TruRating CEO and co-founder Georgina Nelson has set out to fix the broken consumer feedback industry, helping merchants boost sales and making consumers feel heard.
On average businesses get feedback from less than one per cent of customers, which means they struggle to improve their service.
TruRating asks one question at the point of payment 鈥� whether on a payments page聽online or a card terminal in physical locations.
By asking one question tied to a聽transaction it means consumers are more likely to answer, and to answer accurately in the moment, and ensures feedback is legitimate.
Nelson, who used to work at consumer association Which?, came up with the idea while on maternity leave.
鈥淚t seemed completely crazy to me that聽consumer feedback is so low because the most important aspect of any business is knowing how to make customers happy so they鈥檒l come back and spend more,鈥� she told 老九品茶Cloud.
鈥溊暇牌凡鑕s were coming to me and saying we鈥檙e basically operating in the dark 鈥� we鈥檙e pushing X, Y and Z through but in reality we have no idea if it will make customers happy.
“The industry is completely broken so we’re聽very much in the right space at the聽right time because what鈥檚 out there at the moment doesn鈥檛 scratch the聽surface.”
With TruRating generating high levels of customer feedback and analysing the answers, the merchants are able to make huge savings off the back of small improvements.
鈥淭he old maxim is that what鈥檚 measured gets improved,鈥� said Nelson.
鈥淓ven before merchants have acted on our data they usually see a hike in revenue.鈥�
London restaurant chain Ping Pong found their average customer spend went up by 8.1 per cent when using the software, with an average 90 per cent consumer response rate 鈥� equating to about 4,000 ratings a week.
The platform adds extra value to merchants through the fact it鈥檚 integrated with the payment process, which means it can also collect things like how much was spent and other important transaction data, providing real team insights.
鈥淓veryone talks about how happy customers spend more but we actually see that every day 鈥� we see how much more they spend and what makes them happy,鈥� said Nelson.
鈥淚t鈥檚 basically doing AB testing in store. We say 鈥榳hat do you think of the music or our new menu or the聽store layout?鈥�.
鈥淲e can tell if they鈥檙e happier with it and how much more they spent and can also begin to align that with product data as well.”
Being listened to is a big and instant improvement for the customer, and TruRating is now encouraging businesses to tell consumers what鈥檚 been changed off back of their feedback.
鈥淲hen we work with a business and they implement us it鈥檚 about being truly customer-centric 鈥� a lot of businesses say they are but when you scratch surface they鈥檙e not,鈥� said Nelson.
The company also donates to charity every time a customer gives a rating, and is now breaking down these donations to let merchants and their customers know how they鈥檙e making a difference.
鈥淲e figure out how many ratings provide a cleft lip operation with our partner Smile Train, for example, and can provide that back to merchants,鈥� said Nelson.
鈥淲e can say 鈥榣ast year you got this many ratings and so you paid for this many operations鈥�.鈥�
The company also has a consumer recommendations website to challenge the likes of Yelp and TripAdvisor.
Every business using TruRating gets a profile page, which聽helps boost聽their SEO, while also letting customers know the ratings are聽from actual customers聽rather than disgruntled ex-employees or the owner of the company.
鈥淭he idea is that you step out at say Covent Garden and ask for the best Italian restaurant for atmosphere and value,鈥� said Nelson.
鈥淩ather than 10 paragraphs from someone about the way some waiter looked at their wife it just says 鈥榟ere鈥檚 the place 100,000 people rated best for atmosphere and value鈥�.鈥�