I could not recommend them and we're having a sour break-up
What do you like best?
The standard eKomi account allows for SMS reviews. The review request asks whether they have enjoyed your services. If no, they're filtered out to a feedback page that allows them to give advise that would improve your services. If yes, they are forwarded to a section where they can leave a Facebook or Google review.
What do you dislike?
The problem with managing you own reviews (that is, not using any review software) is inevitably people are confused as to whether they have a Google account or not. The eKomi system does not circumvent this issue. It placed the responsibility onto the reviewer to know and decide what platform they will review on. This causes many to drop out of the review process.
The widgets provided for websites are so far below par it's not funny. It's hard to believe they're so clunky and inflexible. It's like going back to HTML1. As a WordPress developer I was expecting to have some fun with these widgets. I was also expecting eKomi to make my life easier by giving me flexible and effective widgets. I was so very disappointed.
My biggest gripe is now the process of canceling my account. Unlike pretty much every other account in the world, you can't cancel from inside your account. You have to email eKomi with a cancellation request. I did this some months back and didn't get a reply. A fee of several hundred dollars was then transacted. I emailed them again, this time advising them that I would have to contact my bank to reverse the fee if I didn't get an instant response. The response from Mathew said that he would forward my request "off to accounts to be actioned." It hasn't been actioned. Three payments have now been transacted since I first requested cancellation. It's very disturbing and either sloppy or unethical. I'll find out which when/if they process my refund.
What problems are you solving with the product? What benefits have you realized?
The eKomi system did help increase the number of reviews I received. This was of course a major objective. The benefit to me have been new clients who told me that the good reviews were the reason they came to me.
The other reason I used eKomi was for an SEO boost. I think the review system at eKomi was somewhat over-sold to me. I do SEO for clients but am somewhat naive about local SEO and the role reviews play in this. I've used Reviews.io for clients and seen really great gains in local SEO when combined with other SEO practices. I was keen to keen to test and hopefully confirm the information my eKomi representative gave me concerning the power of reviews. I was told repeatedly that keywords in reviews and review replies were like some kind of dynamite for SEO. I saw little if any result from using eKomi in this way but think perhaps many other factors played into this and won't condemn them for something that was probably my fault.
