Hearsay founder Pip Stocks believes the next opportunity for companies who want to scale in 2021 is to reconnect with the human voices at the core of their business.
With businesses worldwide responding to a customer base that has experienced the trauma of a global pandemic, there has never been a greater need to invest in real relationships and start to listen proactively.
According to HBR, only 15 per cent of businesses rate their organization as very effective at integrating small data with big data to create a holistic view of the customer; but those 15 per cent are more likely to have seen significant improvements in business results including revenue growth, profitability, the successful introduction of new products and services, and operational efficiencies.
The brandtech startup has raised $100k from Skalata Ventures to launch a platform built to streamline customer conversations, saving businesses months of research time and helping them avoid costly missteps.
For Stocks, the missing piece is listening to your customers and taking their voices seriously.
“You can’t build a relationship if you don’t listen,” she said.
“Businesses need to hear their customers themselves. It’s not just about sending surveys or looking at your big data dashboard. It’s about being in tune with customers’ needs and want. When you don’t have these conversations with your customers and don’t have opportunities to listen to what they actually want, you’re planning to fail.”
“I founded Hearsay because after years of talking to customers on behalf of business, we saw first-hand how important these conversations were to a business success. They are the difference between a successful product launch and a business disaster; and even more successful when the business is having these conversations themselves.”
Born from decades of real-world agency and product experience, Hearsay is designed to enable personal customer conversations and let businesses meet with clients face to face. There is live tagging of key points, note-taking, identification of ‘wow’ moments, conversation transcription which all help translate customer communication into real-world action.
Rohan Workman, co-founder and CEO of Skalata Ventures, said he was excited about the promise of Hearsay.
“At Skalata Ventures we work daily with founders who engage deeply with their customers. It was only natural when we came across Hearsay that it made sense to partner with them given how much easier they make this process not only for founders but larger companies too. As soon as we met Pip we were impressed by her depth of understanding of the market, her empathetic leadership and the resilience she has shown to build a great product.”
