What's In A Name?
Many people ask me why I named this company “The Customer Initiative” so today we’re going to dig into the meaning behind our name!
When starting a company, there are a lot of things to consider regarding the name. You want to be thoughtful, as this will be something you live with for a long time. Of course, things like domain availability and legal name registration availability play a big part in this decision, but you may also want to choose a name that represents your offering (Nike), exudes the vibe you want to convey (Sea Glass Med Spa), or something catchy and memorable (Moo.com).
One thing is for sure, I didn’t choose The Customer Initiative because it’s easy to type or spell – the number of times I’ve mistyped “initiative” is staggering - including on my launch posts, so thank you to Chris who DM’ed me to let me know.
I started out with company names that were sentimental to me but didn’t have anything to do with my business focus: Pearl Consulting, MBP Ltd., PowerHouse or any of the millions of “Power” permutations I could think of. I also went through SO MANY variations on Customer Success related names: CSMaven (which turned out to be my Twitter handle), CustomerSuccessMastermind (I did keep this domain for education), Successable (total non-starter), and dozens of others that have long since escaped my memory.
Nothing felt right for where I was at that time. Too vague, too cutesy, too pigeon-holed, just too…something.
I could feel I was getting close, having ‘success’ in there somewhere was both empowering and on target for my audience, but as Customer Success is still a growing industry perhaps ‘customer’ would be a better key word to focus on.
After a few rounds of brainstorming with some friends, I threw out “The Customer Initiative” and did a little digging.
Turns out it was perfect.
in·i·ti·a·tive
/iˈniSH(ē)ədiv/
The power or opportunity to act or take charge before others do.
The definition spoke to me on so many levels.
I had finally taken the leap into entrepreneurship after 20+ years in corporate roles. It was my time to seize of my life and take charge of my own destiny.
The idea of Customer Success as a proactive practice is fundamental to my definition of CS. It’s no longer about waiting around for customers to have problems or to reach out, it’s time to assume a leadership role with their success with your products!
It has the word “power” right there – very on-brand for me. 🙂
And so, despite how many times I will typo my own email address, The Customer Initiative was born.
