customers

When we started Angie's List in 1995 — going door-to-door in Columbus, OH to find reliable contractors for my co-founder's home — our goals were simple: recruit members and collect reviews. After 16 years and millions of reviews, we are still in the same game.

Customers want to talk. And it doesn't matter what you are — small plumbing service or Fortune 500 — feedback matters. Turning testimonials into a tool rather than a threat takes understanding. Understand what your customers are saying, where they are saying it, and (most important) why they are saying it.

Two thousand years before smartphones, Plato suggested that excessive democracy would lead directly to tyranny, because sooner or later the majority will choose to trample the rights of the minority.