The market for alcohol-free drinks is booming. Whether it is for health, religious, cultural or other reasons, young people in particular have been losing interest in alcohol-based drinks since the start of the millennium.
According to one study, by 2025 revenues on non-alcoholic beer alone will have seen a 100 percent increase on 2018 figures.
Riding the wave, last year two entrepreneurs, Gemma Mills and Richard Nicholls, embarked on a mission to combine this growing trend with the runaway appetite for subscription boxes. In May 2021, they launched JOMO Club offering monthly, bi-monthly and quarterly boxes filled with alcohol-free spirits on a subscription basis, for a customer base of the “sober curious, mindful drinkers and health conscious”.
A take on the Fear of Missing Out (FOMO), JOMO is the Joy of Missing Out and the concept is so popular that four months after the first subscription box shipped, UK national newspaper The Independent named JOMO Box its top alcohol-free spirit subscription box of 2021.
Explaining how the award-winning concept was created, founder and CEO Gemma Mills says: “When researching the subscription box market, I found the core driver for people cancelling was due to not knowing what to do with the products. We try to make sure everything has a purpose, and the recipe cards are included along with recipes in our 20-page members’ magazine to ensure customers know exactly how to use their box each month.”
Creating purpose for customers
Start-ups face a number of competing priorities in year one, from fundraising and marketing to scaling, hiring, market research and even public relations. In a rush to capture a new market, the customer journey can easily slip down this list.
While there is no easy fix for the limits of time, JOMO Club bucked the trend in three simple steps: by creating a seamless ordering experience, fostering a customer community, then adding personal touches to each customer’s experience.
For frictionless orders, the purchasing funnel was front of mind during the website build. Customers create a profile which centralizes their order history and payment details and allows them to manage their membership.
“When an order is made, a personal email is sent immediately with the dispatch date and order details. We use a courier that keeps them updated throughout and [means customers] can easily manage their delivery,” Mills explains.
In creating its community, JOMO utilized online channels to deliver a brand-centric 360-degree experience, considering everything from communications via the website to the box design.
“It was important to me that our members feel part of a community – learn, discover and know who we are behind the brand too. I ensured the customer experience journey was built to the core of our business, while being as seamless as possible,” says Mills.
Branding and content are another key element.
“I brought my personality and a real human element to the wording printed on the box itself, the thank you card in the box and our 20-page members’ magazine,” says Mills.
JOMO members receive emails with alcohol-free cocktail recipes, the JOMO Club story, customer comments and member photos, in addition to a monthly newsletter of the latest industry developments.
“We also blog frequently so consumers can learn and discover on social media, make drinks with us and understand our story,” Mills continues.
Tweaking the recipe
It may be the recipe for success today, but not everything went to plan first time.
“It was an incredibly stressful first three months as it turns out bottles are pretty easy to smash! We wrapped all our bottles in eco paper, but they would still smash. We spent a significant amount of our time during launch on the phone to our courier, explaining the situation to customers before we sent out a new one,” says Mills.
“We ended up re-designing our box to make it sturdier to withstand shipping and we have not looked back since,” she adds.
With the customer journey itself about so much more than the core products, year two will see content leveraged further, to build on the community spirit established in year one.
“Content is so crucial – for growth, but I also love doing it,” says Mills, who writes SEO-optimized blogs to take the JOMO brand and concept to a wider audience.
For the members’ magazine Mills takes a behind-the-scenes approach to storytelling, combing lifestyle and business content, such as interviews with the people behind JOMO’s product range, real world stories about life without alcohol and, of course, tips on how to create delicious drinks.
As the business grows the use of automation-based tools will also increase. At present these are used by Mills to stay on top of customer enquiries, specifically online customer accounts, repeat subscriptions and orders, couriers, and order confirmation and welcome mails.
“One thing I always make time for at any time of the day and do react quickly to is customer enquiries or feedback. Companies mostly reply within 24 to 48 hours, and I felt a strong differentiator was replying instantly, customers feeling supported always and for a real-life human to do so. We receive so many emails and reviews saying how quick we are to support and respond and how that is ‘rare to today’s world’,” she continues.
As all entrepreneurs know, there comes a time when certain parts of a start-up’s operations have to be delegated to staff members. Over at JOMO there is a position vacant for a content writer and a team member is likely to be recruited for customer contact in the near future. It is all part of the “heavy investment” Mills says will take JOMO Club “to the next level”.
“Sometimes you have to take a step back, realize you cannot do everything and assess where your time is best placed,” Mills continues.
Year two will also see investment in a referral program to reward existing customers for recruiting new ones. Supporting this, a loyalty program is in the early planning stages that will award points for box purchases, which can then be redeemed at the online bottle shop or against another box.
CX tips for start-ups
Gemma Mills shares her top tips for start-up CX
Communicate
Especially if something goes wrong. Customers will be understanding 95 percent of the time if you keep them up to date and communicate. The minute you stop communicating, the minute the customer gets annoyed.
Think about the box
If you are a product-based business, think about how your product will arrive at your customer’s door. The unboxing experience is a huge part of the customer journey, and you want someone to feel excited when it arrives.
Get your face out there
Looking at our Jomo Club socials, posts featuring photos of me receive significantly more engagement, along with Instagram Lives. People resonate with people, and I would encourage doing that as much as possible.