Thursday, April 8, 2010

Mob4Hire launches Version 4.0 of award-winning community platform after a year in development

I have been swept up into a whirlwind of activity with a company for which I am an advisor. This micro-multinational company, Mob4Hire, is the largest real world, crowd sourced testing and market research company for mobile applications. We have been working on new service offerings and a new platform that helps mobile software companies make better mobile apps.

Mob4Hire Version 4.0 offers mobile functional and usability testing, as well as product and market research using its crowd of over 40,000 mobile users in 150 countries. This provides valuable opportunities for mobile app and website developers, advertising executives, product managers, market researchers, marketing teams and developer networks / app stores of handset and network operators to reach global users and include user feedback in the mobile development cycle. This results in a good user experience which in turn drives recommendations, top store rankings, discoverability, and ultimately, viral revenue growth.

Mob4Hire Version 4.0 includes four crowd-sourced products:

  • MobTest: "Real World Mobile Testing"; Functional and Usability testing for mobile apps on thousands of handsets worldwide
  • MobSurvey: "Mobile Surveys. Global Panels."; The easiest way to ask mobile enthusiasts around the world just about anything
  • MobExperience: "Make Better Apps. Get 5 Star Reviews."; Customer Loyalty Research and Usability Testing BEFORE developers release their mobile apps
  • MobAccelerator: "Get Discovered. Hit The Top 10 lists. Go Big."; Customer Loyalty Research coupled with instore user experience, discoverability and marketing research

Read the press release for all the details regarding the new platform and product offerings.

Friday, April 2, 2010

Toyota's roadmap to recovery

I was asked, along with four other contributors, to share our thoughts regarding what companies could learn from the recent Toyota recalls. My contribution focused on customer feedback and how to ensure companies can keep their customers loyal. My portion of the article can be found here. The entire article, including thoughts of other contributors, appears in the April 2010 edition of Quality Progress.

Excerpt:
BRAND LOYALTY: Feedback Best Practices Keep Customers Coming Back by Bob E. Hayes
Toyota’s recalls—and the subsequent media blitz surrounding customer reaction, the automaker’s handling of the recall and the Congressional hearings with company executives—have deleteriously affected the company’s reputation for delivering high-quality vehicles. As a result, customer loyalty has taken a hit.

Toyota’s U.S. sales dropped 9% in February 2010 compared to the previous year, while Ford, GM, Nissan, Honda and Hyundai reported double-digit growth in the same time period. Toyota now faces a monumental task: regaining the trust and loyalty of existing customers and potential new ones... >>read more.