Local Measure connects you with your customers

A new app from Roamz taps into social networks to allow businesses to connect with their customers more efficiently than before.

When you follow hashtags or keywords to keep up to date with what people are saying about your business, you catch some valuable information — but a lot of customers still slip through the cracks. The ones who just photograph their coffee, or tweet, "buying a new pair of jeans!" — customers who are using your services and talking about it, yet remain invisible to you.

Using the technology of social network aggregator Roamz, CEO Jonathan Barouch has created a new service for business owners. Like Roamz, it collects only public data from Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare and Instagram to find your customers and let you connect with them.

The service, called Local Measure, tracks customers in real time, allowing business owners to respond in a timely fashion directly from the app, offering thanks for kind words or the ability to immediately respond to a negative experience. In fact, Barouch told CNET Australia, in its trial runs, that it was able to locate for businesses customers who had made hundreds of social network updates to thousands of followers — and yet the businesses had no idea who these customers were.

Barouch said in a press release, "Local Measure allows retailers to reclaim that personal customer service so often lost in the business transaction. While some customers may comment to friends or colleagues about weak coffee or poorly manicured pinkies, few would complain to the retailer outright. With Local Measure, retailers can now use this feedback to improve their customer service and make changes to their products or services accordingly."

The web-based service is cleanly designed, the one-page dashboard allowing the business owner to track how many people are talking about the business over a time period; which network the traffic is coming from; the busiest times of day; customer insights, such as age and gender demographics; what customers most love about the business; and who is talking the most, known as a "super customer".

The service is available on a no-contract monthly plan at AU$59 per month for a single location, AU$99 for three locations and custom packages for more.

Barouch said, "This is a crucial role the location-based tool plays. Now businesses can tap into the heartbeat of their customers' conversations — right under their roof — and directly engage with them before they walk out the door."

To sign up for a free 30-day trial, visit the Local Measure website.