UserVoice

History

UserVoice began in 2006, when programmer Richard White decided to create a way to monitor feedback from software users. He created an online forum for users to provide ideas about a project he was designing. White asked users to vote, instead of using programmers, a method inspired by Joel Spolsky, who advocated giving programmers a finite number of votes to prioritize software development. In February 2008, White, along with Lance Ivy and Marcus Nelson, launched UserVoice.

Products

UserVoice Feedback collects and prioritizes suggestions from customers as they list ideas and vote on them. UserVoice includes a comparison-based voting mechanism called SmartVote. In addition, to the original website-style product, iPhone and Facebook apps are available to allow developers to collect feedback for mobile apps.

UserVoice HelpDesk is a customer support platform for tracking and responding to customer issues. The system uses gamification elements, such as displaying kudos, for support team engagement. Kudos are displayed to team members in real time. UserVoice HelpDesk directs customers to relevant answers as they type questions.

UserVoice kept expanding its product features in the early 2010s. In 2011, they introduced new reporting tools for their customer support platform. These included better analytics options for their “Instant Answers” service. According to TechCrunch, the idea was to help support teams see patterns in their tickets and understand how automated responses were working.

Independent software review platforms have also documented UserVoice’s evolving feature set. Business-Software.com described it as a help desk and feedback tool that includes support ticketing, a searchable knowledge base, user profiles, and dashboards for support staff. This mix of features allowed companies to handle both customer support and collect feedback within a single system.

By 2025, UserVoice had expanded to serve different types of organizations. A review from ITQlick noted that both small startups and bigger companies were using it. The platform helped teams gather ideas, let users vote on them, and use that input to make product decisions.

References

References

1. Wauters, Robin. (December 4, 2008). "UserVoice Drops Beta Tag, Lets You Capture User Feedback". TechCrunch.
2. Ha, Anthony. [https://www.nytimes.com/external/venturebeat/2011/05/05/05venturebeat-uservoice-aims-beyond-user-feedback-54838.html?scp=1&sq=uservoice&st=cse UserVoice Aims Beyond User Feedback] ''NYTimes''. May 5, 2011.
3. Finley, Klint. [http://www.readwriteweb.com/enterprise/2010/09/3-trends-in-idea-management.php 3 Trends in Idea Management] ''ReadWriteWeb''. September 1, 2010.
4. Empson, Rip. [https://techcrunch.com/2011/11/18/uservoice-which-powers-customer-engagement-tools-for-meebo-hootsuite-more-raises-1-million/ Uservoice, Which Powers Customer Engagement Tools for Meebo, Hootsuite & More, Raises 1 Million] ''TechCrunch''. November 18, 2011.
5. Atwood, Jeff. [http://blog.stackoverflow.com/2008/11/podcast-30/ Podcast #30]. ''Stack Overflow''. November 19, 2008.
6. Hopkins, Mark. [http://mashable.com/2008/08/05/uservoice-2/ UserVoice is My[Company]Idea] ''Mashable''. August 5, 2008.
7. Kirkpatrick, Marshall. [http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/why_we_love_uservoice.php Why We Love UserVoice] ''ReadWriteWeb''. December 5, 2008.
8. http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/SetYourPriorities.html Set Your Priorities
9. link. (March 3, 2012)
10. Aamoth, Doug. [https://techcrunch.com/2008/04/20/uservoice-offers-a-better-way-to-take-customer-suggestions/ UserVoice Offers A Better Way To Take Customer Suggestions] ''TechCrunch''. April 20, 2008.
11. Catone, Josh. [http://mashable.com/2011/03/06/user-feedback-apps/ 9 Web Apps for Gathering Customer Feedback] ''Mashable''. March 6, 2011.
12. Reisinger, Don. [http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Cloud-Computing/10-Ingenious-Tools-from-Google-Apps-Marketplace-397129/ 10 Ingenious Tools from Google Apps Marketplace]{{Dead link. (January 2026)
13. "Data Driven Product Decisions Have Never Been Easier".
14. Kincaid, Jason. [https://techcrunch.com/2010/12/13/uservoice-brings-its-customer-feedback-service-to-facebook-pages/ UserVoice Brings Its Customer Feedback Service to Facebook Pages] ''TechCrunch''. December 13, 2010.
15. Finley, Klint. [http://www.readwriteweb.com/hack/2010/12/api-of-the-week-uservoice-api.php API of the Week: UserVoice API] ''ReadWriteWeb''. December 6, 2010.
16. Vandor, Mollie. [http://mashable.com/2009/12/11/feedback-social-networks/ HOW TO: Get Your Feedback On Social Networks] ''Mashable''. December 11, 2009.
17. Prestepino, Peter. [http://www.websitemagazine.com/content/blogs/posts/archive/2011/03/01/uservoice-is-full-service-kudos.aspx UserVoice is Full Service-Kudos] ''WebsiteMagazine''. March 1, 2011.
18. Carlson, Lauren. [http://blog.softwareadvice.com/articles/crm/gamification-preventing-support-agent-burnout-1022112/ Gamification: The Key to Preventing Support Agent Burnout] ''Software Advice''.
19. Eldon, Eric. (25 October 2011). "Customer Support Solution Provider UserVoice Launches New Reporting Tools".
20. "UserVoice Product Overview".