Forsta and Rio SEO Combine to Provide Technology Solutions Spanning the Entire Customer Journey, From Discovery to Purchase to Brand Reputation & Advocacy

Newly merged business will power Local Experience (LX) solutions that bring together Local Marketing and Customer Experience (CX) technology

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Forsta, the global leader in customer experience (CX), employee experience (EX) and market research, today announced it is combining capabilities with Rio SEO, the industry-leading local marketing platform for enterprise brands. The integrated technologies of Forsta and Rio SEO will power a seamless customer experience solution, enabling brands to engage consumers throughout the entire customer journey, from discovery to purchase through to brand reputation and retention.

Rio SEO’s Open Local Platform is an award-winning local search marketing platform that extends the reach of global enterprise brands, driving tangible, measurable results and ensuring meaningful customer interactions across the local search ecosystem. Forsta HX platform customers will be able to extend their CX programs into the discovery and consideration phases earlier in the purchase funnel and through to the brand reputation and advocacy stage.

“I could not be more excited to announce that Forsta and Rio SEO are joining forces to usher in a new era of optimizing customer experience at the local level, at scale,” said Kyle Ferguson, CEO of Forsta. “Rio SEO’s local marketing solutions drive discovery with customers and provide the opportunity to create hyper-relevant content, utilize geotargeting and more. This encourages enhanced customer engagement and increased brand advocacy, before and long after the point of purchase.”

Rio SEO’s technology is to be fully integrated onto the Forsta HX platform. Solutions immediately available include:

• Rio SEO Local Reviews + Forsta HX Platform: Companies will be able to ingest Rio SEO’s review data from market-leading review sites into their existing Voice of Customer programs on Forsta’s HX Platform, with the added benefit of Forsta’s Genius (R) Text Analytics and action management to build actions in response to feedback in reviews.
• Rio SEO Local Pages + Forsta Digital Feedback + Forsta Software Development Kit (SDK): Enterprise brands can now embed Forsta’s Digital Feedback solution into their local landing pages and locators, and use Forsta’s SDK to build feedback natively into their branded mobile apps, allowing for behavioral data capture and digital intercept prompts and surveys. These desktop and mobile solutions provide valuable location and user interaction-specific data that can inform action management at both the brand and store levels.
• Rio SEO Local Listings + Rio SEO Local Pages + Forsta Studio: This solution adds robust data ingestion from Rio SEO’s Local Listings and Local Pages solutions, including local landing page performance, impressions, clicks, local search ranking data and more into the Forsta HX Platform. Forsta Studio’s online infographic dashboards breathe color into visual storytelling, allowing companies to create a single, holistic view of a customer’s local marketing and CX programs.

“Forsta’s market research and customer experience solutions take you from data, to insight, to action by helping you understand your customer, see who they really are, and better respond to their needs,” said Mick Wilson, VP, Customer Success at Rio SEO. “I could not think of a better combination for our customers: Rio’s local marketing solutions, amplified by Forsta’s award-winning CX and insights technology platform.”

To find out more about the Forsta + Rio SEO Local Experience (LX) solutions, please visit https://www.rioseo.com/forsta. For more information on Rio SEO’s Local Marketing solutions, go to: Local Listings, Local Pages, and Local Reviews.

About Forsta
Forsta, a Press Ganey company, powers the HX (Human Experience) Platform – a comprehensive Experience and Research Technology platform that breaks down the silos between CX (Customer Experience), Employee Experience (EX), Market Research – so that companies can get a deeper, more complete understanding of the experiences of their audiences. The HX Platform gathers and analyzes data, and translates the findings into shareable actions to inform decision-making and drive growth. Forsta’s technology, combined with its team of expert consultants, serves organizations across a variety of industries including financial services, healthcare, hospitality, market research, professional services, retail and technology. Forsta is recognized as a Leader in the 2021 Gartner® Magic Quadrant™ for Voice of the Customer. For more information, visit www.forsta.com.

About Rio SEO
Rio SEO is the leading local marketing platform for enterprise brands. The Open Local Platform provides multi-location organizations with a comprehensive, seamlessly integrated suite of turnkey local marketing solutions proven to increase brand visibility across search engines, social networks, map applications, and more. The world’s leading enterprise brands – retailers, restaurants, hospitality, financial services, healthcare, and more – rely on Rio SEO’s innovative technology and local marketing expertise to drive motivated, measurable online traffic to websites and physical locations. For more information, visit www.rioseo.com.

Forsta and Rio SEO, both Press Ganey companies, serve thousands of industry-leading clients globally across the retail, restaurant, hospitality, financial services, and healthcare verticals.