SurveyMonkey buys Usabilla

Cloud-based survey provider SurveyMonkey is boosting its enterprise suite of voice-of-customer feedback services, with its announcement on Tuesday that it is acquiring Usabilla.

“Website feedback collector.” Based in Amsterdam, Usabilla provides technology to collect user feedback in real-time for more than 450 enterprises in three dozen countries, including Lufthansa, Philips and Vodafone. The deal is valued at about $80 million in cash and equity.

SurveyMonkey CEO Zander Lurie said in a statement that the purchase “strengthens our position in this rapidly growing multi-billion-dollar market.” Lurie told TechCrunch that a key missing product for his company’s portfolio, now provided by Usabilla, is a “website feedback collector” for sites and apps. SurveyMonkey’s enterprise solution has provided online surveys that are sent out via email or social media.

SurveyMonkey’s enterprise suite already includes CX, a turnkey Net Promoter Score solution for obtaining customer feedback, as well as TechValidate, which turns feedback into case studies, testimonials and reviews.

Why you should care. On Monday, SurveyMonkey also released findings from a new survey that showed three-quarters of users have left a website, and 58 percent have dropped an online purchase, because of a bug or other poor user experience. But, the company added, only “a small fraction of customers” provide feedback that would highlight such issues.

Usabilla’s contextual web site feedback mechanism now fills a product gap in SurveyMonkey’s lineup, so that businesses can immediately address site or app issues.

In a blog post announcing the purchase, Lurie wrote that the new combo “now offers the most comprehensive portfolio of enterprise-grade solutions for collecting and analyzing real-time feedback from customers and users.”

About The Author

Barry Levine

Barry Levine covers marketing technology for Third Door Media. Previously, he covered this space as a Senior Writer for VentureBeat, and he has written about these and other tech subjects for such publications as CMSWire and NewsFactor. He founded and led the web site/unit at PBS station Thirteen/WNET; worked as an online Senior Producer/writer for Viacom; created a successful interactive game, PLAY IT BY EAR: The First CD Game; founded and led an independent film showcase, CENTER SCREEN, based at Harvard and M.I.T.; and served over five years as a consultant to the M.I.T. Media Lab. You can find him at LinkedIn, and on Twitter at xBarryLevine.