IT Vendor Raves

Year 1 - Our biggest surprise about B2B customer satisfaction

Our first year live has been very rewarding, but it hasn't come without a few bumps and bruises along the way. I'd like to share the biggest lesson we learned in 2008.

We were absolutely surprised at level of resistance we encountered with IT vendors about transparency.  We expected companies with strong levels of customer satisfaction to want to differentiate themselves. Instead, most shied away from having customer feedback viewed in the public arena.

I'll never forget an early meeting with one of the largest tech vendors in the world.  The director of corporate product marketing was gung ho to leverage VendorRate scores to attract new customers. However, the person responsible for market intelligence was petrified and vetoed collaboration with us. Here's the real kicker... this company already had a number of customer ratings, and their overall scores were great!   I guess we stressed vendor independence too much J

What does this mean to IT departments?  99% of vendors will tell you they are committed to customer satisfaction, yet only a handful share their information when they don't control the information flow.

 If you want to be able to discover the whole truth about your IT vendors, it's up to you to share your vendor experiences in every independent forum you can. The vendors just aren't going to give you the complete picture. You'll be making decisions based on incomplete information, and that can spell disaster. 

You can demand to "know the score", viewing customer satisfaction feedback about every vendor before you buy.  Finally, you can utilize independent evaluations to maximize the terms in your next contract negotiation.

It's time for the collective voice of the business IT customer to be heard without vendor influence. It’s up to you.

You should have been here on day 1. (Sample size part 2)

We’ve come a long way as we close our first year.  In the first month after going live, we collected a mere 65 ratings. Now that was thin soup indeed.  Early on, most our ratings came from trade shows including Voice Over Network , RSA's annual show, and Interop.  Today, the majority of our ratings come from members of industry associations via the web.   Next year, we plan to expand our outreach to the tech community via regional user groups.

 

We have now collected 4,000+ evaluations from the most reputable companies around the globe, and our data becomes more reliable as rating volume grows.  A friend of mine used to say " You can't make a 10 year old bottle of wine in 2 years."  We've taken a more planned, patient approach to acquiring ratings, choosing to emphasize  the quality of rating information instead of quantity.  So our data keeps getting better and better.   The scores now offer viable points of reference.   And as more people rate, the lines separating exceptional, average, and poor levels of customer satisfaction become clearer.

 

Please help contribute to the betterment of the entire IT community by rating IT and telecom vendors you work with at your business.  Your voice matters, but we always keep your name and company confidential. Whisper your experience with us, and we'll shout it to the world.     

 These vendor scores are treasure maps that point to valuable information. You’ll discover that with just a little digging ( we provide the shovel), the more you’ll find the buried "gold" you need to make more informed IT purchasing decisions and negotiate better contract terms.

Sample size - Part 1

Small Business IT weekly is less than thrilled that many of our vendors don't have lots of ratings.  http://sbitweekly.com/2008/12/online-reviews-great-idea-typically-poor-results/

 

We get asked about sample size validity frequently. We originally quoted research from MIT and Georgetown that concluded sample sizes between 8-18 responses were considered statistically valid for online reputation systems. But there was always an academic in the crowd who wanted to debate research methodology, statistics, or just generally try to argue about the VendorRate process. Crowdsource models experience this kind of feedback all the time. 

 

Who are they really arguing with? VendorRate represents the collective voice of thousands of IT and telecom professionals who took the time to help the community by sharing their experience. We validate the business identify of the rater, keep the score, and report on what they share with us. Before anyone implies that we might have some sort of vendor relationship, or that PR departments are seeding the ratings, they might want to ask us first. Instead, I had to respond to their blog to clear up any misconceptions.  

 

These rating scores are what IT professionals tell us about their vendors. We display all ratings that meet our criteria, regardless of the impact on vendors.  Our confidential process has earned praise from major trade associations and publications.  These groups recommend us for what we are, a reliable (not perfect) resource that companies should check before they buy.

We have a saying at VendorRate. “In the land of the blind, a one-eyed man is king.” In other words, even if the model isn’t always perfect, it can still have great value. These are real ratings from verified IT professionals. You can learn from them.

Read their comments, drill down to see how small vs. large companies evaluated a vendor.  Check out how different job types experience the same vendor.  Do customers in one region receive better customer service than another region? 

 

Our rating members are IT and telecom professionals, sharing their real world expertise with you. Don’t toss out these valuable voices of experience merely because you need more volume. Rating information grows every month. And hey, why not give a B2B startup a break? :)  Remember, we provided rating information free of charge all year.

2008 Top Rated Vendor Report

We’ve released our first year end report of top rated vendors for 2008. http://www.vendorrate.com/News/2008-12-15-VendorRate-Annual-Report.pdf

Our model is based on customer feedback, not internal analysis. We display summary satisfaction scores for IT and telecom vendors based on ratings we receive without editorial comment. Even our report titles have headings such as top rated vendors and lowest rated vendors, not best or worst vendor. 

For first annual report, the VendorRate team decided to momentarily step out from behind the curtain to share who we think were the best vendor and reseller based on rating scores, the caliber of the rater, and verbal feedback we received throughout the year. After all, we don’t just see the numbers everyone views on our website, we also know the identity of the raters, and we get to speak with thousands of attendees at trade shows, seminars, and industry events. By the way, we only offered our opinion for Vendor and Reseller of the Year. The remainder of the 2008 year-end report summarizes ratings entered by verified IT and telecom professionals since VendorRate went live in March of 2008.

When our Q4 report is released in mid-January, we’ll go back to letting the voice of the customer do all the talking. We’re much more comfortable staying behind the scenes while collecting and tabulating the opinions of IT professionals.