Vol. 1, Issue 1: Abraham Maslow, Businessman?
In his landmark 1943 paper "A Theory of Human Motivation", psychologist Abraham Maslow first posited his Hierarchy of Needs, which rather than write an entire long essay about (a task for which I'm highly unqualified), I'll just generally summarize as outlining a 4 sets of needs, each of which build on one another, that a human needs to satisfy in order to achieve self-actualization - the state one needs to ascend to in order to engage in the pursuit of bettering ourselves.
There's a few things worth knowing about Maslow. One is that he came of age in what most people consider the first golden age of psychology post-Freud. Second is that he is considered the father of Humanistic Psychology, which succinctly speaking is about focusing on a person's mental state now, as opposed to the past or future. Finally, he had an absolutely A+ mustache. It's basically Einstein, Maslow and Martin Mull in that order.
Maslow has his critics, but generally this is a very elegant way to understand what motivates us. Once these basic deficiency needs are out of the way, we can invest in ourselves in order to truly focus on doing the work to be the best version of ourselves. Theoretically, unless you're some sort of sociopath I suppose, that's what we're all after.
I've been quasi-obsessed with Maslow for years. And for some subset of those years, I've looked at the Hierarchy of Needs and thought is there anything that it can teach us about business and how we serve our clients? And I think the answer is yes.
Very basically, the business of client service all about servicing a client's needs. If you're Coca-Cola, that's something like making sure your distribution outlets can easily order the products and that deliveries are seamless and on time (and that they finally, FINALLY, made Black Cherry Coke Zero Sugar. A man can only write so many letters).
For a technology company like OpenX, it means making sure that our integrations are built to mutual specifications, that we have the right supply for a consumer's demand profile and that we have people available to resolve the inevitable issues that pop-up. So if the hierarchy is all about needs and servicing clients is all about needs, how do we begin to work with our clients on their ascension toward self actualization? And how do we define self-actualization for our clients (which is probably the best place to start)?
I'd argue that a self-actualized client (at least in the SaaS technology space) is one that can not only use the technology that you've provided and architected to support their business, train their own employees on the software and analyze its output to understand its efficacy, but also (and this part is important) once those basic deficiency needs are satisfied, work with you strategically to identify ways to improve the technology at large (i.e. walk the path to being the best version of itself) and ultimately the business that they're using your tech to run. And frankly, if you're lucky, they're also out in market evangelizing the tech on your behalf. I realize that I'm stretching the terminology a little here to fit the lines that I've artificially drawn, but practically speaking a client whose basic and advanced needs have been satisfied is a client who doesn't have to worry about those underlying needs and can focus on growing their business.
If we focus on a self-actualized client as a client who can focus on the growth of their business, rather than worrying about the component parts or needs that underpin that business, it becomes pretty clear pretty quickly what we have to do from a needs perspective bottom up to support our clients on their journey.
Give your client a technology product that satisfies the table stakes in whatever business they operate. In OpenX's case, that means providing our supply partners with intelligent, up to date integrations with their demand partners - these are the "physiological needs" at the very base of the period. The minimum that their business needs to operate.
Provide your client with an easy, direct path to communicate any questions, issues or concerns into the organization and staff your organization with resources who are friendly and knowledgable (and themselves well supported!), so that clients don't have to worry about their concerns going unanswered or unmet - this is the "safety needs"
Treat your client as a partner. Make sure they're informed about any changes happening at the organization, give them as much notice as possible and be as clear as possible about what those changes entail and what they mean for your client's business. And, equally importantly, give them a voice in the evolution of the product. There's a wide gulf in a relationship that's described as "vendor-client" vs. one described as a "partnership" - these are our "love and belonging needs"
Finally, ensure that your client (or partner) knows that they're a valuable asset to your organization. This isn't just about what they pay you; it's about how their partnership helps advance your own organizational goals, that their feedback is welcomed by your product and engineering organizations and (if it's true) that you personally value the relationship - that's our "esteem needs"
These things obviously just don't happen. I wish I could snap my fingers and acquire more partners like those that I described above. But of course clients like this don't fall out of the sky, because developing these kinds of clients are partners isn't just their responsibility; it's ours as well. And my premises may seem obvious, but you'd be surprised at how many people roll their eyes when a client asks for help or clarification on something that may not be as obvious to them or how many people classify a client as "difficult" because a Wiki link or a one-sheeter describing the functionality doesn't give them all the information they need and they need a 30 minute phone call to talk it out.
As a person whose responsibility it is to service clients at any level, your entire business should be pointed at finding ways to get your client to ascend the hierarchy and be working with a solution that fits their business workflow well enough to allow them to focus on what really matters: accomplishing and exceeding their own business goals.