Should we rant and rave?

Well this is very interesting. You can now phone or text 66099 for free and tell them what you love or hate about any retailer or brand. Always plenty to say, I tried it myself. I “ranted” about the poor service I had received in a well known high street retailer recently. Within a couple of minutes my “rant” was there for all to see on the website, (www.66099.co.uk) which also assured me that I had been entered into a draw to win £50 of vouchers for my efforts.

Rant and Rave has been set up by a company called Rapide and it is free to both shoppers and retailers; 300 retailers have already signed up. The system collects all feedback, good and bad, allowing retailers to sign up and create an account so that they can regularly monitor any “noise” about themselves.

On scanning through recent entries I can see that the likes of Sainsbury’s, Tesco, Costa, B&Q and Pret a Manger are all there to name a few. The service clearly needs to build its awareness further to develop real momentum and I think this is entirely possible.

So just how is this relevant to you? Well, I think it just might be for many retailers, small and large. You want to know what your customers think of you but perhaps they don’t always tell you honestly to your face. Many would prefer not to tell the company directly at all. To have a simple and anonymous system that allows comments to be collated could be really useful indeed. It struck me that any retailer (even the smallest of sweet shops) could advertise Rant and Rave in their shop, “Tell us what you think of us, text or call 66099 for free!” On creating a free account, the retailer can then monitor all of the comments that come in. How useful!

Rant and Rave could just work. We all like to be heard but we don’t always want to tell the retailer directly. But this is just the sort of information that retailers want to collect – whatever you retail. If you could have a better insight into your shoppers’ thoughts (good and bad) it could really help you to steer your ship through what are quite tricky waters these days.

For further information take a look at www.rantandrave.com

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