David Kravetz, Co-founder, Catalog & Web Team Leader, at Fairytale Brownies, told Loyalty 360 that his company began discussing loyalty initiatives and/or programs a few years back and were unsure which path to take.
During an engaging interview with Loyalty 360 CEO Mark Johnson, Kravetz discussed some loyalty options that were considered before the company finally embraced some old school methods to say thank you to its customers.
We Started Going Down That Road, But …
Kravetz: We definitely have been making some efforts in loyalty the past few years. We started talking about a structured loyalty program three years ago – one with a points-based system. We started going down that road, but heard from some people that it’s dangerous so we decided against that. We fine-tune our sales efforts to our loyal top buyers before the holidays and that focused around an early order discount program.
We would call in July and say if they commit to a holiday order now, we will give them a discount.
There’s Nothing Like a Phone Call
Kravetz: More than half (60%) of our revenue comes in December, which also represents 100% of our profit. It’s huge for us. We build inventory, and if we can get a customer to commit early, that helps our cash flow. That’s a loyalty campaign we’ve done for a few years, but we’re struggling to go beyond that.
Since January, we just wanted to say thank you to our best customers with no strings attached. And we’ve taken an old-fashioned approach by using the phone to call our best customers. Everything is getting so impersonal these days, so we thought there’s nothing like a phone call.
Saying Thank You to Everyone
Kravetz: We also send out thank you cards that look like greeting cards and they are branded. We get them blank so we can message them. We sent out some with offers, then kind of went away from that and just thanked them for their business. Every month we’re pulling a list of new customers.
First-time buyers from the previous month are segmented by the amount they spent and the lowest spend customers receive an email message. The second tier receives a greeting card, and my partner (Eileen Spitalny) and I hand sign those every month. And the top tier receives a phone call from me or Eileen. We thank them for their generous business and tell them don’t hesitate to call with any problems.
What’s Old is New
Kravetz: We’re going by our gut right now, and people are really surprised and really happy and they also get a box of brownies. When we call someone, the person is assuming I’m trying to sell them something so I have to get to the point quickly. They’re really happy and surprised to receive a free gift with no strings attached.
Our main market is our catalog and our circulation plan. In the past two years we have exceeded our circ plans pretty healthily, due in part to these personal calls. It’s kind of like what’s old is new. Phone communication is a lost art, but seems to be working for us.
Building Our Brand in the Long Run
Kravetz: It’s building our brand in the long run. We have an order audit on our site, and customer service will call a person who just placed a large order 20 minutes after the order is placed with no upsell. Just a thank you call. That’s it.
We use the phrase, “Welcome to the Fairytale Brownies Family”, because we want them to have a warm and fuzzy feeling when they think of Fairytale Brownies. We tried a bunch of different things, but have returned to the old. It takes a little work.
The other thing we haven’t figured out is existing buyers. We need to get creative about existing buyers. We’re trying to figure out how to make them feel good. As we get closer to the holidays, we will send out more personalized messages.
Another campaign we did was find our 100 oldest buyers and sent them a small brownie gift, a thank you, and no offer. It’s a separate campaign, but it’s been pretty valuable.