Skip to main content

Brex and Zendesk crunched their customer data and created a presentation to help startups jolted by crashing sales. Here's what they learned.

* Brex, the fintech startup that sells primarily to other startups, just shared its framework for handling customer support during the economic crisis. * Many startups have been advised by investors and advisors to cut costs and extend their runway, but without clear guidance on how to do so while maintaining customer relationships. * In an analysis of startup data, Brex found that those with the best chance of successfully retaining customers, and therefore retaining revenue streams, was to standardize the customer experience process. * See the playbook and guidelines Brex just released together with HR startup Zendesk. * Click here to get BI Prime's weekly 'Trending' tech newsletter in your email inbox. Fintech startup Brex has advice for other startups struggling through the economic crisis: It may be difficult to sell your wares to new customers right now, but there are things you can do to get more from the customers you already have. Brex, which provides credit cards to startups, analyzed data from its own customers and worked with HR company Zendesk to produce a set of customer service and support guidelines. The idea of the project, which the companies presented this month in one Brex's ongoing series of webinars, is to provide insight and actionable tips that can help young businesses jolted by the coronavirus pandemic.  According to Brex and Zendesk, customer service is a vital skill that more startups would do well to focus on. "We really have to change our mindset in this moment away from selling and towards retention by trying to find growth, if possible, through that existing customer base that we have," Zendesk vice president of startups Kristen Durham said. That's important because sales prospects are bleak for a lot of startups, especially those that cater to sectors hard hit by the virus. "One of the things that really has been striking for us is some of this data around the fact that businesses are no longer selling," Durham said. "Sales teams are sending about 50 percent more emails to prospects than they were pre-COVID but the responses just keep dropping." The drop in raw sales numbers is a scary situation for startups that have been advised by their investors to cut costs and extend their runways. Without much guidance on how exactly to make that happen, startup founders are walking something of a tightrope — if revenue drops off, they might have to resort to executive salary cuts or layoffs just to stay upright. Keeping customers happy is as important as keeping employees happy, Brex chief customer officer Roli Saxena said, and requires founders to employ similar tactics to sales, such transparent communication. Overall, startups need to have a standardized plan in place to make it through the rough waters ahead, and out the other side, Saxena said. Here is the customer service and support strategy Brex developed with Zendesk. SEE ALSO: See the deck that top growth-stage investor Insight Partners is using to prepare its founder network to weather a prolonged economic downturn
https://bit.ly/3egTGi5

Popular posts from this blog

Why an early exec quit unicorn food delivery startup Deliveroo to launch a food business in the middle of a pandemic

* A former Deliveroo exec has launched a market food hall startup in the middle of COVID-19. * Dan Warne was managing director of the unicorn startup until 2019, but has now launched Sessions Market as a community food hall concept to rejuvenate UK towns after the pandemic. * Warne says he hopes to bring his experience from Deliveroo, particularly about customer behavior, to the analogue world of food halls. * The first venue, Shelter Hall on Brighton seafront, launches July 4. * Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories. On Saturday, the UK's bars, restaurants, and cinemas will fling their doors open to customers for the first time since a strict lockdown commenced in late March. Given continued public health concerns around the coronavirus pandemic, it might be unwise to open a new food business right now. But Dan Warne, a former high-level executive at British unicorn startup Deliveroo, has launched Sessions Market, a series of community-orientated food hal...
Read more

'What is the X-Ray feature on Amazon Prime Video?': How to find and view bonus material about TV shows and movies

* X-Ray is an exclusive feature on Amazon Prime Video that displays bonus material about a show or movie, similar to the bonus features on a DVD. * X-Ray can show you information about the actors in a scene, the musical soundtrack, trivia, and more. * To activate X-Ray, you generally only need to click or tap within a video that's currently playing.   * Visit Business Insider's Tech Reference library for more stories. Amazon Prime Video's X-Ray feature is, at least for now, not available on any other video streaming service. X-Ray works like the bonus features you find on a DVD or Blu-ray. With just a few clicks or taps, you can get additional information about many of the TV shows and movies on Prime Video. When you activate X-Ray, Prime displays an overlay on top of your show, offering additional information.  Check out the products mentioned in this article: Amazon Prime Video ($8.99 a month at Amazon) Roku (from $49.99 at Roku) There are several kinds of info...
Read more

Here are the 9 health-tech startups that got coronavirus stimulus loans to keep workers employed during the pandemic

* The Paycheck Protection Program, created by Congress as part of a $2 trillion coronavirus bailout, helped small businesses stay afloat as they struggled economically during the pandemic.  * Businesses were allowed to qualify for up to $10 million in loans.  * On Monday, the Trump administration released the list of companies that borrowed most of the money. We spotted some applications from health-tech companies among their ranks, many of which are backed by venture capital firms.  * Companies that applied for loans include ZocDoc, HealthTap, Bright.md, and Wildflower Health. * For more stories like this, sign up here for our healthcare newsletter, Dispensed. Health-tech startups were among the recipients of federal loans intended to help small businesses stay afloat during the coronavirus pandemic.  Several of the startups have raised tens of millions from venture capital firms. Still, their business models became strained amid the pandemic, they told Business Insider.  Eve...
Read more