​UK fintech startup TruRating to launch on CBA's Albert

UK-based fintech startup TruRating has partnered the Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA) to bring its platform live on Albert Eftpos terminals from April.

Under the partnership, businesses that have an existing Albert device will be given access to TruRating for a AU$100 setup fee, and a monthly payment from AU$25 depending on the number of daily transactions that will be made.

This comes after TruRating launched in February in partnership with point-of-payment terminal operator PC-Eftpos, which is responsible for locally hosting the technology via an API that links between a merchant's POS system and Eftpos machine.

TruRating provides businesses -- small and large, in retail, hospitality, and the service sector -- the opportunity to use their existing payment terminal to collect immediate customer feedback. It works by asking customers one question on the terminal screen that they can rate 0 to 9 on the keypad, before finalising their payment.

Customers paying by cash can also provide feedback using the payment terminal. Alternatively, those merchants with ecommerce stores can integrate a TruRating widget into their website that will allow customers to provide feedback at the end of their purchase.

The questions have been designed to focus on five key aspects of their experience: Service, value, experience, likelihood to recommend, and product. Merchants also have the opportunity to add two of their own questions into their system to gain tailored feedback.

The information is then shared to the merchant via a cloud-based analytics dashboard where they can compare performance across their different stores and also benchmark their performance on the five metrics against competitors.

TruRating CEO and founder Georgina Nelson said the idea for the company came about after noticing there was a gap in how much feedback businesses were receiving from their customers, where the feedback was coming from, and how long it took for them to react to feedback when they did receive it. She highlighted businesses on average only hear from one in 1,000 customers.

Nelson added that the company has addressed the privacy aspect of its service, noting all feedback is anonymous as the main idea is to keep "it as clean as possible".

Claire Roberts, executive general of Commonwealth Bank Local Business Banking, said TruRating will increasingly provide businesses insights to help them improve their operations.

"Adding TruRating to our world-leading Albert Eftpos tablet and our traditional payments terminal fleets is a great example of this," she said. "Its innovative point-of payment feedback will allow our 1 million business customers to not only tap into data surrounding the in-store experiences of their customers, but also help them make better informed business decisions."

The initial rollout followed a six-month pilot program where 60,000 ratings have been collected so far. Participating local merchants included Rolld, the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre, Toni & Guy, Crisp, and Jones the Grocer.

TruRating head of APAC Sophie Jillings explained Australia is the second launch country after the UK mainly because of the maturity of the local payments market.

"The tech is ready for disruption and innovation. I saw a report that came from Ernst and Young that was backed by the UK government saying that Australia is the top seven tech market in the world, and we've seen this personally at TruRating in terms of the way that payment partners have embraced our product here in Australia," she said.

"There is honestly growth in entrepreneurship, the angel investment space, and it's definitely an area that is going to grow."

Without providing any specific details, Nelson revealed the company recently secured a significant round of funding. Its major financial backers in the past have included ex -president and chief executive of Visa Europe and Chairman of Monitise Peter Ayliffe; the head of investment banking at the UK's Goldman Sachs Anthony Gutman; and global head of tech at Brunswick PR Chris Blundell.

The company said there are plans to also launch in Canada and the US in the next six months, having recently opened offices in Toronto and Atlanta.