Consumers will forgive all sorts of faults, so long as they feel you truly care about them

Though founders are often praised as innovators, we still cannot escape human nature: We often focus on the aspects of the business that bring us the most accolades. Founders, for example, often immerse themselves into product development at the exclusion of other necessary functions like HR or accounting, then jump wholeheartedly marketing when it’s ready.

This pattern may be the greatest legacy of Steve Jobs, at least among other founders: Every one of us wants to be the guy on stage, debuting his product to legions of adoring fans and media and setting the tech world abuzz.

Some founders even adhere to a variation of the Pareto principle here, spending 20% of their time on their product, the remaining 80% on marketing it. They’re the hacker in the garage for one day of the week, then the smooth-talking luminary on stage the other four. This mix may have worked for the founders of the previous generation, but it will no longer suffice in our current era. For one, products are easier to replicate, much to the surprise of some — after launching crowdfunding campaigns on Kickstarter, some inventors found their products for sale a few days later on international marketplaces by enterprising imitators (copycats from China, in particular, are “lightning fast”). For another, most online shoppers read reviews from fellow customers before making a purchasing decision – reviews outside the reach of traditional marketing.

To succeed in this kind of environment, founders need to distinguish themselves not only on the strength of their product, or the gravity of its marketing, but also on the excellence of their customer service. The mere mention of customer service may make many founders wince, who view it not so much as a company function, but as a necessary evil. No one, after all, likes the idea of answering angry emails or reaching out to ranters on social media. There’s no way to spin it: Customer service is not sexy. No statues will be erected in honor of an entrepreneur with a great track record in customer service.

Because customer service is not inherently alluring, we need to work ourselves up to the task. Silicon Valley is replete with such examples, most famous of which is Tony Hsieh, the founder of online marketplace, Zappos. Hsieh innovated customer service as much as other entrepreneurs did their products. He placed no limit on customer service calls, allowing representatives to stay on the phone for as long as it took to solve a problem, sometimes for even more than an hour; forced everyone in the company, including executives, to work their first two weeks in the call center, so they can build empathy for the customer. He even incentivised new hires to quit with a cash bonus on top of wages earned, which may sound expensive but is actually a cost-effective way to weed out people that don’t fit your customer-centric culture.

Also read: Effective e-commerce: How better customer engagement wins you loyalty and satisfaction

As the founder of Mober, I also work every day with brands who are also trying to become more customer-centric like Hsieh’s Zappos. While we have a consumer-facing app for on-demand delivery, we also provide enterprises with same-day delivery for their products. The decision to invest more resources into their customer service is fraught with difficulty: Brands must admit that it’s no longer enough to compete on product quality or even price — they must outshine their competitors in customer service.

Our clients are making a name for themselves in each of their respective spaces as brands that care about their customer. When their competitors are content with taking up to weeks or months to deliver a product, brands that turn to Mober get their products to their customer that afternoon.

This kind of speed has a direct impact on their business success. When they receive their products the same day, consumers are more than happy to espouse positive reviews about these brands online, which distinguishes them from competitors who offer products with comparable attributes but incomparable service. Over time, these companies become known as customer-friendly brands, which is the most resilient kind of stamp. Consumers will forgive all sorts of faults, so long as they feel you truly care about them.

The founders who devote 20% of their time to product and 80% to marketing thus need to stretch themselves, as this ratio ignores the most important aspect of business in this digital era. I believe a much more ideal mix for founder time is 20% product, 40% marketing, and 40% customer service. In other words, for every second you spend building your product, you should spend twice as much evangelising about it and an equal amount caring for the customers who do purchase it. This is where customer empathy truly begins: Providing not only what they need, but the support and guidance to maximise its use.

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