I think web 2.0 and CH are the missing link for ordinary people to contribute meaningfully in the new ways of creating wealth in this so called new economy.

Cycko, Feb 2007

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Better Business Bureau on Steroids

Submitted by: RNC
Created: Aug 13, 2007, 8:56 am

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The Elevator Pitch

For Consumers and retailers who want to find good retailers or want to improve their customer service the company allows parties examine validated data provided by a "trusted" user base. The company is a online community and data service site that makes shopping and customer service more transparent. Unlike some review sites, data is validated through a self policing model and the site offers cash compensation for your pains. our product [statement of primary differentiation].

The Idea

An online site connecting retailers with consumers - the company provides a community for rating customer service experiences at local retailers. The key elements, which are designed to reinforce each other, are summarized below:

* The site offers the ability for consumer to discuss poor or exceptional sales experiences. The best stories each month, as voted by the community, would receive cash compensation.

* Consumers can make buying decisions on local establishments such as mechanics, fast food stores, or local arms of national retailers (e.g., McDonalds, Wal-Mart) based on prior, weighted reviews.

* Consumer can numerically rate local establishments in four key global categories (price, customer service, product quality, and environment) as well as provide comments and evidence to support ratings.

* The community will utilize a membership model that promotes self-policing - essentially a Google Page for people (members below a certain rating will be removed).

I thought of this idea when I was...

...having lousy shopping experiences.

Comments Posted

DividedEye Posted: August 13, 2007, 1:30 pm

I am not sure about the need. Perhaps I am not the target consumer.

fossiloflife Posted: August 16, 2007, 1:44 am

y would retailers enroll?

fossiloflife Posted: August 16, 2007, 1:47 am

n the Consumers part... wont it just like another debate shopee? wont the retailers take advantage?

bcforrester Posted: August 16, 2007, 10:52 am

Lots of potential for slander and flaming by competitors - hire a company of Indians to falsely promote your business...
Interesting idea, but would be very hard to realize. Who's to say that the lousy clerk that you had would be there when I went to that same store?

RNC Posted: August 16, 2007, 4:34 pm

To answer a few comments:

1. Regarding traffic, the consumerist gets a good amount of traffic and offers no cash prizes at all. The cash incentive is one key driver for content and traffic.

2. Regarding retailers, they would enroll for the ability to data mine across their stores and and competitor stores for both qualitative and quantitative data. Further, the self policing model (which weights all content, which ranks users, which ranks content...etc.), provides a mechanism for validated data, so it would be more reliable for retailers.

3. Regarding consumers, please clarify your question.

4. Regarding gaming, the user rank model should minimize the gaming. Plus, if we see a "ring" strategy, we can just ban all those users. There is a variant of the user rank strategy where users are assigned to random pools and are responsible for "rating" members of that pool alone. The segmentation would eliminate the ring strategy, I think.

cRitter Posted: August 16, 2007, 10:29 pm

There's a lady that did this already; something along the lines of Craig's List. Brenda's List? Hmmm..

Kevin_Cox Posted: August 17, 2007, 2:36 am

consumer report.

RNC Posted: August 17, 2007, 5:14 am

Angie's List, CR, BBB, Yelp, are all approximations. There are meaningful differences, but certainly the spirit is the same.

Differences:
* quantitative data to resell to corporates
* user rank model
* cash prizes for bad experiences
* focus on ALL retail segments, not just restaurants or mechanics

GordonMcDowell Posted: August 17, 2007, 10:56 am

Cash prizes do sound like an effective incentive. Maybe you'll even get some whistle blower activity. Right now Consumerist.com is my primary source for tales of customer service horror, but I can imagine the value of having a quantitative approach combined with shock-and-horror.

Davelfc Posted: August 20, 2007, 7:38 am

Sounds like a website I saw the other, which I can't remember the name of.

You can review everything in your local community and rate it. Other people can do the same, leave comments etc etc. For the life of me I cant remember the name of the site though.

mulligandog Posted: September 24, 2007, 9:10 pm

while an independent review of service standards is HIGHLY overdue, there are a few basic challenges with what I understand you to propose:

the first difficulty I see is the measure(s) you'd use to rate retailers/service providers. In my gazillion years designing questionnaires and other research tools to measure service satisfaction, I have found that using the same yardstick for all companies is a guarantee that your ratings aren't worth a darn. GIGO

to produce any kind of valuable rating, you'd need to know if:

a) the criteria of service are relevant to the stakeholders
b) the measures are defined well enough to be objectively quantifiable by a number of untrained "reviewers"
c) the criteria of service are in line with the company's offer or service pledge (no need ranking them on a service pillar they never mean to offer)

overall, I think you have a great idea that has super potential as long as it has validity and arm's lenght from retailers/service providers in order to keep it's objectivity.

Hello!

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