Career Curveballs: How One Email Defined My Company's Culture

This post is part of a series in which LinkedIn Influencers share how they turned setbacks into success. Read all their stories here.

I started StellaService with my co-founder John Ernsberger because we thought that the online ratings system was broken and that people deserved a better, more objective and reliable way to determine which companies would deliver quality customer service. The concept of transparency for online consumers was intriguing to us, and we tried to figure out a business that played well to our particular strengths and passions.

After we launched StellaService and secured a few initial partners, we thought we were well on our way. But there was one incident that happened early on in our company’s life that changed the way that we did business. That day is imprinted on my memory as one that not only altered my own understanding of entrepreneurship, but also had a huge impact on StellaService as a whole.

What happened was this: The CEO of a company we wanted to work with emailed us a question about placing our seal for Elite customer service on his website. His online store was top-rated by Stella and he was excited to spread the message to his customers and stakeholders through the use of the StellaService seal.

The CEO emailed us a couple questions about the implementation of the seal on a Thursday afternoon. However, the StellaService team member with whom he had been corresponding went on vacation for a couple days and did not alert the CEO nor did he put up an out-of-office reply. The Stella staff member returned to work on Monday to find an angry letter from the CEO, scolding Stella on our own poor customer service and questioned how we could be arbiters of “elite service” when we didn’t exemplify it ourselves. He went on to say that he was no longer interested in working with us. We screwed up, and it stung. There were only about five of us back then, and we were still finding our footing, but this incident really struck a nerve with me and everyone else at our company.

Although it was still early in our company’s life and while we casually tossed around the idea that we, a customer service ratings company, should always exemplify top-tier customer service ourselves, it was not something we obsessed over. We quickly learned from this curveball that we better start obsessing over it!

It was critical for us to reassess our core values as a company and ensure they aligned with our overall value proposition. The golden rule was staring us in the face, and it has become the single most important headline for us internally as we build our business and our brand.

Practice what you preach.

The disgruntled CEO was unsatisfied and disappointed that we couldn’t deliver on the very thing we claimed as our expertise. And I don’t blame him. From the very beginning, Stella’s DNA has been to highlight and celebrate companies that treat their customers the best, so it should have been second nature to instill this culture into our own operations.

We were fortunate to work with Zappos and Diapers.com as two of our earliest clients, and their founders and management teams provided great examples for us to follow. Forget what they were actually selling, I just wanted to know how they managed and maintained such highly respected, well-liked brands, all around a culture of amazing service. My co-founder and I were learning through osmosis, and something we picked up right away was the fact that these companies didn’t just talk about their focus on the customer, they walked the walk.

So after our initial email blunder, I knew we could never let something like that happen again. Our employees are on high-alert 24/7 for customer issues. I make sure that I see every single email that comes through our public [email protected] email address, ensuring that we’re always on top of responses to consumers to press to inquiring prospects. This isn’t because I want to micromanage. It’s the opposite really. I want to empower everyone at Stella to work together to make sure every single question or inquiry gets the attention it deserves. I trust my team to act quickly and comprehensively, but I also want to be in on the ground floor and up to speed if there is any type of situation that also needs my attention.

In a wider context this is all about leading by example. Whether it’s a company or an employee or an executive, leading by example is the most important driver of credibility and inspiration. New employees at Stella can see that everyone – from engineers to operations to sales directors – is driven to conduct business in a way that matches the quality of the highest ranking companies we measure. It’s a hands-on, personable approach that allows everyone to embrace and appreciate the value of Stella’s mission every day.

Our company culture was developed out of this early curveball, and the entire business is stronger as a result. Today, StellaService works with hundreds of large companies and has more than 50 employees, which is why focusing on this one core area is even more important as we scale our foundation.

We’ve set the bar as high as possible when it comes to our own customer service, and if someone decides to start a company that rates customer service ratings companies, I think we’re in good position to earn their Elite rating!

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