#12 Partners and Advisers Who Understand
Understanding Customer Experience is vital for entire team
I have been writing blogs based on a chapter in my recent book The 'Benefit' Blueprint for Startup Success. It is about 25 questions every entrepreneur must ask themselves.
Send your picture holding the hardcopy of the book (link above) and a 30 minute complimentary strategy session is on me. This blog brings me to the 12th question. If you want a deep dive into other questions, please subscribe to my blog.
The question is :
Have I sought partners and advisers who understand the importance of customer experience?
Talk is cheap, and the action is the most expensive element in a startup. Many advisors may have sound advice to offer, but sadly they do not step out of their room to understand where the world is heading. When you want to learn you should expand your circle and open-mindedness to absorb input from several people and perspectives.
It can quickly become overwhelming as everyone has a perspective. The trick is to take all in, keep what is relevant, and pack the rest away for the future. Consider yourself having a repository of inputs you can reach out to on a need basis.
Let’s take a deep dive to the question :
A successful startup extends beyond internal expertise; it has to leverage external guidance and collaboration.
If I have seen further, it is by standing on the shoulders of giants. - Sir Isaac Newton
While choosing partners and advisers, the real question is: Have you sought those who truly understand the importance of customer experience? After all, talk is cheap, and while many advisers offer sound advice, few go beyond the surface to know where the world is—and where your customer—is heading.
For whatever outcome(s) you seek, you just have to ensure that the advisor has been on the other side of the table.
It’s better to hang out with people better than you.-Warren Buffet
As a founder, you should aim to surround yourself with the right partners and advisers who can help you navigate the complexities of delivering great customer experiences. It is crucial to choose from those who, besides bringing relevant, provide actionable insights rather than just theoretical advice.
Customer Experience as a Core Focus for Advisers and Partners is a must
Advisers and partners play an integral role in shaping your business strategy. They may guide your market entry, product development, and operational decisions. However, their value extends far beyond technical or operational expertise—they must also understand the importance of customer experience.
Customer expectations are rapidly evolving. Businesses succeed or fail based on how well they deliver value to their customers. Partners and advisers who understand this can provide more relevant advice to help you keep the focus on what matters: creating a great experience for your customers.
Trap of One-Dimensional Gurus
It’s easy to fall into the trap of surrounding yourself with advisers or partners with expertise in a narrow area—perhaps they excel in finance, operations, or technology. These skills are vital, but in the end, customer experience is a must. Advisers who stay within their comfort zone, offering advice without stepping into the customer’s shoes, may miss the broader context of how your business operates in the real world.
The best advisers are those who go beyond their bubble of expertise. They seek to understand your market, your customers, and the experience you’re trying to create. They see how every decision impacts the end customer and tailor their guidance accordingly.
A Circle of Experts
You need to expand your circle and cultivate open-mindedness. It helps to be open to absorbing input from perspectives while maintaining the discernment to filter out what’s most useful.
What to look for in advisers: The best advisers are curious learners. They aim to keep up with industry trends, seek new experiences, and are willing to challenge their thinking. They are self-aware and also aware that the world is changing, and they need to evolve with it.
Actionable Step: When choosing advisers, seek those who demonstrate a genuine interest in your customers and your market.
Diverse Perspectives
One of the challenges of seeking advice from a broad range of sources is that it can quickly become overwhelming. Everyone has a perspective, and you are bound to receive conflicting advice. The key is to take it all in but keep only what’s relevant to your current needs while parking the rest for future use.
Think of yourself as building a repository of insights. Not every piece of advice will be immediately actionable, but over time, these insights can be invaluable when the right moment arises. This process of filtering and organising diverse perspectives ensures that you have a wealth of knowledge to draw from without being paralysed by information overload.
How to manage conflicting advice:
When you encounter conflicting advice, use your core focus—delivering value to your customers—as the lens through which you evaluate each perspective. Which pieces of advice align most closely with your customer experience goals? Which ones can be adapted to suit your business without compromising customer satisfaction?
Actionable Step: Create a system for storing and categorising the advice you receive. This could be as simple as a document or spreadsheet where you track different insights, noting whether they are immediately actionable or something to revisit later. This way, you can always return to these ideas as your business evolves.
Immediate Needs versus Long-Term Vision
One of the biggest risks in startups is becoming too focused on immediate needs—such as raising capital, hitting sales targets, or launching products—without considering the long-term impact on customer experience. Is it truly a business worth pursuing?
Advisers who are too narrowly focused on short-term metrics can push you in the wrong direction, sacrificing long-term customer relationships for immediate gains.
Partners and advisers who understand the importance of customer experience will help you strike the right balance between meeting short-term goals and building a lasting, customer-centric business. They will help you create a balance between short-term wins and help foster long-term loyalty and trust.
What to ask your advisers: When discussing strategy, ask your advisers how their recommendations impact the customer experience. Are their suggestions aligned with delivering long-term value to your customers, or are they primarily focused on short-term gains? Or help with the next raise akin to kicking the tin to the next pole.
Actionable Step: During strategic discussions with advisers, keep customer experience as a central theme. Encourage them to think about how each decision—whether it’s related to pricing, product development, or marketing—will affect your customers in the long run.
The Value of Customer-Centric Partners
Partnerships are another key area where customer experience should be front and centre. Whether it’s a technology partner, a supply chain provider, or a marketing agency, your partners will be your evangelists who will define how your customers experience your brand.
Partners who understand the importance of customer experience will go the extra mile to ensure alignment with customer-centric vision. This usually extends beyond the contractual obligation to create a seamless, positive experience.
How to evaluate partners: consider how well they align with your customer experience goals. Are they committed to delivering quality, reliability, and consistency? Do they share your values when it comes to serving customers?
Actionable Step: When negotiating partnerships, make customer experience a key part of the conversation. Ensure that your partners understand your expectations and are committed to helping you deliver exceptional value to your customers.
Action Over Talk
The right advisers and partners can make all the difference. It’s easy to find people who offer advice, particularly when they have zero accountability for your success or even the path you are on, but what truly matters is finding those who understand the importance of customer experience and are committed to helping you deliver it. Talk is cheap—action is what counts.
The only limit to your impact is your imagination and commitment. - Tony Robbins
Word of Caution
Not all advisors can be enticed with equity or compensation. Some don’t need that and some are looking for the energy, passion, learnability, grit, and sense of achievement they can bring. You need to understand what they are looking for before you aim to onboard them.
This topic is an expanded article from my book THE ‘BENEFIT’ BLUEPRINT FOR STARTUP SUCCESS Chapter 3, Question 12.
© Sameer Babbar
If you would like my ideas mailed to your Inbox first please also join me on my Substack
Disclaimer: This is for information only. It does not consider your objectives, financial situation, or needs. The author, his company, his associates, his directors, his staff, his consultants, and his advisors do not accept liability for any loss or damage, including, without limitation, any loss that may arise directly or indirectly from the use of or reliance on the information provided