Samsara + Qualtrics

Every day, millions of truck drivers navigate highways and delivery routes. Fleet managers coordinate complex operations that keep supply chains moving. Workers in construction, food delivery, and logistics power the physical economy that touches every aspect of our lives.

When these operations break down–when a truck breaks down on a remote highway, when a delivery route fails, when safety systems don't work as expected–the consequences are immediate and serious. Drivers stranded. Deadlines missed. Families waiting. Revenue lost.

Samsara's mission is to prevent those moments. To keep these workers safe, help them work more efficiently, and build a more sustainable world. But as the company scaled to serve hundreds of thousands of customers, they discovered a troubling gap: the feedback that could prevent problems and save lives was trapped in silos.

The company had always been customer-centric–leadership constantly on the road, co-designing solutions with the people who use them. But passion alone couldn't scale. And as Samsara grew, they quickly realized customer insights were scattered across more than 10 different tools and 12 teams, hindering insights from getting to those who needed them most. To act on what customers needed, and to do it at the speed their mission demanded, they needed a more unified approach.

Fixing this required a strategy as ambitious as the problem: unite 12 teams around a single platform before building the program, not after.

Most companies start small – a pilot program, a single team, gradual expansion. Samsara did the opposite. They brought product, marketing, sales, post-sale services, and operations into the platform evaluation from the beginning, making them partners in selecting Qualtrics as the unified Voice of Customer, Employee and Partner. The goal wasn't just implementation. It was a transformation, and it needed to happen fast.

"Customer centricity has always been part of Samsara's DNA," explains Emma Sopadjieva, Head of Customer Experience Strategy. "Our CEO, Sanjit Biswas, is constantly on the road talking to customers about what they need, what innovation we should invest in next. But acting on customer feedback was never operationalized end-to-end across the company. We weren't just starting from scratch—we were transforming how an entire organization listens to and acts on customer feedback at scale."

The approach worked because it created ownership from day one. "We included more than 12 teams across the company in demos and the evaluation," says Madeline Clark, who leads CX Insights and Operations at Samsara. "They felt ownership from the beginning. The message was always: ‘this is our shared tool’. That made it easy for different teams to deprecate their old systems because they were already invested in the solution."

In less than a year, Samsara consolidated those 10 fragmented tools into a single platform. For the first time, everyone could see the same customer feedback. The driver's safety concern could reach the Product team immediately. The competitive insight from sales could inform renewal strategy. 

What typically takes companies five years, Samsara accomplished in one.

Proving value through quick wins and strategic insights 

Speed matters, but only if it delivers impact. The Samsara CX Strategy team focused on high-value "quick wins" that would build momentum and prove the program's ROI to executives while directly serving the company's mission.

One of the first initiatives tackled competitive intelligence. By surveying customers about why they did or didn't choose Samsara over competitors, the team uncovered insights that directly influenced win rates and renewals, and more importantly, helped them understand what customers actually needed to do their jobs better.

"This touches the entire organization because it impacts products, sales, post-sale, renewals–everyone," Sopadjieva notes. "When you present competitive insights and renewal drivers to senior staff, executives immediately perk up because those insights directly unlock deals."

The program generated more than 30 systemic improvements in its first wave alone. Not just process tweaks–real changes that made life easier for the people who use Samsara every day: simplified contracts so fleet managers could make faster decisions; product adjustments that reflected actual customer needs; sales-process refinements that reduced friction.

Just as importantly, it established the CX Strategy team as a strategic partner across the business.

The team also created comprehensive customer journey maps for different customer segments–enterprise, mid-market, and commercial customers–combining survey data, interview insights, and operational metrics to show exactly where Samsara excelled and where gaps existed.

"Visually showing the company the overall experience–with data proving it–was a huge unlock," Sopadjieva says. "It's usually less green than executives think. When we showed one of the biggest drivers of renewal issues, we immediately got 12 initiatives launched to fix it."

Connecting insights to action, and action to impact 

What truly differentiates Samsara's program is the relentless focus on action and accountability. The CX team maintains action trackers with functional leaders across the company, regularly checking in on progress and measuring whether initiatives are actually moving customer experience scores and driving business value.

“We don’t just stop at insight, we move from insight to action, and from action to impact,” Sopadjieva emphasizes. “My team ensures that insights lead to the right actions by the right people, and that those actions deliver measurable results. We constantly ask: where have we invested but not seen value, and where are the untapped opportunities we should unlock?”

The team works closely with functional leaders to co-design surveys with customers, using research and Customer Advisory Board sessions to ensure that solutions actually address what customers care about. This extends beyond fixing problems to creating exceptional experiences through Project Wow, a Samsara executive-led initiative that brought C-suite leaders together to ideate on strategies to exceed customer expectations at every stage.

"It got our executive team thinking about not just fixing pain points, but actually wowing customers," Sopadjieva says. "Our ambition is to be the best in customer experience in IoT. That mindset shift from just fixing issues to becoming the industry leader was huge."

The human ROI: keeping the world moving safely 

The numbers tell a powerful story: Samsara’s happy customers have a 2X higher ARR growth and cost less to serve, with 30% fewer Support tickets, resulting in millions of dollars in savings and net new revenue each year.

But for Samsara, the impact goes deeper than financial metrics. Every insight the CX team surfaces and acts on ultimately connects back to human outcomes that matter.

Their platform helps truck drivers navigate safely and get home to their families. It reduces fuel emissions and supports sustainability goals. It helps fleet managers spot problems before they become breakdowns, keeping delivery schedules on track and supply chains moving. It improves worker retention by creating better incentives and safer working conditions.  Every improvement compounds into safer, more efficient operations, and a better life for the people who keep the world moving. 

“This is not one of those companies where we're selling digital things to digital companies and you never see the real, human impact," Sopadjieva reflects. "Samsara is focused on keeping workers around the world safe, and building efficiencies that support sustainability. We help drivers have fewer accidents and get home to their families. That's what drives everything we do."

By operationalizing customer feedback across the organization, Samsara ensures that every team member, from product developers to support agents to executives, can contribute to that mission with clear, actionable insights about what customers need.

The transformation happened fast because Samsara got the fundamentals right: they built relationships across teams, proved value quickly, and aligned everyone around a shared platform and shared goals from the start.

"One key was bias for action. Work with urgency and deliver iteratively is one of Samsara’s operating principles," Sopadjieva explains. "But it was also about building influence without authority–showing different teams and leaders that customer insights would prove value for them and help them succeed in their roles. Once we did that, teams sought us out. We had 10 new project requests in the last month alone."

When customer feedback flows freely and every team can act on it, the people who power our world get the tools and support they need to stay safe, work efficiently, and keep moving forward. That's the promise Samsara made–and now they have the infrastructure to deliver on it at scale.