Being nice to your customers seems like a no brainer. It makes perfect business sense: happy customers are less likely to stop using your service and more likely to refer your service to their friends. However, there is another significant reason that being nice pays off.

Running a startup can be a tough slog. You’re unsure if people like what you’re building enough for it to be successful. If you get some traction there will be people out there that will belittle your idea, or your execution. With all the unknowns, and the not-always-constructive criticism, it’s incredibly refreshing to interact with a nice customer that loves your product.

I’ve noticed that the nicer I am to customers the nicer they are back. This virtuous circle means that we get more and more people who are willing to provide thoughtful criticism and who are willing to meet with us and give us feedback. We have one customer that loves Understoodit so much that he just finished writing a blog post for us (to be posted in the next week).

After a difficult day in startup land it’s really gratifying to interact with a nice customer. It puts a face to an email address and makes the whole process of building software that much more interesting and fulfilling.

Make sure you’re nice to your customers, they may just be nice back.