MarketTools(R) Announces Solution for Self-Service Online Communities

SAN FRANCISCO, Jan. 12 /PRNewswire/ -- MarketTools, Inc., the leading provider of Customer Insight Management solutions, today launched MarketTools Community Manager, a new Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) product offering that enables the rapid creation and deployment of online customer communities. MarketTools Community Manager allows organizations to engage in real-time conversations with their current or target customers to gain deeper, more comprehensive customer insights.

As consumers continue to adopt social media as a primary means of communication, customer-centric businesses are looking for ways to tap into social media to augment their current customer insight through direct customer interaction. Using private online communities, organizations are able to gain a more complete picture of what their customers are thinking so they can see possibilities that might otherwise be missed with traditional surveys, better understand the customer experience, and draw sharper insights.

"We see great potential in using online communities to extend Voice of the Customer programs," said Dave Alampi, vice president, Global Marketing Strategy & Services at Infor, one of the world's largest suppliers of business software, and a 2008 ACE Award winner.  "We rely on MarketTools CustomerSat to provide us with the insights we need to increase customer satisfaction, and we believe MarketTools Community Manager will provide customer-centric organizations like ours even greater opportunity to generate insights through customer interaction."

"The ability to detect, capture and analyze unstructured feedback posted on social sites provides useful insight into customers' perceptions or experiences, but it often lacks sufficient granularity to be of real use," said Jim Davies, Research Director at Gartner.  "The ability to use this social feedback to stimulate a more detailed assessment from customers via EFM allows organizations to then respond in an appropriate manner, fueled by this more detailed information. Organizations should consider working with EFM vendors who provide complementary community software, as their expertise in terms of survey creation/design, personalization and event triggering improves the effectiveness of any surveying initiative."

"Organizations are looking for ways to engage in two-way conversations with their customers to deepen their understanding of their customers' needs and opinions, and online communities meet that need," said Mark Frost, EVP and general manager, SaaS products at MarketTools. "Until now, the cost and effort required to deploy online communities have been prohibitive for most organizations. MarketTools Community Manager gives organizations a self-service solution for establishing online communities quickly, and at a fraction of the cost of competing full-service offerings."

MarketTools Community Manager lets users set up and deploy online communities in minutes, and is equipped with a comprehensive feature set that includes forums and discussions, stories and articles, blogs, image and video galleries, and text analysis.  As the latest addition to the MarketTools portfolio of Customer Insight Management solutions, MarketTools Community Manager is fully integrated with MarketTools Survey Manager, MarketTools Panel Manager, and MarketTools CustomerSat, making it easy for market research professionals and customer satisfaction professionals to apply a comprehensive blend of tools and techniques to gain customer insights.  

With the release of MarketTools Community Manager, MarketTools also extends its leadership in the rapidly growing Enterprise Feedback Management space.  Professionals tasked with deepening customer relationships and improving customer loyalty rely on the MarketTools CustomerSat enterprise feedback management system to capture, analyze, and act on customer feedback gathered through a variety of survey techniques.  With MarketTools Community Manager, customer satisfaction professionals are now able to enhance this feedback and generate additional insights by creating online communities for customer advisory boards, voice of the customer programs, improvement initiatives, and more.

MarketTools Community Manager is available via subscription, with no hardware or software to install.  Please visit www.markettools.com/communities for more information.

About MarketTools, Inc.

MarketTools is the leading provider of Customer Insight Management solutions for the world's market leaders. Through a unique combination of best-in-class insight and feedback platforms, quality-assured global panels and research innovation, MarketTools enables companies to innovate and identify new opportunities, optimize product success and build customer loyalty. As the first company to make online surveys widely available on the Web, MarketTools continues its market-leading position by providing the broadest range of powerful, accurate and integrated customer insight technologies that empower companies to become the most customer-centric organizations in their industries. MarketTools' premier portfolio of technology-based insight brands includes MarketTools.com,™ Zoomerang,™ CustomerSat,™ TrueSample,™  ZoomPanel,™ and ZoomPanel™ Tech.

MarketTools is a privately held company with corporate headquarters in San Francisco and European headquarters in London. For more information, please visit: www.markettools.com.

All trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

SOURCE MarketTools, Inc.