User:Angiemaza

ListenPort (formerly CriticMania) is a feedback communication platform that allows customers to express evaluation or criticism to an organization in real time. It "is a modern take on the customer comment card/survey that is initiated by the consumer. For business owners, it’s a tool to engage customers and track feedback to improve customer service." It allows a private exchange between the customer and a business and avoids possible negative consequences of online review sites.

Hulya Aksu, a publisher and entrepreneur in Northern Virginia, established ListenPort in 2013. Aksu created the platform as an alternative to online review websites like Yelp that can be harmful to businesses. The idea for ListenPort materialized when she was texting her husband about the service at a restaurant and imagined the possibility of texting the restaurant manager directly about her experience. Some of the benefits of ListenPort include: not having to download an app, anonymity, instantaneity, and customer feedback and improved customer service without the use of a third-party website. For business owners, ListenPort's dashboard tracks the feedback and allows business to "update their social media pages with positive comments from customers." It also allows them to intercept any unfavorable feedback and remedy the problem before an online review is attempted by a dissatisfied customer. For both customers and business owners, feedback can be submitted or received "at anytime, from anywhere."

In the healthcare field, ListenPort's benefits are particularly useful and relevant, given new legislation under the ACA, which has shifted from a pay-for-service model to pay-for performance. In 2014, Listen Port expanded services to include feedback in the healthcare industry. Currently, over 300 registered businesses are using the ListenPort portal.

In 2014, ListenPort was named as a finalist in the Technology category of the Small Business Awards presented by the Loudoun County Chamber of Commerce.

Awards

 * Small Business Award, Technology category, Loudon Country Chamber of Commerce