Had to pick between a bigger social media presence or tighter customer service for my brand

So I run a small outdoor gear brand out of Austin, been at it about 2 years. Last quarter I got to a point where I could either dump $2k into Instagram ads and influencer collabs to grow followers, or hire a part time person to answer emails and handle returns same day. I went with the customer service route cause I kept hearing complaints about slow responses. It's been 4 months now and my repeat buyer rate went up by like 15%. But my follower count is still sitting around 1,200. Kinda wondering if I made the right call long term. Anyone else had this fork in the road where you had to choose between growth and keeping existing people happy?

2 comments

2 Comments

jones.angela17d ago

Isn't customer service the only thing that actually builds a real brand though? My buddy runs a local bike shop and went all in on influencer shoutouts for six months, got like 3,000 new followers, but his returns and complaints got so bad that half those people never came back. He told me he'd trade all those followers for a single loyal customer who tells ten friends about you.

alicec8617d ago

Watch how people treat waitstaff. That tells you everything about brand loyalty.