

Introducing Square Feedback - tqn
http://blog.squareup.com/posts/introducing-square-feedback/

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davidu
One way to look at this is that Square is responding to the pain points of
small business owners (who generally dislike Yelp) even for things not
directly payments related.

But another, more cynical, way to view this is that Square has hired a lot of
great talent, raised a bunch of cash, and outside of the payments business
which is growing and humming, there isn't enough to do there, or they aren't
growing fast enough, so they are just doing a bunch of experiments. It's rare
that we get to watch a company just iterate through a bunch of different
products so publicly / quickly.

I'm not saying it's bad, but it certainly seems to lack some sort of cohesion
or focus; unless that cohesion is "help all small businesses."

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joshmlewis
Here is a better link:
[https://squareup.com/feedback](https://squareup.com/feedback).

I believe this is good for small businesses because it a.) let's you have
another direct communication channel with your customers besides the
extortionists that are Yelp, etc. and b.) it let's you know that this customer
has bought x amount of goods, I should listen to their input. A lot of times
small businesses can't associate the dollar amount someone brings in with
their customer service and this gives a very clear dashboard of just that. It
really puts customer service first in a way but I would imagine the ones
paying for such a service already do care about their customers.

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Axsuul
Often times feedback is best left anonymously which allows the honest truth to
come out. We run a home services company and have experienced this sentiment.
Our customers won't likely leave a review for our contractors unless it
couldn't be traced back to them. It's a bit different from Square but
nonetheless, it's something that should have some sort of effect on Square's
end.

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hansy
Square isn't soliciting reviews for the small business, but instead private
feedback. Should the customer subsequently go out and write a review
(anonymous or not), the thought process is that the review may be influenced
(hopefully positively) by the customer service.

This is a proactive approach to customer reviews as opposed to a reactive one.

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mattste
I did a write-up yesterday about why Square Wallet failed. I listed the
receipt not living up to its full potential as one of the reasons. Their
receipts should be a source of interaction between the merchant and customer.
Good to see this announced today.

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telot
Square certainly has put in the time to understand small business owners
pains, and it shows with this new feature. I'm not quite sure how this "takes
control" of your online reputation. Maybe you could catch a hate-spewer before
they hop on yelp? In my experience people make snap judgements and often post
their negative review while at the establishment on their smart phones (e.g.
while waiting for their slow hostess or something).

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jakozaur
Most of small business lacks of any feedback communicate channel other than
public one. Private channel might help.

Also associating client with receipt is a huge win. Business may offer some
compensation, like discount coupon.

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pgt
I launched Krit, [http://krit.com/](http://krit.com/), in 2011, but struggled
to gain traction in South Africa. I'm not sure how to feel about Square
Feedback.

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clamchowderz
Glad to see Square taking a proactive approach to customer service.

