When you’re several years deep into your startup and becoming more mature as a company, it’s very easy to lose sight of what got you to where you are – your early clients. The clients you acquire in the first two years of business, are all taking a chance on you. They know you’re a startup and anticipating issues, yet for some reason, they’re giving you their business. They’re investing their time and resources into your service, and hoping you succeed to see a return on their investment.
Those early clients are also more than likely your main advocates. They are the ones referring their colleagues, spreading the word, and constantly rooting for your success. Not to mention, they’re also the ones financing your business (especially if you’re bootstrapped).
As you grow, especially in a high volume SaaS business, efficiency becomes very important, both in internal processes, and how you manage customers. In the early days, it’s more than likely that the CEO was doing sales, customer support, and everything in between. Because of those close and frequent interactions in nearly every part of the customer journey, your early clients felt a special bond and connection with your company.
It especially gets tough to maintain those close relationships, as your company scales. When you’re company is growing, new employees are being added, new departments are being formed, and new processes are being implemented. During periods of growth, the CEO isn’t as hands-on with the day-to-day operations, which means those frequent interactions with clients diminishes. Instead, the CEO is working on higher-level facets of running a company. This is normal and expected.
As a CEO or founder, your intent is never to neglect or make certain clients feel insignificant. It’s important to be empathetic to the fact that your early clients most likely feel like they should be prioritized. When there are new products or features launched, early clients expect to get them first. They expect discounts on products and services, and feel like they should be speaking to the CEO when they call for support. I’m not saying they should get all (or any) of those things, however I’m simply stating you should be empathetic to how they feel.
When you show empathy to their feelings, it allows you to take a step back and evaluate potential solutions. Here are a few simple things you can do to make sure your early clients always feel important:
1. Create tags in your CRM
Support reps should know they are speaking to an early client. Although the client is not speaking to the CEO, the support rep should acknowledge them and their loyalty to the company, and even go above and beyond when helping them. That will compensate for the fact that they are not speaking directly to the boss, as they’re used to.
2. Segment your early clients to send more personalized email communications
Think about segmenting your early clients when sending standard communication to your users. Instead of the blanketed emails, make it a bit more personal for your early clients. They should feel important.
3. Random check-ins
From time to time, the CEO or other team members should check-in, see how things are going, or just say hello. It’s always nice to hear from someone unexpectedly, without a real purpose. Keep them feeling important!
Overall, it’s nice to show genuine appreciation to your early clients, whenever you can. In most cases, they will understand that things aren’t going to be the same as in the beginning, but will be happy for your success.
Your earliest clients gave you the boost to get you to where you are today. Don’t forget about them.
