TruRating, Verifone Deal Highlights Importance of Customer Feedback Data

In a move that highlights just how important customer feedback data has become to mid-size businesses, the global payments and commerce juggernaut Verifone recently announced that it’s partnering with TruRating, a comparatively small but influential customer insight company that specializes in point-of-sale customer feedback solutions.

Founded just four years ago, TruRating has developed a reputation as a strong player in the hyperlocal community. The company’s point-of-sale feedback software generates real-time customer sentiment tied to spend, with insights based on a large sample size of feedback, both in-store and online.

Verifone, on the other hand, is a longtime giant in the payment and commerce space. With solutions aimed primarily at retail and hospitality businesses, Verifone has grown to become one of the world’s largest point-of-sale terminal vendors. The company now operates in more than 150 countries and employs almost 6,000 people.

Like so many other payment processors, Verifone has worked to become more than just a payment processor in the past few years, while also adapting to a changing retail market. Businesses today are asking for more customer data and insights based on that data. Earlier this year, the company announced the launch of an out-of-the-box payment solution for small businesses called Verifone Connect, which enables payment acceptance and includes a number of merchant- and consumer-facing apps designed to help merchants run their businesses more efficiently.

With a partnership in place between TruRating and Verifone, merchants that use Verifone’s Verifone Connect solution can now access the TruRating application and start learning more from their existing customers.

“This partnership will allow thousands of merchants to connect with the customers they don’t normally hear from and gain insights to make smarter, more informed business decisions,” said Georgina Nelson, CEO of TruRating, in a release from the company.

So how exactly does it work? Merchants using Verifone Connect can ask quick questions, which shoppers see when they use the payment terminal at checkout. These questions usually encompass the customer experience, including service, atmosphere, and product.

Asking customers for feedback while they’re at the POS generates exceptionally high response rates—TruRating boasts that it has an industry-leading 88% response rate—and it also allows businesses to gather information in real-time. The platform aims to get information from the ‘silent majority’ of customers who would not usually leave feedback on public review websites like Yelp.

By partnering with Verifone, TruRating is rapidly expanding its footprint in the small- and mid-size retail market. The TruRating platform has been live in the Verifone Connect ecosystem for North American users since last week, with plans still in the works to make it available to businesses in the UK, Australia, and New Zealand by the end of the year.

Stephanie Miles is a senior editor at Street Fight.