In a “me too” world of easy-to-build and low cost startups, it’s becoming harder and harder to differentiate yourself from the competition. Just think about your potential customers and all the “stuff” they’re getting bombarded with on a regular basis. You might have invented a better mousetrap, but getting that message across isn’t easy.
And one of the areas where companies (startups and non-startups) continue to fall flat on their faces is customer service and support. It’s amazing to me that so few companies do a great job when it comes to treating customers well and responding to them in a timely and professional manner. To me, that’s basic. It should be a given. But it’s not.
You should look at those continued missteps in customer support as a huge opportunity.
Every company needs to differentiate itself in a crowded market — and one way of doing that is through great customer service.
I’ve always been a huge believer in providing the best possible service you can. And even in our infancy at Standout Jobs it’s paying off. Here’s a couple testimonials from customers:
Honestly, this level of service is really excellent, unexpected, and
of course very welcome. So far, in the 20 minutes since I signed up, I have had a great
experience with Standout Jobs and I’ve told 2 people. Well done!
Standout Jobs is great for our recruiting needs. The team’s customer service is second to none. From the outset, everyone has been there for us to make our site and job postings better. I’m most thankful for their continued support. I get more support from Standout Jobs than I ever will from another job site that I’ve already paid thousands of dollars to be on. Thanks for everything, and please don’t ever change who you are!
A few thoughts about leveraging customer service as a differentiator:
- Great Customer Support = More Referrals. Happy customers won’t spread the word as much as angry customers, but they still do a great job as your army of sales people. And for a startup (which typically won’t have many, if any, sales people) a wee army of happy customers is a very powerful thing.
- Great Customer Support = More Testimonials. Testimonials and case studies are important for startups, especially those in the B2B SaaS space that need to quickly establish a reputation and level of professionalism that gives prospects a high degree of comfort and increases trust. Companies often think to themselves (of B2B startups), “Are these guys for real? Can they last?” Testimonials, client success stories, etc. help to assuage those concerns.
- Set a Precedent Early. The best time to implement great customer support is when you first start the company. Make it a policy. Make it standard. Make it part of your culture. It will bleed into everything you and your team does, which is going to lead to better results all around. And once killer customer support is baked into your startup’s DNA, it’s hard to strip out. If you don’t do it early, it’s also much harder to get going later on.
- Sell Your Customer Service. It’s not always easy to sell customer service to customers. Customers tend to be wary of promises in this area, but if great customer support is part of your company’s DNA then find a way to sell it as a value proposition to customers. Make sure your messaging and brand are representative of how important customer service is to your company. Reflect it in everything you do, so that customers don’t feel like you’re simply paying lip service to customer service in order to get their credit card numbers.
- Be Faster Than Everyone Else. The simplest way to master great customer support is to be fast. You don’t need an army of customer support people to be fast, you need an efficient system with multiple channels for handling inquiries. If you’re doing a B2B Software-as-a-Service startup, I’d recommend that your phone number go right on your site (and prominently.) Setup forums. Use Twitter. Leveraging multiple channels ensures that you’re “everywhere, all the time” communicating with customers the way they want to be communicated with; and you’re doing it at lightening speed. In many cases, being right (i.e. having the perfect answer to a customer’s inquiry) is less important than the speed with which you deliver the response…
- Think of Customer Support as a Profit Center. Too many companies think of customer support as a cost center. (Not dissimilar to HR, but that’s a story for another day!) Done poorly, customer support is absolutely a money sucker. It can very easily be a black hole of crap. And that’s exactly what it is for so many companies. But you can turn it into a profit center by recognizing all the value it brings. And beyond the ancillary value (referrals, leads, testimonials, etc.) you can start to generate direct revenue too. Create enough of a positive vibe with customer support and suddenly it becomes much easier to upsell customers. And think about the dollars that might exist in extended training options you offer customers (especially for B2B companies.)
- Build Momentum. You can build momentum with customer service. It has a way of snowballing into more and more success, by increasing referrals, testimonials, goodwill, etc. The momentum can be external and internal. You can have as much buzz about your amazing customer support as you can for your product – that’s totally fine, and a great way of differentiating your startup from the competition!
Startups that launch with no strategy for providing the best customer support possible will find themselves in trouble very quickly.
It’s not expensive or complicated to provide great customer service. But because so few companies do it right, there’s a goldmine of opportunity to stand out from the crowd.
I have run a small data processing business for 15+ years and believe that the only reason I am still here is our great customer service. When a customer calls they get a real person that takes care of the issue.
As always, I enjoy your blog!
Thanks Ben
Ben,
There are 2 reasons why we buy from startups:
1.) Access to new, cool technology
2.) Inspired customer service that a “big” company could or would never provide.
You’re right on the money here. Keep making your customers ridiculously happy.
Mark
Could not agree more. In our Beta at http://messageslinger.com whether you sign up for a $12/mo package or a $75+, I will personally coach and assist you through your first send. I will also walk you through every feature, best practice, and detail to help ensure your letter gets out and you know how to track it. Why? Because we want the reputation of having the best service AND the best customer service.
Everyone we hire will think this way. I should know, since I am the CEO.
Brilliant post, and keep them coming!
I think the trick in using service as a differentiator is being able to “sell your customer service” as you mention in point 4 – to do that you need to be concrete and back up claims with tangible action.
I agree that customers are wary of service claims – mostly because everybody makes them. There’s hardly a business out there that wouldn’t claim to ‘put the customer first’ and whatnot.
I suppose selling customer service as a differentiator is a bit of ‘put your money where your mouth is’. Your pizza delivered in 30 minutes or it’s free – that sort of thing.
But as you rightly point out, even if you have no intention of actively promoting service as a point of difference, great service always delivers great word of mouth.
[...] it comes to treating customers well and responding to them in a timely and professional manner. [Read original] Tags: Better Mousetrap, Customer Support, Differentiator, Faces, Great Customer Service, Job, [...]
So true, nowadays it is really hard to get customers that will come back to you. Thanks for sharing this approaches. Hope they will work for me.
[...] Using Great Customer Service as a Differentiator. [...]
Greetings,
Well posted topic which give reason to finished my reading. For my opinion, the success in returning customer is will depend on the trust we can get to them. How it will be happen? example, on our health food products we’re a proud member of the Natural Products Association and a GMP certified company dedicated to enhancing the quality of nutritional products. Another one, which i think the most important is the feedback of your previous client.
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Customer service has been the key to our success in all of our businesses. We own a fine art gallery and a real estate brokerage in Jackson Hole Wy. we see hundreds of people come through our doors weekly. We make every attempt to greet them the moment they walk in the door. We don’t ever let up on that ideal. Because of this our business keeps growing and we retain almost all of our previous clients. I enjoy your blog – keep it up.
Cheers,
Rick Armstrong
this is true. if i get treated poorly by a company, they can kiss my business goodbye, even if they are the better deal. and im sure the same applies to a lot of people.
Ben, reading your article made me think about the airline industry. Sales are down. Customer satisfaction is down. Profitability is down. Everything is down. But at some point, some bold airline is going to follow a new approach to rebuilding their business, and this new approach will be an emphasis on customer service, not on low price. Both business and leisure travelers are miserable, and at some point, I believe we’re going to reach a tipping point, and some airline is going to say “enough is enough.” We’re not going to try to be the cheapest anymore!” and they will follow your recommendations (or something similar) and carve out market share in the process. Customer service CAN be a differentiator…even if you’re in the business of selling airline tickets.
In the window cleaning industry, true customer service is the only thing that differentiates one company from another. That and if they are insured.
But it’s true that customer service must always be number 1. And it starts with answering the phone, and it ends with a sincere thank you.
[...] This article shows you how using good customer service is both great for business and for acting as differentiators from other consultants starting a recruitment company. Though not recruitment specific everything in there can be directly transferred to our industry. [...]
Great (or at least good) customer service sounds like it’s a money maker, not just a differentiator, per a USA Today article today: “Electronics retailers find service sells.”
“Business at Best Buy, even in a weak economy, is thriving, thanks, experts say, to its emphasis on service. By contrast, its once-mighty rival Circuit City has fallen far, brought down by a reputation for lax customer service and aggressive competition….”
http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/retail/2008-07-22-circuit-city_N.htm
Thoughtful blog post, thanks!
@Kris: I’m with you. Making money through customer service … turning what most people think of as a Cost Center into a Profit Center. If you can get there, you’re definitely onto something.
I agree, top customer support can be the reason why you simply stick with a company or “forgive” the company for potential problems.
[...] level of customer support do you offer? Customer support is a huge issue for Enterprise 2.0 startups. We know that most legacy software companies provide [...]
This is a very true piece of advice. For every satisfied customer that tells one person about your company, there is an unhappy customer telling ten. A number of those unhappy customers never even tell you they are unhappy, so those that do should be seen as assets. If they didn't like something about your company, chances are there are many others who feel the same.
Some people seem to think that they just need to get rid of these customers fast, instead, they should be happy that someone feels so strongly that they need to tell them what they need to fix. They should use this as a competitive advantage and satisfy this person – then that person will be more adamant about spreading the word about how great this company is.
This is a very true piece of advice. For every satisfied customer that tells one person about your company, there is an unhappy customer telling ten. A number of those unhappy customers never even tell you they are unhappy, so those that do should be seen as assets. If they didn't like something about your company, chances are there are many others who feel the same.
Some people seem to think that they just need to get rid of these customers fast, instead, they should be happy that someone feels so strongly that they need to tell them what they need to fix. They should use this as a competitive advantage and satisfy this person – then that person will be more adamant about spreading the word about how great this company is.
This is a very true piece of advice. For every satisfied customer that tells one person about your company, there is an unhappy customer telling ten. A number of those unhappy customers never even tell you they are unhappy, so those that do should be seen as assets. If they didn't like something about your company, chances are there are many others who feel the same.
Some people seem to think that they just need to get rid of these customers fast, instead, they should be happy that someone feels so strongly that they need to tell them what they need to fix. They should use this as a competitive advantage and satisfy this person – then that person will be more adamant about spreading the word about how great this company is.
This is a very true piece of advice. For every satisfied customer that tells one person about your company, there is an unhappy customer telling ten. A number of those unhappy customers never even tell you they are unhappy, so those that do should be seen as assets. If they didn't like something about your company, chances are there are many others who feel the same.
Some people seem to think that they just need to get rid of these customers fast, instead, they should be happy that someone feels so strongly that they need to tell them what they need to fix. They should use this as a competitive advantage and satisfy this person – then that person will be more adamant about spreading the word about how great this company is.
This is a very true piece of advice. For every satisfied customer that tells one person about your company, there is an unhappy customer telling ten. A number of those unhappy customers never even tell you they are unhappy, so those that do should be seen as assets. If they didn't like something about your company, chances are there are many others who feel the same.
Some people seem to think that they just need to get rid of these customers fast, instead, they should be happy that someone feels so strongly that they need to tell them what they need to fix. They should use this as a competitive advantage and satisfy this person – then that person will be more adamant about spreading the word about how great this company is.
This is a very true piece of advice. For every satisfied customer that tells one person about your company, there is an unhappy customer telling ten. A number of those unhappy customers never even tell you they are unhappy, so those that do should be seen as assets. If they didn't like something about your company, chances are there are many others who feel the same.
Some people seem to think that they just need to get rid of these customers fast, instead, they should be happy that someone feels so strongly that they need to tell them what they need to fix. They should use this as a competitive advantage and satisfy this person – then that person will be more adamant about spreading the word about how great this company is.
[...] I think this is a natural and obvious progression for us to take. It also means ratcheting up our customer service efforts. If you want to convert free trial customers into paying customers, you need to have this mental [...]
[...] written about customer service a few times myself. I’ve said in the past that I’m “obsessed with [...]
Great article, there are not that many business today that go that extra mile with their customer service. I am part of the service industry and most of the companies out there want to make the fastest buck they can while cutting corners. Customer service is following everything listed in this article and going the extra extra extra mile for them. Not nickleing and dimeing them for every little thing.
Great article, there are not that many business today that go that extra mile with their customer service. I am part of the service industry and most of the companies out there want to make the fastest buck they can while cutting corners. Customer service is following everything listed in this article and going the extra extra extra mile for them. Not nickleing and dimeing them for every little thing.
Brian – Thanks for the comment. I think there's sufficient evidence out there that companies who do MORE for customers win. Companies may not want to agree with that or “give in” to that reality, but it's true, pretty much across the board.
Brian – Thanks for the comment. I think there's sufficient evidence out there that companies who do MORE for customers win. Companies may not want to agree with that or “give in” to that reality, but it's true, pretty much across the board.
Fabulous content about importance of customer support. Thanks for sharing.
Fabulous content about importance of customer support. Thanks for sharing.
Fabulous content about importance of customer support. Thanks for sharing.
[...] past as well, “Customer service is generally so bad that even a slight improvement can be a huge competitive advantage.” Customer service is critical for client retention as [...]