs that allow developers to programmatically interact with the platform. The API lets you automate tasks like creating surveys, distributing them, retrieving response data, and managing users. This is useful for integrating Qualtrics into custom applications or internal workflows.

To get your API key, you need to log in to your Qualtrics account, navigate to Account Settings, and then go to the Qualtrics IDs tab. There you can find your API token. The official developer documentation is available at api.qualtrics.com.

Here is a simple cURL example to retrieve a list of your surveys:

curl -X GET \
  'https://YOUR_DATACENTER_ID.qualtrics.com/API/v3/surveys' \
  -H 'X-API-TOKEN: YOUR_API_TOKEN'

Remember to replace YOUR_DATACENTER_ID and YOUR_API_TOKEN with your specific credentials.

Qualtrics XM Affiliate Program

Qualtrics does not have a traditional public affiliate program where individuals can sign up for a link and earn commissions. Instead, they have the Qualtrics Partner Network (QPN). This network is designed for consulting firms, technology companies, and service providers who help clients implement and get value from the Qualtrics platform.

Partners in the QPN might co-sell, build integrations, or offer managed services. It is a formal business partnership rather than a simple referral system. If you represent a company that is interested in becoming a partner, you should visit the 'Partners' section on the Qualtrics website to learn more and contact their partnership team directly.