Talking customers is one of the best things any business can do to grow faster -- so we asked 14 startup execs to share their secrets. Here's how they do it.

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We’ve all heard this mantra (or some variation of it) before:

You need to solve for the customer.
It’s a great soundbite, right? Definitely something every business can get behind.

But when you look at how this concept is actually applied in the real word, it can sometimes feel like “solve for the customer” really just means “figure out how to do the bare minimum so the customer doesn’t churn."

So here’s what happens: marketers blast out impersonal emails to their entire customer lists. And account managers, sticking to carefully crafted scripts, pester customers with phone calls, imploring them to pay for upgrades.  

Meanwhile, on Twitter, customer service reps reply to complaints with canned responses, e.g. “We are aware of the issue and are currently working to resolve it.” (Sound familiar?) 

This sucks. 

Solving for the customer hinges on communication.

After all, you can’t know what your customers’ pain points are if you’re nottalking to them.