FEEDBACK: Online Survey Tool

Nathan

IDEA:
One of the best tools I had when I ran my painting business were the surveys I had clients fill out at the end of each job. There were 10 questions the client could rate us on and a comment area to write in any feedback.

This was a great way to gauge how we were doing with our clients and also a great sales tool because we would use these reviews in bidding future jobs.

PROBLEM:
We had two problems with our surveys: First, clients always thought we were only showing them the good reviews. Second, we were standing right by them when they filled out the form so I think it affected the results. Bottom line is that the reviews were not independent enough to be as effective as they could have been.

SOULUTION:
I am currently working with a business partner to develop some online tools for the service industry and our first project is an Online Survey Tool.
The idea behind this tool is twofold: One is to give business owners a way to gauge their service performance. The other is to help business owners sell their services to potential customers by having them see independent rankings and reviews.

The survey would be based on a 5 star rating system and you would have the ability to customize your profile to upload a logo, a profile picture, as well as display relevant company information (name, phone number, address, website address, etc…).

At the end of a job you would log in to your account and email your client a secure link so they could review your company and the work you recently performed. The survey would be 8-10 basic questions along with a comment box for more feedback. All this info would be gathered and displayed under your general profile so potential customers could view your overall rating, individual reviews, comments, and so on.
One of the features would allow you to display your rating and a link to your profile from your own company website.


FEEDBACK & QUESTIONS:
I’m looking for some feedback on this idea: Is there anything I am missing? Is there an additional feature that you would like to see with this online survey tool?

Also, a few more questions:

• Would you be interested a service like this?
• Would you be willing to pay a small monthly fee ($5 - $10/month)?
• Do you think this would appeal to a large market of service industry professionals?

Thanks for your time

maj

Trick title.....

I thought you were wanting us to survey & rate tools!!!!!

Grumpy

www.reliableamerican.us/rateus

Would I be interested in a service like this? Yes.

Would I be willing to pay? No. There are already too many free services out there which do exactly what you mentioned. You'd have to provide something pretty nifty to get me to fork over the bucks.

Would it appeal to a large market? It should. Everyone should be giving out surveys.

hatchet

Stick with me here - I'm going to pay you money to have all feedback shown on a website. Where even if the client was a jackass and I did the best I could, bent over backwards, etc..etc.. could show a bad rating?? I'm not seeing the value. Honestly - why would any of us show someone a poor rating whether written or online?
Now on the other hand (playing the role of a client) - I login to see what my possible future contractor is capable of and I notice that it's a paid service. Where is the credibility of the site? If they are paying for the service how accurate is the information? Is it tailored, doctored, or otherwise changed? Is that a true rate?
You see where it could go. Anyway - overall I think the concept would work for contractors that may not have the web savvy to create their own survey. The 2 biggest problems I see are listed above.

Nathan

There would be a free level of service that is ad supported but would not have the ability to upload logos and other custom features.

Also, a lot of the services that are out there right now are tied in with a leads service and I'm not sure I would want to send my potential clients to a site that sells leads.
The services that aren't tied in with a leads service are very generic and are more about gathering data about you than presenting your company to potential clients.

But I do want your feedback so please keep it coming. Change our minds before we spend a lot of money if this is a bad idea...

mdshunk

In much the same way that you close a deal by asking a series of 'yes' questions, I think you build a good reference list by only having good one's.

Everyone has unhappy customers from time to time. We run between 6 and 11 calls per day. That could be several thousand unique customers each year. There will be many bad reviews in that batch, whether founded or unfounded. Why would I want anyone to see these bad reviews? I only want to show my customers good stuff. It's none of their business what someone else's percieved problem was, and sure don't want to volunteer any insight to others into my company's faults.

realpurty2

As described... Don't think it would be anything we'd consider. Even the most satisfied customer will usually have a "...but" after a compliment.
Ex. "The work was great but they could have been cheaper, faster, better looking and so on".

Maybe it might still work Nathan if you simply email all the comments to the contractor to see if they want it included on their page instead of it automatically showing up. Even Ebay gives you the chance for rebuttal.

Grumpy

Nathan, tons of contractors pay to be on the BBB. What you are trying to build is a dumbed down online only version of the BBB. Tons of businesses sign up for the BBB. There is no doubt you will get some willing to sign up for your service is you can create the same awareness as the BBB or Angies List.

BBB called me today claiming I had 47 inquaries to date about my company. I said i wasn't interested, she acted stunned I wasn't interested. She said 47 people have asked about us! I said, "So let me get this straight, basically you want me to pay you $400 a year for the privelage of telling people who I have already spoken with that I gave the BBB $400? If you aren't providing new leads, I'm not buying."

Mike Finley

Nathan - I have a survey program now that overcomes the issues you outlined in the start of the thread. Rich hit the nail on the head for me too.

Doesn't mean it wouldn't be a great product. There are more guys out there so without a clue that anything looks good to them. I think you have a good idea.

Mike Finley

I'll tell you from my short experience $400 is cheap for what you are probably passing up.

BBB been berry berry goob to me so far.