Two key members of the BIOHM Health team sat down on our Hit Subscribe podcast to chat all about the different ways they’ve created success within subscriptions and achieved high customer satisfaction. Through education efforts, a customer portal overhaul, and building a social media presence, BIOHM has seen big subscriber growth and steady retention rates.
Thanks to our discussion with Danielle Filip, Director of Customer Experience, and Melanie Corrigan, Director of Ecommerce and Marketing, we learned all of BIOHM’s secrets to improve customer satisfaction while increasing revenue through subscriptions.
Making strides in gut health
BIOHM is a gut health company working to support overall wellness. Their mission is “To empower individuals to take charge of their health through solutions that harness the power of microbiome data.” How do they do this? By providing customers with an at-home microbiome test and personalized products based on their results.
BIOHM is a company heavily rooted in scientific research driven by Dr. Ghannoum, Director of the Center for Medical Mycology at Case Western Reserve University. He is the scientist who named the mycobiome—the body’s native fungal community. With Dr. Ghannoum’s knowledge and experience in researching gut health, BIOHM is able to offer products that support digestive health in ways customers may not have considered before.
“We have so many customers who come to us who have issues or they’re dealing with things, or they want to optimize their gut. They want this different lifestyle, and through our products and through the research and the science…we’re able to share that with them, while also helping them finding the products that they need.”
—Melanie Corrigan, Director of Ecommerce and Marketing at BIOHM Health
Over the past five years, BIOHM has been focused on creating gut-centered products using data and science. When customers send in their testing kit, BIOHM is able to analyze the bacteria and fungi in the gut and give personalized recommendations on dietary supplements and lifestyle recommendations to improve gut health.
How BIOHM created high customer satisfaction
In those short five years, BIOHM has steadily increased their number of subscribers and made major updates to their customer experience. Through education, an ambassador program, customer support efforts, and countless other measures aimed at increasing customer loyalty, BIOHM has increased their customer retention and found success in the subscription space. Continue reading to learn BIOHM’s strategies to increase customer satisfaction and revenue.
Educating customers
The testing kit—which includes a lifestyle questionnaire—is just the beginning for BIOHM customers. Microbiome registered nutritionists, who are trained by Dr. Ghannoum, supply customers with the right information and product suggestions depending on their lifestyle and test results.
Including customer surveys with the testing kit gives the nutritionists a holistic view of the customer. As Danielle mentioned during the podcast, they know that their products aren’t the right fit for everyone, which is why they also recommend other branded products to customers.
“Ever since we implemented the registered nutritionist into the fold, we’ve seen such a positive feedback with that entire process.”
—Danielle Filip, Director of Customer Experience at BIOHM Health
The BIOHM team also works to improve education efforts through their social media and their website, including their blog. Customer success isn’t possible without these educational tools that BIOHM shares, empowering their customers to make the right decisions for their health.
Launching a highly functional customer portal
When BIOHM first launched subscriptions, they didn’t have a customer portal because not every shopper was making an account at checkout. Many customers became frustrated because they couldn’t manage their subscriptions on their own. These unhappy customers would then have to reach out to support and bog down BIOHM’s designated customer support team.
To remedy this friction, the BIOHM development team made a completely custom account portal for customers. After just one month of implementation, their churn rate was drastically reduced as was the amount of customer support tickets focused on modifying subscriptions.
“We actually worked really hard for almost four months with our development team to make a completely custom account portal for our customers, so that when they log in, the options that they have are so easy to use and at their fingertips directly to help them manage those preferences.”
—Danielle Filip, Director of Customer Experience at BIOHM Health
Customers now have complete control of their subscriptions, which has made the customer relationship better and increased customer satisfaction. From the portal, shoppers can modify their quantity, swap products, add discount codes, and more. Customer satisfaction levels immediately increased when subscribers were given control over their options.
Implementing rewards into the portal
A couple of years ago, BIOHM decided to implement Yotpo so that their customers could take advantage of a rewards program. Customer satisfaction always goes up when there are incentives involved—and BIOHM saw this difference. Their customer loyalty redemption rate is higher than standard participation, and people can’t get enough of the rewards program.
Actively working on retention
BIOHM saw an increase in satisfied customers and a decrease in customer churn within just one month of implementing their customer portal. Previously, their churn rate had reached 19.5%. With the new customer portal—and collecting valuable customer feedback through their customer service team—BIOHM’s churn rate dropped to 10%.
By focusing on the managing subscription aspect of the customer journey, BIOHM was able to solve a lot of customer support issues they were seeing. Collecting customer feedback regarding account access and subscription modifications allowed the BIOHM team to see where they could improve, and make their customer experience that much better.
“So, we’re seeing that our customers are one, happy that they’re able to modify, swap, skip…but then they’re also able to access the rewards, redeem those points on their upcoming purchases, which means they’re staying around longer.”
—Melanie Corrigan, Director of Ecommerce and Marketing at BIOHM Health
Merchants can learn a lot from dissatisfied customers, which is why customer surveys and listening to negative reviews is important. Customer frustration can be one of the biggest tools for turning an unhappy customer into a happy one.
Going above and beyond for customers
Overall customer satisfaction isn’t just achieved by a new customer portal or education efforts, however. The customer service team plays a huge role in cultivating loyal customers and increasing customer satisfaction scores. The BIOHM customer service team still works to make customers happy, but now they have the portal that gets rids of a lot of friction surrounding subscription management. They’ve found that going the extra mile for customers can create a loyal customer for life.
“We try to go above and beyond for our customers within whatever aspect we can…We will try to do anything to make sure that the customer has the best experience possible, because at the end of the day, that’s what keeps people coming back. And that’s what keeps them wanting to be a part of your journey.”
—Melanie Corrigan, Director of Ecommerce and Marketing at BIOHM Health
Growing a social media presence
To prioritize customer success and a better understanding of their products and services, the BIOHM team decided to get active on social media and share more about what they do. Through education efforts and an ambassador program that’s open to everyone, they can meet customer expectations and inform shoppers about the products they’re purchasing.
Instagram & education
Melanie worked hard to create a brand presence for BIOHM on social media that’s relatable and authentic. With over 50,000 followers on Instagram, their strategy focuses on easy to digest content that empowers their customers to use their products and make lifestyle changes to assist with gut health. Part of that content includes education efforts, so that people understand the importance of the products they’re using.
“We have a lot of science and it’s really hard to follow. So, it was trying to build a strategy on social to educate people at the level that they can understand. It doesn’t make sense if we’re going on there talking about all these terms, and species, and fungus levels and bacteria levels, and people are like, I don’t know what this is…So, we try to make it really relatable.”
—Melanie Corrigan, Director of Ecommerce and Marketing at BIOHM Health
Ambassador program
BIOHM built an ambassador program as part of their social media strategy, improving customer satisfaction and trust by showing real people who use BIOHM products in their daily lives. It made their business more approachable and gave customers an incentive to share the products they like with their friends and family.
“The one thing that I love the most is that it’s so genuine. The people who try our product to become ambassadors, they’re not paid to be talking about BIOHM. They’re subscribers. They’re people who get the product on a monthly basis, they truly love it.”
—Melanie Corrigan, Director of Ecommerce and Marketing at BIOHM Health
Anyone can be an ambassador for BIOHM Health; they receive a discount code to share with their followers, and are given the opportunity to make a commission from these sales. Word of mouth marketing is crucial to reaching more customers, which BIOHM has harnessed with their brand ambassadors.
Increase your customer satisfaction score with these strategies
Customer satisfaction measures, as seen in the case of BIOHM, are diverse. They look different for every merchant, based on what customer satisfaction means for your subscribers. When customers feel empowered to make decisions and have tangible benefits from your product or service, they are inclined to stick around. Plus, happy customers will become your best marketing tool, as seen with BIOHM’s brand ambassador program.
“Try anything and definitely utilize all of the tools that your subscription based company has for you. We definitely utilized everything that Recharge had for us right off the bat. Like retention strategies…Utilize all of the options that that specific service has for you, because it will truly, truly make a big difference.”
—Danielle Filip, Director of Customer Experience at BIOHM Health
Thank you to Danielle and Melanie for sharing their tips to achieve customer satisfaction, and the ways in which BIOHM has improved customer satisfaction and retention.
Check out the full interview with Danielle and Melanie, as well as conversations with other industry experts, on our Hit Subscribe podcast.
