Why Medallia Makes Dollars and Sense for CX

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    George Polyard, COO of ComOps, isn’t just talking about customer experience—he’s talking about measurable, bankable results.

     In a sea of platforms claiming to be “data-driven,” ComOps went all-in on Medallia for one simple reason: It actually works.

     From hospitality roots to AI-fueled futures, Medallia has become the backbone of ComOps’ client solutions.

     But let’s not start with the warm fuzzies—let’s talk about cold, hard ROI.

    Lots of Feedback, No Real Action

     Ask any brand about CX (customer experience) and EX (employee experience), and you’ll get nods, buzzwords, and probably a dashboard. But too often, that’s where things stop.

     Companies collect mountains of feedback—surveys, reviews, sentiment scores—but it ends up in siloed systems or PowerPoint decks nobody opens twice. No action. No insight. No ROI.

     George says, “Medallia is a platform that can really do anything you want… but what happens a lot is that a client will come to us with this ask of, ‘I want to do this really complicated thing because I’ve always been doing it that way.’”

     Sound familiar?

     That’s where ComOps steps in—not to say no, but to ask why.

      

    When ‘Complicated’ Kills Progress

     Over the past three years, ComOps has deployed Medallia across industries, learning where clients get stuck each time. Hint: It’s not the software.

     The real friction? Businesses are over-engineering their CX strategies into oblivion. They want 12 signal streams, 8 dashboards, 47 alerts… on Day One.

     George’s take: “Let’s pause and discuss why you want to do that.”

     Translation: Overbuilding doesn’t drive value; it derails it.

     Instead, ComOps pushes a phased rollout: start simple, start smart, and stack wins. That first quick win? It gets buy-in. Momentum builds.

     Suddenly, the whole organization starts to see CX not as a dashboard but as a decision engine.

     

    Solution: Real-Time CX that Moves the Needle

    Let’s talk impact. Not fluffy NPS scores, but actual dollars and cents.

    According to Forrester, Medallia implementations deliver a 185% ROI over three years. That’s not a rounding error.

    Polyard breaks it down: “Brand advocates… spend about 10 to 15% more when they visit. They’ll also visit 10 to 15% more often.”

    That’s customer loyalty you can take to the bank. And it’s powered by real-time insights that trigger real-time action. You’re not just hearing customer frustration after they’ve churned—you’re fixing the issue before they even notice.

     But it’s not just about customers. ComOps has also helped brands harness Medallia to measure employee sentiment.

     That’s where things get spicy: A Cornell study found that companies that track CX and EX see a 23% reduction in turnover.

     Cutting turnover? That’s thousands saved in training, onboarding, and lost productivity. That’s ROI with a vengeance.

     

     The Casino That Beat the Odds

    In early 2023, a new casino opened in a fiercely competitive market dominated by legacy properties. With zero loyalty and everything to prove, they bet big on guest and employee experience. Their ace in the hole? A ComOps-designed Medallia deployment specifically tailored for casinos.

    Within one quarter: 

    • 93% revenue growth, while competitors saw up to 11% declines.
    • Over 80,000 surveys sent, with a 26.8% response rate—crushing industry norms.
    • Real-time feedback triggered operational changes, like adding accessible parking after guest complaints.
    • F&B satisfaction scores jumped to 7.2, and cleanliness scores held steady above 9.0.

    Talk about ROI. That’s not just insight; it’s action that drives bottom-line results.


    What’s Next: The AI Takeover (And Why That’s a Good Thing)

    Coming back from Medallia’s Las Vegas Experience Conference, George had one word on repeat: AI.

     Not in a gimmicky chatbot way, but in an “AI-as-operator” kind of way.

     Forget just aggregating surveys. The future of Medallia, and CX at large, is about creating “hungry AI models” that devour every data point—reservations, reviews, metadata—and actually take action.

     “AI could connect to different systems and create outcomes in real time that shape the guest experience,” George explains. That means things like ordering an Uber for a just-landed guest or flagging a high-risk check-in before they turn into a bad review.

    Now, is that happening today? Not quite. And George is the first to say so. “No one’s doing that yet,” he admits. “But now is the time to prepare.”

    His advice: get your data house in order. “Are you setting yourself up so that when that day comes, you have all that data ready… in the right place, organized, ready to go?”

     

    Don’t Just Capture Feedback—Cash It In

    ComOps didn’t pick Medallia because it sounded cool in a pitch deck. They picked it because it delivers.

     Every dashboard, every alert, every AI integration is designed to answer a single question:

    What’s your experience worth?

     If you’re not getting value from your CX data, maybe it’s time to ask a different question: Why not?

     Because, as George Polyard and ComOps prove time and time again, Medallia doesn’t just make sense—it makes dollars.

     

     Have questions? Reach out below.

     

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