Plebbler

Plebble and the volcanic ash travel chaos

2010-04-26T15:16:00.004Z

James and I like many others were caught up in the volcanic ash travel nightmare. We were out in Amsterdam when the chaos hit. We feel extremely fortunate to get away with a surprisingly hassle free journey home (2 trains to Le Harve and then a fast ferry crossing). It only delayed us by 24 hours, which normally you'd be frustrated by, but hearing stories from other travellers put our disruption into context. It was fascinating to see how in times of adversity people clubbed together to help each other out.

Plebble has put together a collection of its resources on how to help customers who have been affected by the airline travel chaos. Including information on how to claim a refund and/or compensation.

Extreme events puts extreme pressure on companies. This causes them to either rise to the challenge and provide great service or break under pressure and cause severe angst. Our experience was a very good one. EasyJet were quick and efficient at refunding our flights and LD Lines (the Le Harve ferry company) provided first class service despite the situation. Some of you may not have been so lucky, but whether your experience was negative or positive, it helps other consumers and the businesses concerned if you let them know about your experience. So please tell us about your experience by rating on Plebble.

Online retail - the Perfect Storm

2010-01-28T10:47:00.007Z

What makes the perfect storm in online retail? Huge demand and out of date systems. One such example is the Roof Box Company. They supply amongst other things snow chains and snow socks. Just like local councils, they could never have foreseen the cold snap and heavy snow heading our way and as such planned for normal levels of supply in snow products. So of course when the cold snap hit, demand went through the roof. There has for example been unprecedented demand for snow socks. You put them over your tyres to help you grip. A simple solution to immobile cars. One of the original issues with the Roof Box Company's site was you could order snow socks and select next day delivery. However there was no information on stock levels. I purchased a pair thinking I'd get next day delivery only to find out they had ran out of stock. They only take payment once the stock is dispatched and the next day delivery charge is cancelled, however I had to contact the company to get this information. If you select next day delivery you presume there is stock and they will be delivered next day. This has effected many customers as according to the company's director they have received hundreds of calls and emails, with one day receiving 500 answer machine messages. The company can't deal with all of these enquires leaving many customers frustrated and wondering where their stuff is.

Many online retailers don't properly display stock information and it can work with consistent levels of demand. However it's a dangerous game to play and consumers need to be wary. The simple solution is to have a system that notifies stock levels on the e-commerce site, so customers know what to expect. The Roof Box Company have since put notifcations up on their site and are working hard to deliver stock. They are also planning to update their system to make it more resilient to demand and manage customers expectations better. So the message to online retailers is, don't learn the hard way, implement systems now so you can manage customer expectations and provide good service.

For consumers looking for more information, Plebble's Advicecentre provides a guide for shopping online.

Eurostar - Who's been at the Kool-Aid?

2009-12-21T18:10:00.009Z

I, like many, was following news of the complete collapse of Eurostar services over the weekend. Again like many, I did this not by tuning into the mainstream media but by reading a series of increasingly angry tweets, blog posts and comments about Eurostar's handling of the situation from the people I follow and others.

One of the main themes - and indeed a post from TechCrunch's Mike Butcher - that emerged was criticism of Eurostar for not using social media and in particular Twitter to desseminate information to staff and passengers (none of whom, I gather, knew what was going on). There was even criticism of Eurostar's 'social media agency' wearesocial who had been engaged on an entirely separate matter for not releasing info about the crisis on the @little_break Twitter account they'd set up for Eurostar to promote weekend breaks - although confusingly Eurostar do now seem to be using their @little_break account to post updates on Eurostar services (not sure it would occur to me to look there for updates if I was a Eurostar passenger...)

I think we've all been drinking too much Kool-Aid.

Now, don't get me wrong. I am an extremely committed proponent of social media and in particular its power to spread information very effectively but I think some of Eurostar's the critics in this case have totally missed the point. The problem was not that Eurostar didn't use Twitter or didn't otherwise use social media. The problem was that Eurostar didn't release sufficient information - on ANY channel (ASIDE: It sounds like they didn't have any information because they didn't have a plan to deal with a situation like this...). That's what they got wrong.

I mean, surely all Eurostar needed to do was put a detailed statement up on their website saying what was going on, when they expected the trains to move again and what contingency plan they had to ensure that people didn't run out of water and babies had enough spare nappies. After that people could have done the rest - via the world-changing technology that is social media. Twitter users could tweet that information to any other passengers who use Twitter. People who use other platforms could pass on the information that way. I dare say a few people could even talk to their fellow passengers to pass on news.

Of course, if Eurostar had taken the trouble to ensure that any information they did release was properly seeded on platforms like Twitter, that would have been nice but, frankly, just give us the info and we're quite capable of spreading it ourselves. Isn't that the point of social media?

Survey competition winner

2009-12-21T11:11:00.003Z

Thanks so much to all of you who completed our survey. We had a fantastic response and were pleased to see some really positive feedback come through. However mixed in were lots of suggestions for improvement, so there's (as always) plenty of work to do.

Unfortunately there could only be one winner. Angela who lives near Derby won the £100 from John Lewis. We hope that is a little help towards Christmas.

Thanks again. We hope you have a great Christmas.

Fill out our survey and win £100 in time for Xmas

2009-12-03T10:22:00.005Z

At Plebble we are constantly trying to improve the site by tweaking existing features and adding new. To do this we rely on your feedback. Yesterday we launched a 9 question survey and we've already had a great response. We'd really appreciate your input and as a small thank you we are offering the chance to win £100 of John Lewis gift vouchers in time for Christmas.

You can find the survey here.

Better customer service through Twitter

2009-11-09T12:50:00.003Z

In February this year, I blogged about whether brands should engage through Twitter. That seems an almost prehistoric question such is the growth and adoption of Twitter. Attention turned to how should brands engage? Well that depends on the brand itself and what they are trying to achieve. One great way to engage is through customer service, which many brands are doing. This is good news for consumers as it opens up a powerful channel. Plebble's Advicecentre has done a article on how to use Twitter to get better customer service. I hope it helps.

First Direct live feedback site - Plebble's thoughts

2009-10-21T08:21:00.009Z

Earlier this month online bank First Direct launched a live feedback microsite. This means customers can go directly to the live site and leave their comments about First Direct. The site also collects sentiment from social media sources. So forum posts, blog posts, tweets, customer reviews etc... are all collected and displayed as 'live feelings' and 'live words' about First Direct.

It's a pretty bold move by First Direct and one that is taking the lead on all the other UK banks. However it's not surprising as service is a big distinguishing factor for the company. On publication First Direct had a plebble-rating of 3.24 (on a scale of -5 to +5). Compare that to most of their competitors many with negative scores and HSBC (their parent company) with a plebble-rating of 1.08. First Direct's good plebble-rating tallies with their own sentiment score of 75% of all comments being positive. This underlines the message that you can expect good service.

Whilst I think it's good step forward and deserves commending, I think First Direct could have gone further. It's just a one way channel. The site collects feedback but there is no response or engagement from First Direct. Instead a message saying "Unfortunately we cannot respond to comments. If you would like to talk to us please call...". I think this is missed opportunity and doesn't fully embrace social media. By their own score First Direct only have 15% negative comments. That's a small percentage which could be tackled. Not only would it deal with those customers problems it would also openly demonstrate how seriously First Direct take customer service and their commitment to solving issues.

Advertising - customer testimonials on Plebble

2009-08-20T08:51:00.006Z

Companies can now advertise their customer testimonials on Plebble. We think this is pretty unique advertising and it works because of the Plebble's nature as a customer service comparison site. All Bagged Up show a good example of testimonials in action. As you can see the testimonials are clearly marked as uploaded by All Bagged Up and therefore it is clear to users that they are not independent views.

We think it's a great way of introducing advertising to Plebble, whilst not detracting from the concept. It's also a great way for companies to spread their testimonials online, outside their own website.

Plebble.com site developments...

2009-07-13T10:28:00.004Z

We've been working hard at improving Plebble.com and we've just uploaded some new site developments. Here is what we've done:

Aggregating content
The biggest addition is that we are now aggregating content from third party sites. This fits with what we are, ‘a people powered customer service comparison and feedback site’. If you take a look at the business listing pages (see Orange example) under what we call the CommentStream™ you will notice four tabs. The second tab is ‘Other views’. This is where we aggregate third party reviews. We display an extract of the content and links to the source. We also pull in the ranking given and transform it into our Plebble-rating™ algorithm.

Why have we done this? Simply because aggregating gives consumers’ greater consensus views on businesses. Not only is it providing more data, it is also providing this from a variety of different sources, making the plebble-rating™ more reliable. Obviously, the more Plebble users rate and the more we aggregate content, the more robust this becomes.

Spread graph
On the business listing page, we have added a ratings spread graph. This simple graph shows how consistent a business is with its customer service. Look at the banking sector for example. First Direct, the top performing bank, has the columns dominating on the right (+5). It shows that you can expect consistently good service from them. This compares to Abbey dominating on the left towards -5.

Comment on comment
Comment on comment lets users comment on individual ratings and build a discussion around them. This helps create more dialogue between users. This functionality is replicated across comments on ratings, news and advice articles.

Nicknames/anonymous identity
From the outset of Plebble we decided to make all our users identity anonymous. This is simply because we want Plebble users to express themselves freely without outside influence. We stand by this, however we think people should have a choice. Under the updated site, users can choose to remain anonymous or leave their nickname. Having nicknames with the comment-on-comment functionality gives users more opportunity to interact with each other.

Sign up / Login process
We have integrated a standard username and password sign in process. Historically we opted for a symbol ID verification process where ratings are simply verified through a valid email address and a symbol. It has worked beautifully to date, making it easy for users to verify ratings and not have the hassle of trying to remember a password. So why have we abandoned it? Simply because now we have more places that consumers can leave content and interact with the site it makes more sense to have a sign in process up front and then let consumers contribute freely. Rather than verifying through symbol ID and email address for every contribution. We are sorry to see the symbol ID’s go, but the site has to evolve!

Other changes and future developments
There are lots of other little additions and design changes. Please let us know what you think about the updated site, by contacting us through info@plebble.com. We have many little developments planned in the pipeline, such as adding sector comparisons to the Analysis sections. If you have any thoughts on what you would like to see on Plebble, then please contact us with your ideas.

The Customer Service approach to Social Media

2009-05-29T15:21:00.003Z

There's an awful lot on the blogosphere about how brands should engage with social media. I thought I would share my view on a great aproach for brands and why it works so well. The approach is simple: Customer Service. Social media is a mass collection of communities. To be a valued member of a community you have to 'add-value' to the community. How can brands do this? Well customer service is one example. Solving customers' problems is a way of adding value to their lives and they will thank you for it. It's an opportunity to turn a negative situtation into a positive outcome. By solving customer problems brands can turn detractors into promotors, demonstrate their open and proactive approach to customer service and use it as a form of word of mouth marketing.

There are an increasing number of brands taking this customer service approach to social media. For example amongst others Twitter includes Carphone Warehouse @guyatcarphone, BT @BTCare and EasyJet @easyJetCare. We also use Twitter for Plebble through @Plebble_Advice, where we help consumers with their issues. People don't mind us contacting them, in fact they are genuinely grateful of our efforts to resolve their problem. So for any brands wondering how to engage in social media, customer service is a perfect start.

Interview with Plebble and the future of the online reputation industry

2009-05-12T11:32:00.006Z

I've just been interviewed by the blog 'eBay, eCommerce, life' about Plebble and the future of the online reputation industry. The blog is written by Trevor Ginn. He is an eCommerce consultant at VendLab and also runs Hello Baby, his own online baby and nursery business. Hello Baby is also listed on Plebble.

Top 10 Customer Service Mistakes

2009-04-15T16:31:00.004Z

In a downturn, customer service is all important - losing customers hurts your bottom line. So we've looked at negative ratings on Plebble over the last month to find the top 10 customer service turn-offs which could end up losing you customers.

1. RUDENESS
Rudeness is the biggest complaint of all. Almost a fifth (19%) described experiencing an unhelpful attitude or rudeness when they tried to resolve an issue - a remarkably high proportion and the most commonly cited grievance.

2. BEING UNREACHABLE
18% mentioned companies not answering calls or emails or not calling back. This complaint was not just directed at smaller businesses with fewer resources for customer service, but spread across big brands, SMEs and online companies. Research done by the complaint management software company, CDC Respond, last year suggested that customers who have a problem which is later satisfied are up to 8% more loyal than those who did not have a problem. We've found a similar trend on Plebble - people frequently visit the site to praise a company for solving their problem efficiently.

3. NOT REPLYING
A further 18% complained about not receiving replies to written communication, particularly complaints. In our research for Plebble's AdviceCentre, we are surprised how often it is hard to find guidance on complaints procedures and where to address formal letters. How many people end up writing to the wrong place and then, when they get nowhere, turn online to vent their frustration?

4. BROKEN PROMISES
15% of people described feeling deceived because of companies going back on their word or providing inconsistent or inaccurate advice. The most common of these was companies confirming items were in stock, taking the money for the order and then days/weeks later informing the customer that it was in fact out of stock. This is not unique to internet business, but is one of the more common complaints on Plebble about online retailers.

5. PASSING THE BUCK
8% described their annoyance at companies passing the buck - not taking responsibility for problems and blaming others for their woes. This was not what people wanted to hear when all they wanted was their problem sorted.

6. INSUFFICIENT KNOWLEDGE
7% complained about call-centre advisors not having the knowledge or authority to sort their problems.

7. NO CONTACT INFORMATION
4% were frustrated that companies had not provided contact information (especially a phone number) to use to sort their problem. The use of online contact forms as the only means of contact is a particular grievance.

8. PREMIUM PHONE NUMBERS
A further 4% complained about having to pay via premium phone numbers to speak to customer service.

9. AUTOMATED CALL SYSTEMS
4% were irritated at having to navigate automated call systems when they needed to talk to a person.

10. TIMELINES
And finally 3% talked about their annoyance at the length of time and volume of contact taken to sort simple problems.

PlebbleSystems is working on a much larger study on this subject. If you would like to receive a copy when it is published, please email research@plebble.com with your name and company name.

Carphone Warehouse signs up to Plebble

2009-04-03T09:22:00.006Z

Last week Carphone Warehouse signed up to Plebble. Not only was it great to see another brand sign up but more importantly a brand which has such a poor service reputation. I met Guy Stephens, the man behind Carphone Warehouse's move. He is the online help manager at Carphone and is doing a great job engaging with his customers. Guy is not only looking at Plebble but at other forums where he can engage with customers and resolve their issues. He is actively using Twitter to do this, check out his Twitter profile to see all the hard work he is doing.

What I find so exciting about this is here is a company with poor service rankings that understands how important it is to engage with customers on a peer to peer level. Negative comments can act as deterrent for businesses to engage. Nobody likes criticism and naturally we all try and distance ourselves from it. This however is often a grave mistake. Negative comments offer enormously constructive feedback. Left untouched they can be a threat to business, but dealing with them presents a huge opportunity to turn things around. Carphone seem to get this and that is why they are prepared to roll up their sleeves and get stuck into the hard but fruitful work of dealing with customers problems online.

At Plebble, we have seen several of the worst big brand service offenders silently listening to customer feedback but not actively engaging with them yet. This shows that they know it's important, but they don't know how do deal with it. Carphone is a good example of a brand setting the precedent and we believe more will follow.

What's the reason for a shift in attitudes by brands? One big reason is the growth of Twitter, but that's a post for another time...

'Two Left Feet' - a cautionary tale

2009-03-30T16:40:00.019Z

You may have been following in 'In the News' the story of 'Two Left Feet' - the online baby clothing and equipment company - which went into administration on 24 March, leaving expectant parents in the lurch. The story of how they got there is not straight-foward, but is definitely a cautionary tale on what can happen if you do not get customer service right.

'Two Left Feet' (TLF) started as a small independent family business in 1998 and grew fast to a £7 million turnover business. TLF failed to match the growth with investment in the ordering and customer-service systems they needed and customer experience began to suffer. Complaints started pouring in, mainly about missing orders and failure to pay refunds. Customers struggled to get through to anyone on the phone and TLF finally removed the customer phone line all together, accepting communication by email only. Frustrated and worried customers, desperate for their order or money back, had nowhere else to turn but sites like Plebble and the media to vent their feelings.

The BBC's 'Watchdog' programme featured TLF in 2006 and following an unprecedented flood of complaints, aired another feature in February 2009. Already struggling with cashflow because of lack of credit in the retail system, this was the final straw for TLF. The bank pulled emergency funding and the business collapsed, leaving the owner and staff devastated.

It goes to show that there are very real consequences for leaving customers feeling alienated and not prioritising engagement and retention. This was an extreme case, but as the recession bites, I fear more businesses will be tempted to cut or not invest in customer service. I just hope the story of 'Two Left Feet' serves as a caution to those businesses to put reputation first. I cannot put it better than the ex-'dragon,' Richard Farleigh, commenting on TLF on the Watchdog programme: "word of mouth, that's all there is."

And the cautionary tale for the rest of us... Search Plebble and other sites for other customer's experiences before you buy. Installing Plebble's browser toolbar will help alert you of companies with poor performance.

Skittles 2.0? Close but no cigar...

2009-03-03T15:04:00.010Z

This is fast becoming old news but I thought I'd add my 2c as it ties in with a lot of what we're saying to brands about what's going on on the Web right now.

So, Skittles have embraced Web 2.0 by putting a Twitter search for the term "Skittles" as their homepage? Brilliant, forward-thinking piece of brand-building or gimic? A serious attempt to engage with customers via the 'social web' or a headline-seeking stunt?

I applaud any brand willing to take a chance and throw themselves open to praise or ridicule in equal measure, whatever the social web wants to throw at it. That's exactly what we advocate - because of blogs, microblogs, social networks, etc, information moves instantly from one side of the globe to the other, from 1 blogger to an audience of millions in a matter of seconds. The truth will out in the end - no matter what your advertising budget. Therefore, you might as well be proactive and the rewards from doing so in terms of endorsement from your customer-base are potentially huge.

So, have Skittles taken up this battle-cry? I've noticed three main reactions from people to Skittles' new Twitter-based homepage:

(1) warm welcomes (and congratulations) for a well-known brand entering our world in an apparently open and transparent way - great

(2) attempts to game/understand the system by swearing and/or dissing Skittles to see whether they'd allow it - "Skittlefisting" was on Trending Topics for a while thanks to a coordinated effort by (apparently) some Australian bloggers - interesting and ultimately (I think) great because Skittles were tested for 'authenticity' and passed

(3) attempts by people to get their own messages/links viewed by thousands when they realised that the 'Skittlesphere' was abuzz - by including #skittles in their otherwise unconnected tweets - not great but inevitable

The question for me is whether Skittles' experiment is a success. Personally, I'd be surprised if it is - long-term. This is for 1 very fundamental reason: they're not actually engaging. All they're doing is trying to push their advertising message using a website, Twitter, that's getting a lot of attention at the moment from the mainstream media. Notice the big ol' banner ad sitting on top of everything. I didn't notice any actual responses from Skittles or attempts to discuss new flavours, health issues, etc.

So, in the end they made a nice-looking playground. People Twittered in for a while and then will Twitter away again. No doubt Skittles got a bit of market research from the things people were saying and some dates of birth (hands up who entered their real one??). No attempt was made to keep people interested though by having a discussion or reaching out on a human peer-to-peer level that characterises the social web. Hopefully Skittles will realise its missed opportunity and have another go...

Open feedback for Little Chef

2009-02-27T15:02:00.007Z

After watching Heston Blumenthal's programmes 'Big Chef takes on Little Chef' on Channel 4 back in January we decided to go down to the transformed Popham restaurant. I would love to spend the rest of this post reviewing the restaurant, but this isn't the place for that. Needless to say they have done a great job. The food is like something out of a gastro pub, the architect has created a funky space and the staff are all really friendly and seem up for transforming the place.

Anyway back the point of my post and that is feedback. With the re-launch at Popham, Little Chef seem to be making an effort to connect with their customers and gather feedback. They have a Facebook fan page and a feedback form on their website. Popham is just down the round from my Mum's house, so she came along. Even she was incredibly impressed! She wanted to let Little Chef know what she thought about her experience, so she filled out their online feedback form. She was told that she would be contacted by a member of the Little Chef customer services team within 14 working days regarding her comments. Sure enough she received a letter a week later. Again impressive! Little Chef seem to be doing the right things and working hard, but they could leverage their feedback much more effectively. Why not have open/transparent feedback? Open feedback online not only gives a great brand message it also makes other customers feel more vested in the brand. Little Chef can then respond to demonstrate how seriously they take the feedback and what they are doing about it. With a letter to my Mum only she gets this message, if it goes online everybody gets it.

As with many sites Little Chef has a customers comments section. Whilst this is better than nothing, it's not exactly democratic. Perhaps Little Chef do post every comment up but as a customer the cynic in you says they only put the good stuff up. That is where having an independent forum like Plebble comes in, adding value to customers feedback!

I believe Little Chef are now considering whether to roll out Heston's Popham concept across the country. I don't have access to all their info but look at Facebook, their website, press and numerous other sites, the message is a resounding thumbs up for Popham. I really hope they listen.

Should brands engage through Twitter?

2009-02-10T09:44:00.010Z

Twitter's recent surge has been well documented, just take a look at the last 6m's from Alexa.

The question dominating the blogosphere is how is Twitter going to make revenues? This morning whilst I was on Twitter I picked up a Brand Republic article entitled 'Twitter to begin charging brands for commercial use'. The article reports that Twitter are thinking about charging brands for using a hybrid Twitter marketing and customer service tool. This seems sensible when you consider so many brands are using Twitter for just that (marketing and customer service). The issue then becomes whether brands belong on Twitter. Mashable did a blog post on just that, which sparked some interesting debate. I have to confess I did not read all of the 199 responses to the blog, but from skimming through, many of them seemed to think there is a place for brands on Twitter.

I agree with having brands on Twitter for 2 reasons. 1 because I think active engagement by brands, not just passive monitoring is a very positive step for consumers and businesses and 2 because Twitter's basic functionality works. Take Be Broadband as an example. They actively use Twitter and are incidentally in Plebble 's top 10 performers. If I am a Be customer I can choose to follow their updates, I am interested in them because I am customer. If they start filling my Twitter page with duff updates, I can stop following them or even block them. So Twitter is a democratic opt-in service. If brands are not engaging or don't play by the rules they simply won't find Twitter an effective tool. However if they get it right they could have thousands of happy followers acting as advocates for their brand.

That said there are still some outstanding issues for brands on Twitter. Many brand names have already been taken by Twitter users and there is no easy way users can distinguish Twitter usernames as official brands. Twitter is a very personal and social tool. Just communicating with a brand name can be impersonal for users. The alternative is to register employees as representatives for the brand. The issue with that is employees move on taking all their hard work on Twitter with them. As Twitter try to monetise, I am sure they will try and make Twitter more accessible to brands and address these issues. The key to Twitter is its simple functionality. This must remain, but I think Twitter could create official brand/company accounts to deal with this. In the meantime however I don't think brands should hold back. For brands Twitter has its flaws, but they are outweighed by the positive act of engagement.

Digital Mission

2009-01-09T11:05:00.006Z

Plebble has been selected as part of ‘Digital Mission ’ to go to the South by South West Interactive (SXSWi) conference in Austin Texas. We are delighted to be taking part in SXSWi. Digital Mission sends 35 UK companies out to SXSWi. It is one of the world’s leading conferences for emerging media and digital technology. We were selected along with 34 other companies by a panel of industry experts including Mike Butcher the UK editor of Techcrunch, Herb Kim the CEO of Codeworks and Sarbjit Bakshi Head of IT from UKTI.

The conference takes place in early March and accompanies the SXSW film and music festivals, so it should a great time to be there. We cannot wait to go, see the American digital scene, meet some interesting people and hopefully do some business. We will let you know how it goes!

Plebble launches 'AdviceCentre'

2009-01-08T15:56:00.013Z

Many of your ratings on Plebble are glowing praise - which is great - but there are others where you are obviously completely frustrated at how you've been treated. Your attempts to resolve your problem simply and quickly have failed and you have come to Plebble to vent your feelings to the company concerned and everyone else. This is exactly what Plebble is designed for - to reward those businesses who care, name and shame those who don't, and make you feel a whole lot better.

But we've always wanted Plebble to be more than just a place to rant. We continue to encourage businesses to join the Plebble project and use it to actively listen and respond to the issues you raise. We don't just want to hear about your experiences - ultimately we want Plebble to be a force which helps get your issues resolved. And the more you all rate, the more businesses will have to sit up and take notice.

In the meantime, we at Plebble were becoming increasingly frustrated hearing people raise all sorts of problems and complaints, but not being able to do anything to help. So, we have set-up the AdviceCentre. In the AdviceCentre, we will publish articles and links to give you information on things like how best to complain, where to send formal complaints, template letters and company procedures. We are also publishing a series of 'Get Smarter' articles, where we use your ratings and other sources to gather together information to help us all to try to avoid the pitfalls and worst offenders in the first place.

This is a new thing for us and as with everything on Plebble, we rely on your feedback. So if you have any comments on the AdviceCentre, please let us know. And if you have any advice that you think would be useful to share, please email advice@plebble.com.

Best Customer Service and Experience Feature 2008

2008-12-17T12:40:00.002Z

How nice! An article I wrote at the beginning of the year for MyCustomer.com - the self-proclaimed voice of the customer relationship management (CRM) profession - has just been awarded 'Best Customer Service and Experience Feature 2008'.

It seems it really touched a nerve - apparently it was their most read feature in 2008. This shows to me that things really are changing in terms of customer engagement. Businesses are beginning to realise that what's happening online - essentially peer-to-peer information and content sharing is here to stay and has a big impact on their bottom-line. Long may that continue!

Anyway, you can read the article here: What does Web 2.0 mean for your business?

Supermarket fans

2008-11-27T09:33:00.006Z

With a Plebble-rating (PR) of 3.41, Waitrose is the 11th highest performing business on Plebble. Not bad for a supermarket. Why? Well they clearly have some passionate brand advocates. Take a look the graph. It shows that 74% of its ratings on Plebble score between 4 and 5 ('very good' or 'brilliant').

When you compare Waitrose to Tesco's you can see the importance of consistency of service. Tesco's has a PR of 0.36 and is behind its rival Sainsbury's. As you can see from the chart Tesco's does have some strong advocates (38% score 'very good'), but the rest of the ratings are spread across all the scores, with 17% scoring between -5 and -4. This suggests Tesco's struggles to provide consistently good service, something Waitrose manages so well. It will be interesting to see if this finding remains as the sample sizes increase. If you think it's wrong, have your say and rate!

Call centre revenge picked up by the press

2008-10-30T09:38:00.003Z

Just uploaded to our 'In the News' service is the story about George Bates. This story was picked up by The Times, Telegraph, Mirror, Metro, Daily Mail and the Sun. It is hardly surprising the story got so much coverage considering having your bank account sabotaged after giving poor ratings in a post call customer satisfaction survey is a shocking incident. Although many of us haven't experience such extreme poor service as poor George Bates, we can still relate to it because of our own experiences with call centres. I suspect that is why so many of the daily papers picked up the story.

On Plebble we have a press service where every time you rate you can consent to press contact. We then offer your ratings as case studies for journalists. At the moment we have journalists from the Times and the Independent signed up and we are in the process of encouraging more. So rating on Plebble not only gives your experience good online exposure it could also give it media coverage.

The 'KnowBoard'

2008-09-19T15:30:00.005Z

Businesses are constantly being told that the internet is changing the dynamic of the way they do business. One of problems is that it is changing so fast and there is so much information out there that businesses don't know which way to turn.

We set up Plebble because we believe the way customers interact with businesses is changing, where consumers are increasingly basing their buying decisions on other consumer opinions. Rather than being a threat to businesses, this represents a big opportunity. An opportunity to gain and retain loyal customers through great customer service. Not only do businesses need to improve customer service, they also need to communicate better with their customers, engage with them and improve their online reputation. This is what Plebble is designed to do for businesses.

To help businesses understand the opportunities and how to realise them we have made live a little feature called the KnowBoard. It is a really simple concept where we, our business members and our affiliates can clip relevant articles, links and videos to the board. It is designed to be a great source of guidance for forward thinking businesses and a place to invoke discussion in the field.

Business members and affiliates can clip articles from their members area. If you are a marketing agency, research firm, consultancy or in any way involved in the customer service, customer engagement and online reputation fields then please get in touch and we will sign you up as an affiliate.

Win an iPod Touch 16GB with Plebble.com

2008-08-12T14:01:00.012Z

Two little new developments on the site - just live - to tell you about:

We've just launched a competition so that people who rate on Plebble can win a brand new iPod Touch 16GB.

We've also created a "Tell your Friends" form so that people can easily tell their friends about Plebble and invite them to join in. If you help spread the word about Plebble using this form, you will also qualify to win an iPod.The more ratings you do and the more people you tell about Plebble, the greater your chances of winning.

Why've we done this? Well, Plebble works best when as many people as possible are providing ratings. The more ratings there are, the more businesses listen to what consumers are saying and the more valuable the information on Plebble is to other consumers. We therefore want to reward those people who contribute most to our community of users and help make a difference to the customer service that people get in the UK.

All ratings and people you tell about Plebble have to be genuine. If they're not, you'll be disqualified from the competion, simple as that (and, of course, the rating(s) will be deleted).

So, good luck to everyone...and get rating!

Article - How to engage with online critics

2008-08-04T15:43:00.003Z

The editor of MyCustomer.com, Neil Davey, has written an article entitled 'When the internet attacks: How to engage with online critics'. It offers some great insights into how businesses can benefit by engaging with feedback.

Welcome to the new Plebble Club

2008-06-27T17:10:00.004Z

The ‘Plebble Club’ is now live! It helps you track your activity on the site and interact with it more. Since Plebble.com’s inception we have always wanted to maintain a ballet box approach to ratings. We think it is vital to provide a really simple and secure ratings process, so you can easily drop in feedback. Keeping the ballet box parallel, we also think it is important that you remain anonymous simply so you feel no pressure or influence from anyone else on your ratings. With the introduction of the Plebble Club, we have maintained this approach whilst giving you features to help you manage and interact with your activity on the site.

You will be some of the first Plebble Club users and we would really appreciate any feedback you have. For example how we can improve the existing functionality and what additions we should make to it. So please get in touch.

Handy Q&A for businesses

2008-06-26T16:11:00.005Z

Ben Matthews has blogged about us a couple of times, thanks Ben! His lasted post includes a Q&A from James. It is helpful not just for PR's (which is the field Ben works in), but also for businesses looking to engage with Plebble and get the most out of the site.

As a side note, the blog is hosted on Marcom Professional. It is a professional network for those working in marketing communications. For those in the area, it looks like a great resource.

Consumer Satisfaction Index

2008-06-04T13:07:00.014Z

You may have noticed a new addition to the site and that is our Consumer Satisfaction Index (CSI) in Plebble Analysis. Our CSI is a monthly round up of UK customer satisfaction based on your ratings. Your ratings help us track your overall happiness towards businesses. We call it 'Net Happiness' and as you can see it shows a declining picture :-(. Your ratings also help us track the most and least popular sectors and the best/worst performing businesses. We always meant to add to the Plebble Analysis section and we hope to add more features as the site grows.

Another little addition to the site is you can now receive an RSS feed for all our Plebble News so you never need be out of touch with consumer news again.

Plebble in the news!

2008-05-29T10:21:00.003Z

Just a quick note to say we had a great piece in the Times Money section on Saturday. We thought Rebecca O'Connor summed up Plebble beautifully by saying "The idea is that the site will force companies into improving service by making customers' experiences visible to everyone."

Thanks of course has to go Jonathan Posner for his case study. Jonathan is a Plebble user who rated Plebble and consented to press contact. Thanks Jonathan!

A recession is bad, but it's not all bad

2008-05-15T17:16:00.003Z

Recession - are we, aren't we? Who knows? There is enormous confusion at the moment as to whether we are in a recession, we are heading for one or we survived by the skin of teeth. Whether we are in a recession or not, there is no doubt that the economy is showing signs of slowing. Recessions are rarely thought of as good news, however there are some goods that come out in times of financial hardship.

One of those is customer service. The theory goes that in times of hardship businesses have to fight harder for your custom. If you have less to spend you will think harder about where to spend your money. If everyone else has less to spend businesses are competing for a shrinking pot of money making them work harder perhaps offering discounts but also focusing on customer satisfaction. The businesses that survive recessions are the ones that have a loyal customer base. A base of customers that not only use but recommend a business. Providing excellent customer service and communicating that message is key to survival and even prosperity for businesses.

So if the theory holds you should be noticing an upturn in customer service. In tough times businesses need your support and you can do that simply by rating them on Plebble. This will benefit other consumers too by helping them find businesses based on your recommendations.

Plebble Starter package goes Live!

2008-04-16T07:57:00.004Z

Well this is the place where we keep you up-to-date with all our developments and our latest one 'PlebbleStarter™' package for businesses has arrived! Now any business can take ownership of their business on Plebble for FREE! PlebbleStarter™ includes numerous free tools for businesses. Please have a look at the features to see what is on offer. You will note that we have premium services for businesses too. These are in the form of 'pay-as-you-go' and are to further help businesses improve their appearance, raise awareness and gather feedback.

On PlebbleStarter™ we give businesses the ability to respond. This is a great way of helping businesses and consumers communicate and engage with each other. Each response is posted live on the site and the rater concerned is notified when a reply has been made. This is very powerful for businesses as it gives them an opportunity to turn a negative comment into a positive outcome. Not only can a business win back the disaffected consumer it can also show everyone else how they are responding to problems and lets face it even the best businesses make mistakes so we all need to tell people how we are rectifying and improving. We have already seen consumer problems rectified through the site but the response feature only helps this further.

Of course businesses can also respond to positive comments, to thank their customers for their loyal support and tell them how they are making things even better.

With all the hype surrounding social networks, perhaps a good way of looking at a PlebbleStarter™ membership is as a business's own online profile. The big difference of course is that businesses don't have a choice whether they have a profile or not. Consumers have opinions on the businesses they use and want to share those opinions with others. There is very little businesses can do about these conversations and with the internet and sites like ours conversations are increasing and spreading further all the time. So why not be part of the conversation? This not only involves the response feature as mentioned above, but it also includes the ability for businesses to customise their page and branch pages with logos, descriptions and website links. Businesses can also add their own news stories and special offers to keep customers up to date with all their developments.

I hope you agree that the PlebbleStarter™ package really enhances the concept. If you have and feedback then you can of course rate us! Alternatively please get in touch by emailing us at info@plebble.com we always love hearing from you.

James's broadband nightmare

2008-03-18T16:44:00.003Z

I have been amused to listen to my brother James (who sits next door to me), spend the last few weeks speaking to an unnamed broadband provider's call centre trying to reconnect to his broadband package. You would have thought it is the simplest of tasks and one that they would dedicate resources to, but it seems to be impossible to connect. I have listened to him slowly melt with frustration. It would be harsh to say that I am amused by his misfortune, more because it underlines why we need Plebble!

James has since gone elsewhere and taken the hit of paying nearly twice the price. However his new broadband provider is treating him so well that he his quickly becoming an advocate for the company. His case is a simple example of how important it is for businesses to serve their customers well. Not only has James's old broadband provider lost £150 a year customer, but it has also lost an unquantifiable amount through his negative word of mouth. That the fact that word of mouth is unquantifiable is a large reason why businesses provide poor service. As they can't measure it they can't assess the downside of treating someone badly and the upside for treating someone well. This is no excuse however, it is the businesses like James's new provider that understand the importance of treating customers well that ultimately win.

Plebble team up with Savebuckets

2008-02-29T08:13:00.013Z

If you are a fan of Savebuckets.co.uk you will notice a slight addition to the site - we have teamed up with them! Savebuckets are a free online shopping comparison site which helps you find the best priced product. It is a very simple and quick process, you type in the product you are after into their search box and from over a million products Savebuckets will then generate relevant results sorted by price. You then select the product and are directed the cheapest retailer. Savebuckets have now integrated our Plebble-rating so that it not only shows the best price but also the best service (Plebble-rating). Savebuckets users can now assess according to a retailers value and value for money, i.e. value plus service. For example you may be more inclined to spend a little bit more from a retailer because you are confident in their quality service.

Here is an example of the service in action.

'Local Heros ' on Plebble

2008-02-18T12:53:00.002Z

There has been plenty in the news over the last few days about the effect supermarkets are having on competition in local areas. This coincides with the release of the Competition Commission's findings into the UK grocery market. We reported this in In the News on Friday. We are interested to know what effect supermarkets have on local businesses and local communities. According to research that we released, 39% of people think that supermarkets are damaging their community making them the second worst culprit. Property developers were number one at 42% and government was third at 38%. The Commission's report is being criticised for not addressing the effect supermarkets have on local businesses.

What is interesting to note is the widespread support for local businesses. An example of this is the Evening Standard's campaign to 'Save Our Small Shops' in response to the closure of 7,000 small shops in London in the last six years. Our research shows that there is eagerness to respond, with 93% of people intending to support their local organisations in 2008. Small shops find it hard to compete with supermarkets on price, range, convenience and marketing clout. Obviously the best way to support our local shops is to physically buy from them. However recommending that business to others is an extra way to support it. On Plebble we call it 'Local Heros'. These are the businesses that deserve our thanks and support. So to help support your local businesses and local community please rate your Local Heros on Plebble.

Press coverage

2008-02-15T16:55:00.003Z

We had some great coverage from Rosie Millard in her column in the Save & Spend section of the Independent last week. Have a read! James has also been interviewed on BBC Radio. The response to the coverage has been superb so thanks for all your support.

A few more developments for you...

2008-01-30T09:59:00.000Z

As ever we have been developing away to bring some more features to the site. Firstly something we have been meaning to add for a while is Google Maps on each businesses page. Take Sainsbury's for example, now you can easily find the businesses you are looking for.

We have also added a free alert for all users. On each business page you can sign up to an alert everytime someone rates and everytime we or the business concerned posts a response or a news story. Whether you are a consumer, work for the business or a business owner you can keep fully up-to-date. Which makes you better informed and helps you participate in the conversation.

We are constantly developing the site and aim to bring more features online soon. Please keep sending in your suggestions for tweaks and improvements, it all helps to make a better user experience.

'What is going on at Plebble.com'

2008-01-14T18:16:00.000Z

Hi, this is just a quick update of what is going on at Plebble.

Firstly MyCustomer.com has published one of James's articles, entitled 'What does web 2.0 mean for your business?' I recommend reading it, particularly if you are a business owner.

We have also made a few minor developments to the site. Firstly we have added a news scroller for our 10 latest In the News stories. It also allows business Members to upload stories, which are clearly marked as sponsored.

We have also added a latest 10 ratings fader on the Plebble.com splash page. We felt the page was too static otherwise.

As always we love hearing from you, so if you have any questions or comments on these or anything else on the site then please contact us.

Happy New Year!

2008-01-03T16:47:00.000Z

Happy New Year! It is great to be back at Plebble after a little break over the festive period. We hope you all enjoyed yourselves.

I picked something up on Google News this morning, which I thought I would share. Silicon.com posted an article on Forsee results which has complied the top 30 UK online retailers for customer service over the Christmas period. Forsee found that pure online retailers such as Play.com and Amazon.co.uk came first and second scoring 76 and 75 out of 100 respectively. It was a mixed bag for traditional retailers websites with many featuring at the bottom of the list including the likes of B&Q, Comet, Currys, PC World and WH Smith. However bucking the trend was HMV coming fourth in the list.

These Forsee results are consistent with Plebble for example Amazon.co.uk and HMV have Plebble-ratings of 3.13 and 3.66.

The findings give a useful insight into who were the online customer service winners and losers over the Christmas period. In the News today was Play.com for 24% jump in sales over the Christmas period. Play.com is top of Forsee's list, which shows that it really does pay companies to deliver good customer service.

There has been plenty In the News about the growing prefence amongst shoppers to buy online. For example it is thought £14 billion was spent online by UK consumers this Christmas.

If you were one of them please log onto to Plebble and rate you Christmas experiences (positive or negative). That way we can use your experiences to help fellow consumers and businesses, which should mean next Christmas you will get an even better shopping experience!

Happy Christmas!

2007-12-21T19:02:00.000Z

This is just a quick post to thank you all for your support for Plebble over the last months and to wish you a very Happy Christmas. We hope it’s restful...

It’s been a great period for us since we went live in August. We now have about 10,000 different people per month visiting the site and we’re having some really interesting ratings/comments. That number’s set to grow when we launch our publicity campaign in early 2008.

Plebble’s leader board has already highlighted some businesses that are obviously providing great service. Essex-based classical music mail order business, Colchester Classics, has been top of the charts for a number of weeks. It’s obvious from their ratings that nothing’s too much trouble – and that, as a result, they’ve got an extremely loyal fan base. Independent wine merchant, Caviste, is a recent entry – in at number 2. They’ve also recently been named in The Guardian’s Shopping Directory (‘the ultimate guide to Britain’s finest independent shops and suppliers’) which seems well deserved based on their ratings. Third is BBC.co.uk (the most popular website in the UK) and 3 John Lewis brands (Waitrose, Ocado and John Lewis) appear in the top 25. To view more best and worst performers on Plebble, please click here: www.plebble.com/analysis.php.

Finally, if you haven’t rated your own Christmas shopping experiences yet, please get online and do it! (Here’s the link: www.plebble.com/rate-it.php) Remember, the more ratings you give, the better Plebble gets, so please do find time in your day to rate. If you bought online, did the stuff arrive on time? Did you go to local, independent stores or big chains? Which was better? Any horror stories? Anyone you want to thank for going the extra mile? Please let us know...

Anyway, have a great Christmas and see you in 2008.

James and Will

Plebble Beta?

2007-12-12T18:22:00.000Z

A few people have asked us why Plebble didn't launch a Beta version first. We did in a way - Plebble is always Beta in the sense that we always want our users to test the site and tell us how we can improve it. Plebble is for everyone - ie 'a true e-mocracy' - so everyone can input into it. Besides, lately we've been seeing Beta branding being used by some people as a marketing gimic rather than a genuine attempt to get feedback from a site's 'early adopters'.

So, if you've got any feedback or thoughts on the site, please let us know. Also, if you notice any bugs (hopefully you shouldn't but you never know), please tell us so we can get them fixed...

Customer service is the key to reputation

2007-11-21T12:14:00.000Z

According to research conducted by YouGov and published by the CBI this week, 48% of consumers think excellent customer service is the characteristic that most helps a firm build its reputation. This compares to 36% who said that products and services always living up to expectations mattered the most.

Of the 1,960 adults surveyed, 82% think that companies must work harder at restoring their reputations and 45% said the best way to do this is to come clean and publicly apologise when an issue arises.

The research analysed the relationship between price and reputation. It found that 58% of consumers are willing to pay more to their most highly regarded company, with 43% saying they would pay up to 5% over and above a cheaper price. This demonstrates how important it is for companies to get customer service right. As it is customer service that most affects reputation, which in turn affects the premium companies can charge.

The research also revealed the top ten companies that consumers think have the best reputation in the UK. In order this includes:

1. Marks & Spencer
2. John Lewis Partnership
3. Virgin Group
4. Tesco
5. Sony
6. Asda
7. Amazon
8. Apple
9. Boots
10. BBC

It is still early days, but we can already draw some interesting comparisons of this research to Plebble. With a plebble-rating of 3.04, Marks & Spencer is our 18th highest performer and John Lewis also scores highly, with position of 14th and a plebble-rating of 3.25. With their website bbc.co.uk, the BBC are our 3rd highest performer with a plebble-rating of 3.90 and Boots have a rating of 2.83.

However it is difficult to compare like for like as groups include a collection of brands. Take Virgin Group for example. They have many brands such as Virgin Active, Atlantic, Holidays, Media, Mobile, Money, Trains and so on, but consumers opinions vary between them. For example with a plebble-rating of 2.28, Virgin Atlantic is a highly rated airline, but Virgin Media is our third worst performing organisation with a rating of -3.33.

There are other brands on Plebble which conflict with the survey rankings. This includes Tesco Stores sitting behind Waitrose and Sainsbury's with a plebble-rating of 0.82. Surprisingly Apple also does not rate highly on Plebble with a plebble-rating of -0.57.

The research also highlights the banking sector with 36% of consumers citing it as the the sector most in need of restoring its reputation. Plebble shows that we are indifferent about our banks. Some consumers seem to be positive about their bank and as such we have banks like ICICI, Lloyds TSB and Bank of Scotland rating highly. However on the other end of the spectrum, some banks are poor performers. These include Barclays, Natwest and the Royal Bank of Scotland.

Of course you may feel that many of the businesses listed do or don't deserve to be in their respective positions. To compound or contrast a rating please keep rating. It will help us provide you with reliable and live data on the best and worst businesses whether they be local stores or mobile phone companies.

How to rate a free service for value for money?

2007-10-29T13:22:00.000Z

I can't believe it's been over 2 weeks since our last post. Where has the time gone?! Anyway, here's a quick post to answer a question that seems to be puzzling a few people - "How do you rate for value for money when you got something for free?"

It's a good question. Our take is this: (at the risk of stating the obvious) "value for money" means the value you received versus the money you paid. If you got something for free - for example a free upgrade on a flight - then the money you paid was (obviously) £0. Therefore your score for value for money should be the value you received for the flight upgrade versus the £0 you paid.

So, taking the free flight upgrade example, it may be great value because it gives you a better service than you would have received in, for example, Economy Class PLUS you didn't have to pay for it - therefore a really high value for money score. However, if the air crew were surly and rude or the inflight entertainment doesn't work (or whatever) the value you attribute to the service is still low whether you paid for it or not. You may even have preferred not to have had the upgrade - which would result in a negative value for money score!

As always, we'd be interested to hear your views. Please let us know what you think.

James

Will's first post...

2007-10-09T13:01:00.000Z

According to Technorati a new blog is created ever second. So the time it has taken me to write this blog 1,800 blogs will have been created. That's a pretty daunting prospect, but here is my contribution to fray. I am Will, brother of James and co-founder of Plebble.com. This is my first attempt at a blog so please bear with me!

Firstly I would like to thank all of you for your feedback. A huge priority of ours is the site’s usability. So far the feedback has been really positive. One user went as far as saying: “it's one of the most simple, intuitive and gratifying user experiences I've ever had”! That was a real pat on the back, but of course the feedback hasn't all been positive. Many of you have notified us with little technical and/or design issues. Without this feedback we would have no idea what does and doesn't work and we wouldn't be able to make the little tweaks to the site. So please keep the feedback coming.

Feedback of course plays a huge part in Plebble.com's concept. As it is feedback that helps businesses improve their service ultimately making us more satisfied.

Of course there are far too many businesses out there that don’t bother listening to their customers, perhaps because they think they don’t need to. There are however businesses who listen and actively encourage people to leave feedback to help them improve their service. We are already finding proactive businesses asking their customers to rate them on Plebble. Craggy Island (an indoor climbing centre in Guilford, Surrey) have put a live plebble-rating™ feed on their website (www.craggy-island.com) and Colchester Classics (a classical music mail order business) have been asking all their customers to rate them. These businesses aren’t afraid of negative feedback. By you telling them where they have gone wrong (-) they have the opportunity to improve (+), they improve (+), which encourages you to come back (+). Therefore a negative experience is turned into a positive outcome. It is no surprise therefore that both these businesses appear in our best performers’ list.

This in part explains why our overall plebble-rating™ is currently 1.22. This pleases me greatly because when we told people about the site before we went live a lot commented “you will only ever get negative comments as people love to moan not compliment”. Well this statistic proves that this is not the case, in fact we are more positive about UK businesses than we are negative. In our supposed doom and gloom society who would have thought that?!

We have seen that many of you come on to get something off your chest by sharing a negative experience of a business, but then you often think of a business you think got it right and you think other people should know about it. This has thrown up some interesting results for example in our worst performers we have 3 banks (RBS, Barclays and Natwest) yet in our best performers we have ICICI Bank. We also have an insurance company (Combined Insurance) and the ISP (Be Unlimited) was up there for a while. These are not the kind of sectors that you would associate with good customer service. However it goes to show that you are willing to reward businesses that get it right.

Will

Our first fortnight (nearly)...

2007-09-12T16:05:00.000Z

It's been a busy two weeks since we launched. The initial response we've had has been fantastic. Thanks to all you "early adopters" for your ratings! and for everyone's positive feedback.

Here are some early results - The top 5 best-rated businesses are (at the time of writing):

1. Hayward Tod Associates
2. Strategies Group
3. Adnams plc
4. Google
5. BSkyB

As to the worst-performers, there are some more household names. The worst-rated business for customer service so far is RyanAir, followed by - in order - London Underground (the latest round of strikes proving very unpopular with commuters), Ushers Estate Agents, British Gas and Bulldog Broadband.

The Hot sectors (ie attracting the most ratings) seem to be ISPs (especially broadband providers), Banks, Supermarkets, Mobile phone companies, Restaurants and Estate Agents. There's also been a good mixture of positive and negative - the average plebble-rating across the whole site (in other words, taking an average of all ratings we've received to date) is actually quite positive - 1.10.

It's great that we're already getting some useful information but please do keep rating!! The more people rate, the more useful Plebble will be.

We also were tipped in a blog (Fishtank News) which is awesome. Check it out here.

Also in the news is our launch last Monday of a new service (already) called 'In the News'. The press release for it is here but basically it involves us each weekday highlighting and linking to any interesting consumer-related news stories that are in the media - a sort of news-aggregator for consumer-related stories...

Below each story, we put links to the Plebble Homepages of any businesses/organisations that are mentioned in the story so you can rate them and have your say on the issue that the story has highlighted.

Obviously the service is completely free and you can use whatever we say in any way you want. (If you want to use anything that anyone else has written, you’ll have to check with them first…)

We think that the In the News service will be a really good way of continuing to highlight consumer-related issues – that’s what Plebble does anyway – and, in particular, drawing attention to issues that have affected lots of people.

Please use the service and let us know how it works for you. We plan to add various features in the future to help you get even more out of it, including RSS feeds, etc so the news is delivered directly to you.

Also, if you’ve come across (or have written) any stories that you think should appear on In the News, please let us know by emailing us at news@plebble.com.

Thank you!

James

Plebble goes LIVE!

2007-08-30T05:50:00.000Z

It’s taken over a year and a half but we’re finally LIVE! It’s a great feeling to have something that we’ve worked so hard on finally out there – for everyone to use. Our particular thanks go to Seb Frost and David Wheeler, along with the rest of the Strategies team, for their hard work, dedication and creative thinking. We really couldn’t have done it without you!

What’s next? Now the hard work starts – spreading the word, raising awareness, telling people about Plebble, what it can do for them and ultimately getting ratings/comments so we can start to get some really useful feedback. So, once you’ve read this – please get out there and start rating!

We’re also going to start road-showing Plebble to businesses, to tell them about the benefits of Plebble for them – in particular how they can use it to engage with their customers and ultimately provide a better service. If you are a business and you want us to come and talk to you, please contact info@plebble.com.

We’re also continuing to develop the site. We’ve got loads of ideas about how we can improve it and add new features – almost too many, sometimes. We’d love to hear from you with your thoughts on Plebble and how you think it could be improved. Of course, you can give us feedback using our listing on Plebble (at www.plebble.com/listing219239/plebble/) but also you can comment on this blog below or, if you want to keep your thoughts private, please email us at feedback@plebble.com.

Going forward, I’ll keep you up-to-date with our latest developments and I’ll also post bits of ad hoc analysis from the ratings we’re getting – so check back often – but, until my next post...

Happy Plebbling!