Entrepreneurship: when your solution is not your best

Posted on February 18, 2006

My first customer (that I had one year back) came back for more!
Here is the story and why is interesting to tell about it.

One year ago, when I started my company, the first clients I had were referred by friends or ex-colleagues. I remember it was a testing time, when all the legal or commercial things were taking place and eating my full time - from the technical point of view nothing was really established. Of course, you might say that you never have to go towards customers if you don’t have everything settled to offer the best services you can. Well, the real world will teach you that delaying the sale will eventually kill your company even before it’s born.
Anyway, I went and bid this project and we won. We started working on the site, but really we had some issues with the design (which went back and forth several times) and the administration section of the site was great, but useless because the customer didn’t need to use it, but to have the content inserted by us. Of course, we haven’t realized that until it was very late in the project and we were really delayed. So, the bottom line is that we didn’t offered the best services around and the customer knew it(even if finally the project was delivered and accepted by the customer).

Some good months have passed since finishing the project, and I did a small follow up to this guy asking how does he feels about the site, and if it has a good influence on his business. It was a very simple e-mail, not asking for anything but showing my interest in the customer good standing. Just 2 hours after my e-mail, I’ve got a call on my mobile. The customer wanted another site! So let’s see what really happen here.

First thing first. My services were not so good. So why did he come back? Because I’ve put a lot of work on making the site right, even if it was difficult and we didn’t do it right from the beginning. He saw commitment to the job and that I kept on working, without worrying about the extra work and the limited price on the project.

Next important thing, I followed up with the guy after the implementation. He saw I care about his business. And he needed another site, so why look somewhere else?

I think that you shouldn’t be afraid of letting your customers know that you are a start-up. They will expect you to make mistakes. But because they once were a startup, they will accept it. And they know that just because you are a startup you are going to work harder and keep the costs low. Sometimes the value comes from commitment and not 100% quality!

So, if you are small or new, work hard and follow up :)

Related posts

» Filed Under Entrepreneurship Tags:

Comments

Leave a Reply




  • Archives