Start-up: how to lose a customer in 5 steps — before you even launch a product
Remember that movie with Kate Hudson where she wrote an article of all the “mistakes” you can make in the beginning of a relationship that scare the person off, we’ll here is a version of that — for start ups.
1) Claim your product or company is “the best in the world”
Oh lord! If I had a penny every time I read “we’re/it’s/ours (insert product or company) is THE BEST IN THE WORLD, I’d be rich enough to do clinical trials proving them wrong.
Any common sense person is going to wonder what on earth you mean. Show us the data! Show us numbers, results, sales, studies, or anything that can back up your statement!
You’re just making a future customer trust you less by throwing out over confident statements that may sound confident and cocky to your team, but just sound like megalomania to the rest of us.
2) Stock photos
Nothing worse than seeing a bunch of generic faces and pictures of large groups of people in meeting rooms. Are you a start up or a large corporation? Are you a large start up? Do you have big meeting rooms? What are you trying to say? If I see this image on one more VR start ups header, I will cry.
Take pictures of your team, even if it’s just the two of you working form a cafe. Even if your product isn’t the most aesthetic, the right angle and a bit of good lighting can make anything look artsy. Show your best qualities, not your stock photo budget.
We want to know you. Faking it till you make it, doesn’t work here. It just makes you seem fake.
3) No emails, just a contact form
Why are you acting like a bureaucratic governmental agency from 2002?!
Get an email address and have it visible. People don’t want to fill in a contact form, they want you in their mail feed. They might want to attach a file. Give them the option to email you.
4) Confusing and user hostile homepage
There is a trend for highly innovative tech companies having very outdated and horribly designed home pages where neither the user experience or user interface have been focused on at all.
We don’t need a slick, cool and costly page. Just keep it simple, and easy to navigate.
5) Being mysterious
I don’t want to send you my first born and a lock of my hair in order to know what you’re selling.
Asking people to “contact you for more information” is asking people to work harder than they are willing to get to know your brand.
Make information available right of the bat: this is what I’m selling, this is the cost, this is how useful it is and this is how we’ll support you once you purchase our service or product.
If you base your price on client to client basis: have a module that the clients can fill in, and get a price estimation. Pro tip: add 10% to the cost they get, so when they call you, you give them a 10% discount and ta da…happy customers. You’re welcome.
That was all for now. What other suggestions should be on this list? What turns you away from a company?
