Businesses beware of customers dobbing in

The online business directory market is quickly evolving to become a platform where companies are forced to be more transparent - a sign that consumers are quickly harnessing the power of the internet.

A new web directory called NoCowboys, which went live two weeks ago, is being seen as a hybrid of Yellow Pages and Trade Me.

NoCowboys founder Bruce Lindsay said the website was born out of a desire to provide an easy way to find quality tradespeople on the basis of customer feedback.

The website, which has been running for two weeks, has 65,000 businesses, mainly tradespeople, but more business types will be added over the next year including real estate agents and retail.

Lindsay believes that www.nocowboys.co.nz - which is free for consumers to access - will seriously challenge the YellowPages online business listings - with its key difference being the NoCowboys ranking system, where customers can write a review and rank about a business.

"People are so used to using the YellowPages, and picking the service based on how big the ad is. I have often had that experience and then ended up with cowboys - this eliminates ending up with a cowboy."

Also, NoCowboys will become more interactive, with plans for people to interact with the businesses online for, say, booking cars for repair, and allowing business to respond with an appropriate time.

NoCowboys will also provide webpages for businesses, which Lindsay expects to be one of its major revenue earners.

He said businesses would be ranked higher than others if they had paid advertisements, but only if their consumer rating was equal to how the business promoted itself.

He had tapped into the growing tide of people growing more confident in the power of the internet to conduct daily business.

"I don't think people have realised the value of the internet. A year ago I wouldn't have used the internet much, but now I use it every day."

University of Auckland business school professor of innovation Kenneth Husted said companies benefited from sitting on knowledge about their own underperformance, dissatisfied customers and service shortcomings.

"A knowledge-sharing forum where customers can exchange their knowledge about specific firms and the service will reward those companies that deliver what they promise and punish those who don't.

"This customer knowledge would also be a significant source of inspiration for the dynamic and innovation- oriented firm, because it provides valuable knowledge about customer preferences and needs."

Auckland University of Technology digital commerce lecturer Robert Davis said NoCowboys was an innovative concept in the market.

"A lot of the information on trades people flows around through word of mouth, very adhoc and not available when you want it. So it [NoCowboys] is a bit like organised word of mouth with the added advantage of having the objective data to support the consumers' experiences," said Davis.

Husted said the danger was that customers with unreasonable behaviour and expectations would potentially be able to harm firms under the cover of transparency by spreading false or exaggerated accusations.

NoCowboys faces a challenge - online business directory listings is a busy marketplace in New Zealand.

The biggest player, Yellow Pages, has 1 million listings for the online White Pages and Yellow Pages.

APN InfoMedia's UBD InfoRed Business Directory has 142,453 businesses, constantly updated.

Also, there are business directories for each city and business sector.