




Looking for an alternative to Qualtrics XM Discover (formerly Clarabridge)? Thematic is the answer. Here’s why VoC and insights managers prefer to use Thematic to analyze customer feedback at scale:
Despite the name, Discover does not discover things for you. In Discover, just like in TextIQ, you have to manually set up any new topics that aren't covered by its industry specific predefined models. Because the models use predefined dictionaries based on keywords, they miss unexpected themes in the data. Changes to the model are time-consuming and rely on support from Qualtrics. But discovery is part of Thematic's DNA! Powered by AI, it uses a unique bottom-up approach to discover all themes in text, and creates a taxonomy custom to your data. You can easily adjust it to make it more relevant. As you add more data, Thematic also keeps your taxonomy consistent. When new themes are discovered, Thematic alerts you, so you can review and decide whether to add them to your taxonomy. This means we provide meaningful and actionable answers to your questions a lot faster.
Because Thematic's AI automatically discovers the unique themes in your feedback, you can be up and running within days. There’s no need for pre-coding or training, and you can be confident your insights are relevant to your business. With XM Discover, if your dataset closely matches one of the taxonomies they offer, it will take a couple of weeks to get started. However, an implementation that requires a lot of customization can take up to six months. This typically involves a XM Discover expert creating complex rules to capture themes of interest in close collaboration with business stakeholders.
Thematic is designed to be easy for anyone at your company to use, not just insights specialists and data scientists. This makes it possible for everyone to quickly understand data. Product teams can filter data by issues, questions and feature requests to know where to focus and what to build next. Marketing teams can laser in on comments that mention recent ad campaigns. Customer support can spot the common (and not so common) bottleneck issues consuming valuable time. Permissions can be set at the team or user level, so that everyone can dive in at the level they need and view relevant data. You can also set up workflows to send notifications based on specific themes or changes in your data. The right people receive the right information in real time so they can act swiftly. XM Discover’s capabilities for text analytics are great, but the user interface can be challenging to navigate, especially for new users. You’ll also need to have staff regularly using the platform to stay on top of ongoing maintenance. Automations and workflows for XM Discover are tied into the Qualtrics suite. Unless all teams are using the Qualtrics-related product for their niche information can’t be easily disseminated.
XM Discover has always targeted Fortune 100 companies, with a price tag to match. Do you have budget of >$250K or more? If not, they won’t give you much attention. Thematic’s pricing model suits tight budgets, with no per seat charge. If you’re dealing with feedback at scale then Thematic is the best option, offering Enterprise level text analytics that’s affordable.