4: How to Make Customers Feel Special Without Going Broke

Hello and welcome to the Product Growth Lab podcast hosted by Andrew George and Melissa Pickle. This is the podcast for creative product-based business owners who want to grow their businesses without overwhelm or massive investment. Each episode, we explore actionable strategies, real-life stories, and insights from business owners and experts who know what it takes to succeed. Whether you're just starting out or looking to get— we're to help— here to help you grow your business on your own terms. Subscribe and join us each week as we dive into practical advice and inspiring stories to fuel your growth journey. This is the Product Growth Lab Let's get started. All right, guys. So today is a fun one. Today we are talking about creating memorable customer experience on a budget. Yes, we are talking loyalty. We are talking about the experiences and the stuff that gets your customers to come back and shop with you again and again and how to do it without going broke.

Why is this so important, Melissa?

Because it is way cheaper, way more cost effective to sell to the same client again and again versus getting a new client. We always want new clients, but you want a really healthy amount of repurchases coming through your business over just straight new client. The more they buy from you, hopefully the more loyal and more excited they become and they buy more and more. I have one customer who in the past, I believe 18 months, has ordered from me over 50 times. It's crazy. And that does not include the Stripe purchases and the Square purchases.

It's super important whether you are working with organic traffic or paid. If you're working with organic traffic, obviously you're going to want to focus on repeat business because you're not having to put as much effort as you would to gain new people. But even if you're using paid ads, having your customer's lifetime value gives you more money to spend on ads because you can afford— if you know people over time, order many times, they're spending $20, That's $1,000. You might go, okay, they're spending $20, but my Facebook ad cost is $25. I need to turn off all my ads. If you're like, okay, I'm willing to sacrifice a little bit of money on this first ad, knowing that over time they'll get to the $1,000. It just gives you more money to spend on your ads. So don't think that if you spend ads, this is important.

I was just going to say, I would spend $25 to make $1,000 all day, every day. Just have an idea of how long it's going to take you to recoup that.

It's knowing that you're spending $25 to make $1,000 and not $25 to make $20 is the important part. Our first way that we've come up with to help you make your customers feel more special without going broke so they come back time and time again is to upgrade your packaging. And this might sound like this is definitely where you could go broke, but there are really budget ways to enhance the packaging experience. Customers really like to know that they have some sort of experience when they open that, whether they're opening it for themselves or they're giving it as a gift and you're kind of taking away some of the steps that go into having to gift wrap and things, it makes a big difference. For the most part, I will wrap something up in tissue paper. There is a branded sticker that I make myself with my printer and my Cricut, and then it goes in just a like blue, nice brand color plastic mailer bag. And a ton of my reviews mention people loving the packaging.

It's the tissue paper.

Yeah, the tissue paper that is like 1 pence per order.

There was a study done, but showing that having 2 layers of opening increases the value and the experience of opening the package. If you had a plastic sleeve over it and then the tissue paper, that's 2 layers they had to go through. Last year I got a watch. You had to open the shipping box and then you pull out the regular box and you have to open that style box. There's another box inside. This one I had to figure out how to open. And then finally inside there was the whole thing wrapped in the velvet bag. And then you finally— it was like 4 or 5 layers of packaging. Come on, Andrew, you remember unboxing this thing, right?

It's just me.

Even just having 2 layers. Is there 2 layers you could do? Is there a plastic wrap and a tissue paper? Is there, um, if you have craft paper, I know Andrew talked about ribbon and that gets a lot when you have a lot of orders coming in. Putting a sticker on it, that's something else to open. I know one of the ways I do, because most of my jewelry either goes out in the organza bags or in jewelry boxes. But the simple thing that I do is all of my orders, packing slip and a note in an envelope. So they have to open the envelope to pull that out. I'll usually put stickers or something in there, but it's a little branded envelope and that just heightens the perceived value of the order and it heightens the experience because you have more stuff to do with that package. Versus Amazon where you tear open the thing and you're done.

I do that too. You can, I don't know, with the mic, you can see that hint of green over here. It's a stack envelopes and they're Christmasy is why they're green. Normally they're blue. But yeah, and I drew a little handwritten note in there as well, which we're gonna discuss a little bit later. There are little things that enhance the presentation. It makes more of an experience, especially when Amazon is kind of the benchmark. Doing anything that isn't just throwing it in a box that it's rattling around in is an upgrade. Yes. And even if you are the kind of shop that talks with eco credentials, using things like kraft paper, using paper tape, like a bunch of these things can help you to create this experience without it being this kind of big drain on resources. You don't have to like have all these fancy kind of wasteful things. And sometimes that stuff looks like extra premium when you— when like it's mainly for the eco, but sometimes it looks a little bit premium when you're doing like the craft paper and the paper tape and stuff. It looks quite nice and it's the cheap option. Things will help. So a small touch can go a long way in making your brand feel more memorable and using things like stickers with your brand, getting like a custom stamp. Like you can do little things to make it custom without having to like have these custom manufactured packaging things that going away with money.

And if you don't have a Cricut and you can't, you don't have the budget right now for custom stickers, I know with my Halloween offer that just went out, I went on Amazon and I got a pack of 300 Halloween stickers and 2 of those went in every order and people love them. So you can get something adjacent to your product, to your brand.

Yeah. And if you watch it, this is one of my stickers and I go put it on my sheet and the Cricut cuts them. But I could have ordered just a sheet of labels that are all round on Amazon.

Yeah.

I've read about it. I wouldn't need the Cricut part anyway. As long as you have a printer, you can do your own custom labels.

See, I don't know if I can reach it, but you got me excited right now, Borla. I have the same thing. If you're watching on video, I have Christmas, Merry Christmas stickers. Again, Amazon in green and red that look like wax seals. Aren't they cute? I didn't use a— I have these and I have chicken stickers.

And if you're wondering how to watch us on video, you can see us on YouTube or Spotify has video too now. Okay, so our next one that we kind of alluded to a little bit in the last one is add and order insights. These may seem like nothing, but when you turn these from just like a piece of paper into a little bit of an experience, they can go a long way. And again, they're mentioned in reviews and when people take pictures of the items, This is a heavy video one right here. Along with being busy, I was like, oh no, I actually, I've run out and I need them fast. So I've been printing them and cutting them myself. So this is why it's a weird double one. But it'll say, thank you for your order. There is a QR code and a bit of a link to sign up to my email list if you haven't already and get a discount. There's links to follow, there's a link to my website. There's a few things on there. But on the back, I write a personal note. It's the same note to everyone, but it includes their name. So it'll be, "Hey Melissa, thank you so much for your order," a little smiley face on it. But it works. And when people leave reviews with an image, they often include that in there too. Like, "I really love this nice note." And sometimes, 'cause my stuff's gifts, they're personalized, some people really put a lot of effort into these gifts. So I have to messaging back and forth a little bit. And then if I know something, I'll be like, oh, You want to say, thank you so much for our day, hope you enjoy your anniversary, hope Jimmy Bob enjoys his birthday gift. Just add those little personal touches, really makes a difference, and people will comment you on it, so you know it's working. And that cost me literally nothing to write. I know it cost me 10 seconds before it goes out. I think the only cost is the cards, and I have the metallic Sharpies because They look good and they're always on the little things at the side of an aisle at Christmas in shops.

If you're like, that's a big expense to put those in, which I understand, depending on your budget, it can be a big expense to print cards or take the time to do them and whatnot. Depending if you're selling all the same product or a very similar product, if there are other things that go with it, like sets or next logical item kind of things. You can always put a QR code on that thank you card. Hey, here's 10% off, or I hate 10%, here's 20% off the next item. Here's the shirt, get the matching sweatshirt. Here's the cup, get the travel cup.

Before I did Order Insights, when I first started my business and didn't know they were a thing, I used to just write on the Etsy, and I started off on Etsy, I used to just write the message on the Etsy invoice, and that worked fairly similarly. So you don't have to spend a bunch of money on this upfront. As long as you have any scrap of paper, a Post-it note, something to write a little message on, you can do that. And launch offer discount, write that on yourself. Like, hey Melissa, thanks for your idea. If you want 10% off the glow-in-the-dark shoes—

oh, that sounds awesome! I'll send some glow-in-the-dark shoes.

Use code MelissaGlowInTheDark. There's all sorts of things you can do. Thank you cards, using the discount code. If you have product care tips, like if you sell mugs and you're like, okay, these don't go in the dishwasher, hand wash, any of those. I include lovely— once I talked about the stickers, you can do magnets, like there's a bunch of— you do like temporary tattoos and you can get those printed. So it's a lot of fun things if it goes with your brand and you have that in your budget. And it makes your brand more memorable. Next time I'm shopping, I'm going to remember the one who put in a lot of effort, especially if I'm going from somewhere like Don't worry, Jake, I mean, it's on Amazon or something, or it's on a bunch of different shops. It all kind of blurs into one, but I'll remember the one that put in that little bit of extra effort.

Mm-hmm. Extra thing, and you're the person who writes the note on the packing slip, I'm gonna remember you.

So the next one is email sequences that help to continue your connection. Having follow-up emails after someone purchases makes such a huge difference, and I know this because I have done it. And I have a whole template pack of follow-up emails that I sell and have had other people do this, and I know it's working for them. So having a few emails that you send afterwards that keep people up to date when they're waiting for something to arrive. They let them know, let them know anything they need to know. Like if you have those tips on whether things can be washed or not, you can include those in emails, some like styling tips, a maintenance guide. Doing personalized follow-ups that are from you, that offer to help. There's a bunch of different things you can do in there. One of the great fun ones— go.

One of the great fun ones that I do is to like really hype the anticipation is when you send out to all your orders shipped, you customize this in whatever shipping platform you use or whatnot. But when that email goes out and be like, keep an eye on your inbox in 3 to 5 days, or whatever it is, to your mailbox for a— for me, it's a blue package, or whatever color. If there's anything distinctive about your packaging, put that in there, and you're gonna have people keyed up and waiting at their mailbox.

And it—

I put a special sticker on the box just for you.

And anything you can do to personalize it, use it. If you have an email platform that allows for some personalization, talking about the products they have purchased, talking about them a little bit, using their names, making emails. And you can do this manually, or you can kind of use some sneaky tricks to make it look like it's funny. Where you send, instead of kind of your nice styled picture heavy, you know, you do the kind of plain text email. It looks like you're each and other saying, "Hey Melissa, thanks so much for your purchase. I just wanted to let you know that if you need anything, I'm here. Reply to this email or message me or phone me. I'm working for you." And it feels really basic, really simple, but it feels really special. 'Cause how often does someone from Amazon ever treat you like an actual person?

They value your purchase.

So doing that to all your support and also to ask for things like reviews, it feels a little bit more personal when it's Andrew asking for a review instead of random corporation asking for a review. Just having the right email sequence creates a really good lasting impression and it keeps your customers excited about your brand. Like the kind of lead up from the moment they hit purchase to the thing arriving in the mail, to open it, to using it, to gifting it, whatever. You can create a whole experience for that instead of just the confirmation email being the end of relationship.

As you're hyping up for them receiving the thing, everything is— keep it future pacing. If it's something that can be styled, be like, I can't wait for you to have your new golf shoe bag, hang it right on your golf bag, or put it in the car, have it in your gear. Your shoes are never going to get lost again. Or if it's fashion related, oh, start pulling out your stuff, or I can't wait for you to style, see how you do this. And really future pace people that they can anticipate this product now being in their life.

Think about what are they gonna wear the glow-in-the-dark shoes with? Probably not a ball gown. Like, don't mention Paris.

I'm still going on my nighttime walks with my highlighter vest.

That's the other thing you can include in that email is other stuff they might like and it doesn't feel quite as salesy. It's more helpful. Like if Melissa, a poor vulnerable woman out on her own, got the glow-in-the-dark shoes, but she doesn't have the glow-in-the-dark vest or the torch on her head or the things I own and use daily.

Except the glow-in-the-dark shoes. I do have highlighter yellow shoes though.

But I can include that email and it's, if my brand is all focused on helping people run at night safely, they're all things I'm gonna want to include in that email and I'm helping them. I'm not just, uh, being salesy.

Oh my God. A quick sidetrack, not really a sidetrack, but I've seen this happen very recently, even in a non-e-com brand who has an e-com attachment, Supernatural, which is a VR workout app kind of thing. They sent out an email, it's Supernatural Gear. Like, I don't give a crap. I don't want your sweatshirts, your pants, your leggings. But then they're like, this new silicone band or thing to go on the VR headset. So it blocks the sweat from running down your face. I'm like, oh, I need that one. Seriously, when the sweat runs down your glasses, that's just weird. But like all that, what goes into the lifestyle? Just think about this one thing. What's the circle of other things they might be interested in?

Yeah. And I don't know, I'm at the point where I'm not scared of being salesy, but I know when I mention ways that you can include things that feel more like helping someone, it encourages more people to do it instead of them feeling salesy and not doing it. So our next one is affordable customer service upgrades. Customer service feels like it's really difficult and expensive. And if you want to do something special, you're gonna have to outsource. And that adds quickly, but it doesn't have to be that way. You can create a really great experience for people without spending any money. Some really easy tips for that are responding to any emails or messages you get onto your platforms quickly. One thing I love to do is, especially with ChatGPT, is I will have a whole bank of FAQ kind of things saved. As kind of snippets on Etsy or in Gmail, and then I can just kind of send that email. But personalizing a little bit, being sure that you actually listen to what someone says. I don't know how many times I've seen like the templated response and you can tell it is, and they haven't actually read what you said. I can actually think of an example, and it's happened twice, is back in 2000 and 9 is how long it's been. When my granny died, we tried to, I don't know, we had to like close something with a business and like wrote to them, said, you know, this person's passed away, we need to close this and get any money that's due. And they sent back this templated, it was a letter back then, templated letter thing. It was like, okay, here's a form, have this person signed the form and returned it, and Moll's close to their character and is like, "They're dead." And so all this time, so like we forgot about it. We didn't know their like customer number thing. So it just kind of went to the wayside. It probably wasn't a lot of money. Fast forward to 2024, uh, right now I'm also past away, and we're like, we finally find the number and her stuff. We're like, "Oh, maybe we should finally try and get that thing done from 2009." So it wasn't even form again. It was an online form this time. We've moved with the times. There's a letter in the mail from them, like, ooh, hopefully this is a cheque. No. Like, it was, oh yeah, I've seen that number. Next of kin is your grandma. Have her sign this form and then we'll give her the money. No, neither of them can fill in these forms. They've cremated them both. They're really going to struggle to fill these. And it was honestly, it's like all automated and templated. You could tell no one actually read either of these things. And it's so frustrating, especially like that's an extreme example because you're dealing with people who died and it's like, I know, I'm quite calm about it, but some people would be really effing annoyed about that. And if they just took some time and put in a little bit of effort. Seconds.

All it took was 60 seconds.

And they had this information both, but using kind of friendly language, making sure that you follow up on issues. And sometimes being proactive. Sometimes people don't reply to your email and you never quite know if their problem's solved or not. Sometimes just reach out and be like, Hey, did this— people will email you about passwords and stuff when they need to log into VMware ZDR. And I'm like, I wonder if they ever actually logged in or if they just gave up. And sometimes when you take the effort to reach out, or I can go into the backend and see when they last logged in and be like, hey, I saw this, didn't you? Like, you didn't actually get in here and helping them and it actually getting their problem resolved. And then they're like, no, it's fine. And they normally take action and use what it is that they have access to.

Say number 1 about customer service is, and your story just showed, what is the actual problem? And then effectively solve it.

Yeah, even if you're using templates, they still recommend have those set up, make things easy, customize them to the person. How many emails have you gotten there like, dear first name, thanks for talking to us about problem. Oh yeah. Double check for your friend. All right. And Yeah, and customer service isn't just responding to queries. It can be proactive customer service. So if people are long-time customers, you can reach out. If people are first-time buyers, reaching out and offer them kind of perks or surprises or just speak to them, get to know them, ask them a question is a really great way to improve your customer service. Being responsive and thoughtful in customer service can set you apart as a brand that genuinely cares about their customers. Okay, and our final one for today. Is encouraging repeat business with loyalty programs. Loyalty programs come in a million forms. There's like the points, there is like cards where you collect the points. Sometimes it's like stamps, a lot of coffee shops do the stamp kind of way.

Stamp cards, punch cards, those kinds of things.

Yeah. Sometimes it's like a whole payment thing where you get like a credit card that has to like, we're not going to do that. It's very ass. But there's a whole lot of different ways that you can introduce a loyalty program into your business. And there's a lot of things to reward people for. As soon as I mention this, it always sounds like it's going to be this big expensive thing. Not only am I paying for a platform, I also need to start giving people money for doing things. But they do not have to be expensive. There are free platforms that let you do this. We've worked on this with our clients before. And help them implement it completely free. And it's another one of those, you need to think of the long-term benefits over short-term income. Getting someone to spend the $1,000 to give them $10 off when they wouldn't have spent half that otherwise is worth it.

I know companies that do that, and I'm very excited when I get my $10.

It's going back to, we use this example time and time again, But, and it was in our last episode actually, when I used Boots as an example. Boots have an Advantage Card, and for years, I don't know if it still is, but it was the most points per pound of any loyalty scheme. And you best bet, if there is anything that I am buying that can be bought in Boots, I'm going to buy in Boots because I know I get the points. My mum used to work there, so I'm pretty loyal. Like when I, when I was in college and I had to walk through Boots to get between the college and the bus stop, I was in there. They do meal deals. Like if I needed a sandwich, it was from there. If I ran out of shower gel, it was from there. If I'm buying Christmas gifts, they do, they have like a 3 for 2 thing and points, and I buy them in Boots. I've had hundreds of pounds worth of points, all from nonsense that I probably could have bought for less money elsewhere.

But I mean, because you get a bonus from Boots. Yeah. The last episode we talked about Kohl's Cash. I was in the store 3 times over the weekend, 2 in person, 1 online.

Yeah. And there's different things you can work your way up to if you do these things. So there's like the, you do points and you do them in return for someone spending money. You can do things like on your birthday, you can give them a discount, right? Bonus points. Speaking of Boots, they do double points on your whole birthday month. 8 points per pound. I'm even more likely to spend then. You can do referral bonuses. If someone gives a referral link, you can give more points. If they leave a review, you can give them one for just visiting your website, which sounds like, why do you want to do that? But it gets someone visiting your website every day, cents worth. It gets them on your site and then they suddenly see this new item and then they suddenly make a purchase. Like it's one of those kind of sneaky sneak attacks that kind of get people looking at your stuff. So it keeps people coming back. It keeps people choosing your brand over others. It keeps them engaged without high costs. If you look, I have done this both on WooCommerce and I moved to Shopify. I've used different apps each time. Both of them worked, and both of them actually let me transfer everyone's points over so they didn't lose any. But it made a difference. People collect those vouchers, people spend those points, people keep coming back. And it doesn't actually cost me anything to have these apps. So that's another way to keep people engaged without having to spend a lot of money.

I have one that I do with my business. I haven't advertised it much lately. I have a birthday club and they literally, if you wanna talk about like the down and dirty version of doing that, it's called a Google Form to a sheet. Sheet organizes them all out. And I check what day, and every month I go in, I send out my birthday cards for the month. And I, that, I actually send out a real birthday card in the mail because I like physical things and people love getting the cards. And I include stickers, but they get a coupon for their birthday. Here's $15 off. And it works great. I get more sales and they are so crazy delighted. But it's Melissa Made It. If you just take one thing away from this podcast, in fact, come and let us know what's the one thing that's very, oh yeah, I could do that. That won't add that much to my workload, my time load, my packing load, whatever it is. I'm going to do this one thing. Let us know. We're very curious which one inspired you the most or is the most achievable. And if you need customers to be able to put these things, I need sales to be able to put one of these into practice, then make sure to grab our flash sale In a Snap program outline. It's a quick checklist cheat sheet for you of how you can get a sale running up and running this weekend. So that you can get the sales in so you can put one of these methods into practice. And you can grab that at theproductgrowthlab.com/flash. Thanks for tuning in to the Product Growth Lab podcast. We hope you found today's episode insightful and inspiring. If you enjoyed the show, leave a review. It helps us reach more creative entrepreneurs just like you. Stay connected and keep experimenting. Follow us on your favorite podcast platform and don't forget to join our community for more resources, tips, and support. Until next time, keep growing and creating. This is the Product Growth Lab signing off.