A service I use, Roll20, recently shit on its customers. To be more specific, one of the founders did this. A customer got banned, complained, and Nolan handled that complaint with a series of messages that got more and more aggressive. The customer then deleted his Roll20 account, wrote a post on the /r/dnd subreddit , and unleashed a wave of condemnation and unsubscribing that Roll20 had never seen before.

And it’s clear to me from the way this was handled that Nolan cares about the product he helps make and about how that product reflects on him, but that he views his customers (or this one at least) as something that he needs to tolerate to keep doing his work.

Seth Godin, a marketing professional I deeply respect, teaches that the only irreplaceable thing a company has is its relationship with the customers. You can outsource, automate or buy anything, but thinking about other humans, considering their desires, wellbeing, and future—this is what makes and breaks businesses in the 21st century.