This begins with a tale of one of our readers who had customer support problems with three different platforms:

A payments platform – wrong bank account#, contact email, plus phone# attached to a different account.

A hosting service – the reader had a new phone and was setting up the email account.

A college student-focused job finding platform – posting an internship, couldn’t finish as the platform had blocked him.

Two companies offered live human interaction – chat and phone – and the issues were resolved quickly and professionally. While it was annoying that he had to deal with these problems, he was left with positive feelings for both companies.

As for the student-focused job finding platform: there was only a Help section with the ability to submit problems using an inflexible form with the promise of responding within 24 hours. There were no options for human interaction. After 96 hours of no response, said reader emailed the head of customer service (and cc’d the three co-founders). The problem was fixed five hours later.

The negative experience will linger forever and face it: the problem was solved only because the reader had the knowledge and tools to get to the founders.

And heads up to founders: every touchpoint of your product is critical, including customer support/help.

Speaking of touchpoints and doing your job…

As for SVB, “A head of risk assessment at the beleaguered Silicon Valley Bank has been accused of prioritizing pro-diversity initiatives over her actual role,” the Daily Mail reported (Woke head of ‘risk assessment’ at Silicon Valley Bank ‘prioritized’ LGBT initiatives – including organizing a month-long Pride campaign – before bank lost BILLIONS and collapsed).

Didn’t the C-Suite notice, or were they too busy with, um, other things: the bank’s CEO cashed out a reported $3.57M in stocks and CFO ditched $575,000 the same day. All, while the month-long celebration raged.

Speaking of the C-Suite, underreported is the fact that Joseph Gentile was SVB’s Chief Administrative Officer. His prior position: CFO at…wait for it…Lehman Brothers. CFO, Gracie? At another very seminal meltdown/bankruptcy, speaking of the bro code/Silicon Valley priorities.

What to speak of the fact that the government has been strong-arming companies to focus on ESG policies, while the business of business is shareholder returns, aka, happy repeat customers.

You also have to ask what the hell is going on in Silicon Valley, considering this comes on the heels of the FXT debacle. As one of our readers informed us, “Last fall, SVB borrowed $15 billion from the Federal Home Loan Bank of San Francisco – who also lent billions to Silvergate. This is nothing but a pack of California gangsters, in cahoots with “regulators” and venture capitalists. I recently watched a multi-part documentary about the Gotti crime family in New York — John Sr. and John Jr. Those gangsters were amateurs compared to this.”

There’s nothing wrong with being mindful of social issues, and we’re certainly not advocating for the continuance of the bro culture, but no one is calling the SVB meltdown what it is: at best, a cautionary tale.

Or perhaps more Silicon Valley-based meltdowns that warrant a criminal investigation.

As for that month-long celebration: it’s all well and good to check all the boxes, but in business, you need to keep your priorities on the customers – and your eyes on the red flags. Onward and forward.