Jerry Hoff and Rick Heffernan are taking the traditional paper comment card into the 21st century.

As co-founders of Providence-based BizGrader.com, the two say they have developed a system that allows business owners to monitor how effective their employees are in delivering customer service. Instead of a customer filling out a paper comment card and dropping it in a box at the business, patrons can instead go online and fill out a similar survey – and the business owner can see where they need to make improvements.

BizGrader is an online survey platform on which patrons of a business can rank their experience. The BizGrader team customizes each survey to the individual business. For example, restaurant owners can ask the customers if they were satisfied with how quickly they received the order, its accuracy and the attentiveness of the server.

“We can zero the questions in on certain things, like the food,” Hoff said; “for example, the delivery of an order and if it was taken in a timely fashion. The owner or managers can choose to focus on any area of the business.”

BizGrader’s platform then analyzes survey responses, and weighs the answers. The result is a “grade” for the business. The establishment gives cards to their customers asking them to visit the Web site and rate their experience through multiple-choice responses and short comments. The owners and management team can look at the survey results as a whole, or a question-by-question breakdown so they can see where the business is excelling and where it needs to improve. They can also look at each individual survey.

“We create, deploy and manage a system for customer satisfaction,” Hoff said. “It’s a powerful tool for business owners and their managers. It’s a really efficient way to find out finite information about what is and isn’t being done.”

And while business owners can access their own survey results through the site, the grades aren’t available for the public to view.

“This is an owners’ tool,” said Hoff, who has run his own businesses. “A customer’s perception of quality goes up when you show you care about their opinion.”

BizGrader, which began taking clients in June, has so far signed up 23 businesses for the online service. The client list includes restaurants, food-service distributors, insurance brokers, Realtors and other service-related businesses.

Each business that uses BizGrader has a marketing page on the site, complete with a description of the business, maps and contact information.

The anonymity of an online survey also helps customers to be more honest in their responses, Hoff said. “Many customers are afraid they’ll be identified by the paper surveys,” he added.

Even though Hoff and Heffernan are working to sell companies on the online comment card, they plan to integrate the traditional paper surveys into the businesses’ grade.

“Twin Oaks has created a business on their traditional comment card,” Hoff said of the Cranston restaurant’s “Tell it to the boss” cards. BizGrader, which just signed the restaurant as a client, is developing a paper survey with “fill in the bubble” answers that can be scanned into a computer. That, paired with the online surveys, will help business owners rate their customers’ satisfaction. The online surveys also serve as a peace-of-mind tool for business owners who aren’t always on site, Heffernan said.

“They can see how their business is doing while they’re not there,” he said. Business owners who use BizGrader can access real-time survey results anywhere they have Internet access.

BizGrader has also created a system for business owners who run multiple locations. They can see how each site is doing in a particular category and compare it to the overall performance of the company.

“Sometimes this also works to instill competition among managers working for the same company – they compete to get better grades than their other locations,” Heffernan said.

Hoff and Heffernan said they are working to expand their client roster locally and regionally.

“Obviously we want to own our own back yard … and Providence is a great test market for this kind of product,” Heffernan said.

The two hatched the BizGrader formula after they each had a string of lousy customer service experiences in January.

“We were both venting and realized it wasn’t the owner’s fault,” Heffernan said. “We thought, ‘If the owner only knew what was going on…’”

The basic BizGrader package costs $99 a month. Hoff and Heffernan said their product is marketed to business proprietors concerned with quality.

“Anyone who has customers and cares what they think – this is for them,” Heffernan said. For more information, visit www.BizGrader.com or call 888-5GRADEA.