HN Explorer

Ask HN: Where do people usually complain?

7 points by AndriusSutas ↗ HN
A good business must always solve a customer problem. I was wondering, for B2C type of opportunities, where would one look for complaints? What are the places with the highest complaint-to-noise ratio?

One example would be to search Twitter for "I hate when...".

Any other ideas?

8 comments

[ 2.7 ms ] story [ 31.8 ms ] thread
jeffmould
Your question is kind of vague. Yelp, TripAdviser, Angie's List, GetSatisfaction, and a few others all field both customer complaints and compliments for B2C businesses and even B2B businesses.
AndriusSutas
Good idea. This gave me another one: one could also look at app store ratings!
Mz
I will suggest that one way to find big problems that can make a major difference if solved would be to look for things people talk about as a necessary evil. It signals that they know it sucks as a solution, having no solution is so much worse that they are willing to accept the downside, and they can't even imagine a real solution that lacks that kind of big downside.
AndriusSutas
Actually a great idea, thanks! Any examples of top off your head?
Mz
The one I am personally familiar with is prescription drugs as the only real treatment modality for some conditions. They are overused and have serious, harmful side effects (as well as other downsides, like high costs). I have found alternatives that work, but trying to find a way to spread the word has been, call it, challenging. It is a problem space I am very familiar with and only just now figuring out how to proceed. So I don't know that it helps you any to mention it.

Best of luck.

AndriusSutas
Thanks for sharing. How are you currently trying to spread the word? Can you share an example?
Mz
I have a private invitation-only health blog. I also started a food blog back in June. I also carefully participate in discussions on a couple of public forums, hn being one of them. I currently have no monetization plan in place for that stuff. Trying to cone up with a business model for it has also been challenging.

If you want to discuss it more in depth than that, you can email me.