Traveler Sentiment Tracking Gets Spotlight With Medallia's Intent to Go Public

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 Qualtrics, another experience management company that also has many travel clients, cut short its planned IPO. The Provo, Utah-based company accepted an acquisition offer by business software giant SAP for $8 billion. Travel companies often rely on survey data to reveal problems that their operational data can't catch. For example, JetBlue recently saw that it had one flight with consistently negative customer experience feedback. The operational data was all good, however. Flights were on time, prices were standard for the route, and so forth. However, by looking at the experience data collected via Qualtrics, JetBlue found the issue. The flight was so early in the morning that none of the shops had opened yet and passengers were unable to get coffee and breakfast before boarding the plane. It instituted a program where they provide drinks and food at the gate for this fligh