Preserving the value of a good reputation online

from Good Thinking (418 articles)

A-

A+

Preserving the value of a good reputation online

Click image to enlarge

August 7, 2005 One of the aspects missing between the global village and the local one is reputation. Sharks will always prey on the weak and unsuspecting and a close-knit community helps to spot and warn off sharks. In the decade since the internet took off, there have been many efforts to synthesise on-line reputations, with the most successful being feedback systems inside online services such as eBay and Amazon that record feedback on prior buying experiences with each seller. Trust is a key element in commerce and without it, ec-mmerce will struggle. So it’s logical that new systems such as iKarma.com will evolve. IKarma claims to bring to businesses, professionals and individuals a powerful and cost-effective means of preserving and demonstrating their business and personal reputations online. By acting as a trusted third party recorder of customer feedback for all kinds of services, www.iKarma.com hopes to provide a go-to resource for online consumers before they make a purchase. For businesses, it might prove to be an effective means of leveraging their customer goodwill and establishing an easily accessible online reputation record.

"Almost every business is now online, but the anonymous nature of the Internet makes it difficult to tell the good from the bad. iKarma.com helps make a good reputation valuable again," says Scott Pitchford, President of iKarma Inc.

iKarma: The Reputation Revolution

Many experts consider online reputation management to be the key to the next major wave in e-commerce development. Online services such as eBay.com, Amazon.com and Shopping.com established their successes in recent years upon their users' ability to leave feedback regarding their buying experiences - establishing product reputation and gaining the trust of new buyers. However, while current online auction-style services are ideal when selling hard goods in limited markets, they are poorly suited for the vastly larger service and information-based commerce segment doing business online today.

Probably the biggest challenge iKarma faces is the size of the market it wishes to conquer. The Ebay economy is gigantic and growing. If it were a physical location, it would have a GDP greater than many countries, yet it is one of the limited markets we refer to above. Whether www.iKarma.com can achieve the critical mass required to gain a foothold in such a massive space is debatable, but it’s a start and we can’t see any reason why it won’t work (feedback welcome). From the neighborhood babysitter, to the largest corporation, anyone appears capable of building an online following with www.iKarma.com's managed reputation and feedback engine.

A Better Way of Doing Business Online

iKarma.com provides a civilized feedback environment for both businesses and customers. While protecting the user's right to their own opinions, the system at the same time provides user safeguards such as: built-in checks for foul language; a 48-hour delay on postings to ensure that the receiving user has time to respond; an email address verification check; a challenge-and-respond request that allows complainers to withdraw their posts; automatic deactivation of posts from unmonitored email addresses; a single post rule that prevents a single user from posting more than once per business.

iKarma.com uses a three-tiered service plan. The advertising-supported iKarma Basic plan is free of charge to users, allowing anyone to create their own iKarma Page and begin collecting personal and professional references. Users can then include a link to their iKarma reputation page - an iKarma Seal - in their emails, websites, marketing materials and correspondence.

For users who want more, iKarma offers two premium plans. iKarma Advanced offers the same feature set as the free iKarma Basic plan, but removes all advertising. The iKarma Pro plan offers an extended set of features. These features include more powerful management tools, the ability to include a greater number of references, and the option of responding to feedback comments on their iKarma Page.

"In our increasingly complex and global economy we believe in the power of reputation systems to promote trust - online and off, locally and across all borders," says Paul Williams, CEO of iKarma Inc. "The availability of iKarma's advanced features makes this system ideal for business users, while our free basic service makes iKarma a service that anyone can use to build brand recognition and trust.

"With our free basic service available to grow our market share, and an easy upgrade path for our users, iKarma has a solid revenue model and a plan for viral growth."

http://www.iKarma.com