If there’s one thing you shouldn’t compromise on, it’s being honest and transparent with your customers.
About four years ago, in a SaaS company where I was a founding member and advisor, we discovered that 50% of the data on our platform was inconsistent and, hence, inaccurate.
We were in the business of providing data via a platform for a niche market vertical. This put us in a difficult position just six weeks after the launch, with about 20 customers onboard who had trusted us.
We had to do something to manage our reputation as a reliable data provider. We aspired to be known for our data quality in a market where not many were reliable.
The situation put us at risk of being seen as one of the unreliable providers.
We had two choices:
1. Hide the issue and fix it quietly.
2. Be transparent and fix it publicly.
We chose transparency. We informed all our customers about the issue, explaining the reasons and our plan of action. We deleted the inaccurate data, reducing our volume by 50%, and enriched the data over time.
It wasn’t all hunky-dory; we did get some initial heat from the customers. We had to justify our stand, highlight the plan of action, and demonstrate our commitment to quality over quantity.
Here’s what happened next:
1. Our early customers spread the word within their networks.
2. We rapidly grew to hundred logos within weeks.
3. With an ACV of $9,000, we hit $1M ARR within weeks, all through word of mouth, without any lead generation channels initiated yet. We were in business even before we had lead generation or marketing deployed.
As SaaS leaders, we will encounter not-so-ideal situations more often than you can imagine. The onus is on us to take a stand, own up to our mess-ups, and choose transparency and honesty, which always pay off.
Connect with Arun Pillai for more such SaaS stories, Let’s kick some SaaS!
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