Forums: Discussions for entrepreneurs and small business.

As I posted yesterday, we will soon be launching a new B2B vendor recommendation site called VendorCity.  When building any new company, there comes many moments where you make a quick decision on something and then put it behind you.  Sometimes you make the right decisions but most of the time, you need to come back and re-examine those early assumptions to make sure you are indeed on the right path.

At the heart of our business are vendor recommendations. They consist of two parts:

• user ratings over 5 categories
• the story or textual recommendation

As mentioned in a blog posting I did today, it is critical that you the categories you select to be rated are easily understood.  You don`t want users scratching their heads when doing the ratings and you want to cover different areas so that people can select vendors based upon those things that are most important to them.

So, my question or challenge to you is...what 5 categories would you use to rate any vendor across just about any industry?  What useful but generic data points would be important to you?

Thanks and I look forward to any and all responses. 



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-jc

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JC Cameron, President
VendorCity, Inc. - Your source for highly recommended Vendors

http://www.VendorCity.com

JC`s View: My take on technology and entrepreneurship

JC,

I`d start with these:

1. Quality of work (did they do a good job)

2. Responsiveness (did they do it in a timely manner)

3. Accuracy (did they follow the specs and do what was asked of them)

4. Perceived Value (was the result worth the price paid)

5. Overall recommendation (would you use them again)

I think the stories will be quite valuable as well.  I`m anxious to see the system at work.

Sheryl

I`d add:

6. Longevity -- how long have they been in business, as this might be a predictor of their support for their work, along with their customer satisfaction history.

First off, thanks for the suggestions and feedback.

So, we had some limitations that we are working with.

We need to have exactly 5 categories and the 5 category names had to be 15 characters or less. And, of course, they had to be relevant for all (or nearly all) industries and be fairly self-evident with as little overlap as possible.

Our list is now:

• Quality of Work
• Communication
• Meets Deadlines
• Value for Money
• Hire Again

and those ratings, from 1-5, roll-up to an overall score.

Thanks again and hope to see some of you in the system recommending your best vendors and inviting your clients to participate when we launch later this week or sometime next week.




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-jc

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JC Cameron, President
VendorCity, Inc. - Your source for highly recommended Vendors

http://www.VendorCity.com

JC`s View: My take on technology and entrepreneurship

Kathy and I were just yesterday discussing your site, and we wished it was already world-reknowned.

We need certain types of tools for our flag business, and they`re increasingly hard to find. Kathy spends a great deal of time browsing the web, when we`re in down cycles, to try to find those tools. She found a site and was all excited, because it offered not only those tools but some other things we`ve been hoping to find.

We ordered five items, two of which we`ve been trying to find for a year. The site description and photograph did NOT include brand names, and showed us that they were exactly what we were looking for. One was a chalk liner in blue.

The site told us they`d ship UPS. We hadn`t gotten the order in a week, so we queried for a tracking number. No response. Two days later, the package arrived, USPS Priority. No tracking or confirmation number because it wasn`t at all United Parcel Service, which always includes a tracking number.

The item was packed in a simple envelope. Two items were cracked in half, unuseable. The third was a brand we already know doesn`t provide blue. If we`d known the brand, we wouldn`t have ordered. Their "blue" is actually white.

The next day we called them, and they`ll refund the money. However, later and after the phone call, that`s when we received an email (4 days late) that told us there`s no tracking number.

How we wished we had a central site where we could name the site, list the URL, rate them as a "negative," and comment/review our experience. :-)

Your above summarization is fine for service-related vendors. How about for product related vendors?

Just curious...why the 15 character limit?

Sheryl....design limitations.  We are launching next week (hopefully Tuesday before the holiday sets in) and our current design, for example, has a view vendor page that has the categories lined up horizontally all on the same line with the stars right below them.  If they are more than 15-16 characters, it wraps and throws off the great design.  ;)

When adding the recommendation, we have descriptions of what they mean so that shouldn`t be too much of a problem.

--

Craig, thanks for the feedback and you are correct.  It is currently designed for service providers and not product vendors.  This is something we will consider in the future...




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-jc

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JC Cameron, President
VendorCity, Inc. - Your source for highly recommended Vendors

http://www.VendorCity.com

JC`s View: My take on technology and entrepreneurship

JC,

Are you still looking for additional Beta testers? I thought I signed up to be one at your site, but never heard anything back.

Sheryl

Hi Sheryl,

Your sign-up was indeed received...thanks!  ;)

We are launching our BETA very soon - probably early next week.  When we do, you`ll be one of the first to receive the invite.  Thanks so much for the interest!



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-jc

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JC Cameron, President
VendorCity, Inc. - Your source for highly recommended Vendors

http://www.VendorCity.com

JC`s View: My take on technology and entrepreneurship

So, the list above is great (except we renamed Meets Deadlines to Timeliness and gave it a good description).

The next step is to look at the problem of product vendors - those that sell products of items of some kind and are not service providers.  Craig above mentioned this and used a few good examples.  Their "service" might be bad, but you are buying an item and not their time and effort.

So, now we need to think about the categories appropriate when reviewing someone that sells yoiu a product.

What do you think are 5 good categories for product vendors?  (Remember, some products are not actually delivered...they might be an online service...VendorCity would be a good example as would SalesForce.com).

Thanks and I look forward to your feedback!




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-jc

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JC Cameron, President
VendorCity, Inc. - Your source for highly recommended Vendors

http://www.VendorCity.com

JC`s View: My take on technology and entrepreneurship