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This is a great recommendation for a startup looking to differentiate based on customer service. I don't buy the implication that this isn't a great use of "ex

This is a great recommendation for a startup looking to differentiate based on customer service. I don't buy the implication that this isn't a great use of "executive time". I'm not the CEO, but I run a business unit and the buck definitely stops here. I still make time to: - respond to random emails I pick out of our customer service email queue - read all customer feedback submitted from the "feedback" tab on our website, and pick out any submissions that I think need special handling - put my email address on many, if not most of the automated emails that get sent out, especially renewal notices and anything else we view as "really important". This usually generates a few hundred inquiries that I need to respond to, or route to another staffer - troll social media looking for opportunities to perform random acts of kindness for our customers and prospects. This year I've sent t-shirts to Norway, a custom order of premium teas to Capetown, a box-set of books to Lincoln and many, more little gifts to surprise our customers. - personally manage our primary twitter account, @hover to make sure it has a consistent voice and purpose. This account is in addition to the group-managed accounts we operate in support of the primary account. So what's the pay-off? Why should a founder or leader be concerned with such trifling things? In the three years since making our commitment to providing real customer service (as opposed to lip service), we've built a culture where everyone understands what we each need to do to meet or beat customer expectations, and fix it when we don't. I don't think it hurts for my team to see me working alongside them helping customers and fielding inquiries day-to-day. The rest of my senior team works similarly and it really makes it easy to raise the quality bar when the leadership team is "walking the walk". In our business, this extra efforts means that our renewal rate beats industry average by light years and our customer sat metrics are world-class. (edit to fix formatting and some stupid grammar that crept in while I was distracted)

weaponofchoice 15y ago
Agree that it feels like a waste of executive time. Although, there's probably a bit that the exec could learn from early users, perhaps initiate conversations over features, gather pain points and so on. But there's no reason why this can't be handled by someone else on the team. And '1000' is just a ridiculous arbitrary number. How quickly did the company get to 1000 users? Imagine replying to a 1000 early adopters who've signed-up over 5 days. It's absurd. I feel dedicating a % of the day for this, might make a little more sense. Lastly, it's astonishing you find time for the stuff you've listed.
- freejack 15y ago
  Whether or not it's a waste of time depends on the commitment you've made to your customers. Jobs obsessed over design for a reason. Our promise is to provide exceptional customer service, so that's how we prioritize our time.
  - weaponofchoice 15y ago
    Well said. Though, habits like these (suggested by the article) early-on could shape the startup's perception of their commitment to their customers. It could end up being a costly 'culture' thing. It's still debatable whether dealing with customers daily, makes for productive use of an executive's precious time, even if the startup's value proposition revolves around exceptional customer service. I've witnessed a few small companies getting infinitely better, once they started hiring the right people to fill sales and customer relations positions, that were usually handled by the founders themselves.
    - freejack 15y ago
      Well, I can say that it has been a great use of my time :-) The increased focus has demonstrably paid off in terms of real revenue and customer activity that I don't think we could have tapped into with a lesser focus. Everyday I'm seeing new things that help us improve, that help me set a strategic direction that would be muted if the feedback were filtered through intermediaries. There are other ways of organizing of course. Someone once told me that its way better to organize around the strengths and weaknesses of the people that you have and the people that become available than it is to organize within the constraints of an org. chart "because that's the way its done". I'm sure that if we had a different mix of skills, we might choose to delegate differently, but this is what works for us. For example, I spend very little time worrying about engineering matters compared to the amount of time I spend managing customer service workflows. What matters is whether we're putting points on the board, not so much which plays we're running.
qeorge 15y ago
Counterpoint: If you have < 1000 signups CEO is just a title anyway, and probably means "the only person who works here." You've got time.

weaponofchoice 15y ago

Agree that it feels like a waste of executive time. Although, there's probably a bit that the exec could learn from early users, perhaps initiate conversations over features, gather pain points and so on. But there's no reason why this can't be handled by someone else on the team. And '1000' is just a ridiculous arbitrary number. How quickly did the company get to 1000 users? Imagine replying to a 1000 early adopters who've signed-up over 5 days. It's absurd. I feel dedicating a % of the day for this, might make a little more sense. Lastly, it's astonishing you find time for the stuff you've listed.

freejack 15y ago
Whether or not it's a waste of time depends on the commitment you've made to your customers. Jobs obsessed over design for a reason. Our promise is to provide exceptional customer service, so that's how we prioritize our time.
- weaponofchoice 15y ago
  Well said. Though, habits like these (suggested by the article) early-on could shape the startup's perception of their commitment to their customers. It could end up being a costly 'culture' thing. It's still debatable whether dealing with customers daily, makes for productive use of an executive's precious time, even if the startup's value proposition revolves around exceptional customer service. I've witnessed a few small companies getting infinitely better, once they started hiring the right people to fill sales and customer relations positions, that were usually handled by the founders themselves.
  - freejack 15y ago
    Well, I can say that it has been a great use of my time :-) The increased focus has demonstrably paid off in terms of real revenue and customer activity that I don't think we could have tapped into with a lesser focus. Everyday I'm seeing new things that help us improve, that help me set a strategic direction that would be muted if the feedback were filtered through intermediaries. There are other ways of organizing of course. Someone once told me that its way better to organize around the strengths and weaknesses of the people that you have and the people that become available than it is to organize within the constraints of an org. chart "because that's the way its done". I'm sure that if we had a different mix of skills, we might choose to delegate differently, but this is what works for us. For example, I spend very little time worrying about engineering matters compared to the amount of time I spend managing customer service workflows. What matters is whether we're putting points on the board, not so much which plays we're running.

qeorge 15y ago

Counterpoint: If you have < 1000 signups CEO is just a title anyway, and probably means "the only person who works here." You've got time.