{"id":48784,"date":"2013-05-24T13:05:00","date_gmt":"2013-05-24T20:05:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/customerthink.com\/medallia_cx_success_driven_by_leadership_action_mobile_feedback_growing\/"},"modified":"2013-05-24T13:05:00","modified_gmt":"2013-05-24T20:05:00","slug":"medallia_cx_success_driven_by_leadership_action_mobile_feedback_growing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/customerthink.com\/medallia_cx_success_driven_by_leadership_action_mobile_feedback_growing\/","title":{"rendered":"Medallia: CX Success Driven by Leadership and Action; Mobile Feedback Growing"},"content":{"rendered":"

Last week I enjoyed attending Medallia’s Best Practices Forum<\/a>, the annual customer conference for the provider of Customer Feedback Management Solutions. <\/p>\n

Medallia is an interesting story, having climbed into a leadership position in the EFM industry in the past few years. Now the company is approaching 300 employees, has opened offices in London and Buenos Aries, and launched an Institute<\/a> for CX certification. A recent $35 million investment<\/a> from Sequoia Capital will be used to build out its platform and expand its market presence. <\/p>\n

Medallia is probably best known for its work in the hospitality industry, but in recent years it has scored some big wins in retail, high tech and other industries. Some of my favorite brands can be counted as Medallia customers, including Four Seasons, Nordstrom, O2, … and a certain famous tech company that would prefer not to be mentioned. <\/p>\n

CEO Borge Hald leads an impressive executive team<\/a> including Michelle de Haaff (VP of Marketing, formerly from Attensity), John Abraham (GM of Medallia Institute, formerly with Satmetrix) and Juan Pablo Dellarroquelle (VP Engineering). The company has grown and improved its product, but the strategy remains very much consistent with what Borge told me a few years ago in an interview. In a word: Action!<\/p>\n

Anyway, from the conference I picked up three insights I wanted to share.<\/p>\n

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  1. Customer-centricity starts from the top<\/b>\n

    This point was hammered home in a rousing keynote by Jim Donald, CEO of Extended Stay America, a hotel chain that was basically circling the drain before he was brought in to turn things around. In 2012, J.D. Power rated<\/a> ESA one of the worst in the industry. <\/p>\n

    OK, so you can probably guess that things got better under Donald’s leadership. How? Well, Donald started by appointing himself “Chief Guest Service Representative” and going out of his way to visit the hotel properties and connect with employees. He also had to work creatively with suppliers and investors to solve severe financial issues. Donald’s strategy for success:<\/p>\n