Why do young startups become customer-indifferent as they grow?
I am a platinum frequent flyer card holder for an airline. And still, I have a hard time resolving the issues with tickets and seats when they arise.
Whenever I have to call my bank to resolve an issue with my account, my mood sinks — I know it’ll take many minutes.
Somebody hacked my Ad Facebook account a few days before I wrote these lines. I reached out to Meta customer support. And I found out that the whole process seems to be purposely tailored to make everybody think twice before asking for their assistance.
I bet you know what I mean.
Young startups are often customer-focused. They listen to the customers and try to fulfill their needs. But when they become large and mature, they often lose this mastery.
Why is it so hard to make a large company customer-oriented? How can startups keep this skill?
There are three things you can do.
We live in a world where many business leaders subconsciously lie to themselves and others. And most of them don’t even realize it.
They say that customers are vital to them and their organizations. They talk about ‘customer values’ and ‘customer centricity.’
But ask them when they talked to customers face-to-face last time. I’ve done it many times and know what their typical answers are.
I doubt that Marc Zuckerberg has recently had a conversation with a Facebook user. I am almost sure that Elon Musk doesn’t call Twitter users or Tesla drivers directly.
And those people, as well as many other CEOs, make many customer-related decisions.
They may say they have analytics and statistics. They may claim that their marketing departments provide all the necessary data. And that may be true. But when a company’s founder loses psychological touch with the customers, their business is at great risk.
