Putting the customer squarely at the center of everything

Dollar Shave Club was founded with customer service as a core business philosophy. With personal grooming products commoditized by big box retailers and automated ecommerce powerhouses, DSC created a loyal community of fans with a curated, high-touch customer experience. This experience extends from the moment you first hear of the company to your 16th quarterly box. Their exceptional and successful philosophy led them into a leadership position against much larger incumbents, and an acquisition by consumer products giant Unilever in July 2016.

Dollar Shave Club’s philosophy is simple on its face. “We do not compromise on customer experience, which is one of our main differentiators in the increasingly homogenized ecommerce world,” says Loren Khulusi, Senior Product Manager at Dollar Shave Club. A major part of DSC’s success is the consistency of their marketing and messaging, but the key to customer retention is simplicity in the full customer experience. “[We’re] committed to providing the most convenient experience possible.” says Khulusi, “Narvar really helps us to achieve that by providing easy-to-understand shipment status information and keeping members within our brand experience. Prior to Narvar, we were sending customers to USPS or DHL and breaking that cocoon.”

Since implementing Narvar Tracking, Dollar Shave Club customers have visited these pages more than twice per order on average, providing many more opportunities to interact with the brand instead of sending them to a third-party site. “Retention & education are a big focus for us in general,” says Khulusi. “So we take advantage of this additional touchpoint to move that agenda forward. We want to educate people so they can become smarter consumers–not only are they happy customers but they also buy more.”

“Retention & education are a big focus for us in general, so we take advantage of this additional touchpoint to move that agenda forward.”

Loren Khulusi
‍Senior Product Manager at Dollar Shave Club

Making the most of the post-purchase high

Implementing a high-touch customer experience can seem daunting. “It takes rigor to be customer first and truly operate as a customer-focused organization,” says Nick Fairbairn, VP Marketing. “Sometimes it means making the choice to do the right thing for the customer and the long term outcome, rather than going for the immediate conversion or short term dollar.” How do you get customers to stick around even when they’re not buying something? One powerful strategy is to generate excitement and community with editorial content. Dollar Shave Club publishes “The Bathroom Minutes,” their newsletter and blog exuding the same cheeky irreverence they project throughout their experience. Narvar then provides tools to convert customers’ excitement and post-purchase high to tangible lift. DSC highlights select assets on their Narvar shipment tracking pages, featuring a mix of editorial content, product upsells, requests for referrals or app downloads, making this new touchpoint deliver on multiple levels.

The assets delivered through Narvar Tracking directly boost the bottom line: in its first 6 months of implementation, Dollar Shave Club has already seen the program turn ROI positive based on incremental revenue generated by Narvar Tracking pages. “The first 24 hours after people sign up they are super-excited, which is a great time to deliver additional content. Narvar helps us stoke the anticipation people feel post-purchase,” says Fairbairn.

It’s all about loyalty

Educating customers to be better consumers, providing valuable content, and keeping them cocooned in the brand experience end-to-end including beyond the “buy” button–all of these efforts help Dollar Shave Club build an incredibly loyal member base.

“The first 24 hours after people sign up they are super-excited, which is a great time to deliver additional content. Narvar helps us stoke the anticipation people feel post-purchase.”

Nick Fairbairn
VP Marketing at Dollar Shave Club
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The numbers speak for themselves: Dollar Shave Club boasts more than 3 million members, and their average membership is 3.4 years – for a company that’s only been around about 4 years. “What we sell is amazing razors and grooming products, but to be honest, grooming products are a commodity. We focus on the customer and on building a sustainable relationship and club experience to stand out in a sea of sameness,” says Nick Fairbairn, VP Marketing. “We try to bake loyalty into everything we do.”