Earlier this year, Paul Graham wrote a phenomenal essay of the 13 pieces of advice that he would give to entrepreneurs in the world today. Number six reads, “Offer surprisingly good customer service.”
Superb customer service in the early stages of a company, Graham explains, accomplishes two critical goals for startup success: it surprises the customer, and helps you learn more about your target market. This is exactly what you need in your company’s early years.
Great Customer Service Surprises the Customer
We recently purchased Quickbooks Pro 2009 to handle our bookkeeping for Simpleslice. Our decision to use Quickbooks wasn’t because the software is good (it’s actually quite atrocious), but because it’s the dominant accounting software for small businesses in the market today. If we ever needed help, it wouldn’t be difficult to find it.
Lo and behold, we needed help right away. The software wouldn’t activate over the Internet properly, and I found myself on the phone with Quickbooks customer service. And the experience wasn’t pleasant.
I’ll spare you the details of the ten awful minutes I wasted on the phone with them, just to get a five-digit code that would unlock my software. Quicken’s customer service was terrible. And for some reason, that was exactly what I had expected.
As Graham explains in his essay, crusty old companies like Quicken can afford to have bad customer service. People (including us here at Simpleslice) will still buy and use its products, no matter how poorly its customer support assistants can speak English with you.
As a startup company, however, you have an advantage. You can blow your competitors’ customer service out of the water by adding a few personal touches here and there to make your customers’ experience better. Customers will be surprised when they don’t get the second-rate treatment they’ve come to expect from every other company.
Great Customer Service is Market Research
Magic Johnson, the famous NBA-superstar-turned-businessman, has had his share of successes and failures as an entrepreneur. Although his company Magic Johnson Enterprises is thriving today with over $700 million in assets, things weren’t always so easy for Johnson. His first retail venture failed miserably, actually.
That first venture was an NBA merchandise outlet called Magic 32, taken from the number that Johnson wore while playing for the Lakers for over 20 years. As Johnson explains, Magic 32 failed because he didn’t think about the customer:
Never make your business about you, make it about the customer. I was the owner, and I was also the buyer, and when I went out I bought 50 of these and 100 of those because I liked them. I only bought what I liked. But then nobody bought anything from me.
This is a mistake that many startups make. The founder falls in love with the product, and thinks everyone in the world will want it — only to find out that no one wants it, and within a year the company has failed. Good customer service can prevent this.
As you’re helping your customers with problems and concerns, gather and save all the information you can. Without even knowing it, your customers are participating in a totally honest market research survey! They’re telling you exactly what works and doesn’t work with your product, all for free!
As you do your best to resolve your customers’ concerns, take the principles that you’ve learned and apply them to the products of your business. Improve based on the customer feedback that you’re given. Adapt your company to what the market wants, not what you want.
Worry About Scaling Customer Service Operations Later
As your company grows, going the extra mile (like personally writing a letter to every single client) may not always be possible. So, what do you do if the customer service that your startup has thrived on all these years suddenly starts to become unscalable? Is it time to panic?
Of course not. As companies grow, changes will inevitably come. You’ll find new ways to offer great customer service, even if you’re not the one personally doing it. You’ll be able set different, more scalable customer service goals for your company at that time. When your company has been around long enough, all of these things will (hopefully) come quite naturally.
For now, in the early years of your company, just keep focusing on the superb customer service, no matter how unscalable it may seem. Your customers will be surprised, and you’ll get some free market research.
Photo by shawnzlea.
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