Startup Marketing Mistake #2: Being OK With OK Customer Service

“Great sales without great customer service is like putting money into a pocket with a hole in it.”

I heard this quote early in my career, and it has stuck with me ever since. Unfortunately, many startups don’t have this mindset — they’re more focused on growth than they are on retention. 

Your startup may have a great product, but that alone won’t protect you from churn and lost profitability. If you want to protect your capital, save money on marketing, and increase the valuation of your company, you need to keep the customers you’ve worked so hard to win.

You need five-star customer service from the beginning. 

Customer Success is Your Success

The more value that your customers are getting from your product or service, the less likely they are to leave. That means your team needs to not only sell customers based on a single current need but also educate them on how they can use your solution to manage future problems as well. 

How can you promote customer success in order to grow your business? 

• Boost human interaction — in a world of automation, 83% of US consumers prefer dealing with human beings 
• Provide training to help users understand the full set of features in your product or service
• Provide quick wins during onboarding so the customer gets immediate benefits
• Don’t lose touch with the emotions that caused the customer to buy your solution, and continually reinforce that it was a great decision

When you focus on helping your customers get the maximum benefit from your product or service, you’ll reduce churn, which increases recurring revenue and impresses investors.

Bad Experiences Leave a Bad Taste

Your customers start their relationship with you with positive expectations. After all, they bought your product or service because they believed it best met their needs.

Unfortunately, it doesn’t take very many bad experiences to sour someone. One study found that after a bad experience, 96% of unhappy customers will tell between 9 and 15 other people about it. 

What causes bad experiences? The list may not surprise you:

• Bad employee attitudes toward customers
• Unfriendly service
• The company acts in an untrustworthy manner
• Employees aren’t knowledgeable
• Inefficiency in solving problems

Fortunately, you can address these concerns fairly simply. First, ensure that you create an excellent experience for your team at work — employees often treat customers the way they are treated. Then, reward team members for creating excellent customer experiences, retaining customers, and providing value. 

Finally, ensure your team is well-trained and that you have efficient processes in place to address problems and concerns. That’s all it takes to avoid leaving a bad taste in a customer’s mouth.

Save Money on Marketing With 5 Star Service

“Anna, what does all this have to do with marketing?”
 

Very simply, you put a lot of money into acquiring the customers you have. If they don’t stick around, you then have to spend another bunch of money acquiring new ones. 

It’s no secret that getting an upsell or cross-sell from an existing customer is much easier and less expensive than acquiring new customers. That means keeping existing customers is more profitable and saves you significant money on your marketing efforts. 

As a startup, you need to optimize your budget — and spending a small amount on customer service and success will save you a ton on marketing. I’m passionate about not only helping you win customers, but ensuring you keep them!

Are You Optimizing Your Marketing Spend?

How are you doing in retaining your current customers? Are you making any of the other six common marketing mistakes that might doom your venture?

If you want to avoid missteps and get strategic with your marketing content, we’re here to help. We’ll create a clear content strategy to help your business generate leads and revenue and then create the assets and help you deploy them. 

You can’t afford to make marketing mistakes. Contact us today to get started with strategic digital marketing!