After a nightmare I have had recently trying to sort out some issues with my TV, phone and broadband provider (guess who?!) I was intrgued by a piece I read in the Times Money section a few weeks ago about a site called Pebble - which was summed up as "the site will force companies into improving service by making customers' experiences visible to everyone." - it was music to my ears.
Plebble was set up with one main purpose in mind - to improve the level of service and value for money provided by every business and other organisation in the UK. It does this by giving consumers a voice on customer service issues and by using the power of the internet to join together consumer voices in a powerful, easy to use and easy-to-understand format for other consumers and businesses themselves to use.
It's about sharing information simply and quickly - but highly effectively. It's about empowering you, giving you choice and enabling you to make the right decisions about which businesses to use. And, in the end, it's about making businesses more aware of and accountable for levels of service.
I had a look this morning and interestingly (although maybe not surprisingly) the worst performers were well known companies such as Foxtons the Labour Party and British Gas whilst out of the top ten only 2 were mainstream companies (Waitrose and Ocado at 8th and 10th respectively). It will be fascinating to watch this site develop and hugely amusing the read the comments which for Foxton's the choice 2 were
"Arrogant. Appalling hair cuts. Ridiculous sense of unfounded importance. Funniest thing was seeing a Foxtons mini being clamped and towed away. I cried with happiness..." and the simple "prats in minis" - Virgin Media watch out !