Service Management Group (SMG)

Mid-tier CX platform specializing in multi-unit consumer brands, competing against Medallia and Qualtrics with a hybrid research-plus-technology model

Service Management Group (SMG) is a Kansas City-based customer experience research and technology company founded in 1991. SMG provides enterprise brands — particularly those operating large networks of retail, restaurant, and service locations — with a comprehensive platform for measuring and improving customer experience, employee engagement, and brand loyalty. Its core offering combines survey-based feedback collection, text analytics, reporting dashboards, and closed-loop action management to help operators at every level of a multi-unit organization understand and respond to experience data in real time. SMG occupies a distinctive position in the CX market by blending the rigor of a research firm with the scalability of a SaaS technology platform. The company serves well-known consumer brands across foodservice, retail, grocery, convenience, and healthcare verticals, with clients including major QSR chains, specialty retailers, and financial services companies. Its 2012 acquisition of Locately, a mobile-survey and GPS-based location analytics startup, signaled an early move to enrich traditional survey data with passive behavioral signals — integrating foot-traffic patterns and in-store movement data into its CX research stack. In the broader AdTech and MarTech ecosystem, SMG is relevant as a provider of first-party customer intelligence that informs marketing strategy, loyalty program design, and operational investment decisions. The company competes with pure-play CX platforms such as Medallia, Qualtrics, and InMoment, differentiating on its combination of managed research services, location-level analytics, and deep vertical expertise in multi-unit consumer brands. SMG has continued to invest in its smg360 platform, expanding text analytics, social reviews integration, and employee experience measurement capabilities.