Why we build CRM system at Lime
Few have missed the now classic TED talk “Start with why” by Simon Sinek. I case you haven’t watched it — do. In case you need a quick refresher; Simon argues that organisations that define themselves by “why” they exist instead of “what” they do are more successful. Simon has a good deal of science and example behind him (and a full book on the subject), but I think we all can agree that “saving the planet through clean water” is more inspiring than “wastewater removal service” as a company mission.
At Lime we were lucky enough to born with a very strong “why” from the start. Our founders, already 30 years ago, had two important “why:s”, that are as relevant today as they were then.
I will explain the “why:s” of Lime, by asking two questions:
- “Have you ever had a really bad customer experience?”
- “Have you ever used a really bad piece of software at work?”
For anyone I’ve ever met, that have held basically any job or bought anything in their life; the answer has always been a quite loud “Yes!”
Bad customer experiences
We’ve all had them. Best case they are an annoyance, worst case they cause stress, financial or even physical harm. A world without bad customer experiences would objectively be a better place, and an aspirational (and maybe a bit pretentious) goal to strive for.
It turns out that bad customer experiences aren’t just harmful, they are also really bad business. It is proven that great customer experiences can be a huge competitive advantage! The argument goes as following:
We live in a world with hyper competition. There is almost always a competing service or product, and winning a market by having a better price or features is an extremely difficult thing to succeed with. What if was possible to compete on merits different from price and features? It seems like a lot fewer companies compete by winning the hearts of their customers. It is still not an easy thing to do, but it can give you a clear compatible advantage, with loyal, returning customers and a great “word of mouse”. Here are some great statistics if you aren’t convinced by the virtue of loyal customers.
Limes first why is to help other companies win the hearts of their customers by spreading customer love, reducing some annoyance in the world and helping business to succeed by being easy to reach and friendly to deal with.
F*cking shit system
Is the directly translated title of a Swedish book (Jävla Skitsystem!), documenting the effects of using really bad software at work. In the book we read about the consequences bad software has, and it is major. In many organisations it is a source of big inefficiencies, stress, burn-out, and even employees leaving. To paraphrase Steve Jobs: “computers are a bicycle of the mind”, or in other words — a machine that make your mind more efficient. My feeling is that this is hardly the situation in many organisations. Maybe “computers are a rusty-cast-iron-on-a-rainy-day-going-up-hill-on-cobblestone-that-tends-to-get-a-flat-tyre-bike of the mind” sometimes seems like a better fit. It also turns out that bad software is really bad business. Inefficiencies, loss of talent, and the acute need to reproduce the classic scene from Office Space, are just a few of the side effects of bad software.
This leads us to the second why of Lime. We operate within the almost dreaded enterprise software sphere. We do so to create something that actually works, is user friendly, empowering, and maybe even a bit enjoyable. It’s not easy, but we try and more often than not I think we succeed.
