Why rapid response times are worth it for a startup

We are a business who make online registration and ticketing software, and we do this with a small number of staff.

Large competitors have fully staffed call centres, retail outlets, business development managers, human resource consultants, lawyers, training departments, management layers and stupendously large marketing budgets.

We counter all of that with speed. Speed of execution. Speed of response. Speed of decision making.

When you call or email us, you are dealing with the people who actually made the software. The people who made the software are the same ones with the ability to say yes or no to almost any question you have.  We respond quickly and go the extra mile for our customers because it is how we will succeed in business.

Speed is our competitive advantage.

Let me illustrate this with an example.

Last night at 830pm we received a support email from a customer trying to setup a new event.  A large company mentality would have waited until the next day to respond, because work gets done within work hours.  As long as they meet their service levels, you can wait.

We don’t agree.  Within 60 minutes we had responded and delivered the customer a solution, and followed up again this morning with 2 or 3 more pieces of advice.  This type of service resulted in the following customer comments:

Thanks for all your immediate replies! Well done! That’s just awesome service that consumers don’t get to experience these days with most companies out there. Keep up the great work.

People expect lousy service these days because so many companies don’t care.  If you keep chipping away at it, then providing fantastic, rapid support can be enough to move your business from small to big.  From good to great.

Speed matters.