5 Sticky Customer Situations and How to Deal with Them

1. ©2014 TechColumbus | CONFIDENTIAL
Sticky Customer
Situations
and How to
Deal with Them
Tom Walker

2. For startups, engaging early adopters can be like
©2014 TechColumbus | CONFIDENTIAL
grabbing a tiger by the tail.
You’re dealing with product issues, operational issues,
and cash flow (never enough), and yet you need to make
the customer experience the best it can possibly be.

3. ©2014 TechColumbus | CONFIDENTIAL
There are many things you won’t
have to face until your company
begins to scale,
when it comes to customers, the
moment you sign up even one,
there will be sticky issues you
must address.
BUT

4. ©2014 TechColumbus | CONFIDENTIAL
Your customer owes you money.
If you have invoices that are outstanding 30 days
or more, there’s some kind of a problem that you
need to address. You also need to understand if
you are failing on their expectations in some way.
If not, you don’t have to be heavy-handed, but you
do need to be clear about what you expect.
It’s great to have customers,
but not if they don’t pay their bills.

5. ©2014 TechColumbus | CONFIDENTIAL
You made a commitment to your
customer that you can’t keep.
Once you know for sure that you can’t
deliver, you have to tell the customer—in
person. If you can deliver an alternative, a
concession, or some other consideration do
so. Don’t let it happen again.
There’s only room for one of these at most in
a trusting customer relationship.

6. ©2014 TechColumbus | CONFIDENTIAL
Your customer complains about one
of your employees or subcontractors.
Talk to the customer to fully understand
the concern. Then talk to your employee
or the manager of the subcontractor.
Depending on the nature of the issue,
before you act, seek the council of a
trusted board member, your human
resources sources professional, or an
attorney keeping identities confidential.

7. ©2014 TechColumbus | CONFIDENTIAL
Your customer asks you to NOT accept
business from their competitors.
Assuming that you have no contractual
obligation to comply, hear your customer
out. They may be willing to engage in an
exclusive relationship that would be
mutually beneficial to you both.
Turn to a trusted mentor or
board member for advice.

8. ©2014 TechColumbus | CONFIDENTIAL
You hear through the grapevine that
people at your customer’s company
are talking to your competitors.
Use the wake-up call as an opportunity
to gain clarity about how people at the
company really feel about doing
business with you—what do they like;
what can you improve.
Then get to work.

9. The great thing about getting this gum on
your shoes early is that you learn to
handle these things early in the
company’s life —they never stop
occurring—so that when you do have
many, many customers and you will
have gained the experience to know how
©2014 TechColumbus | CONFIDENTIAL
your company chooses to
respond.