Snapshift Moves to Ireland — for 3 Days Only!

The entire Snapshift team goes to Dublin to meet with Intercom to discuss client relations.

My first “real” job marked me for life. I was an assistant at a small management consulting firm near San Francisco. They specialized in strategies surrounding organizational change, innovation and quality management. We organized “learning expeditions” for French companies. During these expeditions, French managers would come to the Bay Area for 1 week to meet leaders at innovative companies such as Apple, Smith & Hawken, Patagonia,etc. They would also meet consultants and even gourous (we were in California after all!).

I spent 2 years listening to business leaders speaking of vision, values, the desire to change the world, client service, equality, social imprint and more. The consulting firm was called, Warm Decent Human Beings, Inc., this was at the beginning of the 90’s and the name says it all!

Because of, or thanks to, this first job, I never had a typical professional career. In fact, just the idea of a “career” makes me a bit sick. Kind of like millennials nowadays.

So, what does all this have to do with Snapshift and restaurant owners? Everything! You’ll see.

Startuppers or restaurant owners don’t create their businesses for quick and easy money, although that can happen. We start a company for the adventure, to create something that we believe in. We have a vision and our motivation is to see it through. Thus, the importance to share this vision with a team so that it inspires everyone to reach a shared goal. Today, more than ever before, we don’t simply work to make money, we have to have a meaning to what we are doing.

After a little more than a year and a team that is quickly growing, I thought it was time to have an experience that was a bit different than our daily routine. I had the idea to give the team a little “present”, something that they would remember and might help them in the future — a ‘learning expedition”.

Since the beginning of Snapshift we’ve communicated with our friends in restaurants via a SaaS application called Intercom (it’s the small chat bubble at the bottom right hand of the Snapshift screen).

A SaaS application is a software that you use on the web that does not require to be downloaded to your PC. Snapshift is also a SaaS application.

Basically, Intercom is a chat application, like so many others. However, there’s something in the way Intercom was created, in the way they communicate with their clients, that “spoke” to us. We had a feeling that we shared the same values and vision regarding client relations as the founders of Intercom. Our CTO, Aliou, and I even read the book written by Intercom’s founders on their vision and advice for SaaS entrepreneurs.

For awhile I was thinking about organizing a “team building” event. Sure there are “escape rooms” or weekend getaways in the South of France to an airbnb rental, but I wanted something more useful, more interesting for the company as a whole and for each team member. One morning, on my way to the office, I thought to myself that it would be great to visit a company we admire so we can get together to have a discussion, ask for advice and for them to share their experiences. I thought, why not Intercom? Once I got to the office, I sent a quick message with my unusual request. Within the hour, we had our first reply back and in less than 24 hours the visit was approved! My entire team was super excited about the idea.

We found ourselves at the end of September in Dublin for a 3-day working seminar including a half-day session at the Intercom headquarters.

Intercom: Kindness, Sharing, Authenticity

Of course, a startup that raised 100 million dollars can have a nice office, but what hit us when we arrived at Intercom was the focus towards the well-being of its employees. Each floor has fruit and cereal buffets and a smoothie open bar. The office space is both high tech and cosy, spacious and full of light. Nothing over the top or childish, no ping pong table or Nerfs laying around. And, it’s assumed as we will confirm later on.

Throughout the office, there were flat screens welcoming us and we each received an Intercom t-shirt, notebook and pen when we arrived. We were there to work, not for the swag!

Stan Massueras, the EMEA Sales Director was our host. After a delicious breakfast — it helps to have an on-site chef — Stan replied to all of our questions and offered his advice for several hours. And, that was what really impressed us with the entire Intercom team, not once did we have to sit through a company presentation or sales pitch. We never felt as if we were actually in one of our suppliers offices, but more at good friends place with them sharing their experiences and giving advice to help us be successful.

What actual good advice did they pass on to us?

Sales is Not like Before.

You have to be like an ostrich with your head stuck in the sand to not admit that the Internet has profoundly changed the sales process. Today, clients are better informed and autonomous. Searching for information, competitive analysis, evangelism and more is all done on the Internet independently without a sales person.

Paradoxically, salespeople can be pulled under with leads. It is so easy to access directories, online communities and social network groups that salespeople need to be careful to invest their time in the right prospects, those who will actually become clients.

Similar to Snapshift, Intercom invoices its service based on number of users. The majority of their clients are “small” clients with an average monthly invoice ranging from 10 to a couple hundreds of Euros. But, don’t feel bad for them, they have tens of thousands of customers! Intercom doesn’t do any proactive sales prospection for this type of customer — these are clients who come directly to them called “inbound” clients. They also have Large Accounts, Spotify for example, who require a more traditional sales organisation.

So to have lots of clients, you need to have a strategy like a restaurant: build a reputation based on quality and service, encourage word of mouth, get media pickup, organise events and be listed in the right directories.

Developing a sales organisation is very specific and the Intercom team gave us some key advice:

• Follow up with sales leads as soon as possible, within the hour if possible. Leads with a longer than 1 hour reply time were observed to have a fall in conversion rates.
• Efficiently sort and direct prospects. Create a qualification process in order to avoid losing time on prospects that are not adapted to your product. Direct valid prospects to the right sales team (Online or Large Accounts).
• “Humanize” communication with prospects and clients. On the Internet, questions via email or chat are often treated in a very administrative or automated way — the famous “We have received your message. Your reference number is 12983”. Intercom’s philosophy is to have actual conversations with prospects. This is THE philosophy of the company.

Put the Client at the Center of the Organization.

We also met with Kaitlin Pettersen, Intercom’s Client Service Manager. Her energy, enthusiasm for her job and her entire team are truly at the heart of Intercom. Close to 100 people work in Client Services in Ireland and the US. Client service is at the core of Intercom’s business. In fact, for all future development projects there is a representative from Client Services on the project team. It’s for this reason that she joined the company!

Client feedback is a gold mine for the company. To make the most of the information, Kaitlin explained that they routinely use a “tag” system to categorize and track users and conversations.

At Snapshift we use a “tagging” system for users based on how they interact on the site. For example, when a client suggests a new function, we create a page (story) in the application PivotalTracker and we add a tag with the client’s name.

Content Marketing: Share helpful and interesting information

We then met with Tom Collins who is Editorial Director at Intercom. The company has obtained most of its growth through a successful content marketing strategy basically without proactive sales. Obviously, Tom is really respected at Intercom!

My restaurant owner friends if you are wondering what is content marketing, it’s simple. Instead of doing classic marketing like advertising, packaging, flyers and mailings, you publish articles that are both interesting and useful that will help prospects and clients. With content marketing we are more interested in substance than in form.

Tom’s advice struck us by its good sense, inventiveness and simplicity. In short:

• Don’t write just to create “buzz” — this never lasts
• Write useful and long lasting content, content that will be beneficial for several years
• Don’t be scared to have opinions
• Share your beliefs
• Use specialists to write helpful and practical articles

The Product, Pricing and Vision

The trip and especially the visit to our supplier, Intercom, confirmed we made the right choice. It also validated the fact that often we choose a supplier not only for the quality of its products, price or service but equally important is its vision and values.

Each time we send out our newsletter to clients, some of them reply with encouraging words and congratulations, not just in regards to our news but for what we are trying to accomplish. Our clients feel like they are participating and contributing to the project.

What do you think restaurant owners? Could you organize this type of “learning expedition” for your teams? I think so. Of course, if you close for a couple of days and lose revenue. Whereas we can continue to work wherever we are. The financial sacrifice is more important for you than us. However, maybe you do already organize offsite events for your teams? If so, write to us and share your experiences.