Grow Your Business With Customer Service5 startups share their secrets for success

1Grow Your Business With Customer Service

These days it takes more than a great idea, some capital, and a ping-pong table to get a new business off the ground. Awesome customer service needs to be a part of your company DNA from day one. Although companies sometimes overlook it in the rush to get a product out the door, customer service can be the difference between a hot IPO and just keeping the lights on. So grab your headset and:

What’s the secret? Why do some startups hit the jackpot while others quickly fizzle out?

2Grow Your Business With Customer Service

Hear from these 5 fast-growing businesses how offering awesome customer service helped them succeed in a competitive marketplace.

AsanaIndustry: High TechYear founded: 2008# of customer service agents:6 full time

www.asana.com

Kenny Van Zant Head of Operations Brian BoroffHead of User Operations

SoundCloudIndustry: High TechYear founded: 2007# of customer service agents:28 full time

www.soundcloud.com

Jennifer Wentzel Community Support Specialist James HaliburtonDirector of Community & Customer Support HotelTonight

Industry: TravelYear founded: 2010# of customer service agents:35 full time

www.hoteltonight.com

Patrick CheesemanHead of Customer Experience

MuncheryIndustry: Food & BeverageYear founded: 2010# of customer service agents:4 full time, 12 flex

www.munchery.com

Conrad Chu CTO, Co-Founder

One Kings LaneIndustry: RetailYear founded: 2009# of customer service agents:70 full time

www.onekingslane.com

Alexis ChapmanDirector, Customer Operations

3Grow Your Business With Customer Service

Kenny Van Zant Head of Operations Brian BoroffHead of User Operations

WHAT’S YOUR ADVICE FOR COMPANIES THAT ARE JUST GETTING STARTED ON CUSTOMER SERVICE AND HOW DO YOU KNOW WHEN YOU ARE DOING IT RIGHT?Don’t silo the function as a company cost center. A great sign of superior service is when it is integrated as a mindset across a company.

WHAT’S YOUR SECRET FOR BUILDING AN AMAZING CUSTOMER SERVICE TEAM?Hire people who are passionate about solving problems and educating customers. You can train on the product and on the tools but you can’t manufacture the passion to help people.

Learn more about Asana>>

WHAT DOES CUSTOMER SERVICE MEAN TO YOU?Treating all customers exceptionally. We view ourselves as ambassadors for the brand and want to leave each customer more excited about Asana than before they contacted us.

WHAT WAS YOUR WORST CUSTOMER SERVICE MISHAP AND WHAT DID YOU LEARN FROM IT?We gained customer approval to do a data migration but didn’t fully vet their expectations for the outcome. They ended up being very upset after the irreversible action was complete, and we learned to always over-explain and double confirm processes with such far-reaching impact.

“A great sign of superior service is when it is integrated as a mindset across a company.”

WHAT FAMOUS PERSON WOULD YOU MOST WANT ON YOUR CUSTOMER SERVICE TEAM?Javier Bardem. He’s articulate, empathetic, and has a great sense of humor.

4Grow Your Business With Customer Service

Jennifer Wentzel Community Support Specialist James HaliburtonDirector of Community & Customer Support

WHAT DOES CUSTOMER SERVICE MEAN TO YOU?Customer satisfaction is our north star and memorable interactions with the community are key to loyalty and retention. Each person contacting our customer service team should come away from their experience with a better understanding of the issue they experienced (and why) and a sense that the company really cares and values them not as a number but as an individual.

WHAT WAS YOUR WORST CUSTOMER SERVICE MISHAP AND WHAT DID YOU LEARN FROM IT?Accidentally deleting the incorrect account on behalf of a customer. This taught us to be more detail-oriented and to always double check with a user before acting on their behalf; it’s better to be thorough and take a longer time with the correct outcome then to rush to help without total clarity.

“Listen to your customers and never assume you know what’s best for them.”WHAT’S YOUR ADVICE FOR COMPANIES THAT ARE JUST GETTING STARTED ON CUSTOMER SERVICE AND HOW DO YOU KNOW WHEN YOU ARE DOING IT RIGHT?Listen to your customers and never assume you know what’s best for them. Remember that there is a person on the other end of your emails; treat every interaction with customers as you would if you were in a traditional customer-facing role with an individual person in front of you. You will only know you are doing it right when your customers tell you are.

WHAT’S YOUR SECRET FOR BUILDING AN AMAZING CUSTOMER SERVICE TEAM?It’s all about the people; never settle for second best during the recruitment process. Find people who are passionate about helping other people. Tools and products can be learned but empathy can’t.

Learn more about SoundCloud>>

WHAT FAMOUS PERSON WOULD YOU MOST WANT ON YOUR CUSTOMER SERVICE TEAM?Snoop Dog/Snoop Lion. He’s a passionate user of SoundCloud; just imagine the amazing personalized help he could give the community!

5Grow Your Business With Customer Service

Patrick CheesemanHead of Customer Experience

“Customer service is a philosophy that elevates a user’s time with us from a transaction to an experience.”WHAT’S YOUR ADVICE FOR

COMPANIES THAT ARE JUST GETTING STARTED ON CUSTOMER SERVICE AND HOW DO YOU KNOW WHEN YOU ARE DOING IT RIGHT?Find what’s really important to your team—the elements that define your brand will help differentiate your customer service as well. For us, booking in the moment means providing top-notch service at the speed of our travelers and with the candor they’ve come to expect from us as a company. It is one of many things that sets us apart from our competitors.

WHAT’S YOUR SECRET FOR BUILDING AN AMAZING CUSTOMER SERVICE TEAM?We make every facet of the job known to those who apply: both the good and the challenging. By being so transparent, we’re able to build respect among our team. We also seek out passionate people. The passions you’ll find on our team are not always industry-specific, but we find that people who embrace passion in their lives are more empathetic and tend to have the focus and drive required to deliver the true HotelTonight customer experience.

Learn more about HotelTonight>>

WHAT DOES CUSTOMER SERVICE MEAN TO YOU?Customer service is a philosophy that elevates a user’s time with us from a transaction to an experience. By questioning what service has meant historically, we’re able to disrupt the notion of good enough and deliver more than we promise every time.

WHAT WAS YOUR WORST CUSTOMER SERVICE MISHAP AND WHAT DID YOU LEARN FROM IT?A nationally renowned customer service expert called in for a simple but unfortunate issue and was met with a lack of empathy despite the relatively simple and effective solution that we provided her. She shared her experience on Twitter with thousands of service-focused followers. We learned the power of something as simple as saying “I’m sorry.” Now we make it a priority to identify with each caller and respond with as much empathy as efficiency.

WHAT FAMOUS PERSON WOULD YOU MOST WANT ON YOUR CUSTOMER SERVICE TEAM?A celebrity member of the team here at HotelTonight would have to embody the spirit of humor, passion, respect, confidence, spontaneity, and humanity that sets HotelTonight apart from its peers. As we strive to become the world’s most-loved hotel app, there’s no doubt that we would need the world’s most-loved comedian on our side. Ellen Degeneres would be PERFECT for our customer service team.

6Grow Your Business With Customer Service

Conrad Chu CTO, Co-Founder

WHAT DOES CUSTOMER SERVICE MEAN TO YOU?It might sound quaint, but it means that everyone in your entire organization is focused on delivering an exceptional experience. Customer service begins with how the product is built, to how it is delivered, and fully supporting the customer should something unexpected occur.

WHAT WAS YOUR WORST CUSTOMER SERVICE MISHAP AND WHAT DID YOU LEARN FROM IT?We made proactive calls to customers on a particular route informing them their delivery might be late due to a last minute driver issue. After 20 minutes on the phone with one very, very frustrated customer, we could have given up, but we decided to have a manager call her back one last time. He was able to more clearly relay the reason for the call and changed her attitude from irate customer to fanatical supporter. We learned to not give up when dealing with difficult issues. There’s always an opportunity to flip a customer.

WHAT’S YOUR ADVICE FOR COMPANIES THAT ARE JUST GETTING STARTED ON CUSTOMER SERVICE AND HOW DO YOU KNOW WHEN YOU ARE DOING IT RIGHT?The time you spend talking to your customers is an invaluable opportunity to build loyalty, so distribute your customer service responsibilities throughout the company. Let as many people experience it via chat or phone calls. Do not put your customer service team in a place where engineers cannot hear them. You know you’re doing it right when customers are tweeting about their customer service experience in addition to the product experience.

WHAT’S YOUR SECRET FOR BUILDING AN AMAZING CUSTOMER SERVICE TEAM?We look very keenly at writing skills to see how an individual knows how to express sympathy and be creative with solutions. We also look to individuals who have excellent communication skills, which means they understand the “science” of listening and can actually break down what it takes to be a good listener.

Learn more about Munchery>>

WHAT FAMOUS PERSON WOULD YOU MOST WANT ON YOUR CUSTOMER SERVICE TEAM?Garrison Keillor. He’s an amazingly patient communicator. If anyone can tell a story, it’s him.

“We learned to not give up when dealing with difficult issues. There’s always an opportunity to flip a customer.”

7Grow Your Business With Customer Service

Alexis ChapmanDirector, Customer Operations

WHAT DOES CUSTOMER SERVICE MEAN TO YOU?For us, customer service is an extension of the experience members receive when shopping on One Kings Lane. If you go to the storefront, the site is so beautiful, inspiring and easy to shop. I like to think the customer service at One Kings Lane is similar; easy to access — a friend to assist you in resolving an issue — and that the communication experience is a luxurious one.

WHAT’S YOUR ADVICE FOR COMPANIES THAT ARE JUST GETTING STARTED ON CUSTOMER SERVICE AND HOW DO YOU KNOW WHEN YOU ARE DOING IT RIGHT?Find a CRM or ticketing system immediately. And, one that you can customize to your business needs like Desk.com. I would also start defining what SLAs will work for your particular type of business and gather all the data around the SLAs. I would make sure you have a way to display your goals that is simple for an exec team to access and self serve. And, you MUST find the right people to service members, never settle for second best.

WHAT’S YOUR SECRET FOR BUILDING AN AMAZING CUSTOMER SERVICE TEAM?The people, no matter what tools you have —if you don’t have a passionate, strong, dedicated team— your customer service department will suffer daily, not only in customer satisfaction but with daily morale as well.

Learn more about One Kings Lane>>

“...you must find the right people to service members, never settle for second best.”

WHAT FAMOUS PERSON WOULD YOU MOST WANT ON YOUR CUSTOMER SERVICE TEAM?Ellen DeGeneres. She could make our customer laugh no matter how sensitive their issue is!

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