Don't Forget About Customer Service
Market Research
August / September 2008
Volume 6 Number 4
After recently being on the receiving end of several really poor customer service situations, I decided to address customer service as part of the entire market research and market planning processes for startup technology companies.
Customer service is important to new technology companies for a number of reasons. As an emerging company, you will experience stiff competition from entrenched organizations, and customer service is one way to set your company apart from the pack. Industry trade associations and gatherings foster discussions and networking between companies. In some cases, it's a lot like gossiping, with more negative information being relayed than positive information. You want to build and maintain a stellar perception of your company within your industry so that positive information is spoken about your company. Most important, industrial companies are few and far between, especially relative to business or consumer mass markets, so you need to capitalize on the opportunities you have with each one.
A key to providing stellar customer service is to incorporate it into your market research and planning, as well as into your product development. In market research, you should find out how other companies provide customer support. This includes hours, the extent or types of support, and pricing, if not included in the product sales price. You also want to find out how those companies' customers view their support. In some cases, you may find some basic customer service information on your competitors' web sites. More often, you will have to incorporate this subject into your primary research. Before you turn to primary research, try looking at industry blogs. People in industry are blogging more frequently about issues they face, both good and bad, and are including service issues as well as product issues. You can do a general Google search to find such blogs in your industry, or you can try a web site such as Trendpedia (www.trendpedia.com) to focus on specific industries, companies or issues. This should give you some information for framing your primary research questions on customer research. When you ask potential customers or users about your product and its features, also ask questions about what their current suppliers provide in terms of customer service. Additionally, ask what they expect and need in support from vendors. The two questions will likely have different answers, and should help tremendously in your development efforts.
In market planning, there are four or five "Ps," which stand for product, placement (distribution), pricing, promotion, and sometimes positioning. In terms of product, you simply incorporate customer service into these marketing elements. Whoa. Did I say "simply?" I did, only because the concept of incorporating customer service into market planning is simple, but there are many stages and processes involved. You need to get sanity checks on whether your products are needed or wanted, what customers want to see in terms of features and benefits, what pricing they will/can pay, and what they need in terms of support. You not only should ask these kinds of questions, but you should ask them at various stages in your product development. This really is complex and can make or break your new company. One book on the subject that I highly recommend is The Four Steps to the Epiphany by Steven Gary Blank. The author is a serial technology entrepreneur and the book is geared toward technology startups. The first chapter is "The Path to Disaster: the Product Development Model." The second chapter is "The Path to Epiphany: The Customer Development Model." That says it all. The author walks his readers through the different stages of product development and shows how to obtain and to incorporate customer feedback at each stage of development. Some of the editing in the book can be improved, but it is well worth the few dollars and hours it takes to read the book. If you follow his suggestions and guidelines, incorporating customer service into your development cycles will become second nature.
Now, once your product is placed with beta customers, or even limited post-beta customers, things can happen. What happens if your product fails or doesn't perform to the customer's expectations or to your own? Most customers are not unrealistic and they realize that there can be product issues, especially with newer products. What will set you apart in these situations is to devote as much time and resources as are necessary to resolve the problem, even if it means delaying some other work. If you can be proactive in addressing possible issues, so much the better. What this shows the customer is that you are serious about your product and company, you are committed to your customers and you have excellent technical support. In order to be sure that the issue is fixed to the customer's satisfaction, you should simply ask the question; this is not something you want to assume because your idea of the resolution may not be the same as your customer's.
If your customer has had a problem with your product, and you have verified that your company resolved it to the customer's satisfaction, incorporate this further into your marketing and sales plans by getting a reference from the customer. It sounds strange, but most customers who have had problems successfully resolved are happy to be good reference customers. The quality of your service will resonate with them, and will likely be shared by them with others in your industry. Customer service really does matter!
Betsy Gillette is director of market research and planning for Technology Ventures Corporation.
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