TRANSCRIPT
This transcript was completed by an automated system, please forgive any grammatical errors.
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
brand, product, launch, founder, customer, ads, sops, ugc, podcast, sleep, educating, big, sell, working, making, buy, years, customer retention, company, different industries
SPEAKERS
Bob Verlaat, Mariah Parsons
Mariah Parsons 00:05
Greetings and welcome to retention Chronicles, the podcast with learnings from expert e commerce brands and partners. I'm your host, Ryan Parsons. If you're here, you're either on a quest for ecommerce enlightenment, or you accidentally clicked the wrong link. Either way, I am thrilled you stumbled into our corner of the internet. And I hope you'll stick around. We've got pearls of wisdom for everyone, whether you're running a multimillion dollar business, or simply just starting out on your entrepreneurial journey. Before we unleash the brilliance of today's guest, let's give a shout out to our podcast sponsor Malomo. Malomo is so much more than just another Shopify app, their post purchase wizards making beautiful and branded order tracking smoother than a jazz solo. So our amazing founders, like our guests can keep their customers happy and up to date while they track their orders. So hit that subscribe button, like it'll increase your LTV overnight, and go listen to her other episodes. Echo malomo.com That's gomalomo.com. Get ready for insights chuckles and perhaps a profound realization or two with this newest episode of retention. Hello, everyone, and welcome back to retention Chronicles. Bob, thank you so much for being here today. I'm very excited to chat with you. You just launched last month. And so it's going to be great to get your opinion on both the brains that you have. And I'm very excited for you to be here today. So if you could just say hi to our listeners and kick us off with a quick intro of yourself.
Bob Verlaat 01:41
Oh, thanks for having me. So my name is Bob for that. I'm 26 years old. I come from a small down the center of the Netherlands and currently living in Amsterdam. I'm the co founder of several b2c brands, of which Darren rose as well as here, which we're talking about today,
Mariah Parsons 02:00
I guess. Yes, yes, very excited by it. We actually didn't talk about this before, but we're very similar in life stage. So I'm 25 currently turning 26 In September, which we're recording this in June. So in a couple of months time. So I always find it interesting to find people in the EECOM space who are of general same life stage. But okay, want to ask you first, because we were talking about this before we hopped on the podcast, and we had to pause so that we could actually get a part of the recorded conversation. So let's talk about your launch. And let's wrap into that. How did you know that you were ready to launch? Because some context for our listeners, we were talking about this just aspirations having an entrepreneurial spirit? How do you kind of know, you know, after you can see of like launching multiple brands? How did you know which ideas to pick and choose and actually run with? Or are you just the kind of person that says, I have an idea, I'm gonna run with it and see what happens. I'd love to know more about that, Bob?
Bob Verlaat 03:01
Well, this is the second launch of yours when a lot how all are different than than the first brand. So when we first launched or arose, we just, we just went. So we just launched a product with a crappier website, just open a Shopify store, and did what we felt like was arrived. Well, for the second one, it was a whole different story. Because we've learned so much we've, we know much more what we're doing. So it's a whole different launch process. But going back to your question on when a product is good enough to launch it set for itself. Yeah, it comes with a with a couple of things. First, you got a problem solving idea, right? And first of all, it means to feel good. It needs to it needs to be a product that that yeah, that you that you know is going to sell that you know, it's going to solve a problem. And as well like especially when we're in a b2c world or an E commerce space, it needs to tick all the boxes of the right ecommerce product. So it has to be lightweight, it has to be problem solving. Like I said, it has to be like it doesn't doesn't need too many sizes. It needs to have different color options. It needs to be able to ship internationally. So coming back to all those factors, then it's the right product to launch for the to see especially.
Mariah Parsons 04:23
Okay wonderful. So I want to bring this up because I know that we were connected we've had him on the podcast but all of our he was a founder of Exeter so one that was just simulation moment of you know him getting to connect us and then to I was also listening to one of my favorite podcasts armchair expert. I'm not sure if you're familiar with them, but they just naturally mentioned that they I think I have to remember and I can fact check this but that they were using one of your eye masks from Doreen Rose and I was like oh my god This is so funny. I'm gonna talk with him next week. I was listening to it last week. So I wanted to relay that to you just because I think it's cool to, you know, organically See, I mean, it's a pretty big, pretty big podcast, one of the biggest ones in the entertainment space for sure. So just for your own awareness in terms of before we dive into branding and all that fun stuff that I know you've had to focus on for both of your brands, it's it was a fun, it was a fun moment of oh, my god, like small world, right? Feels feel smaller than it actually is sometimes. But do you are do you know that podcast at all armchair experts? I'll find what episode it was. And then I'll send it to you so that you can you can hear it. Maybe you can, you can clip it, you know, clip it for social media or some some. Yeah, there you go. Yeah, they were talking all about it. Well,
Bob Verlaat 05:54
speaking of x, x is another another great like econ product, very DTC product, because it has no sizes, small baggage, lively, in a way. So it takes all the boxes of a perfectly calm product as well.
Mariah Parsons 06:09
Exactly, yeah, it was fitting fairly right along with the, you know, the thought process of how you actually are coming to deciding what products you want to have, and to sell on your store. And so let's talk a little bit before we get into the branding side of things, the strategy, customer retention, all that stuff that we'd love to get into. Tell us about your background, what kind of made you want to pursue, you know, starting your own company and getting into you know, how lightweight is our is this product? Is it sellable in the E commerce space, it's always interesting to hear how people kind of find their way into this world.
Bob Verlaat 06:43
That thought process is only what we're looking at now. But back then I didn't know I could just, I just wanted to have my own company and wanted to start something. And don't get me wrong before doorbells. And before years, I've had many failures, and many, many things to try. The event eventually didn't work out. Because of all those factors that I that I know now are the factors to a good good ecommerce product. But yes, as ever since I was like 16 years old, I've always had an interest in DTC Products, online online business, and especially in E commerce. So it's been a long road before before starting these companies. Yeah.
Mariah Parsons 07:24
I love that. Um, so. Okay, so let's, let's kind of talk about, I know, mostly, we want to talk about your launch with yours. And I'm very intrigued just because of, I guess I'll leave it as a teaser of the way in which your brand was founded with having people who are influential in the music space. So but I want to get a little bit more context and tone in terms of give us a boiler plate, if you will, of what Doreen Rose is selling. So our audience, it has a little bit more context and then lead us into the boilerplate of what here's the selling.
Bob Verlaat 08:03
So for context, don't roses about three, three and a half years old now? Well, here's this just one month old. Dorm dorm Rose is what we call a sleep wellness brand. And we sell products. We sell like sleep essentials that have benefits for your skin as well as your as well as your sleep, including silk pillowcases, to phase II masks and all other sleep essentials. And we trade with each product, we try to do something special. So we tried to make it in a way or change it in a way or Yeah, make it in a way that the market hasn't seen before to make it make it special as well as problem solving, which is the most crucial factor for any product we launch. Yeah, and love it. Here's on the other hand, that one month old company has in hip like brand, something completely different. Also not earplugs, earplugs for sleeping, but for the music industry. So yeah, two completely different companies, but on with their both with their very own approach. And yeah, very different companies.
Mariah Parsons 09:12
Yeah, love it. So let's get into kind of the different approaches for both of those because one of the things that I was excited to chat with you about is the difference in the industry is right have you have um, I could see it being as most things are right you have benefits to being in different industries. But then you also have I imagine some setbacks or some some cons of being in such different industries because so can you kind of walk us through if you found any I know it's, you know, a little bit of probably a shallower question with just one month into launching. But any any, I guess anticipated or realized differences between launching the two brands in different industries.
Bob Verlaat 09:59
Well I, to be honest, right now, I only see pros on blockchain to different industries, but isn't, it can coexist, it doesn't bite each other. And a lot of the pros come with the general knowledge and skills of doing e commerce and doing brands. Because, you know, you can take what you've learned from one brand and bring it to the other brands, and the brands can learn from each other, the teams can learn from each other. And there's a lot of overlap in using your SOPs using your tools. But then again, there's, there's a lot of different, like, lots of differences between the two brands. As we use for some parts, we use completely different tools for one brand and for the other brand.
Mariah Parsons 10:47
Okay, we'll get into tools later, like just analyzing tech stack and whatnot. Because that's I know, that's what every founder always loves to hear and talk about majority of our audiences founders. Right. So I know we'll get into that. But now let's talk about how did you design or I guess, find yourself founding here's especially having, you know, not industry experts, musicians, as part of your team? And what is that done for in terms of, you know, product development and understanding the right marketing and everything that you need to do on that side of things? Because as you said, you're not it's not your plugs for sleep, it's your plugs for the music industry. Yeah. So it
Bob Verlaat 11:31
obviously comes from, like how the Rose was launched, was, we saw a great product that we wanted to brand. And the same goes for here, we saw an upward trend in wearing earplugs at music, festivals, concert music fans. And we saw something boring, and we wanted to make it sexy. And that's the same story for same story for both brands. And it's completely unrelated to what industry it's in. Back to your question about, like, why we're using artists and how that how that worked out. When we started doing rows, it was, you know, the usual founder, so not knowing what you're doing, for the big part not knowing where to find stuff, right?
Mariah Parsons 12:13
Yeah, and
Bob Verlaat 12:15
trying out things, a lot of failures. A lot of things go wrong. And the second time we started, start a new brand. with yours. We knew for a big part, that what we're doing was right, but we also know it was gonna take a while to get through that hustle and a bit position in launching his brand was partnering up with music artists who could bring us the network could bring us the expertise of the technology itself, you know, making the most out of the product, but also make the most out of the partnerships and network and bringing in bringing us into a whole new industry that we've never been in before. So that was a big part of the whole launch strategy of here is to directly open up a network and not be Hey, where were the new hippo company that we're in April, a company that works with this guy, these guys and these guys, you know?
Mariah Parsons 13:12
Yeah, I see this a lot. I think everyone does. But just a lot more in terms of having brand collaborations or having a figurehead or whatever kind of word you want to use of like influencer to be your, you know, or celebrity to be the spearhead of your brand. Or just to you know, advocate for it and write like referrals, word of mouth marketing, all that good stuff that works very well.
Bob Verlaat 13:35
You see it on, on a on a, on a big scale with like brands, like schemes, cosmetics with all the superstar brands, but there's also a lower tier to it to partner with them and, and not make it directly the face of the company. Because I I do in a way think that that goes to waste. Because if you decide to make a celebrity or artist, the face of your brand, it could go many ways. Yeah.
Mariah Parsons 14:03
So it's riskier than you know, having it be a founder or someone who's always going to be attached to the brand, right? Yeah. The stories of collaborations gone wrong and all that all that stuff. So yeah, it makes sense that maybe not It's not like micro influencers, but it's not, you know, face of the brand or founder who is the who is the spearhead of the brand. And so can you walk us through the launch timeline of here's because I think that's something that not being a current founder, I would anticipate a lot of energy, rightfully so goes into planning out the launch and making sure that everything's up and running. So I think it's really interesting with you coming off of this launch, and being able to see okay, door and rose went this way. It's in this industry. It's a little bit different because of the products that you're selling, but mostly you have one One cycle or one brand where you have these lessons learned. So how are you? How did you then approach launching here's and, you know, walking through the timelines and like the things that you wanted to hit.
Bob Verlaat 15:13
So me and my co founders were kind of spoiled by the fact that producing this bread, like making this product took two years, because we had some time to prep, we're, we're all very impulsive and impatient. So you start out with the launch of with our first brand launch, it might be that the second brand launch would have been the same if we didn't need two years to develop the actual product. So in this whole time, while creating the product, creating the filter technology, because we have, we built quite a complicated product in terms of, you know, it's it's hearing protection, it needs some licenses, it needs some regulations, which is taking a long time to do achieve, as well as building building the product from from the ground up, like designing the whole manufacturing. Yeah, so like I said, that took two years. So we had two years time to actually prep or brand launch. So in that two years, we took as much time to evaluate as a part of the marketing process, like, you know, like the advertising strategy, the PR strategy, the influencer strategy. And we mapped it all out over over a year time, I'd say, to make the brand launch as successful as possible, but more importantly, everything that comes after the brand launch, because a brand launch is not one moment. It's not like, hey, we launch and now everybody knows it's not as it's an ongoing process.
Mariah Parsons 16:44
Yeah, it's almost like the start of the race. Right? Exactly. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, I experienced this a lot with, you know, on the Malomo side of things of when we're launching new features, and just, you know, it's not the, it's the launch or something, right. But then everything starts of, you're seeing Okay, once you finally launched, things people are, you know, they want it on in their account, or they want to access to it right. And so it's just like you're building up all into the launch. But the best founders, the best marketers know that that really is you need a successful launch, but then it's really after the fact that you're looking at, okay, who has you know, what's the adoption rate? Or what's the, what's the purchase rate, like? How's it going, and then you have to continue to iterate on that.
Bob Verlaat 17:30
So I also think, in this point in time, you know, where you get your acquisition from, or where you get your traffic from isn't, isn't anymore, just like a launch event. And everybody knows you. It's an ongoing, you know, an ongoing thing, and especially with Facebook, Facebook. Meta advertising, Google advertising is optimizing in the long run, and they're not focusing on one point in time.
Mariah Parsons 17:56
Yeah, yeah. So let's talk about it. Because obviously, this podcast is called customer. It's called retention Chronicles. So we focus a lot on customer retention. And so it's always fun to hear the acquisition side of things of, you know, meta, and we have a lot of people come on here, obviously, to talk about the ads and the way they're optimizing them and making sure that they're generating that traffic. So what, what were you focusing on? Was it mostly social media? Was it mostly, you know, was it email marketing? How are you? What are you? Or is it the brand collaboration? How are you driving that traffic, especially in the earlier days?
Bob Verlaat 18:32
Well, like our most prominent form of getting traffic is just matter. It's Facebook advertising and arc that comes with a very structured content strategy, where we're very high base and content output, I think many, many of the brands are now. And this is the biggest part of our marketing strategy, putting out content every week testing, optimizing testing, and then I see this whole marketing marketing funnel is Facebook first, and everything that comes after. Yeah, I've been around with come second. And everything around that comes in forms of PR, influence marketing. At least like the awareness side of it, like then obviously we have or, or email campaigns or Yeah, or bought up for the marketing. Anything related to that. Wonderful or
Mariah Parsons 19:30
podcasts mentioning you all organically.
Bob Verlaat 19:33
Our podcasts also.
Mariah Parsons 19:36
Yes, yes. Love it. Okay. So walk us through. I always like to hear kind of one of the biggest challenges at specific points in a brand. So we'll focus on during, you know, the launch, whether it's working on to the launch or just now being live for a month or so. So what was one of the biggest what would you say what's been one of the biggest tactical challenges for you You all when launching this because it sounds like product development took a long time, but you knew that that was anticipated. So I'd love to hear kind of what was one of the biggest hurdles that you either were walked through before the launch? Or you're currently still trying to walk through?
Bob Verlaat 20:16
That's a good question. Yeah, when it whenever people have the biggest obstacles is definitely product based, like product development based. But if I'd say like, the whole marketing strategy is, I think getting attention, like getting attention to the brand. You know, it's, I feel like it's harder than ever to grab someone's attention right now, everybody's ever. All of it is online, everybody's looking at their phones comes up again. Like, even in meta advertising in general, it's super hard to, you know, get your custom out there, tick tock, Instagram, real scrolling flow and change their dopamine, rush to something you know, that you're trying to sell them. And the same goes for the brand launch itself and getting people to, to know your brand, because for them without any explanation, we're just another product brand. Yeah, we did our we did our two years of product development that we do we truly have something special. But that's, that's what they all say. So getting the attention right from the start as a new brand, in any way. If it's PR if it's if it's influencer marketing, if it's, if it's social media advertising, is definitely the most challenging part of it all. Yep.
Mariah Parsons 21:38
Okay. So let's double tap on this and really go in, go into this area of how do you rate the buyer, or just consumers in general, we are very saturated when it comes to just the accessibility on our phones of having everything that at our fingertips that we could ever probably ever need. And so how do you break through the noise? I think it's something that faces a lot of founders, or just even just content in general, right? Like it's any anyone who's on the internet is an is trying to market something, whether it's a product or service or some something else themselves, right, personal brand. There is that? I guess we'll say we're your challenge of how do you grab someone's attention? But then how do you convert it? Right? Because there's the side of social media and meta ads that you're going to engage someone just because it's entertaining, but then how do you get them to actually click and check out more things that are that are just a little bit further down the funnel? So have you found in terms of what's been successful for you to get someone to click? Is it you know, having a little bit of, you know, what's the word I'm looking for? Reputation brand reputation enhanced, because you're partnering with the partners that you have, and people who are well known in the music, music space? Or is it from, you know, sharing more about education, the education side of the product of like this was developed? Well, and we know, you know, your ears will actually be protected. How do you try and least break down what's working for you, and maybe what isn't and then not spend your ad dollars in something that isn't working.
Bob Verlaat 23:23
So I'll be narrowing, narrowing this down to just Facebook ads. Right now we're just sending social ads for what's been working for us for both brands. It's either two things one, that's that are the ads, you know, you can see it's an ad, it's, here's the product, here's the offer. And this is what it does. Mostly, mostly aesthetic, aesthetic images, or video ads, just explaining this is our product. No, blah, blah, this is what it does. And this is how we're better. And then there's the other side of it, which has usually better hook rate and a better better click through rate, I'd say is the ones that don't look like. And I'm sure I'm not the first one talking about this new bypass but UGC or any any. Any media form that that that seems like any of the other tiktoks they're scrolling through or any of the other reasons they're scrolling through. And the art of advertising would be to, you know, have something entertaining or have something that they like to watch, because there's also Facebook, or Facebook, compliments on and turning it into a convincing stage where hey, I really need this product. So those are the two parts,
Mariah Parsons 24:43
I'd say. Yep, I love it. So UGC does come up a good, good amount and I love hearing everyone's you know, in everyone's opinion and how they're using it because I think it also depends, you know, where someone is seeing You see I we've had, you know, we can see it on websites, we can see it in emails, branded tracking pages. And we like I see that a lot because that's what Malomo focuses in, right? So seeing people have, okay, after they've already purchased having that order tracking page, instead of going to the carrier, right? They go to a branded tracking page that looks like it's just from your site. And there's UGC or social media, right, under their tracking information. So then they they're like, oh, let's go look at how other people are. You know, it's like some sense of stalking a little bit of like, Oh, I just bought from this brand. I want to go see what they're up to. And what, what other how other people are? Yeah, yeah, how many followers they have rep, like reputation. And it also just, you know, most social media profiles are the good ones, in my opinion, are fun to follow, right? Like engaging. And so I see that a lot in UGC, of how are you incorporating it, and I think ads is a great way where someone who maybe isn't in this field wouldn't even recognize that it is an ad, but that's exactly what you want that content to be.
Bob Verlaat 26:12
If people don't recognize it, then isn't that. And then through ads, our ads are getting smarter. And that same goes for any, for any PR, you know, traditional PR, where you read an article that article about a certain topic or problem, but in the end, you end up buying the product without really realizing the whole article was an ad, or the same influencer, who was so authentic by showing you their Get Ready With Me or, you know, like, using specific products, but in the end, it was an ad for that specific
Mariah Parsons 26:44
product. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. And I think too, it'll be, I think that they'll will be disclosed a little bit more with just privacy in the regulations that, you know, social media is rolling out, and that you have to share that you have to put visibly that it's a you know, a paid opportunity or paid promotion, or sponsored or whatever. Each profile, or each platform requires further, further users. But I think it's still the concept of having a great ad be centered around someone actually using your product is not going to go away. Even if you know customers can see a little flag that says sponsored or paid or something of that nature, you know? Yeah,
Bob Verlaat 27:28
there's like, soon there will be almost no line. Like, what's what's sponsoring what's not? Yeah, some things are truly authentic. Exactly. But that's even better. Yeah, like you just mentioned a guy just buying my sleep mask on, like on a podcast, that Yeah,
Mariah Parsons 27:45
yeah, they were just talking about it. And yeah, and they're one of the biggest podcasts, you know, that Spotify has? So pretty good, pretty good stuff for you. Awesome. Yeah. So I also want to double tap before we get more into the customer experience side of things and the post purchase experience, because we've been talking, obviously a lot about acquisition. But I wanted to ask of because you brought up educating the customer, right, that's a bigger part of product development, that's something that maybe is a difference between door and rose. And then here is because the product development, you know, your ears are so sensitive, you need to have you need to have very, very attuned, very thoughtful design behind the product. So how are you educating consumers before they buy, because one thing that we also see on the Malomo side is educating customers after they buy of like, okay, this is how you use the product. This is how you know, right, and like the transactional emails and SMS and order page order tracking. So I would love to hear your how you're going about at trying to educate before someone buys to motivate them to make that purchase.
Bob Verlaat 28:58
I think this, this thought process will be the same for Domino's, as it is for yours. I think it will be the same for many products, at least products I've worked with or the brands that I run. It's like I said, I look for products that are problem solving. And I think most of the products are problems problem solving in a way and you try to find your audience that has those problems or that can find themselves in those products. You're not per se educating them, I think, I think you're highlighting their problems. And you're you know, you're showing them like that right? Yeah, the right solution to this problem. Because in a way a pillowcase or a sleep mask, that's that's the sleep mask as an example. Having trouble falling asleep or having trouble sleeping at night, or you know, it's it's light outside till late. We want to see if in complete darkness, or it will be a problem that the customer is not aware of, like, you know, the whole stage thing you've probably seen before, where the customer, you know, like accept it or not, but he or she doesn't know it was because of the light, that's that's coming out early or. So we're just in a way in that simple ad, it's the goal to just highlight that specific problem, whatever the problem is, and quickly showing the solution to it. Because the solution is when an air bloke or with a sleep mask, it's pretty straightforward what the solution will be to problems. So it will be highlighting the problem more often than educating them on what the product does. Really, I
Mariah Parsons 30:42
like that we actually haven't, at least that I can recall, have someone frame education in that way. So trying to, you know, find the people that have an anticipated problem. And then showing them the solution is, it's like one of those things, that it's a small little tweak, and how you are looking at something or how you're thinking about something rather than, you know, you're trying to actively educate someone on that they're already aware of that problem. And that they're, you know, that they're not happy with it. Right. So, especially sleep, it's, you know, it's what, for me, one of the worst things, I can't get good night's sleep. So I like that reframing of it as maybe not thinking about trying to educate but trying to problem solve, and just putting a solution right in front of someone. And what
Bob Verlaat 31:31
might be even more important is showing the outcome. And especially communicating the perfect outcome, like having the perfect night's sleep, or no ringing your ears after a night out or hearing the music perfectly, it has constraints still protecting your ears, you know, like the outcome of the product, not per se, problems with Medeco, you know, the quick solution and ask how you feel? Yeah, people buy and say, Okay,
Mariah Parsons 31:57
wonderful. So let's pivot into the ecommerce customer experience here now. So we've already talked about, you know, getting getting the actual product in their hands of having that conversion. So I'd love to know, what's your process after someone buys with you? How do you retain them? How are you making those efforts to make sure that, you know, once you educate, which really means you're showing them the benefit of having this solution and having the outcome of having this product? How were you then making sure that they are staying with your company, and they're coming back for more products to continue to solve issues that they're having in their life?
Bob Verlaat 32:36
So yeah, like we're building Shopify brands is the most important thing. The most easy answer that I have is build a quality product. Because if you build a quality product, if you build nice product customers will come back anyway. But obviously, you have to guide them through that. Yeah. So yeah, same goes for when you go to a restaurant, and you had a nice steak, and yeah. The wave comes to you and say, Hey, next time fried chicken, you know, it's, you come back for the chicken shells.
Mariah Parsons 33:12
upsells and cross sells, right? Yeah.
Bob Verlaat 33:17
That goes as well for your online presence. Excuse me, but first product, also show them your next good product, but customer will only buy if the first product was amazing. And not just the product, like customer expectations as a whole, like packaging needs to be top notch delivery needs to be top notch customer service needs to be of the highest level possible that you can possibly achieve within your company. And then from my experience customer will come back. And then I'm speaking of throwing rows, obviously because we have we launched here's just a month ago
Mariah Parsons 33:55
and yeah, you have a little bit more data on the one Yeah,
Bob Verlaat 33:59
but but that's what we that's that's our biggest priority as well in product and experience having the customer service the delivery the service of the highest level because I think in this era, brands will be surprised that way.
Mariah Parsons 34:16
Yep. Yeah. So how are you then? I think it's great to have that goal of making sure that every single interaction or touch point with the customer is easier said than done, right? Yeah, to the highest level right? Easier said than done. And again, we see this all the time of just customers not knowing where their packages and then inbounding to your support team and being like Where the hell is my package? I bought this with my own money I want it blah blah, blah, right or delivery something goes wrong or you know, the package is damaged when it gets to them all these other things right? It's kind of a it becomes a fun party when you're in the in the post purchase side of things. So how is it technology? Is it making sure that you're very blue So on the ground with making sure you're monitoring what's going on with delivery and packaging and customer experience or customer service, how are you actually getting to? How do you actually get to the spot where you know that this is what's happening?
Bob Verlaat 35:16
Well, like for any, for any new business like this, the start is the founder who does it right. Like, you got to have a very passionate and caring founder, or founders, who will treat every delivery in every order, with heart and make sure like, everything goes well, personal personal touch with guests know that as you grow, it is very important to keep those keep that attention to as many customers as possible. And I'm not saying that we never lose baggage or like, not very often, but
Mariah Parsons 35:50
it happens, sometimes it
Bob Verlaat 35:52
happens, they happen to happen to any company, what's important is that you stick to the very first carrying founder service and scale to do with the right technology with the right people scale to larger scale. And that goes with the right SOPs, we, we work with a lot of SOPs, making sure that every part of the whole process from delivery to just McGarr to tracking is all organized, we use different tools for that we use obviously Klaviyo like the post purchase flows we use. And then our customer service team also has specific SOPs to make sure we update the customer well enough or when there's when there is trouble or when there is a refund or return we proceed in the right way. And the whole team knows that nobody knows exactly what to do in that case.
Mariah Parsons 36:50
Yep. Okay, love it. So I love that you you recognize that founders are very much going to be in the front lines especially in the early side of things and making sure that the customer has a great experience and I think it i from talking to a lot of founders at this point can see that that is part of the reason why brands are successful versus not in customer retention of having that founder that cares and doesn't just want to you know try and sell a quick buck right you you recognize the importance of customer retention and so now that you can kind of draw the comparison between door and Rose and having to be boots on the ground having to be the founder service or founder founder led operations versus here Do you are you kind of getting a I guess like a whiplash moment back to when you had just launched door and Rose and now seeing that with here's of you know, a similar similar journey of okay you are so you are so in it in the early days, but then you can kind of back off as you start to scale and you you add team members into into your brand or is it is it has always have you been able to I guess relinquish some of the control with door and rows that you now have again with here's
Bob Verlaat 38:20
partly because yeah, obviously it's a no brainer. You You still experienced the same best you got to do it over the same hustle, you know, being more involved, it's a smaller team. But a big part luckily for us is that we cover for example, the customer service team is covering both brands so we took those SOPs and a new brand and we know what to do now. And the same goes for logistics and the same goes for fulfillment you know so big part of the company is not anymore that just as what is what is still new is that it's a completely different product. So yeah, you get different questions you get different types different type of customer and this time at a higher pace because we now know how to advertise we know how to get our get our acquisition so directly from a startup it's a much higher order frequency that we had in the very early days with Oreos.
Mariah Parsons 39:33
Yeah, I love that you know how to get the flywheel kind of started a little bit hopefully a little bit easier this time around. Yeah, yeah. So as as we're wrapping up this conversation one question for you that I would love to hear just because you are really starting off in for here's an just launch what's one thing that you're looking forward to or what's like one goal that you're like okay, I'm we're marching towards this or works Ready for this, it can also be for Jordan rows as well. But I think it'd be fun to see, you know, one month after launching, what's what's one thing that you're excited for?
Bob Verlaat 40:11
Well, the thing that I'm most excited for is like that I've been working to work for two years is seeing happy customers, you know, like seeing the seen different results and seeing the comments coming in telling us like, hey, these earplugs are actually amazing. So this only gives me like a broader perspective on the future on how we're going to roll it out how we're going to use, like, extended more and more in the product line, more colors, more types of products, maybe even more industries, most likely. So not just just music yet, but who knows what type of earplugs. And it feels like, you know, what it feels like, we'll be we've been working on we're doing it, right? So I'm excited to just just broaden the product line to get more collaborations in partnering up with bigger festivals, bigger artists, hopefully, because it's a product that we can brand as well and call up and collaborate with as well. So yeah, I'm excited for that part. Yeah.
Mariah Parsons 41:12
Okay, amazing. Well, this has been amazing, Bob, thank you for coming in sharing everything that you had to share for both brands. It's not lost on me that it's a very busy time for you, as proven by just our emails back and forth and all the exciting things that you have going on. So it's great to meet you. Thank you to all of our extra as well for connecting us because it truly is so much fun to get to sit in the seat and just get to take an hour or so of your time, be able to chat more about, you know, the machine behind the curtain or the wheels behind the curtain. So this has been great. Thank you for taking the time.
Bob Verlaat 41:51
Thank you for having me.