How Startups Win by Providing Exceptional Customer Support

Steve Hoffman

In today’s highly competitive world where any startup can launch a new service practically overnight and compete with you, how do you differentiate yourself?   One way is by providing exceptional customer service.

If you run a startup, your biggest hurdle is probably customer acquisition.  It’s expensive to acquire new customers.   Most startups spend a huge amount of time worrying about how to get customers cheaply, but they often overlook what it takes to keep them.   This is where customer service comes in.  There’s no better way to retain customers and have them recommend you than by outdoing your competitors when it comes to service.

Mad Mimi, an email marketing service, which we’ve been using for several years, is a great example of this.  I’ve never experienced such fantastic customer service.  Every time I contact them, they respond within minutes.  And it’s not an auto-reply or canned response.  It’s a real human being who specifically answers my questions.   Let’s face it, I can get email marketing from lots of other companies.  The difference in their products isn’t that huge, and the pricing is pretty competitive.  So how do I choose one service over another?   And why would I bother to recommend one service over another?   Customer service.

I’ve used several other email marketing platforms in the past, and their customer service wasn’t bad.  But it wasn’t exceptional, so I didn’t feel any great loyalty to them.  But when I experience exceptional customer service, I start to feel fiercely loyal to the company, and I want to share it with friends.

If you’re launching a new online or mobile startup, dont’ overlook customer service. It just may be the one thing that differentiates you from everyone else and gives your company the competitive edge.