How do you make your service more personal as an e-commerce business when you don’t meet your customers in person? And what tools do you have to ensure those customers stay with you for as long as possible? This is the challenge faced by Butternut Box with their flexible subscription model for dog food.

“We see dogs as an integral part of the family. People place a lot of value on that,” begins Frits Frederiks, Operations Manager at Butternut Box Benelux. With purchases happening online and deliveries outsourced to an external partner, customer touchpoints with Butternut Box are limited. Creating strong customer loyalty requires a personal approach. By adding a physical welcome card to the customer journey, we create an additional touchpoint, emphasizing that everything revolves around the customer’s wagging friend. In fact, it doesn’t get more personal than that.”

The success of the welcome card concept was initially tested and proven in the UK. Frits was responsible for setting up the project in the Netherlands. “Foppe (CEO of Print.one) tackled the implementation together with me. Not only does he have a dog himself and is a customer, but he also genuinely wanted to make this work,” Frits explains.

“When there were some issues with the API connection during implementation, it was resolved by having a developer from our team collaborate with one from your team for just 15 minutes. We fixed everything quickly, and it worked seamlessly. That kind of cooperation is just great and feels very personal.”

The initiative didn’t stop with the UK and the Netherlands. “What I find incredibly exciting is that cards are now also being sent to other European countries via Print.one,” Frits shares enthusiastically. What’s next? Frits responds with a mysterious smile, but it’s clear that Butternut Box’s international expansion is far from over.

Quantifying the impact of physical cards on retention is difficult,” says Frits. “In addition to the personal touch via the cards, we implement 30 to 40 small improvements annually to streamline the customer journey.”

Customer feedback via email and social media serves as a strong indicator of how well Butternut Box’s approach resonates. “We receive a lot of positive reactions,” Frits explains. “From messages about the positive changes customers notice in their dogs to enthusiastic comments about our personal approach. It’s quite unique when customers take the time to email us, saying they uploaded a photo three days ago and are thrilled to find a card featuring their dog in their mailbox.