This article was written by Michelle Weger.
I have a service dog named Max.
He is a big, beautiful Great Dane.
He is smart.
He is affectionate.
He is hilarious.
And he eats a lot.
And by a lot, I mean he eats over 2.5 pounds of food a day. He has breakfast, lunch, AND dinner – and he still tries to convince me that he hasn’t eaten in three days every time I go into the kitchen.
To keep him in tip top shape, we feed him raw dog food. We have found the exact amount that works for his size, so we weigh it out precisely for every meal. The food comes frozen, packaged in individually wrapped containers.
Given the precise nature of his food and the fact that he gets fed three times a day, it should be easy to predict exactly when we will run out.
There should be no reason for me to open the fridge, panic, and make a mad dash to the specialty pet store to pick up the last box they have, attempt to speed defrost the food in hot water, and then finally feed him two hours after his normal dinner time.
But this happens with embarrassing regularity. (Just ask Max!)
More often than not, I forget to buy dog food before I run out.
If it is possible for me to forget to purchase something that is a core necessity of life, imagine how often I forget to purchase other items?
Face cream.
Snacks.
Birthday gifts for friends.
If I forget to purchase those items, nothing catastrophic will happen. So I will probably just purchase them when I remember again. It might be days, or it might be weeks. So, that face cream that I should buy every three weeks (based on how long it takes me to use up), suddenly I only buy every four or five weeks.
In one year, that would mean I am only purchasing 10-13 times instead of 17 times.
Why? Because human beings are forgetful. We don’t mean to be, but we are.
If you can take away that inherent forgetfulness, you can instantly increase your customer’s order frequency.
If I received a timely reminder that I would soon be running out of face cream, I would place my order in time to receive my cream by the time I run out. Or my favourite snack.
Or dog food.
That reminder isn’t pushy, or sales-y – it is helpful. I am busy. I am forgetful. I don’t want to run out of cream, or snacks, or dog food. But, predictably, I do. And it is annoying!
Automating these types of reminders means that you can alleviate that annoyance for your customer (which means a happier customer!) and increase their average order frequency at the same time. More frequent orders means more revenue, period.
It is a true win-win.
