Customers have long memories.
As I have sat down to write a blog post about picking winners (or those we hope will be winners) for my publishing house’s catalog, I was rudely interrupted by our cat being chased by our 2-year old across the foyer floor in concentric circles.
Needless to say, whatever thoughts I had rattling in my ICO-addled brain just went and disappeared — and were replaced by the gem above. A truism if I ever wrote one.
But that doesn’t make it any less…well, true. And so, I figure, I might as well expand on that while I’m still of relatively sound mind before diving right back into the trenches of the WishKnish pre-ICO proceedings.
I have long made it a point to fly Delta if I can. Not because they have the best customer service in the world. Or have been the most scrupulous airline company in the world. Or, Mammon forbid, the cheapest.
No, it is because when 12-year old me came to the United States from Uzbekistan, all woozy from the mother of all jet lags and a steady, near 20-hour long diet of non-stop Fanta guzzling, it was only to realize that Delta has forgotten my Siamese kitty in her cage on the last waypoint of our journey.
And what did they do in the middle of the night, when confronted with a non-English speaking teen crying her eyes out in front of a yawning clerk’s counter?
Yep, they went and sent a PLANE, an empty one, to a different city — AND flew it back — just so they can deliver that teen her tiny, shivering kitty.
Mind you, they wouldn’t have had to do that if they didn’t forget her cage there in the first place or allowed us to keep it with us in the passenger compartment, but the very fact that they had gone out of their way? Yeah, I am a believer.
And where am I going with that?
Oh, only to Instagram, Twitter, Facebook. Real life, even!
Dear entrepreneurs, crypto and otherwise, please, please remember we are not working in a vacuum. We are not building for ourselves — or even for just the rather insulated community of Bitcoin whales and token speculators.
We are building for friends, coworkers, loyal followers of the businesses we hope will become our lifelong customers — humans.
Do not spam them, folks. Do not expect them to like us just because we think we are God’s gift to crypto. Do not expect instant praise. But instead, give THEM value — and let THEM get to know your project — and you.
Get them to like you for the person you are, and then let them fall in love with your team’s talent. They would really be much more likely to do so once they know who is behind the token (or the website), and be helluva lot more forgiving of an occasional bum piece when they know you help your granny with her shopping, have kids to take care of, a cat to feed in between producing your next major feature rollout, or a haircut to wrestle into place despite two full loads of laundry clamoring for your attention.
Oh, and don’t forget to help out those that are in the same boat we are in — a review posted, a link spread around, a part of proceeds donated to a charity of your pick, even a kind word said in response to someone’s Instagram picture is exactly what can make a difference between your next project flying under the radar — or propelling you to the front of the races.
And now, having proselytized my piece… off I go, to see if I can rescue the cat again — considering that Delta doesn’t yet do housecalls!
(PS: No, I am not being paid for shilling Delta, but if someone over there feels like trading a couple of business-class tickets to London for some Knish… hint hint, nudge nudge :))
