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HOW TO MASTER CUSTOMER
ENGAGEMENT AT STARTUPS Execution’s Guide to Growth
Abstract
Customer Engagement at a Startup is the most vital link often discarded as lowly in comparison to growth. Learn the truth about how you can reclaim lost networks,
build better relationships and grow via engaging with your customers
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HOW TO MASTER CUSTOMER
ENGAGEMENT AT STARTUPS
INTRODUCTION
ENGAGEMENT = GROWTH
Startups are temporary organizations designed to search for a repeatable and scalable
business model. Products developed at this stage are more often than not imperfect
and at a nascent stage. They still might not have the features for which they would be
known for when they become that listed fortune 500 company.
A Startup looks for continuous and non-linear growth keeping churn at minimum
levels. This ensures that they create more and more value for their investors and
attract maximum funding opportunities. Getting the first 5-10 customers is the key
here but keeping them along and getting more customers fast is often the strategy to
achieving growth.
While this strategy is often correct; Growth is not just a relative term. Engagement
and growth are still seen is as two diverse concepts. Let me quickly show you that they
are not with the help of an example
“Just after a customer query is resolved, support suggests that the customer shares
that his query was resolved, on his social networks”
A situation where the customer has motivation to share the product is
capitalized at the right moment. Growth and Engagement are thus, synonyms!
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ENGAGEMENT TACTICS
KNOW THY CUSTOMER Basic homework before engagement is essential for solving problems from the
customer’s perspective
Customer’s Online Presence : Website
What are they sharing on Social Media?
Who is the decision maker?
Who are their primary customers?
What are people saying about them on Social Media?
Which Industry do they belong to? What are the trends relevant to them?
What are they using your product for?
What events & situations might directly affect their business?
The website communicates a lot about what a brand wants itself to be perceived as.
It is also important to understand where the lead generation source of your customer
is. What is the kind of marketing activity they engage in? If they are more into pull
marketing, pitching an ad campaign will not be a worthy investment of time.
You ask why is your proposed solution (which might be the best by any standard) is
delayed in implementation? Is the proposal lying in the inbox of a person who is
incapable of making the decision? Chain of command and hierarchy mess up more
things than what they are supposed to solve. If you want to push across your solution
fast, find who is the decision maker?
A customer complaining on social media is a problem for your customer. They might
have a temporary fix, you have a scalable solution. Take cues, approach them at the
right time.
External agencies, especially legal bodies, have a lot of say when it comes to affecting
a business. Laws can bring giants to a standstill; startups, often, are in the phase of
understanding how rules and regulations affect them. It is a good practice to keep a
track of know-hows of policies that govern various industries and prepare accordingly.
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ENGAGEMENT TACTICS
LISTEN This might sound basic and un-realistic but, it works beyond powers and principalities,
giving you the edge in every conversation. There have been extensive posts on the
Exotel blog around good listening strategies and key indicators of a better
conversations.
It is often that we try to finish a task and move forward to the one next on the list.
Cutting corners in the process is often seen as a better move by some, often with
relevance to time. This is a major mistake. Free flowing conversations on baseless
questions are the breeding grounds of better understanding leading back to growth
via referrals and upselling.
Things to do
Ask open-ended questions viz. “where are you from?”
Listen to a support call from the customer’s perspective; notice how quickly
you find the problem when you are trying to sell a solution.
Write your best call-pitch; revise and use more often
The below image is a screenshot from the Exotel Inbox showing how every call is
recorded and can be played back whenever required.
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ENGAGEMENT TACTICS
MEASURE If you are trying to be better at something and go on implementing better practices
without measuring the latter, it is better to keep doing what you were doing earlier. If
you cannot measure it, there is point doing it.
Returns on Investment (ROI) is not a new concept to anyone, it is only the calculation
that makes people sweat. This is more often because they do know where to start. For
the ones who have started, there are better problems; let’s list them
Problems in Measuring and analysis
Lacking the right tools to collect the Data
Having the Data but not knowing where to start
Lacking will or resources to collect and Analyse Data
Failing to understand what Data is relevant
Fearing what people will say
All of the above problems are quite possible to solve one way or another. The answers
may involve a CRM implementation, writing custom code, integrating a dashboard,
getting over inhibitions, proper planning etc.
The important point here is to understand what data is relevant. It is often difficult to
determine the difference between causation and correlation in data. There are
different engagement circumstances. If you have a support team, un-returned calls is
relevant data.
Simple things to start tracking right-away (in the order)
Un-returned calls/ emails
Open Tickets
SLA’s
Nature of queries
Time to reach resolution
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See how the Exotel Call report helps you to identify basic things such as Call-backs to do
ENGAGEMENT TACTICS
ONBOARDING & BEYOND While we discussed above that you should know who the decision maker is, it is
criminal to prefer the actual user as second and not make him clear about product
capability. It is this user who drives requests and thus creates demand for your product
which is fulfilled thru the decision maker.
Onboarding the ‘user’ is a very important task that needs to be taken care of
irrespective of anything else. A world class product developed by a team from fancy
palace cannot control churn if the actual user does not know how to use the product
and what more it can do, beyond their immediate requirements.
While most of the products comes with ‘one-time training’ and onboarding concepts,
it is important to identify and set-up in-product cues which are dead give-aways of its
functionality. There is always a learning curve which the user goes through while
checking on simultaneous product changes especially in the case of SAAS products.
At @Exotel the concept of getting started has been gamified into a simple ten-step
procedure where the user is taken through basic and advanced functionalities via a
step-by-step tutor. This is independent for every user and is prominently displayed in
their dashboard.
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Notice, the personal touch which includes the account managers name and picture. If
the users are facing a problem, they can immediately schedule a call-back within the
product itself.
CONCLUSION No matter where technology reaches, how much automation happens and what
models the giants follow; Startups need non-linear growth. Real engagement with
valuable customers is the best growth hacking. Know thy customer, listen what they
say, what others say about them; Measure all you do and make sure the user knows
your product. Hack engagement like never before.
CONTRIBUTOR
Arpan Samuel Ramtek
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