Staying Special with Subscription Services

I’m sorry, subscription services, but you’ve lost that loving feeling.

I love the trend of subscription services. I currently get my razor blades from Dollar Shave Club and my sorry excuse for a fashionable wardrobe is now enhanced by Five Four Club.

And I’ve tried several others.

Whether its wine, coffee, t-shirts, makeup, cleanse juice, snacks or razors, what once a personal experience seems to have “gone corporate.”

When Unilever acquired Dollar Shave Club, the day-to-day experience (or, rather, month-to-month) did not change much for subscribers, razors still showed up, as expected.

But the unexpected changed.

Instead of random surprises to delight their customers, including samples of similar products, captivating videos, and an outward culture oozing of an abundance of caring — the brand is now just represented by a product that gets delivered.

I once felt special that the products were curated uniquely for me; as if my personal attendant selected the items with me in mind.

The feeling of “being special” is highly subjective. But startups excelled at identifying ways to delight the customer at every turn. They had to: their business growth depended on it.

The more the brand grows, the more it seems they lose the connection that made the customers feel so special in the first place.

When growing your company, you must be intentional about doing “the little things” that make your customer feel special.

I love the thoughtfulness of this realtor:

It doesn’t take a lot of work, but it does take effort to make someone feel special.

Today, how can you delight a long-time customer? How will you continue to do this in the future?

P.S. This story is a follow up to “Stop Focusing On The Wedding”