Posts Tagged ‘customers’

Small Business and Startups: Cultivate Trust and Nurture Loyalty

Mike | April 15th, 2013

Trust is a key for driver for your customers. Do they trust you to produce a great product? Do they trust you to deliver a reliable service? Do they trust you with their money and their time? Establishing trust with your customers takes time and consistency, but it also takes data and transparency. Companies rely [...]

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How To Choose A Market For Your Startup Or Small Business

Ross | November 27th, 2012

  I’m rarely surprised when a young entrepreneur or small business owner hasn’t fully identified how their new business will make money. But I’m always surprised when that entrepreneur or small business owner has a tough time describing the potential customers for their new business’s products and services. After all, without customers, there is no [...]

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Is The Only Purpose of Customer Service To Change Feelings?

Ross | October 25th, 2012

Seth Godin, in a recent post on his Blog contends that the only purpose of customer service is to “change feelings.” Here’s what Seth wrote: The only purpose of customer service … is to change feelings. Not the facts, but the way your customer feels. The facts might be the price, or a return, or [...]

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Small Business Tip: Challenge Your Customers’ Assumptions And Behavior

Ross | October 11th, 2011

Some of the most successful companies in the world (Apple, IKEA, Southwest Airlines) succeed by doing something many companies fear: challenge their customers’ assumptions and behavior. Apple challenged the assumption that personal computers, mp3 players, mobile phones, and tablets had to be functional and not aesthetic. Apple challenged behavior by persuading customers to focus on [...]

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How Small Businesses Are Using Social Media [INFOGRAPHIC]

Ross | September 28th, 2011

Social media gives small businesses a platform to amplify their voice and visibility among prospective customers. For many small businesses, this is a rich opportunity, as you can see in the following infographic – a look at social media use by small businesses (click image for full size version). Want to embed this infographic into [...]

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Not Everyone Is The Right Customer

Ross | June 29th, 2011

A few days ago, Christian Jung, a designer and consultant from Germany wrote an interesting post – Goodbye Basecamp, This Is The End Of A True Love. My Heart Is Broken, explaining why he would no longer use Basecamp, popular project management software created by 37signals. Christian decided that after six years, his needs changed [...]

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Saying “No” To Customers Can Save Your Company

Ross | February 15th, 2011

Many entrepreneurs and small business owners argue that you should always listen to your customers. In fact, the popular lean startup principles advocate listening to your customers and iterating early and often. But listening to customers – and responding to your customers’ suggestions by implementing all or many of them – are not the same [...]

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crowdSPRING’s Twitter Roundup For Small Business

Ross | August 17th, 2010

Every day on the crowdSPRING Twitter account and on my Twitter account, I post links to posts or videos I enjoyed reading or viewing. These posts and videos are about logo design, web design, startups, entrepreneurship, small business, leadership, social media, marketing, and more! Here are the links that I’ve liked and shared this past [...]

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Dealing With Customer Resistance To Change

Ross | May 5th, 2010

Whether you are a startup, a small business or a Fortune 50 company, customers typically resist attempts to change products or services they perceive work well. People prefer to deal with the things they already know rather than get used to something new. But to innovate, companies must constantly find ways to improve their products [...]

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Whores, Vegetarianism, Moral High Ground & Capitalist Baggage

Ross | April 20th, 2010

After answering 40,000+ customer questions, we’ve seen our share of pretty unusual questions. Last week, a customer sent us a note with a simple statement: “Hello whores.” WTF? Now – while people sometimes are confused about what we do at crowdSPRING (look to the right of this sentence for the explanation if you’re unsure), we’re [...]

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