The Agile Startup: Quick and Dirty Lessons Every Entrepreneur Should Know

Be Your Own Customer

The average entrepreneur works only half-time—12 hours a day. Building a company overwhelms even the most efficient and productive workers. While trying to keep up, it’s easy to forget that customers are why you’re here in the first place. Without a doubt, your customers should be at the top of your list of priorities. Most entrepreneurs start out taking great care of their customers, but customer attention usually suffers as a company grows. Regardless of how busy you are, check in with your customer experience frequently.

The best way to stay in tune with customers is to be your own customer. If you have a storefront, have a friend or secret shopper visit and report back to you. If you have a website, register as a new user and go through the complete customer lifecycle. If prospects call your company to get started, make the call yourself and pretend to be a customer. While you’re at it, call customer service to see how complaints are being handled. When you do this, you’ll probably identify many ways to improve service. The last thing you need is more work, but your customer experience is paramount. Take time to look at your business from your customer’s perspective.

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