What it does

Typically, companies determine what users want by either conducting costly focus group research or through inefficient email and ticket systems. Uservoice, currently in Beta, looks ready to change the way that users converse with companies. A company using Uservoice would provide a link to a co-branded page that would allow users to voice their ideas or complaints about the given product. Users simply enter their idea into a suggestion box where it can be easily voted on by other users, causing it to rise or fall in priority. Officials from the company can respond and thereby create a dynamic dialogue between users and companies and allowing the best ideas to rise to the top.

In their own words

“On other projects we were left frustrated and overwhelmed when trying to grasp what our users really wanted. Unorganized inboxes and clogged ticket systems ruled the day. Forums were awash with duplication, user support was impossible to determine, and valuable ideas were lost in the shuffle. UserVoice adds structure to feedback and reduces the overhead of an honest dialog with our users — It creates a market around good ideas so we get more quality than quantity.”

Why it might be a killer

This is a far better way of organizing customer feedback especially in the way that it allows customers to feel that they are influencing the evolution of the product. In general, users hate sending emails or filling out tickets because they feel that they are not being heard. By allowing others to vote, and official responses to be viewed all within in the same environment, a dynamic customer centric solution is born.

Some questions

If users catch on and start using this service to voice all of their complaints and feedback, then companies may struggle to properly address all of them. It would look really bad on a company if they didn’t have enough people answering questions. What ways has Uservoice come up with to ensure that this doesn’t occur?

Updates


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