When the economy takes a dive, companies need to do everything they can to retain their customers. As a result, many companies have a strong interest in knowing what their customers’ opinions are of them. After all, in this age of social media, one bad customer experience can spread virally across the Web faster that a California wildfire, causing significant damage to company’s brand and reputation.

As a result, organizations are increasingly adopting survey and customer feedback solutions in order to find out what their customers are thinking. In fact, many organizations are using these solutions to find out what their employees, partners and prospects think of them as well. The information gathered through surveys and other customer feedback channels can, in turn, help managers make faster, more informed business decisions and keep companies afloat in these increasingly competitive times.

A new report from DMG consulting, “2009 Contact Center Surveying/Feedback and Analytics Market Share,” predicts that the market for survey and customer feedback solutions will grow by 6 percent in 2009, 5 percent in 2010, and 8 percent in 2011.

The report finds that social media has played an important part in the growth of the industry, as the need to find out what customers are saying has become more pressing.

“Social networking is starting to play a part in the growth of this market,” Donna Fluss, president of DMG, said in a release. “Organizations are asking contact centers to develop channels for true two-way communication with customers, and DMG expects social media to have a substantial impact on the market over the next two years.”

The report finds that, despite the recession, 2008 was a good year for the contact center survey/feedback market. The number of implementations grew by 18 percent, from 1,850 in 2008 to 2,177 in 2009.

In the past, the contact center surveying market was dominated by vendors offering a limited amount of surveying application functionality in conjunction with their consulting services. But during the past few years a number of vendors have introduced packaged surveying solutions which organizations can use without the need to employ professional consulting services. This year, DMG notes, vendors have introduced broader solutions to better position their surveys among constituents such as employees, partners, investors and prospects.

The report offers a detailed review of the seven leading vendors offering full contact center surveying/feedback and analytics solutions, including Allegiance, Confirmit, inContact, Mindshare, Ransys, RightNow and Verint (News - Alert). Estimates on the growth of the market are based on performance in 2008 and activity to date in 2009.

Fluss recently participated in a free webinar, “Building a Multi-Channel Contact Center in the Era of Social Networking,” sponsored by InVision software and TMCnet, focusing on the impact social media will have on the contact center over the next few years. To access the archived version of the Webinar, click here.