Website nails poor performers

LIKE many other consumers, id Strategic Marketing executive Simone Williams was often frustrated by poor customer service.

Her own negative experiences led her to create ‘bluenail’, a website that gives consumers a clever online feedback tool that translates their experiences into useful business data for companies.

Ms Williams, who has more than 20 years’ experience in senior marketing, said an increase in blogs, Facebook and Twitter posts about growing customer disquiet made her realise there were more effective ways of getting this information back to companies.

“There is no way for a company to translate that information into meaningful, actionable business outcomes. So my focus was to look at how to make business better and to maximise the consumer experience,” she said.

By visiting the website, customers can review a company’s service by filling in a two-minute anonymous survey to compare the service they ‘expected’ to the service that they ‘received’.

bluenail publishes a list of companies that have been ‘hammered’ or have ‘nailed it’, which allows customers to make better decisions, but keep companies accountable at the same time.

It costs businesses $1,000 a month to subscribe to bluenail, for which they receive a link to the survey and an in-depth, 35-page report compiling customer feedback.

“A comparable customer service survey would be in the order of $40,000 to $60,000. We’re not saying were not going to replace market research firms, but we are providing a more cost effective option that is accessible to both small and large businesses,” Ms Williams said.

The website also facilitates discussions between consumers and companies about how to remedy poor customer feedback.

Ms Williams stated bluenail had an edge over its competitors because it did not convey an ‘us versus them’ mentality like other feedback websites.

“There are other websites that do similar things, but we differ because we are about creating a marriage between the consumer and company, rather than ‘ostracise’ the business,” she said.

Consumers can have their say and join the website for free.