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06.06.2019

World-famous ‘Smiley’ Customer Feedback Buttons Reach 1 Billion Presses

We are incredibly proud to announce reaching 1 billion feedbacks (presses of one of our Smileys), which reflects the huge effort the HappyOrNot team has put in over the years.

This week, CNBC published this segment telling their audience of millions all about our billionth press, and how companies like ours fit within an ever-improving air travel industry. With interviews from both our CEO and founder, Heikki Väänänen, and our investor and Partner at Northzone, Marta Sjögren, we’re delighted to share this news with the world.

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HappyOrNot (www.happy-or-not.com), the Finland- and Florida-based company behind the globally recognized ‘Smiley’ feedback system (four green-to-red buttons), is today announcing the landmark achievement of reaching 1 billion feedbacks.

Since HappyOrNot’s founding in 2009, the four colored buttons have been pressed 1 billion (1,000,000,000) times, by customers and staff giving experience feedback to organizations.

To contextualize this, traditional receipt-based and online surveys usually have a response rate of less than 2% – meaning 50 billion people would need to be sent surveys to generate the same amount of feedback. HappyOrNot’s 1 billion feedbacks is also approaching double the amount of reviews on TripAdvisor.

Amongst key headlines from the statistics, the 1 billion feedbacks reveal that Norway has the world’s happiest customers, compared with the US / the UK, which rank 14th / 49th respectively.

Infographics, insights and full findings from the 1 billion presses can be found here: https://www.happy-or-not.com/en/insights/#/feed&types=storyen/1-billion-customer-feedbacks/

 

HappyOrNot: The world-famous customer feedback system

HappyOrNot terminals are used in 120 countries by over 3,000 organizations, across sectors including retail, transport, and healthcare (with such clients as the San Francisco 49ers, London Heathrow Airport, Peregrine, and Massachusetts General Hospital).

HappyOrNot’s system collects anonymous feedback on an unprecedented scale, with the terminals designed to be as simple and instantly understandable as possible for users; while the data and corresponding insights for organizations are sophisticated, flexible, and real-time.

HappyOrNot data is used by organizations to quantify consumer happiness, thereby measure the success of implemented solutions, create Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) around happiness levels, and compare different elements of a business (for example, which parts of a store are problem-points at which times). HappyOrNot is not only widely used to analyze customer experiences, but also to gauge and improve the satisfaction of staff.

From Finland to the 49ers: HappyOrNot clients’ comments on the 1 billion landmark:

Moon Javaid, Vice President, Strategy & Analytics of the San Francisco 49ers, comments: “One of our goals is to make sure that every piece of a fan’s journey from the time they leave their home to the time they return, from coming into the parking lots, entering the stadium and enjoying concessions and retail is all a first-class, memorable experience.

“We use over 100 HappyOrNot kiosks during our games and events to understand in real-time the right exact places where there may be a negative issue and fix it. From making sure restrooms are clean to avoiding food shortages and cashier training, with its instant capabilities, HappyOrNot has truly allowed the 49ers and Levi’s Stadium to solve all the small challenges to allow the fan to focus on the game they paid to watch.”

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The first ever client of HappyOrNot, Jonas Stjernberg, VP Store Operations, Suomen Lähikauppa Oy (Siwa and Valintatalo), comments: “Customer experience expires quickly. To get the pulse of customers, you have to make it really easy to respond without breaking stride. We originally piloted HappyOrNot for two reasons. The first is that they distilled this insight down to its essence: the experience is either better or worse, but never middle ground, because such feedback does not add insight. The second reason is that the responses generated actionable insight at store level tied to the time-of-day, which allowed us to serve our customers better right away.”

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Jaan Ivar Semlitsch, CEO of Elkjøp, comments: “HappyOrNot has been a part of our business since the summer of 2012. We have worked together to improve the way in which we measure customer satisfaction across more than 400 of our stores in the Nordic countries. For us, customer experience is everything. Growing competition has meant that we need to guarantee each customer a good service every time they visit one of our stores. It can be hard to gather feedback if the method isn’t quick and easy for the customer, but the Smiley terminals allow the public to share useful feedback without having to spend more than an extra few seconds in a store.
“We are very proud of our service, with 90% of customers being happy according to the data, but there is always room for improvement. Increased customer satisfaction is a strategic goal of our company, and we are measuring happiness levels on a daily basis. HappyOrNot is helping us deliver a high quality experience for all customers, which is the ultimate aim!”

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Heikki Väänänen, founder and CEO of HappyOrNot, comments: “Organizations must listen, and customers must be allowed to speak. This has been our guiding principle since the very start. It is hard to believe it was a decade ago I was telling my now-co-founder, Ville Levaniemi, about how I had once been rudely treated in a small store in Finland. As I left that store, frustrated and upset, I imagined a big red button to alert the store’s management to the shortcomings of their business. The idea grew, and became HappyOrNot – and now that red button and its three Smiley siblings have been pressed a billion times.”

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Ville Levaniemi, Co-founder and Executive VP, New Business of HappyOrNot, comments: “1 billion presses is more than just a big number – that is 1 billion customer feelings that we have enabled organizations to hear, and respond to. While review sites and social media platforms allow the loudest and most persistent voices to take centre stage, HappyOrNot lets businesses listen to every customer. We think that’s really important, and will continue to provide insights of unique depth and breadth to organizations the world over.”

1 billion Smileys: Key statistics and headlines

  • The country with the world’s happiest customers is Norway, with a happiness benchmark of 85.1%  (85.1% of all presses on this day were ‘happy’ Smileys, i.e. dark green or light green).
  • Following Norway, are:
    • Iceland, 83.9%
    • Denmark, 83.7%
    • Finland, 83.3%
    • Switzerland, 83.1%
  • Customers around the world are, generally speaking, very happy – the most pressed Smiley worldwide is the ‘Very Happy’ (dark green) button, which has received 684.6 million presses.
  • The overall happiest day on record was Tuesday 22nd January, 2019 (87.4%).
    • This was also the first day of the annual World Economic Forum summit in Davos; the day after Martin Luther King Day in the United States; and the day soccer legend Cristiano Ronaldo appeared in court on charges of tax fraud.
  • The happiest month on average is November (84.3%). The unhappiest is July (81.8%).
  • The happiest day of the week on average is Tuesday (84.2%). The unhappiest is Sunday (81.2%).
  • The happiest hour on average is 9am (87.0%). The unhappiest is 11pm (77.8%).
  • Year-on-year, worldwide happiness has been overall gradually increasing (despite a small dip to 83.2% in 2017), and is sitting at 85.0% thus far in 2019.

By sector: Retail

  • Retail customers worldwide recorded 85.6% satisfaction in 2018.
  • The happiest month on average to be a retail customer is November. The least happy is August.
  • The happiest day of the week to be a retail customer is Thursday. The least happy is Sunday.
  • The happiest hour to be a retail customer is 9am. The least happy is 6pm.

By sector: Healthcare

  • Healthcare customers worldwide recorded 87.4% satisfaction in 2018.
  • The happiest month on average to be a healthcare customer is October. The least happy is August.
  • The happiest day of the week to be a healthcare customer is Thursday. The least happy is Sunday.
  • The happiest hour to be a healthcare customer is 8am. The least happy is 6pm.

By sector: Transport (Airports)

  • Transport customers worldwide recorded 79.2% satisfaction in 2018.
  • The happiest month on average to be a transport customer is November. The least happy is July.
  • The happiest day of the week to be a transport customer is Wednesday. The least happy is Saturday.
  • The happiest hour to be a transport customer is 7am. The least happy is 11pm.

By sector: Services

  • Services customers worldwide recorded 83.8% satisfaction in 2018.
  • The happiest month on average to be a services customer is June. The least happy is December.
  • The happiest day of the week to be a services customer is Tuesday. The least happy is Saturday.
  • The happiest hour to be a services customer is 7am. The least happy is 5pm.

 

For international media enquiries contact:
Nicholas Baines / Benedict Bunyard / Matthew Dunne-Miles
nicholas@deliberate-pr.com / benedict@deliberate-pr.com / matt@deliberate-pr.com
+44 (0)207 221 1540 / +44 (0)7496 597 439

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