Are you building software? Or are you building a startup? It seems like a simple enough question. But like most simple questions, when you get under the hood, the first answer isn’t always the right answer. The first and most important step of your technical product build is turning users into customers. Here’s how to do that.
Don’t think in terms of software and users
When your platform is the core of your business, you’re creating a product for customers
- This one small clarification influences everything from capturing customer information to developing the user experience and user interface
- But let’s not get ahead of ourselves.
Keep tabs on each customer’s progress
In today’s SaaS world, the customer’s path is called a “journey” – from their first awareness of the product until they stop using it.
- Your platform should track that entire journey and react differently based on where the customer is on that journey.
Track customers earlier and longer than you would track users
A customer is a customer before they use your product, before they even buy your product.
- Only delete a customer prospect out of your database when they ask you to. You never know when their interest in what you offer might be rekindled.
Protect and Privatize Valuable Information
Take all the appropriate steps to protect your valuable customer information
- Security measures
- View
- Storage
- Transfer
- Privacy
- Roles for each customer
- Customers should have self-service access to all the data they generate
- They should know how that data is used
