On Point

Apple iPhone customer satisfaction survey

Ever since the Apple iPhone was announced by Steve Jobs, it has been a constant source of discussion here in the Viewpoints Network office.  One of our web designers was among the first in line at the Chicago Apple store and upon using it for a day he declared in his review "This Will Change Everything" .  Since then we have had 140 other Viewpoints members review the iPhone and 51% of those gave it five stars and it received an average of 4.26 which is very good, but not with out complaints.

So, because we are curious little critters, we decided to poll the 140 people who had written their reviews and ask them to complete a survey on their satisfaction with the phone now that they have had more time to really use it.  Had the luster worn off?  Was the bloom off the rose? Or, was Kyle right.  Did it change everything?

So the first thing we did was the survey.  Click here to see the all the questions we asked.   (feel free to take the survey yourself!) We had about a 20% response rate to the survey request, which while maybe a research professional might think we need a larger sample size, we think this is a pretty good indication of what iPhone users think.   One obvious self selection bias here is that we only surveyed people who took the time to write a review of their iPhone. In the interest of complete transparency here are the full results.   

I have attached the press release we wrote up on this but let me first highlight a few of things that really jumped out at me:

1. Right off the bat an impressive 88% of people said that the Apple iPhone exceeded their expectations. For a product with incredibly high expectations that is pretty amazing.
2. What is even more amazing, is that 70% of the respondents said they told everyone they knew about their iPhone.  70%! wow. And 65% of the respondents report that at least one person purchased on as a result of their endorsement.  In Kyle's case it just might have been 20+.
3. I was also surprised to see that 72% of the respondents said that they were already an AT&T customer.   What that says to me is that when people start rolling off their two year commitments with Verizon the iPhone is likely to see another bump in sales.

We also surveyed non iPhone customers so that we had a benchmark.  The levels of satisfaction are about the same with a 4+ rating at 69% for non iPhone customers vs 74% for iPhone customers.  I was shocked to read that 50% of the respondents had not had any exposure to the iPhone.  However, I do think it bodes well for Apple that 15% of our non iPhone respondents stated their intention to buy one in the next 12 months.

Download apple_iphone_press_release_from_viewpoints.com.pdf  

New video about the Viewpoints Community

For the past several months I have been looking for a way to better communicate our core value proposition to both prospective reviewers and members of the press.  Since starting Viewpoints In August of 2006 our vision has remained consistent.  We want to put the reviewer on a pedastel and help feature their personality so that readers could better appreciate where they are coming from.  When you are reading reviews, don't you really want to find reviews from people like you?  You have particular in books, movies, restaurants, and very specific needs when it comes to buying a car, picking a school and even finding a home service contractor.   So, you tell me, does this video help communicate that vision?

Viewpoints Fox News Chicago Story

In mid December Fox News Chicago ran a segment about the Viewpoints launch party.  As you can see we had a lot of fun.  Thanks to Mark Saxemeyer from Fox News for coming out and putting this together.  And of course thanks to all the reviewers who came in from all across the country!

Viewpoints.com official launch!

Today we are having our official launch party.  Last week we finished a major overhaul to the site and integrated a strategic partner into the site. (currently unannounced... can you find them?)

It has now been just over a year since the whole team came together.  I am very proud of both the product, the company and the team we have built.  We launched our private beta in February, public beta on April 30th and our official 1.0 version on Sept 13th.  We now have what I belive is a first class, competitive user driven reviews site.   The next year will be all about innovation, differentiation and scale.   We believe reviews are at there most useful when the reader knows more about the reviewer.  We hope you agree and see the power in what we are building.

Be sure to take a look around the site to see how things are shaping up.  Check out some of these great reviews in  Electronics, Travel, Home & Garden or on the lighter side see what TV Shows, Movies,  Music or Books you could discover.  Of course we also have a great section for Local Places that features local Restaurants, Shopping, and even local Doctors & Hospitals.

See you on the site!  http://www.viewpoints.com/aboutme/Matt

New feature on Viewpoints

It's been a while since this blog has seen a post and there is just no excuse for that.  We're busy, but we will do better.  So, here is the latest...

We've been hard at work on a number of new features, but I thought I'd highlight our new Email Preferences feature, since we're particularly happy with it.  In a nutshell, it gives our members complete control over what types of emails they get from us and how frequently they are sent.  That might not sound breakthrough, but when you consider how few sites give you choice over how they communicate with you, we think it's a big deal.

We're still working out some minor kinks, but here is an overview of the new Email Preferences feature:

• You can get real-time, daily, weekly or monthly emails whenever someone makes a comment on one of your reviews or sends you a compliment. 

• If you have a particular category or sub-category of reviews you are interested in (like books) you can get daily, weekly or monthly emails for the top-rated items and most helpful reviews in that category.

• You can choose to get emails whenever someone on your Friends List posts a review. 

There are some other options too, all of which you can set by visiting the "Email" tab on your My Profile page.  Best of all, you can change your preferences anytime you want.  And for you RSS fans, all of these options are available for you, too. 

We'll be cranking out new features all summer and we welcome your feedback on what you'd like to see next.  So don't be shy about dropping us a line!

Launch day is upon us!

I am pleased, excited and overjoyed to report that Sunday night, April 29, 2007 at 10:50pm was the official launch of Viewpoints.com.  Last night the entire team went to dinner (The Weber Grill in Chicago) and enjoyed a well deserved meal of steaks, drinks and deserts.  I think our team has created something special and we are proud to share it with the world.  However, we don't view it as a finished product.  In fact, we don't even consider it version 1.0.   We still have lots of ideas and important features that need to be built into the platform.  And, of course, we have lots to learn from the feedback of all of our users.

As I write this however, I realize that when I say "our team" I should realy include the 100+ reviewers who wrote more than 1,200 reviews in the last 8 weeks.  Their commitment, dedication and enthusiasim has been fantastic.  They have helped nurture the start of a community and create something special.  Thanks to our Publisher's Circle Jo, Patty, Libby,  Anne, Gamera23, Cat, CyndiA, Bryan, Matt, LaurieM , bkovacs,  ChrisJarmick, Nicole, and Niki. 

You guys are awesome!  I have found great new movies, a planter for our porch,  great new hotels and new vacation destinations. 

I feel fortunate to work with such a great group of people both here in the office and across the world.  Together, we are going to build something very special.

Welcome to On Point

This blog is being launched by the employees of Viewpoints Network to share our collective thoughts and opinions and hear those of our reviewers, readers and viewers.  From time to time we will use this forum to comment on events happening on our site, in the review space at large or in the news.  We will also use this forum as one way of collecting feedback from our members.  We encourage you to subscribe to the feed, to the e-mail or just visit from time to time.

Thanks,
Matt Moog