Care is mandatory

We all know the meaning of the word “care.” We try to apply it in our everyday lives, to our friends, our loved ones, even strangers. Nobody wakes up and says, “I really want to be a jerk to everybody,” — at least, there’s not too many people who do that. We all say, “I want the people around me to know that I care.”

The real problem comes in when you have to scale that care. When you’re just starting out, and you’re finding your first clients, it’s easy to care for them. Or, I should say, it’s a matter of deciding to care and really meaning it. You respond to problems personally, you communicate directly with them, and you build a strong relationship. At scale, that’s hard. It’s so hard that one of the biggest clichés that we hear about a company is that, “They don’t care.”

Think of a multinational corporation, a telephone company for example. If you have, as a client, to interact with the customer support, you’re already in a bad mood. You know it’s gonna be a nightmare. You know that they’ve gotten into the mindset where every customer isn’t an individual, but just a tiny part of a mass of obligations that they need to maintain.

As a startup, you know exactly what each of your customers means.

You know exactly how hard it is to find and keep those individuals who support you at the beginning. And on the other side, your customers like the feeling of knowing that there’s a real person behind the website. They like to know who is running things, they like to feel close to the product that they’re using. And so there’s a mutual sense of caring that is created in those early times.

Heetch offered an early example. It began as an evening and night ride-sharing app, useful to people coming home from bars. For years, its founders went out with people and then helped them get a Heetch ride home. They were building their community of users in person, demonstrating value and care for customers.

As a startup, that level of extreme care can make you into something truly special. Making those connections can change the minds of even the most skeptical people. Real care has a magical effect, whether it’s in your personal life or in the business world. People remember it when the CEO reaches out to them to fix a problem. That type of care can absolutely save a startup in its early days. That’s why you need processes in place that place the user at the center and emphasizes the kindness with which you’re going to interact with them.

You don’t need perfection in a startup.

Why is nothing perfect in this world? Because all the perfect products are trapped on the hard drives of entrepreneurs who never launched. So everything out there has its problems. But caring is outside of your product: you can be as perfect as possible in your caring. You can hit the magical trio of being a caring entrepreneur: be personal, be sincere, be authentic. That’s how you can win. Not by being perfect, but by being the ideal entrepreneur for a small and intense community of users.

Of course, that takes time. Exceptional care means an entrepreneur has to be available: ready to respond, fast to respond, and responding at any time. It means adapting your tone to the individual customer. When I send an email to a startup’s customer service, too many of them respond in a bland, corporate tone that doesn’t let me feel a connection to the company. If someone writes to you in a formal tone, reply to them in a formal tone. If someone writes to you in an informal tone, or in a funny tone, respond in the way that you find natural. See every customer as a potential friend. Don’t see them as a number on a screen.

You cannot delegate customer relationships when you’re starting your business.

Until it becomes literally impossible to handle, an entrepreneur needs to be dealing directly with every client who contacts the company. But if it takes you an hour every day to respond to the emails that clients are sending you, that’s one of the best hours that you can spend. That hour will never be a waste of time. And when there’s a problem, do whatever it takes to fix it. Commit yourself to finding a solution, and you’ll be taking advantage of one of the biggest benefits to being a startup.

You can (and should) even go one step further at the beginning — go ahead and give out your personal phone number. That’s the level of commitment that makes great entrepreneurs. And don’t be afraid, don’t tell me, “Oh, but then I’m going to have people calling me all the time.” Look, if people are calling you, it’s because they know your service and what you’re doing. That’s your entire goal. If you can get to the point where your phone is ringing all the time and it’s impossible to keep your phone number out there, great — you’ve managed to find success as an entrepreneur.

When you’re fixing problems, get used to being generous, and be glad for the opportunity. Putting customers first can’t be looked at in terms of saving money. Over the long term, it’s one of the best ways that you can market yourself. Whatever it costs to create a customer who is happy with you for life, that’s money well spent.

Sometimes people misunderstand my advice. I tell founders to act with intensity and ambition, but that does not mean treating people without respect. I say it can be better to ask forgiveness than permission, but part of that is actually asking for forgiveness. When you do something wrong, be ready to apologize sincerely.

Emails from your company need to be coming from a real person.

That’s why you need to reply to everyone (and do it fast). That’s why you need to unsubscribe people yourself — don’t send them a link and ask them to unsubscribe themselves. That’s why you don’t ignore anyone, not even the trolls. That’s why you never refer people to someone else, but you handle it and fix the problem yourself.

If you take on that role, where fixing problems is personal, it filters down into the rest of your company. Everyone in your company will see exactly how important it is to fix problems without hesitation. That’s the company culture you want.

When it comes to needing to scale up customer support, there are tons of tools out there.

You should incorporate them into your processes as soon as possible, as it will make that scaling process much easier. Intercom, Slack, Front, they can all give you not only vital information about your users, but also allow you to maximize the personal interactions that you have with clients. That doesn’t mean it’s easy, and it doesn’t mean it’s low cost. It’s difficult and expensive. But it’s one of the most important things that you can invest in.

Captain Train offered a strong historical example of scaling personal care. In its first years, contacting the company often meant dealing with the CEO. Exceptional customer service was the highest priority. The team wanted everyone they spoke to to leave surprised by how much they cared.

That attitude spread through the company as it grew. Its team engaged actively on Facebook, responded to people and kept an authentic voice. Customers responded to that sincerity as Captain Train reached millions of users across Europe. The useful lesson is how a personal standard of care became a company-wide habit.

Finding ways to connect with people doesn’t have to stay online.

Events can help people join a community and form real bonds. Someone may first come for free food and drink, but return because they found a connection that mattered. You can build relationships with users while sharing a good time.

Events also let you really learn about your users. Events show you how to best adapt what you’re doing to their needs. It’s how you can connect them to each other, and how you can get real feedback on what you’re doing. People in a crowd will always give you more useful feedback than they will one-on-one. Why? Basic human psychology, really. But an event can give you a space where people feel comfortable with you and they see that you are listening to their concerns.

And don’t leave your events to chance. Plan them out, know what is going to happen when. There’s nothing worse than showing up somewhere and it becoming clear that there is no plan. Be there yourself, get up on stage and give an introduction, meet the people who came out to see you.

The only thing that matters in a startup is the result. Care at the beginning of a startup is what gives way to a caring culture as you grow. You can make different strategic decisions in order to get there, in order to push it into your team, in order to scale up. But in the end, it’s a mindset: JUST CARE.