Startup Looks to Provide Feedback to UC and Local Businesses

Beginning this week, a new startup will enable students to send feedback to their Undergraduate Council representatives via text message.

The startup, named Feedback Hotline, provides a phone number that students can text to send anonymous feedback to their UC representatives or the UC President and Vice President, depending on a three-character code included in the text message.

The same phone number can also be used to send feedback to businesses, several of which are located in Harvard Square and Porter Square. Feedback Hotline is operating or preparing to operate in 105 locations, including Pinkberry’s Harvard Square location, according to Akshar Bonu ’17, one of the co-founders of the startup.

By Brandon J. Kim

“I really like it,” Bryan Ruiz, a manager at Pinkberry, said. “When customers have a complaint, they send us a message about it and we can help fix it.”

Customers visiting the restaurants can use place cards on tables with the number of the feedback hotline as well as the three-character code to provide feedback. The restaurant then receives emails with the feedback attached.

Pinkberry gets about two messages a day from customers through Feedback Hotline, according to Ruiz.

Mike’s Pastry and Chutney’s in Harvard Square are currently in talks with Feedback Hotline about setting up programs for their stores.

Bonu said he came up with the idea when he visited his hometown in the Philippines, and found it difficult to provide feedback to local businesses he visited.

“It was very hard or unclear how to send feedback to them,” Bonu said. “It’s very complicated.”

With Feedback Hotline, Bonu hopes to make the process of providing feedback to businesses and organizations easier and more consistent.

“It’s one number you can text to send feedback to anyone,” Bonu said. “The feedback is often actionable, and that’s what businesses really appreciate. They want to go out and improve.”

Bo Seo ’17, who co-founded Feedback Hotline along with Bonu and University of Texas student Claudio M. Wilson, said he worked on Feedback Hotline’s partnership with the UC in order to make it easier for students to communicate with their elected representatives.

“For any strategic objective a student government like the UC might have, you need effective communication between that student government and the student body it seeks to represent,” Seo said.

The UC formally established the partnership during the UC’s general meeting on March 6, when the Council voted unanimously to grant Feedback Hotline $488 under the UC’s Grant for an Open Harvard College.

“We’ve been really lucky to have a UC that’s been very receptive to hearing new ideas and to implement such plans so quickly,” Seo said.

In addition to providing feedback to the UC, Feedback Hotline also has plans to expand to other student organizations on campus.

Eventually, Feedback Hotline also hopes to coordinate with college administrative offices such as the Office of Sexual Assault Prevention and Response to allow students to more easily provide feedback to administrators as well.

“These offices already try to solicit feedback in other ways,” Seo said. “We think ours is an easier alternative.”

In the future, Feedback Hotline intends to allow feedback via other channels, including a dedicated mobile app and a Facebook Messenger presence. The startup is also working on a mechanism to allow places that have received feedback to respond to it, according to Bonu.

–Staff writer Brian P. Yu can be reached at brian.yu@thecrimson.com. Follow him on Twitter @brianyu28.