Using Last Mile To Create Memorable First Impressions

Retain profile

Yaw

Alright, well, let's, , let's get started. So, I'll kick things off, excited to get started. We're going to be talking about how to use last mile to drive really good relationships with your customers and get retention, as a byproduct from tdhat. And so, my name is Yaw Aning, I'm the cofounder and CEO of Malomo. We are a post-purchase customer experience platform, helping brands really manage the, the last mile and the delivery experience. And then I've got, Liz Greeley with me from, from Sol De Janeiro, Liz, why don't you introduce yourself?

Liz (02:07):

Great. Thank you. Yeah. So I'm the digital marketing manager here at Sol De Janeiro. So I really focus on the retention side of our marketing program, you know, email marketing and loyalty programs, running promos at the year, brand partnerships, you know, anything that really surprised and delight the customer and have them coming back is what I really focus on.

Yaw (02:28):

Yeah. That's great. And tell us a little bit about Sol.

Liz (02:31):

Sure. Yeah. So, Sol De Janeiro is a Brazilian beauty brand. We launched about five years ago and our hero product is bum bum cream, but pronounced boom, boom cream, very important. That's the Portuguese way to pronounce it. And our boom boom moon cream is really our, you know, iconic product. It's this very hydrating cream that has this addictive scent. And that is what our customers really love and how a lot of people have found us. That's really a great way that they enter the brand. So far as a huge partner with us, that's where we really launched and grew moment and , you know, customers find it there and they can really experience the product hands on and the sense, so with direct to consumer, that's something we really have to like to overcome. And so creating that online experience for our customer and getting the message out, you know, we try to be very inclusive, love yourself, body joy, and really bringing across that, like joy of Brazil to customers in the US.

Yaw (03:32):

Yeah, that's awesome. When we started working with you guys, I know you guys sent us a couple of samples and the scent killed at our office and it smelled so good. It was like, it was like, like you could taste the coconut. It's awesome.

Liz (03:47):

People are like, it's like vacation. So we've been really trying to get that, bring vacation to yourself. And since then we've launched into haircare and a few other centers. So I have to send you guys some, some of our newer stuff too, that we've launched.

Yaw (03:58):

Yes. I would love that. That's awesome. Cause you've got candles too, I think.

Liz (04:03):

Right. Yeah.

Yaw (04:05):

That's awesome. Well, cool. Thanks for the background. I think it'd be great to kind of start with, maybe take us back a little bit in the business when you guys, launched your direct to consumer business through the website. You were, you kinda said this you're distributing predominantly at the time through Sephora, and so I'm sure driving acquisition was top of mind, but talk me through what was happening in the business? Why was retention becoming more important through direct to the direct to consumer channels?

Liz (04:40):

Yeah, of course. So we had really launched like a year or two before we had started with you guys, you know, direct to consumer. We launched the website and just saw sales, coming really organically. And we're like, this is a huge opportunity for us and for the business and something we really need to focus on. And so that February, I've been with Sol De Janeiro a year and a half.I got hired on and we really focused on building out that email marketing strategy, how we're going to talk to our customers, making sure everything is really on brand. And you know, acquisition is so expensive to get your customer to the site and purchase from you, from just paid advertising to the promos that you give them to make that first purchase. And once they actually purchase, it's so important to make sure that everything beyond that is still on brand.

Cause they're so focused on getting paid, getting them in the door, they're having this great experience, they're really experiencing the brand, and then we were kind of just forgetting them after that. Those post-purchase emails were just like everyone else's just out of the box and yet they are a huge part of the customer experience, which you don't really think about, but anything from when the product leaves, it's kind of leaving your control and now it goes to FedEx or ups or whoever you're using to ship and they kind of have control. And how can you improve that experience? We also have a very lean team and so, you know, how can we lean on our partners and kind of give great things for our customers, but we don't have the bandwidth to take it on a hundred percent. And so looking at a very strategic way, how we can grow in a lean way.

Yaw (06:34):

Yeah, that's really good. So what are the retention initiatives that you were working on? You mentioned emails, a big counter intention channel. What were some of the specific things that from a retention perspective that you guys were, were doing early on?

Liz (06:52):

Yeah, so, you know, the focus was we had built out our, you know, abandoned cart series. We had built out our welcome series. We had built out and were refining our loyalty program, which is still, you know, always in flux and always improving. Focusing how we're communicating to customers, focusing on win-back campaigns and browse abandonment, and really trying to, you know, talk to the customers any way that we can at the right time to really bring them back. And then you guys really gave us this opportunity to own this space that we weren't even really thinking about until you came to us. But email is huge for us, you know, sampling, how can we use that in a way that really differentiates the website to have people come back and shop with us because they want that specific sample to try a new product or, you know, surprise and delight brand partnerships, things like that. So a lot of different back then, we were doing a lot of different initiatives and, you know, it's only grown since then, but it's always focused on getting that customer to have a great experience and want to come back and choose to shop directly with you. And actually with COVID, we've seen that brands really do want to shop smaller and with brands that talk to them and connect with them and give them a good experience. So I think really in the future, it's only where it's going to grow even more.

Yaw (08:22):

Yeah, no, that's good. And you kind of started to allude to this, but why did last mile do? What problems did you see happening that maybe you felt like, you might be losing customers around experience points that you didn't have control over that were challenging to kind of fill that gap? And making sure that people felt like it was, you know, they knew there were people behind the sol brand you're trying to build this relationship with. Like, what were some of the challenges that you were seeing around retention or on the customer experience?

Liz (08:56):

Yeah, so it's really interesting. It's like, what was my goal and what was my manager's goal? It was funny. Cause there was two different things that I was seeing it as, like we have this very strong brand imagery that, you know, they go on site to shop and so much time and energy is put into that. And really, I want to make those post-purchase emails really on brand and continue that experience for our customers. I felt like that was so important. My manager felt it was customer service. He's like we, we had a very small lean customer service team and he was like, how can we cut down on the amount of inbound questions we have about shipping and tracking and making it more clear with the tracking page? If we could just be more proactive with our customer service that would help us ultimately in the end and cut down on what our customer servicing has to do and then frees them up to really make that experience even better for the customers.

Liz (10:05):

And then you were like you're missing out on this great opportunity to drive revenue. And we were like, okay. And we were very skeptical of that, but like if you say that, that's a bonus. And then it was so interesting when we launched these that like driving revenue was huge for us. And that was something we didn't even think wasn't even a, you know, a real motivator in the beginning for us. And we were very skeptical and were like, is there a customer at that moment, even ready to repurchase because they haven't even gotten their product delivered to them in some instances. And what we've seen since we launched with you guys, that is true. Obviously I designed the emails so they're on brand. You know, we're able to work with you guys. Clearly we made them on brand.

We can communicate with the customer the way we want, and we're always improving that messaging.. How can we, you know, make the messaging even more exciting and communicate with the customer, but yet it's on brand. We've seen huge help with customer service. And we've talked to you guys about different ways that we could implement things to be even more proactive. For example, if it's misdelivered, they, the customer would have to wait, realize they didn't get the package. Usually it was like a week later, they're like, “Hey, where is my package” and email in. Now we get this and it triggers an email to our customer service team. And it's saying, Hey, this was delivered incorrectly. This is an issue. And we can proactively reach out to that customer and they appreciate that so much. And then you just resolve the issue, right. Then it really cuts down on the back and forth.

And also we just see that it cuts down on issues in general, we have less inbound emails coming in. So that's been huge for customer service. So the customer service team is happy and then ultimately it's driving revenue. It's about, I pulled some numbers. It was about 13% of our overall. So, I mean, as a bonus, that's a huge bonus and something that, , we weren't even really expecting. And with COVID, you know, we had an additional email saying your shipment is delayed or, you know, we're processing and trying to just explain that to customer people purchased off that email. And so I think it really shows like that excitement from that purchase, even when they're waiting, people are ready to repurchase, they want to hear from you. And it's just like, are you talking to them in the way that they want to be talked to?

Yaw (12:43):

Yeah, I think that's really good cause shipping is an emotional time, right? You buy something online, like just waiting for that thing to arrive is pretty emotional and when something goes wrong, it can really like set a bad, a bad tone in a bad kind of perception that you have with that brand that you just bought from. I think one of the things that you kind of said early on when we started working together was that I want our relationship with our customers to feel like they're walking into a local tea shop. What does that mean?

Liz (13:20):

Yeah, we really wanted to, obviously you get so much more traction than at a local shop, but this was actually from our CEO and founder. She really wanted our customers to feel like they were important to us. And like they were getting as customized as an experience online as if they would going into like a neighborhood to shop or cheese shop. Like they know what you're looking for. They're talking to you in this really friendly way. They're so happy. You're there, you feel welcomed, you feel an emotional connection, and that was very important. And I think that comes so much through shipping as well. Like when it's close to being at the door and you really want it, and then something goes from, or even if it doesn't go wrong, but you can open your talking email and you see these really fun, beautiful images and see the newest product or feel like the brand is taking the time to communicate with you. I think that's really important and really shapes their experiences. If you think about it, that's the last, the shipping is the last touch point you really have with that customer. And that's where they're forming their opinion and you don't want everything to go so well and then really lose it at the end here. You want to make sure you want to come back.

Yaw (14:41):

Yeah, yeah, that's good. It's almost like you're using shipping as a way to protect the future purchase, right? Like if they have a bad experience, it's very likely that they're not going to shop with you again. And e-commerce is driven a lot like independent retailers are driven a lot by the unique experiences that you're able to create with consumers and in shipping it's that kind of that key pivotal moment. So I think what would be great is if we could walk through a couple of live examples of what you're actually doing and showing to your customers to give your audience a little bit of a feel for what's happening on, on these pages. So I'm going to share my screen really quick. And then Liz, maybe you could, you could walk us through some of these examples as I go through them. So we have here, we've got your shipping soon email and so walk me through like, why, why even send this email? What's the purpose of this email for you guys?

Liz (15:53):

Yeah. So we try to get all of our shipments out within like a two day window. So at this point, the customer has received their confirmation email and this is really the next touch point that they hear from us for shipping. And it really is like order shipping soon. Like we're taking care of you, it's on its way. They're excited about it. And you know, this is a beautiful on brand image also, like, who doesn't want us to do this? It's like you're being delivered your items by hand delivered. We talk about these internally with the team, how to improve upon, do we need to be showing the products in this one? Do we not?

Liz (16:40):

You know, that's something we might test in the future, but right now we do show the products, remind them what they ordered. And then we always want to be pushing this idea of like completing a routine, boom, boom cream. So the Janeiro, it's this lifestyle that you really mind, it's all about self care. And so we want to recommend other products that they may like that may work well with them and then promoting this free sample right now we're giving free samples and every order. And that's a great reason to come back and shop that really differentiates us from other companies, and then reminding them about our loyalty programs.

Liz (17:34):

And then we are working to for our future emails, if they are part of silver passport, really show how many points they have, you get points for every purchase. So why not show them right here, how much they have to spend so that they can go back and, and use some, the sole point of it. So yeah, we really try to speak to our customers this way. Other things we're going to make an iteration really specific to holiday, this holiday, which we didn't do last year, but that's a great opportunity to really speak to our special products that we have during holiday and gifting and self gifting. And then , also new products we've gotten back and forth. Is this the right place to speak to that or free shipping we're running. So we really try to iterate these and test and see what works the best that always keeps in this general, look and feel.

Yaw (18:22):

Yeah, that's good. Like we heard a lot from, from, , at least merchants who are on the Shopify platform and maybe others that one of the challenges that they have is they'll mark their items as fulfilled and, and they'll, they'll immediately trigger an email to their customer. Saying orders shipped within when customers go and view their tracking information. It says this shipment does not exist. Please wait 24 hours. , and so I love what you're doing here, where you're, you're telling the customer, Hey, your item shipping soon. Right? It hasn't shipped yet. , , you've picked, packed and shipped it. , but like it hasn't, it hasn't been registered with the carriers yet. And so this, this is a good opportunity to kind of build some anticipation. And then you, you're using the, the rest of the email, as relationship building assets.

Yaw (19:13):

So I especially love that complete your routine. So it's not so much like, Hey, buy more product. It's like, Hey, what are you doing from like your everyday like standpoint? You know? , here are other products that would fit into that everyday routine that you're doing. it's a very nice, but subtle way to like recommend products that feels like a natural extension to what you guys are doing.

Liz (19:35):

Yeah, of course. And I love what you said about yeah, your order has just saying your order has shipped, but then looking in, and because at this point, like I know it's very technical and you guys actually own this and are so good, but it's like the label has printed, but it actually, isn't moving and it's not showing any tracking info to them. And I, as a customer have been confused by that with other brands. And so it's really prying your customer and saying that, but yet, you know, that's very important.

Yaw (20:03):

Yeah. That's great. How does, I'm curious, how does the free sample, like how does that help drive retention?

Liz (20:18)

So we really try to have every order have a free sample in it one customer's now may, , come back and reorder it because they want that sample if you've been trying to. So cocoa is a completely different sense because with the butter cream. And so people do want to try that. And especially with us being direct to conser, if you haven't gone to support and smelled it, there is a risk to purchasing a full size, but also we, , have another trigger emails. So when we can track who has gotten, who has received the sample and then, you know, a few weeks later we follow up and say, you know, do you want to go ahead? And it's time to purchase the big one, like it, bring this into your life. So we really see people coming back after they tried the products to purchase. So just really excitement and surprise and delight, differentiating from other brands, because at other places you can't get those perks. And that's what we really want to be giving our customer.

Yaw (21:18):

Yeah, that's great. That's great. And then your shipped email, wanting to just call out a few things on here too. So walk us through a little bit of this. You, you, you send a different header image, another beautiful image in this shift email.

Liz (21:36):

Yeah. And we're trying to, you know, give the idea that they could just pull this up and they don't have to click through it if they don't want to. It's saying it's estimated to arrive on Thursday, the 25th. Great. If that's enough information, but if they want more, they can easily get into the track, my package and that goes to that, you know, to the really nice tracking page. And, but the idea around it was really to just make these emails simple, clear and get the information across to the customer.

Yaw (22:07):

Yeah, that's good. Yeah. And we hear from a lot of brands too, that even just simply providing the estimated delivery date, you know, even if that date changes like, you think about like expectation setting and, and, and building relationships. I know that the best relationships in my life are people who, who they, they kind of say, Hey, I'm going to do this for you. And then they, and then they track how they're able to do those things for you. And then they kind of tell you what they're doing. I feel like that's a big driver and kind of reducing your support is just like, Hey, we think your order is going to arrive on this date. And so just expect that around that date. , and we'll continue to proactively notify you of changes.

Liz (22:50):

And it feels like we're thinking about you and you know, you're on our radar, you're on our mind. We know this is coming to you. And, , yeah, I think that's so important.

Yaw (23:01):

Yeah, that's great. So when customers click through the tracking, instead of sending them to the carrier page, you guys are doing something different and very unbrand, right. You're driving them to to your kind of Malomo branded tracking page.

Liz (23:16):

Yeah. We love this page. I mean, look at, it just adds so much more and it's very clear at the top. Again, we wanted to, we always wanted to make sure it was on brand, but we wanted to make sure that most importantly, we're getting this information to our customer. And so very clear the date it's coming, we expect it to be arriving,, you know, it's in transit, everything at the top speaks to it being delivered. So that is always our main focus with these emails. We don't want that to get lost by any means, but then underneath it, you know, these, there are three new Booman primar hero is always our leader, but then social Rosa and body scrub, that's a place where we can really feature our newest products. And why not, if you're already this invested in the company might not see what else you could get.

Yaw (24:14):

I was going to say, I imagine people, most people are going to the site to buy, you know their go to a product, and they're probably maybe not necessarily browsing for new stuff, but maybe they are. So this is, this seems like a good, good opportunity to kind of introduce some of those new releases.

Liz

Exactly. And then the bottom, we also have our Instagram, which, you know, we'd love to feature user generated content and we'd love to, you know, show it's a good combination between our, our fans and then our branded content as well or imagery. So it's a good mix, but it really shows and we kind of want to inspire them, you know, create your own, you know, sending your own UGC. So maybe we can even put more verbiage around that on here, but yeah. Trying to make them fun, like tracking, isn't really fun. And then trying to make it a little more enjoyable.

Yaw(25:07):

Yeah, for sure. So yeah. Talk, talk to us really quickly, you know, in, in, in 30, 30 seconds, you know, what kind of results you guys are seeing with this?

Liz

Sure. So again, like I had said revenue was kind of an afterthought, but we've seen, a dollar 55 repeat per shipment. So that's huge. People are coming back and, and these emails would be sent anyways. So why not capture customers and have them come back and shop? So that was huge. And we love seeing that, that data and even said, that was a little above your average I knew from triggered emails comes from those sport emails we're sending and sometimes not even everybody gets all four.

Liz (26:00):

so it's really those middle two emails we see driving the revenue. So that's really interesting and that's great. And we've seen yeah, 76% reduction in support tickets. I mean, huge, huge. If you think that's also, you know, money saver, lean team, it's just keeping people from having to reach out because it's so clear when it's coming, they're not concerned or we're getting that trigger and we're proactively reaching out to them. This is especially a huge round, you know, when we were, we needed to really over-communicate shipping and for any shipping delays. And then these were just some great averages. Our email open rate was about 58%. And yeah, you could say, yeah, that makes sense. People are opening emails, but if they're opening those emails, you know, they're going to open the emails. Why not? Tell them some fun things about your brand or have them be branded. The email click through is about 19%, spends a little bit lower, but you know, think about, we're trying to give them that information right up front, What the information they need. We don't need them to be clicking through and let's say they really want to, and then we have the tracking page it's about 10.5% clicks or so, so great stats here, we love seeing those doubles just hit numbers.

Yaw (27:16):

For sure. Yup. Yeah. And it's kind of interesting, like you said, this, that you think about the benchmarks for normal email marketing and you're getting 20% open rates. That's really, again, in 2% click through rates. So like Liz said, like, you know, your customers are engaging with these emails. It's a prime opportunity to start to unfold your story in different ways and keep them engaged in, in drive some, some opportunities for, for retention through that. So that's great. So I'm gonna, I'm gonna stop sharing my screen real quick and we've got a couple of minutes left. I've been to our last set of questions. So Liz, what percentage of your marketing budget was focused on acquisition versus retention last year?

Liz (28:02):

And that's really interesting. I don't know the exact percentage, but it was definitely more acquisition focused at that time because we were really trying to grow our brand online and we have very aggressive goals. And so it was very much focused on acquisition. And then in 2020 it has shifted a little bit more to return. Like we have some KPIs around retention and that I really own and have to hit and we do see, especially these specific products that people purchase and we, those are great gateway products to get them to come in. And so we're really tracking that also. And pulling a lot of data behind that. So I can't don't know off the top of my head exactly. But I would say it was definitely more focused acquisition. That's still a huge focus for us, although it did shift a little bit in 202o potentially.

Yaw (29:06):

Gotcha. Okay, and then last two questions here. Which loyalty program do you use?

Liz (29:11):

So we use swell, which is part of yacht TPO. We use PO you got posts for reviews and we've seen great reviews. people love to review our products.

Yaw (29:26):

Gotcha, and then the last one here, I'm sorry if this would already been mentioned, but are you using any tracking apps or platforms to achieve this?

Liz (29:34):

No, I think that goes to you guys probably. And on our end, no, we don't,

Liz (29:42):

It's all like through Klayvio, which is our email provider and then really the millennial team takes that away. So you can speak to that. Yeah, sure. So yeah, millennials get Malono was a tracking platform, so it lets you power the experiences that Liz kind of walked through. So we've got integrations with email marketing platforms where you can design your emails inside of your email marketing platform, but we send all the shipping data and a lot of the purchase data to those platforms. So you can personalize and segment and target those emails brands with the, with the designed tracking page, which is the one that you saw at the end there, where Liz is walking through creating that really nice branded experience, around tracking. So we're up at time to edit my answer, I guess we are using you guys.

Yaw (30:28):

So you're doing it. I was like, I didn't even know, but yeah, no, of course you're tracking software, so yes, we love that. And it's been really a wonderful partnership. Awesome. Yeah, it's been, it's been a lot of fun. Well, thank you, Liz. , this is great. Appreciate the time. Where can people go to find you, or if there's more questions, ask you about those things. Oh, sure. You can just email me at [inaudible] dot com. Okay, perfect. And if you want to email me, my email is [email protected]. Thanks a ton. Everybody will see it. The next session ink. Yeah.