National Business Research Institute

What National Business Research Institute does

National Business Research Institute (NBRI) is a Plano, Texas-based survey research firm founded in 1982 that provides employee and customer experience measurement services to enterprise and mid-market clients. Its product portfolio centers on Customer Experience Surveys (satisfaction, service, pulse, lost-customer) and Employee Experience Surveys (engagement, onboarding, pulse, DEI, 360-degree feedback, exit interviews), supplemented by vertical-specific offerings for healthcare, gaming and hospitality, and political research. The technical backbone is the ClearPath platform — ClearPath Analytics (using random forest and stepwise linear regressions for predictive analytics), AI-assisted text analytics for open-ended responses, and the ClearPath Benchmarking database that enables peer comparison across industries. Survey instruments are designed by Ph.D.-level organizational psychologists, and deployment supports web, SMS, QR code, social, paper, and telephone channels.

NBRI operates a sales-led, enterprise-focused go-to-market motion with field and inside sales teams. Pricing is quote-based and disclosed only after a contact form intake that captures organization size (Under 200 to Over 10,000 employees), customer type, and discovery channel. Revenue is generated primarily through annual subscription engagements bundled with professional services under the ClearPath Enterprise Services umbrella (consulting, benchmarking, analytics, integration, action planning, and financial improvement). The company is privately held with no disclosed parent, funding, or M&A activity, and reports no API, SDK, or third-party integrations, indicating a fully-services model rather than a platform play.

Named customers include Cisco, Toshiba, Audi, Boeing, Peterbilt, Ericsson, Fifth Third Bank, Rain Bird, BrightView, FOCUS Brands, and Crowley Maritime — concentrated in technology, aerospace, automotive, financial services, and franchise/hospitality verticals. The company is recognized as a Top 10 Employee Experience Services Provider by HR Tech Outlook (2025) and runs its own Circle of Excellence award program, which both certifies client outcomes and functions as marketing collateral. Operating geographies include the United States and selected international engagements (documented in Mexico); headquarters is at 3300 Dallas Parkway, Suite 200, Plano, Texas.

Name

National Business Research Institute

Legal name

National Business Research Institute, Inc.

Website

https://nbrii.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

1982

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1,001–5,000 employees

Short description

National Business Research Institute (NBRI) is a Plano, Texas-based survey research firm founded in 1982 that provides employee and customer experience measurement, analytics, and benchmarking services to enterprise and mid-market clients across healthcare, hospitality, financial services, and other industries.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Headquarters

HQ city

Addison

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Revenue model

1. Survey Research Services: Full-service survey research including design, deployment, reporting, and consulting. Revenue generated through subscription-based engagement with enterprise clients for ongoing survey programs.
2. ClearPath Enterprise Services: Business consulting, analytics, benchmarking, and action planning services bundled with survey research. Professional services revenue from high-touch consulting engagements.
3. Market Research Solutions: Specialized survey solutions for gaming, hospitality, healthcare, and political research industries.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion2 records

Distribution channels2 records

Marketing channels7 records

Core offering

NBRI is a full-service survey research firm that designs, deploys, and analyzes customer and employee experience surveys for enterprise clients. Its offerings include satisfaction, engagement, pulse, onboarding, exit, 360-degree, and DEI surveys, plus specialized solutions for healthcare, gaming/hospitality, market research, and political research. The bundled ClearPath Enterprise Services package adds consulting, benchmarking, analytics, action planning, and financial improvement services around the survey data.

Product overview

NBRI (National Business Research Institute) is a full-service survey research company offering a unified platform for employee experience, customer experience, and market research surveys. The core offerings consist of Customer Experience Surveys (including Customer Satisfaction, Customer Service, Customer Pulse, and Lost Customer Surveys) and Employee Experience Surveys (including Engagement, Pulse, Satisfaction, Onboarding, 360-Degree Feedback, Exit Interviews, and Diversity/DEI Surveys), complemented by specialized vertical solutions for Healthcare, Gaming & Hospitality, and Political Research. The ClearPath Enterprise Services module provides consulting, research, benchmarking, analytics, integration, action planning, and financial improvement services. The company also offers survey design, deployment across multiple channels (web, SMS, phone, paper), analytical reporting with AI-assisted text analytics, and expert-led action planning services as part of its integrated research methodology.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• ClearPath Enterprise Services: Full-service business consulting and analytics platform including consulting, research, benchmarking, analytics, integration, action, and financial services.

Products and services

• Customer Experience Surveys Suite of customer survey solutions including Customer Satisfaction Surveys, Customer Service Surveys, Customer Pulse Surveys, and Lost Customer Surveys designed to measure and improve customer experiences for enterprise clients.
• Employee Experience Surveys Comprehensive employee survey offerings including Onboarding Surveys, Employee Engagement Surveys, Employee Pulse Surveys, Diversity Equity and Inclusion Surveys, Employee Satisfaction Surveys, 360-Degree Feedback Surveys, and Employee Exit Interview Surveys to measure and improve workforce experiences for enterprise clients.
• Market Research Surveys Survey solutions designed to reach target markets quickly and understand real-time customer needs to maintain competitive advantage.
• Healthcare Surveys Specialized survey solutions to track employee, doctor, and patient experiences in healthcare settings ensuring needs of all stakeholders are met.
• Gaming and Hospitality Surveys Survey solutions for casinos and hospitality businesses to learn how to improve guest experiences and understand why patrons stay or leave.
• Political Research Surveys Survey research solutions for political campaigns to predict electoral outcomes with pre-election voter feedback and understand public sentiment.
• ClearPath Enterprise Services Full-service consulting and research package that includes Consulting, Survey Research, Benchmarking, Analytics, Integration, Action, and Financial services to transform survey data into business improvements.

Quantifiable outcome

• A 5% increase in customer retention can increase profits by 125%
• +1 more outcomes

Named customers14 records

Segments6 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

AI capability2 records

Feature4 records

Scale indicators2 records

Recent moves5 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Direct peers

• Gallup: Gallup is the most direct comparable — a longstanding employee engagement and customer experience research firm offering scientifically-validated survey instruments (Q12) and industry benchmarking, overlapping head-to-head with NBRI's ClearPath Enterprise Services and benchmarking database.
• Qualtrics: Qualtrics is an experience management platform serving the same enterprise customer/employee experience use cases that NBRI addresses, but via a self-serve SaaS model with native integrations and AI analytics — the modern platform-native competitor to NBRI's full-service delivery.
• Press Ganey: Press Ganey is a healthcare-specialized survey research firm for patient experience, employee engagement, and physician measurement — directly comparable to NBRI's Healthcare vertical solution and a strong reference point for how specialized EX/CX providers scale in regulated verticals.
• Medallia: Medallia is an enterprise customer and employee experience platform that competes for the same CX/EX budget as NBRI, with AI-driven text analytics and operational integrations — the higher-end platform competitor NBRI benchmarks against.
• Great Place to Work: Great Place to Work runs employee survey programs and a certification/awards model similar in structure to NBRI's Circle of Excellence, serving the same enterprise HR buyer with culture and engagement measurement benchmarks.
• SurveyMonkey: SurveyMonkey is a survey platform with a self-serve go-to-market targeting organizations running customer, employee, and market research surveys — overlapping with NBRI's core offerings but competing more on productized ease-of-use than full-service research support.

Broad incumbents

• Forrester Research: Forrester provides CX/EX research, advisory, and benchmarking to enterprise buyers, overlapping with NBRI's benchmarking and advisory layer at the high end of the market — a broader research-services incumbent rather than a survey-only specialist.
• Kantar: Kantar is a large global market research and insights provider covering customer, brand, and consumer research — a broader incumbent that competes with NBRI in market research and customer experience measurement, particularly for multinational accounts.
• Willis Towers Watson (WTW): WTW's Talent & Rewards practice runs large-scale employee engagement surveys and benchmarks for global enterprises, competing with NBRI in the enterprise EX measurement category but as part of a much broader HR consulting portfolio.
• Ipsos: Ipsos is a global market research and survey firm with adjacent employee and customer experience practices, competing with NBRI for enterprise research budgets and benchmarking-driven insights.

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses4 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks5 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/NBRI
• Facebookfacebook.com/WhyNBRI
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/national-business-research-institute

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about National Business Research Institute