It’s Not About the Tools; It’s About the Personal Touch
Last week we encountered an amazing point far too often overlooked by crowdfunding campaigns and businesses in general. While speaking with Kevin Wong, Co-Founder of Origami Labs and creator of the ORII Smart Ring, we were reminded of the importance of customer service.
Far too often overlooked, customer service is what creates raving fans, repeat customers and evangelists for your business. Think about the last time you went out for a meal. How were you treated by the staff? Did you walk away feeling like they were just looking at your wallet the whole time or did they welcome you warmly and make you feel at home? Hopefully at some point in your life, you’ve experienced the latter and hopefully, it was the last time you went out for a meal. But, if you were treated like a walking dollar sign, no doubt, you left with a bit of a sour taste in your mouth.
We continuously curate tips and advice for rewards-based crowdfunding because we offer our campaigns consultation and education for their project. One of the best pieces of advice I’ve heard in awhile came from my conversation with Kevin. While discussing the tools he used for ORII’s campaign, which raised over 10x it’s target amount, Kevin told me that the most valuable thing he did was initiate a conversation with his backers.
They literally contacted every one of the backers over the first few days to ask them for a chat.
Either by phone, skype or email Kevin and his team learned more about their customers than they ever could have through target market analysis or focus groups. They then turned these initial backers into raving fans who referred others to the campaign and even came to their defense when negative comments questioned the validity of the product. Because they had built some great relationships with them, ORII’s backers were doing the selling for them. This, he says, was the most valuable thing they did. Kevin says, “It’s not about the tools, it’s about the personal touch”.
Here are some reasons why customer service is so incredibly important to your rewards based crowdfunding campaign:
- You’re instilling a sense of legitimacy and trust. By showing backers you’re a real person who appreciates them, they feel as though they’re getting the gratitude they deserve for taking a chance on you. You may have a product that will change their life but they’re still buying a product well before it is complete from a new company without much history (in most cases).
- You will generate more word of mouth. People will not only talk about your product because it’s cool but they will mention that they actually spoke to the super cool brilliant founder!
- Your customer will teach you. There is much to gain by asking your customers why they backed you, what appealed to them and for general feedback. You might learn a new way to approach customers you hadn’t thought of before. Or, it may give you an idea for the next product in your line.
- It will make them feel like a person.
Customer service comes into play long before you launch your campaign though. It should be intertwined with every action you take. They’re the ones getting your business off the ground after all.
Ready to get started with your crowdfunding campaign? Get in touch and we’ll walk you through the first few steps: [email protected].
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