The Anti-Social Reviews Site: Skweal Keeps Negative Customer Feedback Private

February 25, 2011 at 12:20 am PT

Tyler Crowley, who has long been tech rabble rouser Jason Calacanis’ right-hand man, is branching out and starting his own company. Called Skweal, it is a way for customers to give retailers feedback privately, rather than posting a negative review on a site like Yelp.

What’s funny is that Crowley, who was executive producer of Calacanis’ Launch Conference this week, did actually launch a product there, but it was not Skweal. Crowley demoed LinkPops, which overlays a user’s friends’ tweets about articles onto news sites. But he said afterwards that LinkPops was an idea he and a buddy put together on a whim in the week before the show.

Skweal, on the other hand, is something Crowley has been working on since last year. He said he will soon leave his full-time role as director of corporate development and strategy at Calacanis’ Mahalo to pursue Skweal.

Explaining his odd reluctance to show off Skweal to the home crowd, Crowley said he thought the Launch audience was more interested in consumer products, while Skweal is targeted at retailers.

What Crowley wants to do with Skweal is help retailers “keep negative feedback offline.” The site differs from the many user-generated feedback forums that give users the platform to publicly cast judgment and read each others’ posts–for instance the recently launched Tello, which invites users to review service providers, or Glassdoor, which has employees grade their workplace environments.

Skweal is much more like submitting a paper slip to a locked comment box. And I can see the appeal for us non-confrontational types who would feel more comfortable keeping gripes out of a public forum. But the problem for Skweal is how to attract and connect users and retailers.

Crowley’s solution is this: participating retailers tell customers via a sign or sticker to go to the Skweal Web site to leave feedback. Users offer a rating and comment along with their email address. Skweal disguises that email address and alerts the retailer to log onto a CRM dashboard to review the feedback and respond.

Skweal retailers can choose to get SMS alerts for instant feedback, and they can also see reviews laid out in charts that highlight problem locations and time slots.

If a retailer isn’t registered with Skweal (and of course, the majority currently aren’t), customers can still leave feedback. The company then uses “dark arts,” as Crowley described them, to track down contact information for the retailer, whether email, SMS or Twitter. Crowley deadpanned, “If they don’t respond, then we forward it to a competitor.”

Skweal is free for businesses and users, but retailers with more than one location will have to pay $1 per day per location.

Tagged with: Glassdoor, Jason Calacanis, Launch Conference, Mahalo, NetworkEffect, Skweal, Tello, Tyler Crowley, Yelp

comments so far. Add yours.

http://blogs.forrester.com/groundswell Josh Bernoff

Keeping negative feedback offline — that’s just not possible. Like online reputation management, this may sell a lot, but it won’t work.
http://www.alisoncummings.com/ Alison Cummings

Yes, seems like a step backward on the social media continuum – especially the offhand comment, “if they (retailers) don’t respond, then we forward it to a competitor.” May start out as a joke – but end up the fallback strategy.
http://www.LLsocial.com Josh Davis

I would use it. Especially if it was a business I already had a relationship with and didn’t want to out their error over social media.

Also people get tired of constant complaints on social networks. Every correctable slight or misstep doesn’t need to be broadcast.
Anonymous

This isn’t social at all. I’m not sure what it is. The threat that retailers who don’t respond will have their customers’ complaints sent to a competitor MIGHT force slightly better customer service for consumers, I guess…
http://skweal.com/about Skweal

Josh, Appreciate the healthy skepticism. Indeed keeping all negative feedback offline is simply not possible, nor is that our aim. What we do is provide retailers a platform to share with their customers to keep negative feedback private when the customer would like the convenient option to do so.
http://skweal.com/about Skweal

Indeed, most customers are only complaining over social media because it happens to be the most convenient way to do so. What we’re seeing is that customers prefer to use a private system assuming there is the same level of convenience.
http://skweal.com/about Skweal

Susan, you’re correct, this isn’t social at all, in fact you might even say that it’s ANTI-Social as the title of this post does. We are taking a somewhat radical approach to the issue of businesses being trashed online when no other alternative exists.
http://skweal.com/about Skweal

Hi Alison, it certainly may seem counter to the social continuum, but just as punk followed disco, now that grandma is on facebook, and used car salesmen are on twitter, privacy is the new cool.
http://twitter.com/MikeLosee Michael Losee

I see this as promoting one-on-one customer/retailer dialogue verses trying to stifle consumer ‘mass’ social media postings. If in fact it is the consumers goal to rectify the concern verses getting ‘likes’ for a public rant. :)
http://www.tourismkeys.ca/blog @Todd Lucier

Disappointed repeat customers and fans of a biz would use this! Crackpot trolls and first timers wouldn’t.
http://www.ryanborn.net ryanborn

A brilliant solution for retailers to receive positive reinforcement while curbing the negativity we see online. When someone leaves negative feedback on twitter by sending an @ reply to the company, it gets totally lost in the ether. Skeal sounds like a great solution and the “submitting a paper slip to a locked comment box” seems like the best win win for retailers and consumers to ultimately get what they want.
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=802868603 Aram Brazilian

I love this idea! If I have a bad experience, I would rather give the owners the benefit of the doubt and give them a chance to set things right – and it never hurts to know the owner!
Anonymous

Brilliant solution and other cool startup coming out of santa monica.
http://www.facebook.com/people/Venkat-Raman/1445905231 Venkat Raman

Not a bad idea. I guess there is nothing wrong in providing an avenue for private feedback at first. It will be cool if the feedback can be easily posted later on social network if the customer observes no improvement.

That would empower the business to clean up its act quietly and the customer to “threaten” negative publicity if such improvement is lacking. Of course this additional twist is only useful for repeat customers.

If such time-lapsed negative exposure (clearly attributed through skweal) starts to appear on social networks, posts by such authors would perhaps be more believed.
http://mikebracco.com/ Mike Bracco

It’s interesting that this solution is anti-social in nature. It certainly bucks the trend in that regard and potentially will attract companies who have previously shied away from social media for customer service.
http://www.facebook.com/Brian.E.Cooley Brian Cooley

Seems like idea is to give brands ability to create a better one-to-one way of sharing a bad experience vs. customers screaming it out loud online. If give a chance I’d prefer to complain directly to a brand and get a result then just whine via Yelp. Will it eliminate negative feedback offline — not entirely — but it gives customers an option.
Anonymous

I think I would be very interested to see this see the light of day. I can’t stand googling myself and seeing links pop up of me bitching about some crappy app I bought three years ago.
Anonymous

It’s nice to see a startup dig deep into the existing pains and needs of businesses and provide what seems like an elegant solution, while requiring so little in order for the business user to get started.

I wish someone was doing that for my business challenges by helping me service the people who are likely most important and critical for me to “wow” – my existing and repeat customers.
http://twitter.com/myke Myke Armstrong

This is a great idea
Anonymous

Congratulations Tyler!
Anonymous

Thanks for your comment to my comment, Skweal. I didn’t mean to make it sound like a criticism. More power to you–the more channels people have to communicate, the better. Social media isn’t everything. Good luck!
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=730306495 Anonymous

Love Skweal. Legit app.
http://twitter.com/jonmilani Jon Milani

The point is that Twitter, Facebook et al are not appropriate avenues to appease angry customers anyway. This lets the customer say their bit and the company to reply properly, instead of just ignoring or deleting comments in the case of Twitter or FB.
Anonymous

Nice idea – some people though are going to abuse it and are probably thinking about ways to get free stuff from restaurants…
http://en-gb.facebook.com/MichaelHraba Michael Joseph Hraba

this is very interesting. it’s intuitive to assume customers want validation of bad experiences, not to bitch about it online. I just want resolution…. most online reviews, honestly, should be brand advocacy… not negativity. No one asks for reccomendation of where “not to go”. They only want to know endorsed, solid options. the complaints are back end advice and help for businesses – and this resolves the HUGE disconnect between biz who want to hear negative thoughts in a safe environment and people who don’t really want to bitch about service, but just have it reconciled. Well done.
http://www.facebook.com/tylercrowley2 Tyler Crowley

Indeed, just like people illegally downloading mp3s, it’s simply not possible to stop them. However, when presented with an even simpler alternative (like Apple did with iTunes) people will generally do the right thing.

Happy to report that we’ve been able to reduce negative feedback for our clients, and in no cases has a client seen an increase in negative reviews.
http://twitter.com/T_Penney Tom Penney

That’s not how the Skweal website headlines it. It’s all about keeping it offline and the big sell favours the business owner not the consumer. Why tap a complaint into a smart phone when you can ask for the manager there and then?
http://twitter.com/T_Penney Tom Penney

If you already have a relationship with a brand why would you chose to provide feedback through a 3rd party? ‘Negative feedback’ helps companies improve their performance and helps other consumers make better decisions about where they spend their hard earned money. I for one want to know about other people’s experiences as part of my evaluation of a product or service I might purchase. Skweal makes it easy to take bad service underground leaving only the +ve biased feedback online. Skweal takes service back several steps = fail.

The Anti-Social Reviews Site: Skweal Keeps Negative Customer Feedback Private

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