Feefo, which generates honest and transparent feedback from customers all over the world, said Communicate Better was the first telecoms company to take the plunge in publishing “warts and all” feedback from its clients.
While the telecoms industry has suffered in the past from a poor reputation, this new deal throws the gauntlet down to other businesses to clean up their act.
Andy Mabbutt, managing director of Feefo, knows the telecoms market inside out having founded Smart Connection in 1990 and later sold it to a venture capital-backed corporation.
He said he was delighted to be working with Communicate Better to develop its customer service operation.
“Although Feefo started out by solving problems in the online retail industry, we soon discovered that our template works across all sectors.
“Business is growing at a phenomenal rate and we are getting enquiries from all over the world from companies who really want to shake up the way they do business.
“Communicate Better has always done things the right way but Wayne Cartwright wanted to take that one step further and we are really excited about working with him and his team in delivering good honest feedback.
“Business customers will now be able to see who is providing a genuine service and who isn’t.”
Wayne Cartwright, CEO of Communicate Better, explained how the tie-up came about.
“Before we dealt with Feefo, the only way we recorded feedback from our customers was when they called us up. We had nothing proactive in place and so we just dealt with issues as and when they arose.
“As everyone knows, the majority of people don’t ring up to congratulate you – they only ring if there’s a problem. Yet with Feefo, we can record all types of feedback, whether it’s good, bad or indifferent. By measuring the feedback, recording it and then acting upon it, we can always ensure we’re ahead of the game and give the best possible customer service.
“We can literally act within seconds of a feedback being posted. The customer is always amazed at how quickly we can respond and this puts us in a strong position when trying to solve the problem as they know we’re doing everything we can to fix it.
“I find the feedback quite addictive and read every scrap of it. We’ve only been using Feefo for two months but already I’m in the situation where I’m not happy if a customer says our service is ‘good’ as I want it to be ‘excellent’.”
Of course, Wayne is aware that the telecoms industry has something of a reputation and believes that Feefo puts his business on a new level of openness.
“We have set the benchmark now by using Feefo because we want to show the world how transparent we are. Not only are we displaying every piece of feedback from our customers, we are also using this tool to take our overall customer service to a completely new level both internally and externally.
“Our staff know that if they don’t handle a situation well it could be used by the customer when leaving feedback, so Feefo is working subliminally because staff are trying even harder than normal to rectify any problems and keep customers updated on a regular basis. For our customers it’s very much a win-win situation and our customer service is improving all the time.”
Offering a range of technology and communications services, Communicate Better has been able to use Feefo as a selling tool for new clients and Wayne believes it will simply strengthen his share of the market.
“It’s definitely a game-changer for our industry,” he said. “Feefo is independent so our customers know that what’s written is 100 per cent honest. This is hugely attractive for new business because we’ve shown that we have nothing to hide.
“The reality is that you actually only know how good your provider is when things don’t go to plan. Feefo gives us another avenue to communicate with our customers to find out what they really think very quickly. We can then rectify any potential problems showing we are proactive, before there is any bad feeling. After all unhappy customers are the ones that you wont do any future business with.
“The thing that I like about Feefo is the transparency it gives us. Yes we show “warts and all” but that’s a good thing. We are not afraid to say that we are not perfect, but perfection is what we are working towards.”