Honest feedback helping business

STAYING IN TOUCH: Russell Herd of Working Feedback is flanked by Meteor Office Products Depot (OPD) general manager Richard McCosh (left) and OPD managing director Warren Ruscoe.PHOTO/BEVAN CONLEY

Honest feedback from their customers is paying dividends for at least one Whanganui business.

Meteor Office Products Depot (OPD) is using support services provided by Working Feedback to find out just what their clients think of their services.

Working Feedback was set up by Russell Herd in the city 16 months ago.

Mr Herd has been away from Whanganui for 20 years but for the past six of those has been a director of a London-based online firm providing client feedback to businesses.

"We're a company providing businesses with the means to gather feedback from their clients' experience of them as a business; finding out what they are doing well, and more importantly, what they can do better," he said.

They supply and control the feedback mechanism by way of online and offline forms, to gather and verify all feedback, testimonials and referrals.

Working Feedback then publishes testimonials through social media channels. These testimonials are then uploaded to the individual business's website.

Mr Herd said his company had gone from strength to strength and has a client base in Whanganui, Wellington, Te Awamutu, Taupo and Auckland.

Meteor OPD took out the service last year and since then has received no less than 50 reviews from satisfied clients.

Richard McCosh, Meteor OPD general manager, said the Whanganui store was part of the Office Products Depot Group, the largest independent business to business supplier of office products in New Zealand.

"We're committed to delivering the best service, regardless of business size or location. And we're as passionate about our customers' businesses as we are of our own," Mr McCosh said.

"Working Feedback service supports this philosophy by capturing client feedback showing potential customers how satisfied their current customers are with the service they are providing. Knowing what works well and what doesn't for your business within the eyes of the customer themselves is extremely valuable for any business.

He said the Working Feedback method works "amazingly well" because it was an independent company collecting the responses with no incentive for the customer other than providing honest feedback.

"A customer can if they wish provide feedback completely anonymously. We welcome all feedback positive or constructive, but we've had nothing other than positive so far," Mr McCosh said.

Mr Herd said he was excited to see the system benefiting local businesses.

"Our relationship with Meteor is the pinnacle of our early success here in New Zealand and is a great example of how the system can benefit a business."

-For further information on Working Feedback contact russell@workingfeedback.co.nz.