DESTRIER EXCLUSIVE – Omdia is remodelling the use of TrustRadius voice of the customer data in its flagship series of Universe reports.

Launched to fanfare in September 2020, the tie-in between analyst firm Omdia and TrustRadius boasted it would “gauge customer experience in a unique way”.

However, Omdia encountered a lack of consistent review data across the spectrum of vendors covered in the growing series of Universe reports. In extreme cases, the only visible reference to the voice of the customer was the TrustRadius logo on the report cover page.

Omdia is finalizing its revamped Universe methodology, which will be unveiled in the coming weeks. It promises that data from TrustRadius will still be incorporated, but as part of a broader Customer Experience axis that will probably be named ‘Strategy & Execution’.

Omdia Product Management VP Paul Alexander told Destrier: “We’ll continue to partner and draw information from TrustRadius as much as possible. There’s no plan to switch away from the partnership.”

Patchy review coverage was a stalling point

TrustRadius research chief Megan Headley comments: “The core of the problem was coverage and consistency. For CX to be an entire axis on the Omdia Universe, we needed consistent data across all the vendors represented. That was really challenging to get. in some cases, although we had a ton of data points for half the vendors, we had little to nothing for the other half.”

To counter this, the new Omdia Universe methodology will include TrustRadius-sourced customer experience either quantitively within the Strategy & Execution axis, or qualitatively in individual vendor profiles.

Omdia’s Alexander reiterates that the new approach will “better accommodate the widely different situations by topic”:

• Some topics have extensive reviews to every vendor under evaluation
• Some topics have extensive reviews for some vendors, but very little or nothing on others
• Some topics are not covered by TrustRadius

Our take

• As we commented at the time, the tie-in with TrustRadius adds a new dimension of insight from real-world buyers for Omdia Universe reports. Revamping the methodology will maximise this.
• Omdia clearly sees value from sourcing independent voice of the customer research from TrustRadius, as indicated by the willingness to change its methodology.

There’s more for Destrier clients in our latest advisory note.

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