The olive oil company’s CEO, Graza, apologized after some customers’ purchases were incorrectly filled.
Corporate apologies are nothing new, but the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) recently noticed how Graza’s CEO and co-founder, Andrew Benin opted to express his regret. Additionally, the direct-to-consumer (D2C) brand landscape is vulnerable when the tale unfolds.
According to the WSJ story, Benin contacted each of Graza’s 35,444 clients last month after some of them got late or damaged bottles of the company’s oil. According to the article, customers praised his touch and accepted his apologies and discount.
According to Benin, speaking to others humanely rather than “as a business, with a business tone” is essential.
Customers of the year-old firm connected with that tone since a startlingly high 78% of them opened the email. According to the WSJ story, several consumers replied favorably: “I won’t be using the discount,” said one customer, “but I will be reordering.”
“All you need to do is dig deep, reflect on all the things in marketing and brand communication that piss you off, and do the exact opposite,” Benin said.
For instance, D2C coffee firm Amora decided to give all the authority to its members as the “great unsubscribe” reverberated across the market.
“The consumer needs to be in full charge of their subscription,” he said. “If they want to pause, if they want to skip, if they want a refund, we have a no-questions-asked policy. Maybe they didn’t like the bag of coffee. Maybe the bag was ripped. Maybe they just had too much. We’re not going to ask you to send it back. Keep it. Fantastic. Order again when you’re ready.”
According to Fosina, “the customer just needs to feel like they can control this as much as they can control their retail shopping” regarding D2C subscriptions.
A recent report showed that new direct-to-consumer (D2C) companies that rely on investor funding might have a challenging year as the economy worsens. Venture capitalists invest less and have lower hopes.
“[D2Cs] need to be profitable already,” Victor Tam, co-founder and CEO of D2C travel and luggage brand Monos said in an interview. “Any company that stopped [being] profitable today is not going to make it [in 2023]. There’s going to be less capital to give them that runway to operate.”
Tam said that even though customers might be hesitant to buy from startups that fail. D2C companies already making money will make more as the competition gets less.
He thinks it’ll balance out for financially healthy companies. When you mix in less competition with still some hesitancy in consumer confidence.
