Page 84 - The $100 Startup_ Reinvent the Way You Make a Living, Do What You Love

strictly on the preferences of someone else, you’ll run the risks of boredom,
unhappiness, and simply being less purposeful than you could be otherwise. The
lesson is to use surveys but use them carefully. Sometimes, deciding not to
pursue a promising project or deliberately turning away business is one of the
most powerful things you can do. (See “The Customer Is Often Wrong” for a
story about that.)

The Customer Is Always Right Often Wrong
It was a big launch day, which meant I was up by 5 a.m., coffee in hand and
ready to go. As the new website went live, hundreds of customers were ready
and waiting to purchase. I watched the shopping cart fill up and closely
monitored the in-box for support issues.

Happily, the launch was successful. By noon, more than a thousand people
had purchased, and that number would double by the end of the day. I had sent
so many customer thank-you emails that Google briefly shut down my email
account, thinking I was a spammer. A friend at the company rescued me by
restoring the account, and I went back to plowing through messages. In the in-
box were hundreds of notes from excited new customers, as well as dozens of
minor support requests: “I lost my password,” “The site is down,” “How can I
change my log-in?” and so on.

And then there was Dan. The note from Dan read, “I’d like a refund.” I wrote
him back quickly, “No problem, but what’s wrong?”

“Let me give you some free advice,” Dan wrote in a tone that was obviously
sarcastic. “Give me a call and I’ll tell you how you lost my business.”

I looked at the shopping cart and the site comments—several orders and
dozens of excited messages were coming through every minute—and replied to
Dan: “Sorry, I can’t call you. I’ll issue the refund and I wish you well, but I don’t
need any advice right now.”

You’ve probably heard the expression “The customer is always right,” but
most small business owners quickly discover this is not true. Yes, you want to
focus on meeting people’s needs and going above and beyond them whenever
you can, but any single customer does not always know what’s best for your
whole business. These customers may not be the right ones for your business,
and there’s nothing wrong with saying farewell to them so you can focus on
serving other people.

I didn’t have time to call Dan on launch day, and perhaps I missed a good
opportunity to learn from him. But I’m pretty sure it was the better decision to
get back to work on my core market instead of spending time with one