As an unknown startup, the opportunity to partner with a large global company only 8 weeks after "go-live" would have been a pipe dream back when we were discussing the VendorRate concept. So when a Seagate senior manager invited VendorRate to participate at a trade show inside the Seagate booth as an independent rating service, we jumped at the chance. We thought, “We’d be honored just to stand somewhere over in a dark corner of your booth just for the privilege of being included”
Then Seagate informed us that we weren’t going to be shuffled off to a remote area at the rear of the booth, we would actually occupy 15 feet of the main aisle …..oh, and please bring 4 laptops as rating stations... and yes please make a 6 foot big banner that reads “Rate Seagate Here”….and please provide the booth additional signage to promote the VendorRate independent rating service.
WOW! We would have been happy next to the outhouse, and Seagate put us in the penthouse!
I have always believed that customer satisfaction is essential to building a top notch company. but it has become even more apparent that the great corporations are serious… in fact, they are almost desperate… to learn how their customers really feel about them. Not only is customer satisfaction important as a way of improving business practices, it's a vital component in growing an organization. The best companies are looking for new methods to demonstrate to prospects that they dedicated to outstanding customer experience. I can think of no better way to prove a company’s excellence than by publishing the collective voice of their customer base. Believability comes not from merely disclosing the best customer comments, the most powerful form of credibility is established by presenting total customer feedback including the great and the mediocre. In fact, the presence of a few negative comments actually gives the positive ratings much more credence and authority.
Most importantly, the prospective purchaser can gain true and meaningful information when they can see all ratings including the good, the bad, and the ugly . And using VendorRate’s easy reporting functions, prospects can begin to see how “companies like me” feel about Seagate in order to make an informed vendor selection.. (By the way, stay tuned, there are some real whizbang announcements about VendorRate reporting coming soon.)
Our first partnership was the win/win/win we always knew it would be. Seagate won because they received solid customer feedback that was real, and the ratings did show that Seagate is not 100% perfect. Prospective customers win because they now have a trusted source of information about Seagate any time they want to open a browser. And VendorRate wins because we now have our first rating “partnership” with a vendor. And what a partner they are! Thanks to Sandra Davis, Bill Clark, Kristi Fitzpatrick, and the rest of the Seagate booth team.
Disclaimer- All ratings are posted on the VendorRate site regardless of favorable or unfavorable scoring. VendorRate does not accept any sponsorship, funding, advertising, or special treatment from vendors or partners. Rater name and company is 100% confidential.
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