A winner of the Hi-Tech Emerging Company of the Year Award in 2018 is back this year as a finalist in the Kamupene Māori o Te Tau category - bigger, better and with a new mission.
The large, eye-catching pounamu Aaron Ward wears around his neck is not only his connection to home, but also a conversation starter.
“Now living in the United States, it’s my touchstone to New Zealand but it also really catches people’s attention, so I use it as an opportunity to tell our story - and to let people know I’m not Australian!”
Ward (Ngāti Maru) and his family have lived in Portland Oregon for the past five years, as he has led his company, AskNicely, to explore global opportunities.
A winner of the Hi-Tech Emerging Company of the Year Award in 2018 is back this year as a finalist in the Kamupene Māori o Te Tau category - bigger, better and with a new mission.
AskNicely is a mobile app that sits on the phone of people who serve customers, helping them know how customers rate their experiences, what they love and where they can improve.
Customers receive an email or text as they leave a store or service centre asking them to provide feedback with a rating or comment on the interaction. That feedback is then shared with the worker via the app.
Aaron Ward, championing the rights of the frontline worker
It is built on the beliefs that the frontline worker makes the difference in any customer experience and that people are best motivated by catching them doing things right.
“We are championing the rights of a frontline worker; the right to feedback, to appreciation, to recognition and, ultimately, financial reward. If we can help frontline workers enjoy those rights, then they’ll build meaningful careers which, in turn, benefits the customers they serve and the business they’re part of,” says Ward.
The benefit to employers is just as obvious: better customer experience, staff retention rises, recruitment and training costs decline and the bottom line lifts.
The idea for AskNicely germinated when Ward, who started life in finance, got frustrated sitting in lengthy market research presentations with senior executives but never with anyone that actually dealt with customers.
I realised that if customer feedback never got to the frontline staff, how could they possibly improve the experience they delivered?
At the same time, Ward noticed how Uber was sending feedback to their drivers as soon as a passenger left the car and he saw an opportunity to replicate the approach for service businesses, globally.
Ward and AskNicely co-founder John Ballinger, who is the web wizard behind the company, discussed the idea at a Ponsonby bar one evening. That progressed to working out of Ballinger’s garden shed with a one page business plan stuck on the fridge.
That was April 2014 - 199 days later they launched the company.
AskNicely is a mobile app for customers to rate their buying experience
“We built a prototype and shopped that to 12 businesses asking if they would pay for it. Eleven said yes, and the 12th said he’d bought something similar a week ago. That was the validation we needed to get going.”
The intention from the outset was to take AskNicely global by focusing first on the US.
There are now more than 50 staff working in the US, New Zealand and the Netherlands and thousands of customers around the world.
Ward insists, however, that AskNicely remains a Kiwi company at heart.
“We’ve maintained our Kiwi roots throughout our journey and nurtured the same spirit across all our teams. Our software is designed and built in New Zealand and marketed to the world from the US.”
Their vision is to make frontline work more rewarding for one million people by 2030.
“The frontline worker is a role that has been underserved, underappreciated and underpaid for way too long. As a mission-driven business, this is what gets me out of bed every morning. I feel incredibly fortunate to work on a business that makes people feel good and look good on a daily basis."
Ward, whose staff represent a wide range of cultures, is also driven by a desire to see more Māori and Pasifika people working in technology - a key motivation for him entering this year’s Hi Tech Awards.
“Our people have the explorer gene pre-loaded in their DNA which, in a technology startup, is an unfair advantage over the rest of the world - so let’s use it. We want help to showcase technology and entrepreneurship as a bold career option and show that we can build global businesses from Aotearoa.”
- The New Zealand Hi-Tech Awards are being held in Christchurch on June 23.
Ka aha rā ki te pātai pai noa atu koe, arā, te AskNicely
He kaitoa mō te taonga Hi-Tech Emerging Company of the Year Award mō te tau 2018, kua hoki mai anō hei kaiwhiringa toa mō te rārangi Kamupene Māori o Te Tau – kua nui ake, kua pai ake, ā, he tirohanga hou hoki.
Ko te whakakai pounamu, e mau nei a Aaron Ward, ehara i te hononga ki tōna tūrangawaewae anake, engari he take whakawhitiwhiti kōrero hoki.
“I a au e noho nei ki Amerika, ka noho taku pounamu hei whatu pānga ki Aotearoa, ā, he kaitō mai i te aronga a te tangata, nā tērā ka whakamahia e au hei ara whakaputa i ā tātou nei kōrero tuku iho – he whakamōhio hoki i te hunga o kōnei ehara ahau nō Ahitereiria!”
Kua rima tau a Ward (Ngāti Maru) me tōna whānau e noho ana ki Portland Oregon, i a ia e taki haere ana i tana kamupene, a AskNicely, ki te tūhura i ngā ara whānui o te ao.
Ko te AskNicely he taupānga e noho ana ki te waea o te hunga e hoko atu ana ki ngā kiritaki, he whakamōhio i a rātou mō te inetanga o ngā kiritaki i ō rātou wheako, ngā āhuatanga i ngākau nui ai rātou, me ngā āhuatanga me whakapai ake.
Kua whai īmēra, kuputuhi rānei te kiritaki i a rātou e wehe atu ana i te toa, e tono ana ki a rātou mō ētahi urupare me tētahi pāpātanga, pito kōrero rānei e pā ana ki te tauwhitiwhitinga hokohoko. Ā, kua tuarihia tērā urupare me te kaimahi mā te taupānga AskNicely.
Aaron Ward, championing the rights of the frontline worker
I hangaia tēnei i runga i te whakapono ko te hunga mahi tōmua te rerekētanga o te wheako kiritaki, a, ka pai ake te wheako a te kiritaki, ki te tika, ki te pono ngā mahi o te hunga kaimahi tōmua.
“E hapahapai ana mātou i ngā matatika a te kaimahi tōmua; mai i ngā urupare, ki ngā manawanuitanga, ki ngā whakamihi, ā, ko te otinga atu ko te momoho tahua. Mēnā ka taea mātou te toko ake i a rātou, kāore e kore, ka pūāwai rātou i ō rātou mahi, atu i reira, ka pai ake ngā hua mō te hunga kiritaki me te pakihi e mahi nei rātou,” says Ward.
Ko te hua ki ngā wāhi mahi he maha: he pai ake te wheako ki ngā kiritaki, kua puritia ngā kaimahi, kua heke iho te utu ki te tono kaimahi, me te whakaako i a rātou, ā, kua hikina hoki te rārangi taunga whakararo.
I pupū ake te whakaaro o AskNicely i te wā i a Ward, i a ia tonu e mahi ana ki te rāngai tahua, me tana riri nā tana noho ki ngā whakaaturanga rangahau i te mākete me ngā tumu whakarae, engari i te hiahia kē ia ki te whakapā atu ki te hunga kiritaki kē.
Ka marama hoki ki a ia ki te kore ngā urupare e hoki atu ki ngā kaimahi tōmua, me pēhea hoki rātou e whakapakari ake i a rātou mahi hokohoko?
I taua wā hoki i kitea e Ward, ki te taha i a Uber, kua tukuna tonuhia he urupare ki te kaitaraiwa i te wehenga atu o te kiritaki i te waka, i kite hoki ia i te ara ki te tārua i taua āhuatanga mō ngā ratonga pakihi, ki te ao whānui.
Ka noho a Ward me tera atu o ngā pāhi o AskNicely a John Ballinger, koia nei te ruānuku ipurangi, ki te whakawhiti kōrero ki tētahi hōtera i Ponsonby i tētahi pō. Mai i reira, ka kōkiri te whakaaro, ka uru ki te hēte o Ballinger, ko te mahere pakihi e piri ana ki te pouaka tio.
Ko te marama tērā o Aperira i te tau 2014 – ka pau te 199 rā, ka whakarewatia tā rāua kamupene.
AskNicely is a mobile app for customers to rate their buying experience
“Ka hangaia e māua he tauira whakamātau, ka tukuna atu ki ngā pakihi 12 nei, ki te pātai mēnā ka hokona e rātou. E tekau mā tahi o rātou i whakaae, ko tērā atu i kī mai, kātahi anō ka hokona e ia tētahi mea ōrite, i te wiki kua pahure. Koia nei te whakamanatanga i whanake ai māua i te kaupapa nei.”
Ko te whāinga matua mai i te tīmatanga ko te whakaputa i te kaupapa o AskNicely ki te ao, ko te aronga tuatahi ko Amerika.
I tēnei wā, āhua 50 ngā kaimahi e mahi ana ki Amerika, ki Aotearoa me te whenua o Netarana, ā, me ngā mano kiritaki puta noa i te ao.
Hei tā Ward hoki, ka noho tonu te kaupapa o AskNicely hei kamupene Kiwi ki te manawa.
“Kua puritia e mātou tō mātou hononga ki Aotearoa i runga i tā mātou haerenga nui, kua poipoia hoki taua wairua puta noa i ō mātou rōpū mahi. I hoahoatia, i hangaia hoki a mātou pūmanawa rorohiko i Aotearoa tonu, kātahi ka hokona atu ki te ao mai i Amerika.”
Ko ta rātou kitenga ānamata ko te whai hua o te hunga kaimahi tōmua mō te miriona tāngata atu ki te tau 2030.
“Kua roa kē te tūranga o te kaimahi tōmua e kore e whakamihia, e kore tino arohia, e kore hoki tika te utu. He pakihi whāinga matua taku, ā, koinā te take ka ara mai ahau i taku moenga i ia rā, i ia rā. Nōku te maringanui, nōku te hōnore ki te mahi ki tētahi pakihi e whakaroa ana i te wairua o te tangata, me te noho pai hoki o te pakihi.”
Ko tā Ward, me ana kaimahi mai i ngā momo iwi ahurea, ko te kite i te iwi Māori me ngā iwi o te Moananui-a-Kiwa e mahi ana ki roto i te rāngai hangarau – koinei te whāinga matua mōna kua uru nei ia ki ngā Hi Tech Awards i tēnei tau.
“Kei roto i tō tātou iwi tonu te ira tūhura, i roto i ngā mahi hangarau, kua eke tonu tatou ki tua atu i ētahi o te ao whānui – e tika ana kia whakamahia taua ira tūhura. E tono āwhina ana mātou ki te whakaatu i te hangarau me te rakahinonga hei momo mahi, me te whakaatu atu ka taea tonu te hanga pakihi ā-ao mai i Aotearoa.”
Ka whakapāohotia ngā hōnore ki Ōtautahi hei te Hune 23.
