Question

Topic: Strategy

Developing Simple Feedback Service For Business

Posted by Anonymous on 8/15/2007 at 11:27 AM ET 125 Points
I have an idea for a very simple feedback system for businesses that will allow their customers to let them know how they are doing.

I have created a sample at: www.customerfeedbackcenter.com

Each business would get their own similar page with their logo and web url (i.e. www.CustomerFeedbackCenter.com /companyname)
and we can create a form for their needs.

My question is: what would the best way be to approach businesses with this service and what is it worth it to them to receive customer feedback. In my mind it is invaluable. I was thinking of pricing this at $199/yr per company which includes customization.

Am I on the right track and would you use it? Tks.



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RESPONSES

  • Posted on 8/15/2007 at 11:36 AM Accepted
    This is a good idea. I'm not sure about the pricing though. The fact that it's customizable is great but can the client customize it themselves or do they have to make a request for customization? I assume that this could be used as often as a client would like, right?

    If the answers to the above questions is "yes", then I think the pricing would be worth it.

    Anthony
  • Posted on 8/15/2007 at 11:48 AM Accepted
    A company that has not been doing any formal customer satisfaction surveys and is not familiar with what to expect might get surprises thay are not ready for. Some pre-training might be necessary or you could lose customers quickly.
    Feedback mostly comes from unhappy customers. They are the ones who feel strongly enough to bother. Then there will be a few delighted customers who want to let you know. The rest who are satisfied or just wouldn't bother to fill out a form won't answer.

    So the results will be skewed.
    As long as the customer understands and geels that they want to hear about any problems so they can fix them,this would be a great service.
  • Posted on 8/15/2007 at 12:16 PM Author
    Hi-

    Right now each page and form has to be customized by me but that could change in the future if there was enough interest in this. It also requires setting up an entirely seperate sub-site to get the url to read as it does... but again that can change.

    It sounds like a tiered pricing structure might be in order based on the number of feedback responses received... so that it is results based and I don't loose my shirt.
    Could also do something like "give us your feedback and be entered to win a chance to win $1,000.00." That way people would have incentive to give feedback and not just give it if they were ticked off or extremely satisfied.

    Since just about anyone can setup a feedback form on their website.... the value here as I see it is that consumers perceive a business cares more by using a central customer feedback center... plus it is easier for them to do so without searching for a vendors website. They also get additional advertising exposure.

    If anyone wants to set this up for their business please contact me... I'll give you a nice discount. Tks.



  • Posted by steven.alker on 8/15/2007 at 2:12 PM Accepted
    There are a couple of schemes in the UK which seem to have attracted quite a number of users. Both are for reporting the satisfaction or otherwise with the standard of driving of commercial vehicles.

    The first is run by the Freight Transport Association and does not have a website to achieve feedback. The cost is from £10 ($20) / month. It has thousands of subscribers.

    https://www.fta.co.uk/services/welldriven/index.htm

    The second is more recent and has a website to report a vehicle. They are considering branching out into wider customer satisfaction surveys

    https://www.well-driven.net/?gclid=CI6m5539940CFQRCEAodNjFOMw

    Neither offers an incentive to respond and both acknowledge the fact that the feedback will be largely negative. I’m not sure about the idea of a prize to give and incentive for positive or negative feedback. The gripe will always win over the need to praise.

    Otherwise it’s a good idea and a decent concept. The pricing looks manageable, but have you costed the work you will need to do to set up and maintain a company. Inevitably they will require some support, so that might be factored it along with the origination, server and hosting costs. 1000 customers at $199 might just pay the wages. What is your break- even customer volume for this price and your current cost structure, how are you going to market the site and what’s the cost likely to be? Also, how are the customers going to pay? Will it be by cheque or by card? What is the admin load likely to be -and so on.

    Answer those questions, do a business model and do a cash-flow and it looks as though you have a possible winner.

    Steve Alker
    SalesVision
  • Posted by Jay Hamilton-Roth on 8/15/2007 at 3:12 PM Member
    What's the advantage of outsourcing this form to your company?

    Since it appears to be a simple form that any website developer could easily create in a few minutes (unless I'm missing something in your example), you'll probably have a hard time selling it to companies that have their own web developers.

    This doesn't mean that you can't make a successful product out of it - just be warned about the ease to duplicate your offering.
  • Posted by BlueSage on 8/15/2007 at 3:25 PM Member
    I would not use it. I already have a bulletin board.

    As Jay said, all your form basically is, is a contact form. Almost everyone has those on their site.



  • Posted on 8/15/2007 at 3:43 PM Author
    I know alot of people have this type of form on their site... as I mentioned before. It's not for everyone.

    The value of this (in my mind) is extra added exposure for their business and the ease for consumers to provide feedback. They don't have to go find a vendors website and then search for the feedback form... if there even is one. I suspect some people may be more willing to provide their opinion through this method... but I could be wrong. Different types of businesses may find it more useful then others.

  • Posted by CarolBlaha on 8/15/2007 at 5:19 PM Member
    the question is too vague-- if you are going to ask this -- be more specific. What part of the experience??

    I am at this moment preparing for a speech on this in about an hour to the Natl Assoc Women Biz Owners. I recommend one question-- "would you recommend this to your friends"

    Then a rating scale of 1-10-- ten the highest.

    The 9-10 are those who will trumpet your service. They are your promoters-- your idea merchants. They are referrals waiting to happen.

    The 7-8 are passively satisfied. Spend time making them 9-10's.

    Those less than 6 are the detractors-- they're pretty unhappy with you and have a foot out the door

    Even without a survey-- calculate your churn. Take the # of clients at beginning of 06 and those at end of 06. I like to exclude the new customers for this part of the exercise. You can see where (if) you are bleeding.

    Carol
    Sell Well and Prosper tm
  • Posted by Tracey on 8/15/2007 at 8:01 PM Accepted
    Because there are so many cheap and easy solutions for gaining customer feedback, I think you should instead focus your marketing on the premise of adding the company feedback form to a central website.

    The benefit to the company would be added exposure and perception as being customer-friendly. However, those benefits depend on how many customers actually visit your site. So you'd have to show some good traffic numbers for companies to show interest, I think.

    What about making your money through targeted promotions? You add companies for free -- get their permission of course, offer it as a free service. Less customization to the feedback form. (Something like surveymonkey or zoomerang). When a customer goes to a site like Sony, then they can get a promotion for another Sony item... or maybe another consumer electronics device altogether. Paying per click would be attractive to the company. An idea, anyway...
  • Posted on 8/16/2007 at 2:21 PM Author
    Thanks all.
  • Posted by easyE on 8/17/2007 at 9:42 AM Member
    Your form is not that complicated and a business could hire someone to write such a form in just about any language that will work with their server or hosting provider for about the same amount of money or less. I have several on our website: CSI, Schedule an Appointment, Contact and they all get used by our customers. I used Cold Fusion when my site was hosted outside. I have my own server now and have written my form using .asp. There are a lot of FREE Forms out there and if a company has a web site, they are probably working with someone who can provide this service. The Ma & Pa small business won't necessarily want to spend $200.00 for a form.
    Good Luck!
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