Happy First Few Customers Are Important Not The Processes

Most commonly found words in the mission statement of any organization are – ‘Keeping customers first’, ‘Happy customers’, ‘Round the clock customer support’ etc. But do they really mean it? Can they afford doing it? Then why pretend being one?  There could be several reasons for this tendency. But in the context of new business development the key to success is – ‘Happy first few customers’. It leaves the second best way far behind. Stay away from promises that cannot be fulfilled.

Your first customer had several reasons not to buy from you – no local reference customer to talk to, no local customer support team, no product localization etc. But still they have taken a risk and shown faith in you and your offerings. You should do everything reasonable to keep them happy, even at an extra cost. You would soon realize that it was an extraordinary investment.

But very often multinational companies expanding businesses in new markets forget this fundamental truth. They allow processes erode the precious trust the first customers and partners have shown in you. They start applying the same processes which brought them success in other regions. Of course they might be very much applicable in new regions as well.  But don’t be in a hurry. First hear out from all the key stake holders in the region - Customers, Partners and Competitors.

There is absolutely no doubt that well defined processes play a paramount role in the growth story. But take a pause and think for a moment. The processes you are proud of are a result of several years of hard work. They have evolved over a period of time after many iterations. They are bound to change in future. So how can you expect processes in new regions to be evolved so soon?

You definitely need to have few guiding rules to start a new business. Else you would be just wandering aimlessly. But these rules should be elastic enough to accommodate the feedback from the market forces. So there is no harm in tweaking these guiding rules for the sake of the first few customers of course within reasonable limits and setting right expectations. This communication should come in from the senior leadership team. Else the inter-team coordination required at the ground level to support new customers will not happen often leading to frustrations.

It is much easier to understand and implement this if we understand each other’s needs. Customer in actual terms means an individual or a group of individuals. In a professional set up, everyone has a goal to achieve, job to keep and a boss to impress. So why not help each other excel in our jobs. Help the customer with an extra new requirement beyond your defined process with an agreement that he or she would speak in your next road show. A deal or two from this show will potential generate 2x-10x revenues for you. Sales team does a new sale, Support team gets a reference and Customer his ROI.

Most of this is applicable even for not-new businesses. But with established brand awareness and a bunch of new customers they have higher margin for error. Not for new businesses who just started off.