Delivering World-Class Service on a Startup Budget

The late Maya Angelou once said “I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did but people will never forget how you made them feel.” This is as true in business as it is in life: Outstanding service can help a company stand out and be remembered in a crowded marketplace.

Unfortunately, many startup founders believe that great customer service can’t be delivered until their company has reached sufficient scale. While it’s true that customer service can’t be streamlined and automated to the same extent as some other business operations, even the leanest of startup teams can create a wonderful experience if they have the right mindset.

Here are three ways your company can provide world-class service on a startup budget:

1. Put your customers on a pedestal. It may sound obvious, but if you want to deliver excellent service, you need to make customer satisfaction the top priority in your organization.

Pick a metric or group of metrics that you believe best represent customer satisfaction (e.g. net promoter score, churn rate, percentage of customers who make repeat purchases, etc.) and display it somewhere everyone can see. Let your team know that these are the most important metrics in your company and that it is everyone’s responsibility -- not just your customer service representatives and account managers -- to ensure that you meet and exceed your goals.

2. Listen to your customers, wherever they are. Customer feedback can come through a variety of channels -- email, social media, live chat, telephone and even snail mail -- so it behooves you to build a system that can capture, synthesize and analyze this feedback while your company is still small. Properly organized, this data can provide invaluable insights that can inform your product, marketing, service and even fundamental business model. While it’s probably not advisable to open all of your business’s decisions to a public vote, companies that demonstrate that they listen to what their customers say and take their feedback seriously tend to earn more respect and brand loyalty than businesses that operate inside of a feedback-free bubble.

3. Use technology to connect with your customers faster than the competition. While startups lack in size and resources, they can compensate with speed and nimbleness. Using live chat and social media, you can address customer questions and issues as they arise while putting a human face on your brand. For best results, train your staff to take a helpful, patient and conversational tone (speaking with a rude and uncaring customer service representative is arguably worse than not speaking with anyone at all). On social media, use your best judgment to determine which posts you will and won’t engage with. Direct questions and constructive feedback always merit a response, even if it’s just to say “we’re sorry, we’ll do better.” Personal attacks and blatant provocations, however, are best left unanswered. As the old Internet adage goes, “Don’t feed the trolls.”

In addition to answering customer questions and addressing their complaints, both live chat and social media are invaluable in that they provide you with an additional opportunity to tell your startup’s story in a conversational and personable way. Given how many large companies either do live chat and social media poorly or choose to avoid them altogether, doing these things well can help endear your brand to your customers and build a loyal fan base at an early stage in your company’s development.

While the tactics listed above will help you enhance your customer experience, ultimately the main difference between exemplary and satisfactory service is culture. Is everyone in your company committed to making your customers happy or does that responsibility rest with a small and siloed team? Do you define customer-service success as a lack of support tickets or by an abundance of brand advocates? How you answer these questions will determine whether customer service is just another business function or whether it’s a foundational part of your corporate DNA. 

From Entrepreneur

10 Words Terrible Leaders Always Use

The worst leaders always use these ten words.

What's the telltale sign of a good leader? They know how to communicate in the workplace. People follow what they say (and what they do), listen to their instruction, and respect their wisdom. They say the right things. But terrible leaders? They use words like those listed below that destroy confidence, grind projects to a halt, and discourage everyone.

1. Maybe

Like a flare shot up into the darkness, the word maybe implies a shaky leadership style. When employees ask for time off, a bad leader says maybe. When the sales director asks for help with marketing a new widget, a bad leader says maybe. Confident leaders rarely use the word.

2. Incidentally

Bad leaders tend to say incidentally with a smirk. It's dismissive--those who use the word don't mean it as an aside. It's more of a put-down. Incidentally, I started this company and I'm in charge. Incidentally, you are an idiot and I'm the smart one.

3. Probably

Does the word probably belong in business? Not really. Good leaders know they have to find the hard data first--there is no probably. There is a specific percentage. When a leader says we will probably need better tech support for the product or we'll probably hit our sales numbers, it's a red flag. They don't really know the answer.

4. Unfortunately

I've written before how this is a dismissive term in e-mails. Bad leaders also tend to use the word when they talk to you. Sorry Bob, but--unfortunately--the firm cannot pay the expenses on your business trip. It's a form of control and oppression.

5. Corrective

A bad leader takes corrective action. I have to be corrective about that, they say. What does that even mean? It's a buzzword--the boss is correcting behavior. But being corrective is not a good leadership approach. Redirecting people and guiding them, encouraging a different approach, that's a sign of good leadership. By the time the boss needs to corrective about something, it's usually too late.

6. Blame

The word blame weasels its way into the vocabulary of terrible leaders. They say things like, I don't mean to blame you for screwing up a project. Or, I need someone to accept the blame for our financial losses. Great leaders don't talk about blame in the workplace. They find what is not working and fix it. Or they accept responsibility.

7. Usually

Acting decisively is important because it builds confidence. When a poor leader says usuallyit reveals a confidence issue--they don't have all of the information. They might say new a new app usually crashes or customers usually can't find parking at a retail store. Wait, did you really mean usually? It's best to find out all of the answers: how often, what is causing the problem, what are the exact variables.

8. Regrettably

The word regrettably is a dismissive term that poor leaders use to, well, dismiss people. They say regrettably I have to cancel your project, or regrettably I cannot attend your business lunch. The word makes it seem like the leader has a higher priority and, regrettably, you don't rank high enough on the scale.

9. Sometimes

The problem with the word sometimes is that it implies a lack of research and knowledge. If the founder of a company says people sometimes download a new app on Android phones, or new customers sometimes try to call an old 1-800 number, everyone starts wondering what's really going on. Poor leaders deal in vagaries and half-truths. Great leaders have the answer or know how to find it

10. No

There are times when great leaders have to say no. It's just not possible to agree to every budget item or every idea. Yet, if you consistently say no to everything, you become known as a naysayer. Your negativity spreads across the company. Figure out how to say yes more. Or at least how to prioritize more effectively.

From Inc.

How to Lose a Customer in 10 Simple Steps

Do you ever wonder why some people don't respond to your emails or pick up your calls? Here's how to avoid alienating potential customers and business partners.

The cards are generally stacked against someone trying to make a sale. Budget limitations, timing issues, red tape, and other factors you can't control can all come between you and a viable business deal.

But there are also subtle things we do that can negatively affect how potential clients perceive our companies. We can't always be perfect, but we can practice self-awareness to prevent costly conversation mistakes. Avoid these 10 turnoffs next time you're talking to a potential lead:

1. Name-Dropping

If you mention you're best friends with Mark Cuban within the first two minutes of a conversation, you might as well be saying, "I'm trying to impress you right now so you think I'm important." I don't think Mark's best friends are advertising it. Naturally bringing up names that fit into a conversation is OK, but don't force it.

2. Overpromising and Under-Delivering

I would love to tell someone they're going to be the next Seth Godin or Richard Branson after they work with us. But people would see right through it and think my company is making false promises. I've learned that it's better to be real with people about expectations. You have to realign them sometimes, but you'll earn a long-term client who trusts you in the end.

3. Talking About Yourself Too Much

Keeping an open ear when talking business will impress leads more than anything else. Try to go by a 60/40 rule. Spend 60 percent of the conversation listening and 40 percent talking. In sales, this number should go up to 70/30 or more.

4. Not Appearing Credible

Imagine a child wearing a business suit for this one. Just because he's dressed like a professional doesn't mean he'll do a good job. (He'll probably eat a whole bag of Cheetos and watch Scooby Doo instead.) Don't be passive about your online presence. We recently wrote a blog post about how one leader's influence affects the whole organization, which talks about how you need to take a hard look at yourself and your company. Do you have content out there that draws people back to your company in a smart way? Ask yourself whether you'd do business with your own company after doing a bit of research.

5. Lying

People you want to do business with can typically sense BS from a mile away, so don't think you're getting away with it. Ego, pride, and insecurity will shine through like headlights when you're talking to someone. Even telling innocent white lies can catch up to you sooner or later.

6. Not Valuing People's Time

Doing business with someone is a lot like dating. If someone shows up late or reschedules a first date, it should be a major red flag. Chances are that person won't value your time as a significant other. Someone's first impression of you should never be "this person doesn't value my time." Own up and apologize if you're late--don't brush it off.

7. Emphasizing Sales

Trying to sell in a social setting will deter people from working with you later on. Ninety percent of consumers say that when they're ready to buy, they'll come to you. Not every person wants what you're selling, or the timing might not be right. Know when to build a relationship and when to sell.

8. Behaving Inappropriately

It's natural to want to skip past the formalities and interact with people in a more relaxed way. But that doesn't mean you should do keg stands and make off-color jokes the first time you meet someone. Informality before rapport can be a major turnoff to many people. Wait until you know you've secured trust before you bring out the tequila shots. It's not worth the risk.

9. Acting Like a Know-It-All

If you don't have a quality answer, it's OK to say, "I don't know." This honesty draws attention to the things you do know. And by asking more questions, you can actually learn about a person and discover ways you can add value.

10. Using Poor Grammar

Emails aren't texts, and potential clients aren't your BFFs. Not every email has to be perfect, but "u" and "btw" can get on people's nerves and cause immediate judgment that's hard to shake. Slapping an "excuse the typos" onto the end won't stop people from judging you for sounding like a teenager, either.

We've all committed a few of these slipups at some point. And all it takes is ruining that first impression to jeopardize a sale forever. We're not going to land every business opportunity that comes our way, but avoiding these conversation don'ts whenever possible will increase your chances of impressing a client and landing a career-defining sale or relationship.

From Inc.

5 Productivity Tips From Incredibly Busy People (Infographic)

Advice from people who are just as busy as you are.

From former U.S. Army captains to tennis pros, it's always interesting to learn what kind of strategies highly productive people use to stay on top of their game. Some of these tips--for instance, wake up earlier--might be harder than others to follow. But there's probably something in here that you haven't tried yet.

From Inc.

The 5 Myths About Entrepreneurship

As people are trying to navigate away from the “corporate jungle” towards the land of supposed “entrepreneurial utopia,” a lot of misconceptions arise.  Perhaps this has to do with the media, advice they have received or what is heard through the grapevine but often these insights can derail a person from taking the plunge in the startup world. Or cause them to jump on the entrepreneurial bandwagon, when they have no business doing so.

Here are the five main myths I have learned about entrepreneurship.

1. If my product or service is good, I’ll be successful. Not necessarily.

For me, this has been a perplexing (and frustrating) enigma in many ways.  As someone starting a corporate-training business in 2003, I knew I was great at what I did. I made the erroneous assumption that if I was a great trainer with great content, I’d similarly be rewarded in the marketplace with plenty of work and clients. My first few years as a corporate trainer disproved this myth and humbled me at the same time.  Yes, I got tons of feedback that my workshops were amazing, and I was a wonderful instructor but that did not automatically translate into new clients and more work.  Here are a few reasons:

1. Providing a great service or product and figuring out how to market it are different animals.  I proved to be a great trainer and less than mediocre marketer for sure.
2. Relationships and connections can make a huge difference particularly early on when you haven’t built a brand yet and need someone to give you a break. (Unfortunately, my connections were few and far between.)
3. It’s easy to overestimate the demand for your services.  When I estimated potential revenue, I tended to focus on how strong my training was and tended to neglect pesky details like the pending surge of online training (i.e. emerging competitors and shifts in your industry), lack of access to decision makers and economic downturns that might impact client ability to pay.

2. Entrepreneurship will give me back complete control over my schedule. Well, yes and no. While founders may not have to punch a time clock, they often slave away the first few years -- logging hours that easily surpass those from their “corporate jungle” days. 

Yes, many who dove into entrepreneurship are passionate about their mission and love what they do, so working long hours may be fine for them.  But just beware of the myth that entrepreneurs don’t have a tight, even strict schedule to make and maintain a successful business. That just isn't the case.

While it’s true entrepreneurs don’t have a “boss” in the traditional sense, they are still being held accountable every day -- whether it’s to clients, potential clients, partners or other stakeholders. 

While I have garnered the ability to have much more control over my schedule in recent years, I still typically schedule key meetings and events around my clients’ availability.

3. Never give away your product or service: It’ll dilute your brand.Not always true. Early on in an entrepreneurial venture there may indeed be strategic opportunities for providing product or service pro bono.  Sometimes, the value of getting in front of your target audience to showcase your abilities or products can outweigh the opportunity cost of the missed revenue.  (There’s a reason why major consumer product companies use sampling as a marketing strategy -- it works!)  That said, any time you’re providing a product or service for free or at cost, you must be careful not to have an overall deleterious impact to your bottom line. 

My advice is provide them a customized version that truly is a “sample,” so that potential clients don’t devalue your service. For instance, if you’re a massage therapist offer a 15 minute sample session or if you’re an executive coach, offer an initial free assessment. If you do go down this sample route, be sure it’s an opportunity for people to get a true sense of what they’d be purchasing when they become a paying customer.

4. Early on, I need to do it all myself. Maybe, maybe not. If you’re starting with limited capital you’ll need to roll up your sleeves and wear many hats.  However, it often becomes more cost-time effective to outsource key functions in areas you aren't an expert in, the function is critical to your business’ success and/or the costs to outsource are minimal.  For example, if you know that your business needs a sophisticated website, it’s risky to anoint yourself your own IT director if you can’t spell java much less use it. If you wouldn’t hire you to do the work, you should probably hire someone else. Focus your energy in areas where you have particular expertise and require your personal attention (i.e. defining your offerings and building relationships with clients). 

5. The more clients, the better. Not really. Again, early on it’s tempting to take on any client that shows interest but spreading yourself too thin can be risky.  I’ve seen young entrepreneurs twist themselves into a pretzel trying to offer different services to different clients, as they try to appease everyone and capture as much potential business as possible.  The danger is that when don’t clearly define your products or services, you can lose focus and confuse the marketplace on your areas of expertise.

Also, let’s face it: All clients aren’t good ones.  Some are extremely high maintenance, unrealistic, unreliable or price hagglers. You definitely want to be selective enough to weed out clients that may become more of a problem than they’re worth.

Another mistake entrepreneurs make is taking on too many clients too soon. By trying to jungle too many responsibilites, you could end up decreasing your credibility, quality and overall brand, which could have longer-term consequences.  

From Entrepreneur

6 Insights on How to Be a Change-Maker

Some of the world’s most promising innovators share their secrets to creating improvements to our world—to being change-makers. These are their tips:

Lead the Way

“A leader anticipates and prepares for change,” says the innovator behind the LifeStraw water filter, Mikkel Vestergaard Frandsen. That means staying abreast of technology, responding to issues that may present problems and adopting new strategies to adapt to market changes ahead of everyone else.

Think Big

“Fortune does favor the bold, and you’ll never know what you’re capable of if you don’t try,” says Sheryl Sandberg. As the Facebook COO discovered, that often involves putting yourself in unfamiliar situations and rating opportunity and self-education ahead of security. “If you’re offered a seat on a rocket ship, don’t ask what seat,” she adds. “Just get on!”

Ignore Convention

“Don’t be afraid to change the model,” says Reed Hastings. The CEO was roundly criticized for rushing to change Netflix’s business strategy in 2011, but his instincts were spot-on. Video streaming is the future, and his company is now a global leader in providing it. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg would no doubt approve. His advice?

Move fast and break things.

Sweep ’Em Off Their Feet

“Build something 100 people love,” says Airbnb’s Brian Chesky. “Not something 1 million people kind of like.” Real change only works if people follow your lead—and for that you need passionate fans.

Believe in Yourself

The best ideas often defy imagination. “If you don’t believe it, no one else is going to believe it,” says VICE’s Shane Smith. “But if you believe it and keep saying it, then slowly one person will believe you, then two, then three, then four….” Once they come around, you look like a genius.

Rethink the Way You Keep Score

“Doing good is good business,” says Andrew Hewitt. On his website GameChangers500.com, the business consultant argues that companies that strive to make the world a better place are more attractive to consumers than companies that simply chase profits. The best way to make the shift, he says, is to adopt new metrics: Start measuring your impact, not just your revenue.

From Success

10 Small Things You Can Do Every Day To Get Smarter

Writing down what you learn every day boosts your brainpower.

You might be under the impression that intelligence is a fixed quantity that is set when you are young and unchanging thereafter. But research shows that, if so, you're wrong. How we approach situations and the things we do to feed our brains can significantly improve our mental horsepower.

That could mean going back to school or filling your bookshelves (or e-reader) with thick tomes on deep subjects, but getting smarter doesn't necessarily mean a huge commitment of time and energy, according to a recent thread on question-and-answer site Quora.

When a questioner keen on self-improvement asked the community, "What would you do to be a little smarter every single day?" everyone from dedicated meditators to techies and entrepreneurs weighed in with useful suggestions. Which of these 10 ideas could you fit into your daily routine?

1. Be smarter about your online time. 

Every online break doesn't have to be about checking social networks and fulfilling your daily ration of cute animal pics. The web is also full of great learning resources, such as online courses, intriguing TED talks, and vocabulary-building tools. Replace a few minutes of skateboarding dogs with something more mentally nourishing, suggest several responders.

2. Write down what you learn.

It doesn't have to be pretty or long, but building a few minutes to reflect in writing about what you learned into each day is sure to boost your brainpower. "Write 400 words a day on things that you learned," suggests yoga teacher Claudia Azula Altucher. Mike Xie, a research associate at Bayside Biosciences, agrees. "Write about what you've learned," he advises.

3. Make a 'did' list.

A big part of intelligence is confidence and happiness, so boost both by pausing to list not the things you have yet to do, but all the things you've already accomplished. The idea of a "done list" is recommended by famed VC Marc Andreessen as well as Azula Altucher. "Make an I DID list to show all the things you, in fact, accomplished," she suggests.

4. Get out the Scrabble board.

Board games and puzzles aren't just fun; they can also be a great way to work out your brain. "Play games (Scrabble, bridge, chess, go, Battleship, Connect Four, doesn't matter)," suggests Xie (for a ninja-level brain boost try to play without looking at the board to exercise your working memory). "Play Scrabble with no help from hints or books," concurs Altucher.

5. Have smart friends.

It can be rough on your self-esteem, but hanging out with folks who are more clever than you is one of the fastest ways to learn. "Keep a smart company. Remember your IQ is the average of five closest people you hang out with," Saurabh Shah, an account manager at Symphony Teleca, writes.

"Surround yourself with smarter people," agrees developer Manas J. Saloi. "I try to spend as much time as I can with my tech leads. I have never had a problem accepting that I am an average coder at best and there are many things I am yet  to learn ... Always be humble and be willing to learn."

6. Read a lot.

OK, this is not a shocker, but it was the most common response, so though it might be a less-than-surprising answer, reading definitely seems essential. Opinions vary on what's the best brain-boosting reading material, with suggestions ranging from developing a daily newspaper habit to picking up a variety of fiction and nonfiction, but everyone seems to agree that quantity is important. Read a lot.

7. Explain it to others. 

"If you can't explain it simply, you don't understand it well enough," Albert Einstein said. The Quora posters agree. Make sure you've really learned what you think you have learned and that the information is well and truly stuck in your memory by trying to teach it to others. "Make sure you can explain it to someone else," Xie says simply.

Student Jon Packles elaborates on this idea: "For everything you learn — big or small — stick with it for at least as long as it takes you to be able to explain it to a friend. It's fairly easy to learn new information. Being able to retain that information and teach others is far more valuable."

8. Do random new things. 

Shane Parrish, keeper of the consistently fascinating Farnam Street blog, tells the story of Steve Jobs' youthful calligraphy class in his response on Quora. After dropping out of school, the future Apple founder had a lot of time on his hands and wandered into a calligraphy course. It seemed irrelevant at the time, but the design skills he learned were later baked into the first Macs. The takeaway: you never know what will be useful ahead of time. You just need to try new things and wait to see how they connect with the rest of your experiences later on.

"You can't connect the dots looking forward; you can only  connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future," Parrish quotes Jobs as saying. To have dots to connect, you need to be willing to try new things — even if they don't seem immediately useful or productive.

9. Learn a new language. 

No, you don't need to become quickly fluent or jaunt off to a foreign country to master the language of your choosing. You can work away steadily from the comfort of your desk and still reap the mental rewards. "Learn a new language. There are a lot of free sites for that. Use Livemocha or Busuu," Saloi says. (Personally, I'm a big fan of Memrise once you have the basic mechanics of a new language down.)

10. Take some down time.

It's no surprise that dedicated meditator Altucher recommends giving yourself space for your brain to process what it's learned — "sit in silence daily," she writes — but she's not the only responder who stresses the need to take some downtime from mental stimulation. Spend some time just thinking, suggests retired cop Rick Bruno. He pauses the interior chatter while exercising. "I think about things while I run (almost every day)," he reports.

From Business Insider