Yes, No, or "On the List"?

Every day we get suggestions for new features and improvements. A natural result of having passionate store owners that really care about us! In less than a year we have over 1,000 posts in our suggestions forum and receive countless e-mails and phone calls for every feature and improvement known to man. No matter how hard we work, the reality is we're never going to accomplish every feature request nor build a service that is perfect for everyone. Today I came across this post over at a VC blog and it really caught my interest. When should you just say no? The VC believes startups should say no to just about every request from customers. This helps the company stay focused and on track. While I don't agree 100%, he has a point. We're never going to get around to every feature request. We can always say "It's on the list" but does this really help our store owners? Maybe we should just start saying no! It wouldn't be the most popular answer, but probably the most realistic and honest.

Comments

[Peter Renton]

Some excellent points Casey. We have had the luxury in our business of being able to say no a lot. We have a tight niche and we don't try to be all things to all people. It surprises many potential customers because they expect us to re-engineer the way we work to suit them. But if you want to grow and scale a business you have to have systems in place. Unfortunately that means saying no sometimes. This way we can give great service to the customers we have, who are happy working within our system

[Casey Schorr]

@ Peter,

I agree 100%. It seems companies that build automation and efficiency into their core business model will have the biggest chance of success in today's business environment. You need systems to automate everything you can, otherwise someone else will come in and put you out of business because your labor costs will be too high. Efficiency also leads to higher quality products because everything is done the same way every time and there is less chance for human error! Unfortunately many potential customers don't understand this and expect you to just do whatever they want, but if you go down this road you are just asking for trouble later on when you've hacked all your systems apart to meet the needs of each customer. Was it worth it? Probably not!

[Eric from Raw Tees]

I actually am with you guys on this...unless you say "no" sometimes, folks will just keep asking for more and more. Case in point...just a few months back you launched, what...something like 70 new colors of apparel? And the first thing to happen was that you got posts in the forums asking "when are you going to add *insert color here*?" or "Why didn't you add *insert new shirt style*, too?". People, by nature, are always wanting that which they do not have. I think at some point you need to draw a line and just concentrate on the core business. That said, there are things still to be done just to stay ahead of the competition: the new store builder, for instance, adding more non-apparel products and the like. These should, however, come at your own pace following the timeline you set...otherwise you'll find yourselves forever sidetracked and never able to accomplish the goals you're really concerned with. Just my two cents and I don't, of course, know anything about the business you're in! LOL.