What is Qualtrics? A Guide to the Ultimate Customer Experience Software

…consumers and how to obtain that information in order to further heighten their overall experience. ‍ What is Qualtrics? Qualtrics is a CXM platform that focuses on collecting, organizing, and…

Zight | July 16, 2019 | 9 min read time

Article Last Updated: March 05, 2024

What is Qualtrics? A Guide to the Ultimate Customer Experience Software

Experience-whether a consumer, an employee, an owner, or an every day individual, we all thrive off of experience. Experience is a determining factor when it comes to how our actions further play out. A good experience can be grounds for repetition or recommendation. A bad experience can lead to hard feelings and a change in the direction of course you were taking. No matter the outcome, experience plays a substantial role in it all.

‍Qualtrics XM is a CXM (Customer Experience Management) software that puts a highlight on, well, customer experience. Their motto says it all:

“Software to help turn customers into fanatics

products into obsessions

employees into ambassadors

and brands into religions”

‍Customer experience should be at the forefront of any business, but prior to doing just that, it’s important to dig a little deeper and fully understand the audience in front of us. Understanding the fundamentals of an experience is essential for relaying value behind what you have to offer to your customers. The creators of Qualtrics know all too well the importance of understanding the behavior of consumers and how to obtain that information in order to further heighten their overall experience.

What is Qualtrics?

Qualtrics is a CXM platform that focuses on collecting, organizing, and understanding important data relative to customers and employees. From here, businesses can better understand what drives their customers to take action, what they flock towards, and what could use some tweaking. Qualtrics aims to help business further drive a customer centric company culture by focusing on retention, loyalty, and overall, satisfaction related to customers.

Qualtrics works by organizing and collecting important metrics relative to customer experience. From here, those utilizing the software can better understand any changes that need to be made and take action. Qualtrics has 4 core functions: CustomerXM, ProductXM, EmployeeXM, and BrandXM, all with the underlying goal of crafting a model contingent on customer reception and contentment.

 

What is the Use of Qualtrics?

Qualtrics puts a spotlight on customers, helping businesses better understand their target market and deliver exceptional results based on it. The platform helps businesses become more “people-centric” in their efforts to understand, not only customers, but employees as well. All in all, its premise is to collect, measure, and organize data necessary for businesses to better understand how they can continuously improve for the sake of their customers and employees.

Qualtrics simultaneously combines four experiences into one platform: customer, product, employee, and brand.

CustomerXM

Qualtrics CustomerXM tool takes understanding to the next level. CustomerXM allows you to aid your customers from start to finish. Starting with the root of understanding and generating qualitative customer engagement, Qualtrics allows you to identify issues that may arise when it comes to your customers. It is here that you can reach out to your customer, via email, SMS, messaging apps, etc and activate the people who best understand the customer and can further aid them.

The CustomerXM tool also utilizes smart IQ technology to predict what your customers next move is based in their patterns and behavior. This can help correct issues or improve upon a situation before either or should happen. The CustomerXM tool has a simple UI, making it easy to dissect for any member of the team.

ProductXM

Creating a product and catering it to our own needs is simple, however at the end of the day, we aren’t the ones completing a transaction. Thus, products need to be met with great reception by potential and current customers in order to generate the optimal ROI.. From market analysis to product satisfaction, the ProductXM tool allows you to better integrate your product with the needs of your customers.

Receiving true customer feedback in every stage is made simple allowing you to make changes throughout the process if needed. The tool also allows you to build and manage your own list of product testers, allowing you to gain insight from your most important target demographic.

EmployeeXM

Happy customers start with a happy team. Content employees are significantly more productive and receptive to growth as opposed to employees who feel their thoughts and needs get swept under the rug. The EmployeeXM tool aids in the improvement of employee satisfaction from onboarding all the way through to potential exits.

Similar to the CustomerXM tool, it comprises behaviors, patterns, strengths, and potential issues correlated to your employees. Curating this information will aid in retention and individual as well as company growth. Who doesn’t like having a happy team onboard?

BrandXM

Branding – a term business owners and marketers know all too well. Building a reputable brand is essential when it comes to the longevity and authority of a business. Digital branding consists of efforts made across social media platforms, email, and search engines.

When it comes to branding, every step is essential and like any aspect of business, it all comes down to the customers reception of the branding efforts put forth. The BrandXM tool aids in creating winning campaigns as well as metrics that allow you to track how customers perceive what you have put out. Long gone are the days when understanding whether or not your branding efforts are effective was a difficult task.

What is a Qualtrics Survey?

What’s a great way to receive actionable feedback and increase customer engagement? Surveys! Surveys allow you to curate important questions regarding your product, brand, customer service, etc and deliver them to your customers in a simple manner. Qualtrics Survey software allows you to create the optimal survey for your business in order to receive only the most important feedback.

Prior to the internal content, a survey much catch an individual’s eye. Many turn down survey’s simply because they aren’t driven to take action based on what is presented in front of them. Qualtrics offers an array of pre-build templates that cater to different markets. These eye-catching templates can increase action and follow-through rates. While there are pre-built templates, it doesn’t mean all creativity is relinquished.

Qualtrics Survey allows you to take control with custom programming – placement, types of questions, embedded data, and multimedia can all fall within your control and can be programmed within. The available API allows you to code in various mainstream languages including Java, Python, NodeJS and more.

Once you craft the optimal interface, it comes down to the bread and butter of any survey – the questions. To relate it back to the most important aspect of business, creating questions that are relevant to your customers in coherence with areas you are looking to improve upon is important. The Qualtrics Survey software can aid you in crafting such questions; allowing you to customize questions based on 20+ various targeting variables. The goal is to ensure all questions asked pose a high sense of relevancy to your target market and can help you dissect commonalities across all received surveys.

Content and visual entities complete, it comes down to the delivery of the survey. The Qualtrics Survey software has vast flexibility when it comes to where your survey is placed. From integration on your website utilizing a CRM to direct-to-customer surveys utilizing email, text, or messaging apps, it’s easy to deliver and bring awareness to your survey. This software is a key contender when it comes to understanding relevant information between your customer and your business and rectifying any common issues outlined from the survey data.

Cost of Qualtrics

The cost of the software is contingent on what product of Qualtrics you require. They offer a variety of packages to suit the budgets of any business owner, from start-ups to enterprise-level companies.

If you are looking to test the waters with Qualtrics, they offer a Free Trial plan which gets you;

  • 100 responses
  • 10 outgoing emails
  • 7 question types (survey software)
  • Access to certain tools including summary reports and logic, online reporting, and survey logic

Qualtrics pricing works on a subscription-based model requiring annual renewal. Plans start at $1,500 a year and go up to $5,000 a year. The pricing is based on what features you require, how many features you require, how many active team members will be utilizing the software, and the size of your business.

Because every business is different, it’s vital to get a plan that works for you. Qualtrics Support will work with you to better understand your business so they can help comprise a plan that best suits the needs of your business, your team, and your customers. Gathering data from the aforementioned factors, they will suggest the optimal plan for you.

 

Is Qualtrics Easy to Use?

Glancing at all Qualtrics has to offer may make it appear impossible to use, however, that is far from the truth. Qualtrics was purpose-built and created to simplify the realm of experience. The Founders wanted to ensure the software provided a high-level of information within an easy to use software. Whether an owner, marketer, intern, or anything in between, Qualtrics is easy to utilize and understand. Many users who have had nominal experience with CXM software prior to using rave about the simplicity of the UI.

Of course, fully understanding anything new to you takes time and all may not be evident at first. Qualtrics has a full support team ready to answer your questions and help you better understand the software should you have any questions. Albeit, Qualtrics contains a superfluous amount of resources in an easy to use software allowing you to obtain the information you need without any complexity.

What Can You Do With Qualtrics?

The better question being – what can’t you do with Qualtrics?

Qualtrics aims to heighten your ability to better construct experiences, products, an authoritative brand, and employee productivity and satisfaction. Aiding in every stage, Qualtrics allows you to;

  • Build your target market based on varying factors relevant to your brand
  • Understand your customers – wants, needs, pain-points, common issues, high-points
  • Create content based on the acquired demographics to ensure you are catering to your target market
  • Measure interactions with your customers, behavioral patterns, and key metrics
  • Receive feedback based on your products or overall business from key demographics
  • Comprise surveys to better understand customers and heighten their experience
  • Organize important data
  • Optimize your product at any stage based on customer experience and reception
  • Retain customer loyalty and satisfaction

Qualtrics goes beyond just understanding how your product fits in the general market. It allows you to zoom in on target demographics who will actually take action and curate the best possible experience for them based on their reception to what you gave to offer. Qualtrics provides necessary and valuable information that bridges the gap between your business and your customers.Learn more about the importance of CX software with this guide to customer experience management.

While products and services are tangible assets, it’s important to understand the non-tangible entities of business. The overall experience of each and every customer has a marginal impact on your business, ergo, having a better understanding of such goes a long way. Qualtrics’ main goal is to help businesses better understand their audience and how to gear their products, content, and brand around them. Understanding how your business is beneficial is important, however, understanding how your business is beneficial to your customers is what makes all the difference.

How to Get Started with Qualtrics

Now that you’re aware of the features and services that Qualtrics provides, it’s time to create an account and get started. To assist you with your efforts towards superior customer experience, Zight (formerly CloudApp) has put together a guide to creating a Qualtrics account. Simply follow the tutorial to get started in a matter of minutes. Improving your customer experience has never been easier!

Zight (formerly CloudApp) can be a great addition to setting up a Qualtrics survey. You can use the free screen recording tool and screenshot on mac tool to help you communicate faster with your colleagues and get better results.

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