Needham, Mass., May 18, 2009 – James T. Carroll, III, vice president of small business at the Hampton Roads (Va.) Chamber of Commerce and director of the Small Business Development Center (SBDC) of Hampton Roads, Inc., has significantly grown his customer base using RatePoint, Inc., a leading provider of customer feedback and online reputation management services.
“When dollars get tight, competition increases,” said Carroll, who is responsible for assisting more than 500 small-business clients in a variety of industries from 18 cities and counties. “When competition increases, the small differences between companies and their approaches to the market start to become more noticeable. Small businesses need to differentiate themselves through customer service and reputation.”
Carroll’s first-hand experience growing a business with reputation has increased the Hampton Roads SBDC’s visibility with prospective clients. Using RatePoint’s tools, the Hampton Roads SBDC is able to proactively ask for feedback and collect testimonials to strengthen its reputation with clients. The testimonials are featured in marketing materials for fundraising and used as a sales tool for prospective customers.
“As the nation celebrates Small Business Week, it’s important to note reputation is essential for any business but is critical for small businesses,” said Neal Creighton, co-founder and CEO of RatePoint. “Small businesses form the backbone of our economy, and RatePoint helps to propel them above the competition.”
In addition to customer testimonials, Carroll uses the full suite of services available through RatePoint, including email newsletters and survey tools.
RatePoint’s email signup widget allows the Hampton Roads SBDC to build its list of prospects and send a quarterly newsletter to connect with these prospects as well as clients. The organization collected 250 new contacts in four months, simply by adding the signup widget to its site with no additional effort.
Through RatePoint’s survey tool, the SBDC collects data more accurately and efficiently. The survey data gives Carroll the ability to understand what clients find useful and what could be changed to improve customer satisfaction.
“I want unvarnished data about how we are doing,” Carroll said. “The kind of customer honesty you get from RatePoint can open your eyes quickly to problems and new ideas. It has helped us immensely.”
About RatePoint:
RatePoint, Inc., the leading provider of customer feedback and online reputation management services, helps businesses protect and build their online reputation, allowing businesses to harness the power of credible customer feedback and leverage it into a sales, marketing and customer service asset.
RatePoint’s easy-to-use, Web-based communication services include customer feedback tools to collect business and product reviews, email marketing, survey and dispute resolution capabilities to provide small- and medium-sized businesses with the ability to collect, manage and promote customer feedback directly from their Web site. For more information, contact us at: 888-777-1636 or visit: www.ratepoint.com.