The EFM marketplace has recently undergone lots of change. Companies are merging, the technology itself is evolving to new platforms like mobile and social media, the model is migrating increasingly to "do-it-yourself" vs. outsourced, new technologies like text analytics are being incorporated into EFM and integration with other "cloud" technologies is accelerating.
All this has me thinking about the nature of feedback, how it's being used by businesses and how that is changing. In my experience businesses work with two types of feedback, operational feedback, and for lack of a better term, "research" feedback. I think that the changes I've outlined have blurred distinctions between the two. And, that this will have a substantial impact on how businesses work with feedback data of all kinds in the future.
To me, operational feedback differs from research in two key ways:
- The business need to take follow up actions on it.
- And, its usefulness in building KPIs.
Otherwise, operational and research feedback don't differ much. Of course, it's arguable (and maybe true) that operational feedback is not accurate enough for scientific conclusion. But, it seems to me that it can be made much more accurate by adding more "background" variables prior to solicitation (to establish population differentiation). And, by managing respondent populations with filters afterwards (on the assumption that enough respondents participate to provide enough data).
At the end of the day both types of feedback are simply data. What typically differentiates research from operational feedback is not the feedback, it's the depth of analysis applied to the data.
Looking at the many recent marketplace changes, EFM vendors focused on operationalizing research appear to be having success. I think the business need to quickly understand and act on insights derived from complex combinations of feedback and "background data" is driving that success.
I believe social media is extending this market trend. By applying operationalized research capabilities to social media based feedback, businesses will be able to accelerate their understanding of prospects, customers and markets. And, to therefore "compete" more effectively. If I had to guess, I would say that businesses will migrate to EFM vendors who can help them operationalize social media derived feedback.
All this has me thinking about the nature of feedback, how it's being used by businesses and how that is changing. In my experience businesses work with two types of feedback, operational feedback, and for lack of a better term, "research" feedback. I think that the changes I've outlined have blurred distinctions between the two. And, that this will have a substantial impact on how businesses work with feedback data of all kinds in the future.
To me, operational feedback differs from research in two key ways:
- The business need to take follow up actions on it.
- And, its usefulness in building KPIs.
Otherwise, operational and research feedback don't differ much. Of course, it's arguable (and maybe true) that operational feedback is not accurate enough for scientific conclusion. But, it seems to me that it can be made much more accurate by adding more "background" variables prior to solicitation (to establish population differentiation). And, by managing respondent populations with filters afterwards (on the assumption that enough respondents participate to provide enough data).
At the end of the day both types of feedback are simply data. What typically differentiates research from operational feedback is not the feedback, it's the depth of analysis applied to the data.
Looking at the many recent marketplace changes, EFM vendors focused on operationalizing research appear to be having success. I think the business need to quickly understand and act on insights derived from complex combinations of feedback and "background data" is driving that success.
I believe social media is extending this market trend. By applying operationalized research capabilities to social media based feedback, businesses will be able to accelerate their understanding of prospects, customers and markets. And, to therefore "compete" more effectively. If I had to guess, I would say that businesses will migrate to EFM vendors who can help them operationalize social media derived feedback.
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