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How Tech Startups Destroy Consumer Trust: The Warby Parker Story
Brand and consumer relationships take a long time to build, but are very easily destroyed. This is the story of one such relationship and I hope it serves as a case study to all entrepreneurs on the importance of nurturing customer relationships even after you’re successful.
I’ve been a loyal Warby Parker customer since launch. I remember hearing about this startup that was disrupting the eyeglass industry at a Tech mixer in New York in 2010. As a long-term “Four Eyes Club” member, I was super excited for anything that would change the game.
I got my first pair of glasses when I was 10, which is an incredibly awkward age to suddenly need eyewear. My body was going through changes that would make me very uncomfortable about my appearance: I was the tallest kid in class, one of the heaviest, loud and boisterous, and now in need of eyeglasses. Suffice it to say that I was a bully magnet, saved only by my sense of humor and my friendships with the cutest girls in class. #gaypower
This discomfort was only exacerbated by the fact that my parents were working class immigrants who had minimal extra money . That meant that every eyeglass purchase in childhood was laced with my mom and dad complaining about the high price of glasses. Invariably this would end with me being forced to choose from…
