As we were getting matchist up and running, the time came to pick a funnel analytics tool. I was familiar with KISSmetrics from my previous startup, but had been hearing plenty of good things about Mixpanel. Quora didn’t really help…it seemed the products were very similar.

So like any rational 21st century social media obsessed person, I put it out to Twitter.

 

 

 

 

I got various responses from folks, but then I got a direct message from  @HNShah:

 

 

 

 

 

@HNShah is not some random customer service person or social media agency trolling twitter for KISSMetrics mentions. It’s Hiten Shah, the founder of the company. While Hiten and I had exchanged emails years ago about a different project, I knew for certain he had no idea who I was… so I was not getting some sort of VIP treatment.

Ah ha! I thought. This is the kind of “best social media practices” gurus teach you about. Customer is deciding between two products…CEO of one emails customer something personal, conversion. So I decided to wait a bit and see what Mixpanel had to say.

*crickets*

However, in all fairness, I decided to sign up for both products. After poking around, I was looking forward to speaking to someone from both companies about some questions I had.  I emailed Mixpanel:

 

Clearly I am in decision making mode…if no one on the team can answer my questions now, when I am this close to becoming a customer…what does this say about potential future customer service issues?

I emailed KM same time, same day (trying to be fair here):

Boom. They make it work. With a a double punch, KISSMetrics gets my business without even my digging deep into the product. When research shows products are similar, on what basis do potential customers make decisions?

Having worked in customer service for years at my previous startup, I can tell you how much having a stellar, personalized customer service experience can impact your business. Your product may be 100 times better than competitors, but if you’re not around listening to potential users discussing you on social media channels and if no one can make the time to talk to you about the product…you will lose every single time.

Now, I’m a happy KISSmetrics customer.