We’ve talked about some great startups lately that function in the customer feedback space. Entrepreneurs continue to try and streamline the process of getting store owner to know what store customer thinks, quick and efficiently. Long gone are the days that $10 off at Denny’s for calling a survey line, actually gets results.

Customer feedback is critical and it needs to happen quickly because these days people are looking for things to happen at the speed of the net.

Instagripe provides a platform that allows businesses to achieve “insanely responsive customer service”.   Like most other business segments founders are finding that customer service can be achieved quickest via mobile phone. Now a customer still in an establishment, can provide much needed feedback.

With Instagripe a customer can be anonymous if they’d like and they can also provide feedback instantly through their smartphone. Instagripe also allows you to leave feedback based on geo-location.

We got a chance to interview Instagripe’s Josh Payne. Check out the interview below:

What is Instagripe?

Instagripe provides a platform that allows businesses to achieve “insanely responsive customer service”. We achieve this by allowing consumers to voice their feedback in seconds, without friction or confrontation. Businesses receive the ability to react quickly to customer service issues, and monitor the pulse of the customer across multiple locations. By leveraging mobile technology, we speed up to response cycle, often enabling front line staff to resolve issues before a customer leaves the store.

In the past, dealing with customer complaints (or compliments) was a tedious activity that required determination and patience. The fact is that most people simply didn’t bother writing an email, calling a customer service number, or requesting to speaking to a manager. All of those options are not only inefficient, but tend to irritate the customer further. As a result, only the most extreme feedback ends up getting reported.

InstaGripe gives the customer a chance to pull out their phone and provide feedback within a few seconds; our use of GPS technology quickly identify their current location, and provide the appropriate feedback. Our platform will then route this information to the store manager, who can address the issue. Users can choose to remain anonymous, or provide their email address if they want a response. Businesses that we are working with love the chance to deal with issues at the source, instead of pouring resources into fire-fighting social media outbreaks.

For the business, the negative (gripes) and positive (kudos) feedback, is not only delivered to individual locations, but also aggregated and delivered to regional and corporate level management as a series of operational dashboards. This allows larger organizations to pinpoint systemic issues, or underperforming locations. From our initial research, it was clear that this level of insight was highly valuable, but also necessary to ensure brand consistency and internal quality standards.

Who are the founders and what are their backgrounds?

Instagripe was grew out of an idea proposed at a recent Startup Weekend in Las Vegas. http://lasvegas.startupweekend.org/. As a result, the team formed in a rather unconventional way, with most of us having never met before. The concept and product developed over the next 54 hours, culminating in a presentation and live demo of the mobile app that same Sunday evening.

Currently, our team consists of the following members:

 

David Fisher – Team Lead

David Berger – Mobile Developer

Aslam Jamal – Technical Product Manager

Ralitza Iankova – UI Designer

Joshua Payne – Graphic Designer/Social Media/PR

Reuben Burda – Platform Developer

Sasha Couch – Project coordinator

Daniel Herr – Business Development

Henry Lin – Developer

Ryan Rakib – Marketing

Aaron Ho – Marketing

The diversity of skills and raw size of the team is an unusual advantage relative to most startups, and we seem to have taken advantage of that so far.

Where are we based?

Our team is mostly based in Las Vegas, with some members in Los Angeles and Denver. As a result, we all work “in the cloud” and utilize the appropriate tools to improve productivity and communication.

What’s the startup scene/culture like where you’re based?

VegasTech is quickly becoming a new buzzword. The downtown area of Las Vegas is being revitalized to cater to a rapidly growing tech startup community. We have received nothing but support and love from the organizers and drivers of the #VegasTech scene. Initiatives like like the @InNEVation center and @VegasJelly have really started to push things in the right direction.

How did you come up with the idea for InstaGripe?

The initial idea pitch was made by David Berger on the first night of Startup Weekend. David has personally been the victim of countless bad service experiences and wanted to do something to fix it. We have all experienced bad service at a restaurant, and we almost always shrug it off and “deal with it”, silently wishing we could do something about it. We think we have found the balance that empowers the consumer while enabling the business to improve. Our focus is around executing this novel idea and bringing it to market in a way that benefits both consumers and businesses.

What problem does InstaGripe solve?

Instagripe makes it easier and more efficient for consumers to communicate directly to the local businesses they interact with on an everyday basis. The amount of time it typically takes to provide customer feedback to the restaurant is far more inconvenient than it should be. Writing emails are somewhat cumbersome and require the customer to restate the entire situation, in addition response times can vary between hours and days. Phone calls are even more of a hassle as it often requires navigating a series of prompts and talking to someone far away who doesn’t have a vested interest in solving your problem. Suggestion boxes and surveys seem to annoy most people even more.

The InstaGripe mobile app auto will collect the key information around a customer service incident, and while allowing the user to quickly give a short “tweet” like description. The entire process can be completed in under 30 seconds. If customers feel like submitting feedback is easy, they will likely submit more feedback more often, allowing the business the ability to adapt and improve their products and services.

What’s your secret sauce?

Our secret sauce is that our team is formed of people from very different backgrounds. Each one of us bring something different to the table.

What’s one dilemma you’ve encountered in the startup process?

Distance between members of the team is a challenge at times. Sometimes it’s desirable to meet in person, as email and Skype can only go so far. Most of us also have other commitments, so balancing these requires effort as well.

What’s one challenge you’ve overcome in the startup process?

One of the toughest challenges we faced was creating a working prototype in less than 48 hours. We accomplished that during startup weekend and are very proud of the fact that we took 3rd place.

What’s the first thing you would do for InstaGripe with a one million dollar investment?

To be honest, we would probably turn down an investment that size at this point. Although we admittedly could benefit from some seed funding, our business is being structured to be cashflow positive from very early on. We expect this early revenue to fund growth within the company.

What’s next for InstaGripe?

We will be releasing the “beta” of our mobile app to the public in the coming weeks. As a company that is focused on customer feedback, you’d better believe we’ll be listening to what consumers and businesses have to say about us! Beyond that, we will be putting a lot of focus on refining the backend analytics and dashboards for our corporate customers.

Linkage:

Check out Instagripe here

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