When Microsoft (Nasdaq:MSFT) wanted to know what people thought of its new Windows Phone, it contracted Tiipz, a B.C. startup, to use its mico-polling application at a series of launch events.
Landing a client like Microsoft has helped the Squamish-based developer gain almost instant credibility.
“We’ve queued up a couple of fairly large clients since then,” said co-founder and CEO Jason Cyr. “It seems like as soon as you have a client like Microsoft, everybody starts listening to you.”
Tiipz also recently landed a contract with the Calgary Flames to do micro-polling during games.
“The take-up on the first two games has been sensational,” said Flames vice-president of sales Rollie Cyr, who is also Jason Cyr’s uncle.
For the Flames surveys, Tiipz uses QR codes, which fans scan with their smartphones and are prompted to take a survey, for which they receive gifts (jerseys future games tickets, etc.).
Tiipz allows the Flames to survey fans in specific areas of the arena and get instant responses. Respondents can also increase the value of their prizes by agreeing to provide personal information that allows the Flames to collect important demographic data.
Cyr and co-founder Mark Nickson started the company in July 2010 and raised $525,000 through friends, family and angel investors. The startup, which employs 11 people and four contractors, is raising another $500,000 through private investment.
Tiipz allows users like Microsoft or the Flames to use social media, gaming and mobile apps to regularly harvest “micropinions” from consumers.
“We’re trying to do with market research or polling or surveys what Twitter did with blogs, and that’s create very bite-sized, real-time pieces of information,” Cyr said. “By no means are we trying to replace market research, but one thing that’s missing is the relationship factor.
“If I get called to do a phone survey, there’s no relationship building between me and the brand. Rather than doing one survey a year to figure out what people think, on social media we’re constantly interested in what you think.”
Whistler Blackcomb – one of Tiipz’ first clients – regularly conducts traditional paper surveys with skiers on the slopes. But it also has 86,000 fans on its Facebook page. Using Tiipz, the resort is now regularly interacting with those fans.
It does so by posing questions on Facebook about products or services, and offers rewards – coupons, for example – to anyone who answers the question. To answer, the respondent has to agree to sign up for Tiipz. Once permission is granted, Tiipz installs its app on the Facebook page, which allows the fan to participate in surveys and collect rewards.
“Using Tiipz enables us to gauge customer feedback in different channels – channels that people are using every day, like Facebook,” said Amber Turnau, Whistler Blackcomb’s social media strategist. “We have a huge audience on Facebook, and we want to know more about their opinions about our products.”
Every January the resort holds a photography contest. This year, it plans to use Tiipz to gets its Facebook fans to vote for the winners.
Because so many people now use tablets and smartphones to go online, Tiipz has developed a mobile app that allows it to conduct surveys at concerts, trade shows and other special events. Cyr also believes Tiipz could be used for political polling.
Whether companies like it or not, people are already using social media to comment on their products and services. Companies like Tiipz and Vision Critical are simply domesticating that wild growth of opinions.
“The social sphere creates an absolute jungle of unstructured comments and opinions about brands,” said Vision Critical founder Andrew Reid. His father, the famous pollster Angus Reid, is the company’s CEO.
It’s not enough to simply monitor your Facebook, LinkedIn or Twitter account and see what people are saying about your brand, Reid said.
“You need to be able to create a system to be able to have a continuous dialogue with your customers.”
Unlike Tiipz, Vision Critical uses online panels and focus groups rather than social media to converse with consumers. Surveys that once took weeks to conduct now take just hours. That allows companies to get important feedback on ideas, services and products almost instantly.
What the two companies have in common is that their relationships with respondents are ongoing – unlike the one-night stands of traditional public opinion polls.
Cyr said the Facebook generation doesn’t mind being contacted regularly by the brands they like.
“They like the fact that they can have a relationship with a brand similar to a person, and they want to have a conversation.” •
