3 Attitudes Guaranteed To Turn Off Customers And Investors

Awhile back, I was at the airline ticket counter during the last-minute shuffle that precedes the boarding announcement. The representative was tapping away at her keyboard, trying to see about a seat upgrade for me.  All of a sudden, she pointed at me and yelled to a co-worker “Is he ‘REVENUE’?!!”

Being in business has so many private moments of joy and despair, it’s easy to forget you have an audience for everything you say and do. Blogs and articles that purport to offer advice are often loaded with so many snarky references to customers and investors, it’s possible to slide into crass and insensitive talk and thoughts about the very people you’re in business to serve.

Think of the biggest arena near you — Madison Square Garden, the UIC Pavilion, the Staples Center. Imagine it was filled to capacity with your customers and investors and you were standing center stage. Ask yourself: Would I say these things out loud to them?

Here are 3 things you should never say — or even think:

“Hurray, we got a round of funding. Let’s celebrate.” 

Celebrations are for victories — for finishing something. For problems solved. For constituents served. Convincing investors to let you work with their money is the beginning of a stewardship. You have been given a unique opportunity to work with other people’s money. They are saying they have faith and confidence that you can and will put it to good use and to give them a good return. Now it’s time to prove you can do it. A round of funding is a time to express gratitude and for the making of promises, not for expressing smug satisfaction at winning a battle to convince someone to take a chance on trusting you.

“We’re looking for someone to buy us out.”

Making the ultimate sale of your business top-of-mind in your thinking and conversations communicates that your primary focus is on cashing in on an investment rather than serving customers. Holding out a product or service for sale to customers is representing that you can help them solve a problem. You’re asking them to put their trust in you. They want to know you’ll stick around long enough to make good on that promise — to prove they made the right decision.

Any sentence that refers to customers by the types of actions they perform like “clicks,” “opens,” “conversions, “churns.”

Nobody wants to hear themselves referred to as an inanimate object. It’s even worse when they hear you talk about them only in terms of actions they can perform or their monetary value to your business. In my days as a waiter it always bothered me when staff members referred to guests in the dining room by the number of seats at the table they occupied — “deuce” or “four-top” — rather than as a “party of two” or “party of four.” Customers want to know you care about them as people.

It’s only natural to take pride in signs that investors see the value of your offerings. Running your business as though investors and potential buyers are watching you provides a great checklist for sound business practices. And paying attention to the actions of customers and prospects can help you adjust your responses to better serve their needs.

But the reason you got into business was to provide a valuable product or service to customers at a fair price. You don’t want to compromise that commitment with insulting language or manipulative thinking.