Occasionally, I encounter business products that make a lot of sense, and Google Talkbin is one of them. Created for bricks & mortar businesses, Talkbin is a smartly designed tool intended to encourage customer feedback.
As most people know, it can be frustrating to elicit feedback. Whether you have a traditional store, operate a medical office or simply need the opinion of others it can be tough to understand what your clients, customers or patients may think. Talkbin uses anonymous SMS text messaging to elicit feedback from customers about what they really think. With today’s social media culture and increased comfort with texting, this could prove to be a very good way to do it. Moreover, the Talkbin service includes a unique telephone number for the business, signage to promote the service and an easy to use online dashboard to manage the feature. Pricing is $25 per month, but I’ve seen a series of discounts that make the pricing as low as $1 per month. How can anyone go wrong?
While this looks like a really useful tool, I also think that some though should be given to how feeeback will be addressed before anyone runs out and signs up for Talkbin. Frankly, any business thoughtful enough to pursue customer feedback should be equally thoughtful about what they will do once they have it. Certainly, I think that a personal response to every submission is critical. Moreover, if its criticism I think that addressing it upfront is critical.
Regardless, if I had a traditional store I think that this would be a very effective way of keeping me focused on what matters to my customers.
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