Small-business customer service tools: Social media, surveys
— -- Small businesses are using technology to help them operate more efficiently and cost-effectively in an increasingly competitive environment. Each Monday, USA TODAY looks at new ways companies are gaining an innovative edge in a tough economy.
SAN FRANCISCO — Happy Goat has a cult following among caramel lovers, but it doesn't know whether its high-end sweets will appeal to the palates and wallets of people everywhere in the U.S.
So the candymaker has turned to people far from its kitchen here to learn where taste buds might bite for its handmade caramels and sauce, crafted from the milk of goats. Instead of hiring an expensive consulting company or tackling a months-long customer survey, the three-person candy concern turned to SurveyMonkey, an online provider of surveys.
Online surveys and social-media information have become the de facto research tools of the digital era's fast-moving small businesses. Proponents say such surveys — which used to require a lot of time and money — are now cheap, quick and do-it-yourself online.
That's driving a growing industry for online surveys, which last year climbed 4% from 2010 to $2.4 billion worth of business in the U.S., according to industry tracker Inside Research. In fact, the online survey space is crowded with other players, including SurveyGizmo, Qualtrics and Google Consumer Surveys.
Happy Goat founder and "chief executive goat" Michael Winnike, 29, wants to expand his caramel business beyond its roots in specialty markets and figures not everyone in the U.S. will pony up for feel-good caramel just because it is not subjected to pesticides, growth hormones or antibiotics.
The company, which also has an online store, wants to grow from an estimated $250,000 in sales this year to about $1 million in the next 18 months, and boost its distribution presence from 500 retail stores to 2,000. Winnike is counting on customer surveys, in part, to help guide that expansion.
"It's given us access to information that we wouldn't get by other means," says Winnike. That data, he says, will help Happy Goat determine which retail chains should carry its caramel. "Unless we can get our product to a price point and packaging point that can service those chains, we'll never get in those places."
Survey results also showed Winnike that shoppers care more about the flavor and quality of his confections than his caramel's use of organic and all-natural ingredients. "Play up the premium and the flavor and quality — that's what it's telling us," he says.
Happy Goat is just one of hundreds of small businesses using SurveyMonkey to glean valuable customer data. Founded in 1999, SurveyMonkey has 14 million registered users. Members can create survey questions to quickly post on blogs, websites, Facebook or Twitter. "You're creating the data and analyzing it," says SurveyMonkey CEO Dave Goldberg. "It's a really big space helping people make decisions."
Sizing surveys
Men's clothing website Bonobos, like Happy Goat, has relied on customer input to build its business. Bonobos, launched in 2007 as a company committed to eliminating "khaki diaper butt" from men's pants, specializes in using customer feedback to design better-fitting clothes.
Popular Reads
ABC News Live