Up until recently, Hustle Fund was a customer of a not-to-be-named CRM platform.

As the point person for this platform, I would occasionally receive an email from the company. The email was always some version of this:

“Hi Kera! I’m [so and so] from [company] and I’m your account manager. I’d love to hop on a call and discuss your goals and ensure we’re helping you meet them. Here’s my calendar. Does next week work for a call?”

Oof. Have you ever received an email like this?

It didn’t help that my account manager would change every couple weeks, so I was constantly getting some version of the email above.

Why is this such a terrible customer experience? Three reasons:

1. It’s a big ask – a 30-min call with someone I’ve never met? No thanks.
2. There is no obvious value to me.
3. The fact that I’ve been a customer for a couple years and they don’t know my goals is alarming.

Presumably the goal of this email was to retain me as a customer. But this CRM company is going about it all wrong.

So what’s the right way to do this?

To get an answer to that question, I approached Sam Chandler. Sam is the director of customer success for startups at Zendesk. She’s deeply aware of what it takes for startups to drive retention – and revenue – at every stage.

Today we’re gonna talk about how startups can make retention a key part of their strategy, even if they have very few customers and very little revenue.

Why you should care about customer retention

You probably know why customer retention matters, but let’s recap just in case.

Retaining customers will…

• Increase customer LTV

→ Why? Because the longer a customer remains a customer, the more money they’ll spend on your product.

• Decrease CAC

→ Why? Because existing customers will recommend your product to other potential customers. And word of mouth is the cheapest way to acquire new customers.

• Help fundraising efforts

→ Why? Because strong retention means strong market pull. And market pull is a huge indicator of a winning team.

Once you become aware of the critical need for retention, the question becomes: how can I retain every single customer that I acquire? And the answer, my friends, is customer success.

Customer success? Really?

Look, I know that customer success doesn’t have the best reputation among startups. Many founders may view customer success as:

• Kinda “fluffy”
• Something that only large companies need to worry about
• Something you can outsource to a call center

But actually, customer success is the key to retaining your customers.

It’s a way to develop strong relationships with your customers right from day one. It shows your customers that you are not just a business that wants their money, but a team of people who are invested in their success.

As a small startup, you have a competitive advantage over larger competitors. See, you may be a small team, but you also probably don’t have as many customers as an enterprise org. Fewer customers = fewer people to connect with.

And this is your super power. You have the ability to develop a personal relationship with every single one of your customers.

But how?

What you should be doing today

Sam from Zendesk suggested 3 things that startups can do today to prioritize retention. Let’s dive in:

1. Give value for free

You can do this in a few ways:

• Share content that helps them succeed without asking for anything in return
• Share links to workshops or white papers that pertain to their industry without asking for anything in return
• Offer to connect them with a prospective lead or mentor without asking for anything in return

Why do this? Because when the time comes to conduct customer surveys or interviews, you’ll already have a relationship with your users.

2. Analyze customer comments

Here’s what I mean:

• Look at all the places customers talk about you or to you online. This could be support tickets, customer surveys, TrustPilot, Reddit, Google, etc.
• Make buckets of main themes (and phrases) as you read through comments.
• Add a tally point for each theme you encounter

3. Repeat step 2 for your competitors’ products

Here’s what you’re looking for:

• Consumers have big preferences & little preferences
• Your job is to understand ALL of them, but determine specifically which factors are driving their buying decisions

Is your product solving the pain points your customers care about? Are you leading with the value prop that differentiates you from your competitors?

Have you heard this story about Walt Disney?

At the end of our call, Sam told me a story about Walt Disney.

When he was building Disney World, Walt Disney stood at the entrance to the park with a hot dog. He meandered through the park, munching on his snack. When he finished the hot dog, he stopped and said “we need a trash can right here.”

Walt Disney literally walked the customer journey to ensure that he was providing what they needed when they needed it.

If you aren’t sure where you should be putting your metaphorical trash cans to optimize your customers’ experience, then you’re not prioritizing customer retention.

Time to take a walk in their shoes.