Β #CustomerService #EntrepreneurLife #GrowingPains
Hey everyone! π Quick question for you: When do/did you stop actively talking to customers? As a solo founder, I’ve been juggling customer service along with everything else, but lately, it’s been a bit overwhelming.
Today, dealing with difficult customers really took a toll on me. π© So, I’m curious – is there a certain tipping point where you should hand off client meetings to your agents? Or is it best to keep meeting with clients until you hit that elusive product-market fit?
Possible solution I’m considering:
– Implement a tiered system where certain high-value or technical accounts are still managed by me, but more routine issues are handled by my customer service team. π
– Setting up regular customer feedback sessions to ensure I stay connected with our users without being bogged down by every single issue. π£οΈ
What are your thoughts? When did you decide to step back from direct customer interactions, and how did it impact your business? Let’s chat! π¬ #Entrepreneur #CustomerExperience #StartupLife
You donβt. Itβs an ongoing iterative process.
I faced similar issues in my business until I read somewhere that when you become more inaccessible, you become more valuable, and it has definitely been true. Talking to customers has been great for me to understand the downfalls of my plan in real time and have the one on one communication to fix or at least minimize the issue with the customer. But once thatβs understood itβs time to step back and fix those issues and not be involved in them. Youβre time is so limited everyday and youβll wind up talking to 8-10 people everyday solving minuscule issues but tying up all your time. Before you know it, really big issues have gone unsolved due to your focus on the small and often minuscule critiques from people who just love to bitch.
Never. The day you stop talking to your customers is the day your business will begin to slowly die.
>The first customer wouldn’t follow any of my suggestions and was basically dissing my app the whole time, talking to me like I’m an idiot.
“Oh, I’m so sorry that I’ve let my standards slip and that the work hasn’t been up to your high standards.” Even if they’re being a twat, you telling them is not in your favour. Play along and tell them what they want to hear, within reason.
>The second customer can’t figure out calendly so declined the invite but then blamed me for not being in the meeting.
Why didn’t you phone them, try teams or something? Adapt to the situation, not everyone knows what they’re doing.
Sounds like you’re smashing it. You need to remember it’s all a game, just play along.
Never stop talking to them period
To address your specific examples:
If a client declines a calendar invite, you follow up with them to find out whether they meant to or why or something.
If a customer is dissing your product/service, you try to figure out why. If you can determine theyβre just really not your target customer for some reason, let it go and move on. But it could also be theyβre a power user / very needy customer, and learning to do really good βcustomer discoveryβ interviews will enable you to figure out why your offering doesnβt feel good to them.
You donβt stop. You build well-designed interactions and responses into your processes, your customer service playbook, your marketing analyses, etc and you continue learning, expanding your playbooks and adapting to the slow shifts in client needs.
The world (market / context / external factors) is alive and always changing. People (customers / partners / vendors) are dynamic. If you really dislike dealing with people you probably shouldnβt be an entrepreneur. Or at least you should not be in a customer facing or product development role. And you shouldnβt be overseeing the customer facing teams because youβre not in the right mindset to guide them.
IMO, Itβs important to maintain some contact with your user base otherwise you become too disconnected from the people paying your bills.
Definitely the reason I can’t grow my business. Hate meeting with clients. I feel like a scammer when I try to sell something.