Servy, an app that lets restaurants offer a partial discount in exchange for private feedback, has just closed $800K in seed funding.
Investors include RiverPark Ventures, Beacon Fund, Food-X, DreamIt Ventures, and Nick Kenner, CEO and Founder of Just Salad.
Most online restaurant reviews are either written because of a fantastic or awful experience. Either way, these reviews live online forever, and normally don’t actually contain constructive feedback for the restaurant.
Servy’s platform solves this issue by allowing restaurants to customize their own surveys, which are kept private between the reviewer and the restaurant.
In exchange for their feedback, reviewers are offered anywhere from 5% – 75% off the price of their meal.
The company has an algorithm that uses demand to determine how much reimbursement is offered to diners.
Robert Edell and Julien Wormser, co-founders of Servy, explained that a popular restaurant may only offer a five percent discount for a review, while an establishment with low demand may offer to cover most of the meal.
This dynamic percentage is also important because it allows Servy to price evaluations at a point where restaurants are still able to make a profit.
This means restaurants can afford to conduct a much greater amount of reviews than if they used a traditional secret shopper service, which can cost hundreds of dollars per review.
The company is currently in 80 restaurants and chains in NYC, and will use the funding to continue its nationwide expansion.