1. Prioritize education and transparency: Aaron believes providing accurate information and transparency is essential for gaining customer trust and loyalty.
2. Educate Your Team: Your team acts as representatives of the brand. Aaron believes education and giving members the resources is critical to ensure their work aligns with the brand’s values and mission.
3. Listen To Customers: Aaron stresses the importance of actively collecting and reviewing feedback through surveys, reviews, and social media. Make it easy for customers to share their thoughts and ensure their voices are heard.
4. Customer-Centric Culture: Aaron advocates creating a business culture that places the customer at the center of decision-making. Train employees to listen, empathize, and act on customer needs.
5. Lead By Example: Aaron believes that leadership sets the bar for good customer service in a company, motivating team members to maintain the same level of CS in their own work.
Aaron has watched CBD products benefit the lives of both pets and their owners. He believes that brand value depends on knowledge, transparency, and listening to customers. Be inspired by Aaron and Bailey’s CBD’s mission to revolutionize the pet care industry through education, a personalized approach to customer service, and community.
Meet Aaron Argueta, Co-Founder of Bailey’s CBD!
Located in Costa Mesa, CA, Bailey’s CBD makes hemp-derived CBD tinctures, dog treats, and hemp pellets for all your pets. Bailey’s CBD products are legal in all 50 states, and can help greatly reduce your pet’s inflammation, anxiety, arthritis, chronic pain, epilepsy, and nausea.
During our Zoom call with Aaron, Co-Founder of Bailey’s CBD, we covered a wealth of information about the brand’s journey, its values, and the collaborative efforts behind its success. While this article condenses those insights, we aim to highlight the resilience, teamwork, and customer-centric culture that define Bailey’s CBD.
Aaron entered the CBD industry in 2016 when he co founded Bailey’s CBD. At the time, the concept of CBD was brand new – companies were aiming to capitalize on the trend by manufacturing multiple products from beauty and ointments to edibles. Talking about their more focused approach, Aaron says, “We dove into being the pet CBD brand. We wanted to create a fun, animated pet brand that made pet CBD more mainstream and changed people’s opinions of what it is.”
From the beginning, Bailey’s CBD has been fully self-funded and operated without taking outside investment. While not without sacrifice, being self-funded has allowed Bailey’s CBD to maintain its core values, building a tight-knit team of driven, like-minded members. “There's been a lot of organic growth. And nestling in organically what we can with what we have,” Aaron notes.
Bailey’s CBD is named after Co-Founder Jay O’Keefe’s pug Bailey who recently passed away. “Bailey left his legacy with the brand – his face is on the logo and packaging. We curate with a lot of passion,” Aaron reveals. “Since day one, the message has been ‘from our pets to yours.’ A little bit of love to share with families across the world in need of some relief that we hope CBD can provide.” Jay’s devotion to Bailey’s memory and his vision for the brand are driving forces behind its success. From curating products with care to ensuring quality in every aspect of production, Jay’s commitment shines through. His passion for preserving Bailey’s legacy ensures that the brand continues to embody its origins: a labor of love that helps pets and their owners find relief and happiness.
Asked what excites him about E-Commerce, Aaron highlights how it gives independent brands the opportunity to control messaging and maintain core values. “When it comes to B2B and working with distributors, a lot of times things can get lost in the way,” he says. Control over how a brand is portrayed to customers is especially important for CBD products, which rely on education. And for the 200 pet store accounts it does have, Baily’s CBD has only 2 representatives who upkeep a level of uniformity about product information.
How E-Commerce Gives Independent Brands Control in Business
Not taking outside investments means that gains are reinvested back into the business to ensure growth, which can take time. Addressing the point in relation to E-Commerce, Aaron says,” It’s helped us with scaling, because we get to scale at a pace that is comfortable with us and is viable for our personal growth as well.” An additional benefit of E-Commerce is that the brand gets to retain its own data while maintaining control over how information is marketed to customers.
Focusing on E-Commerce has allowed Bailey’s CBD to build a team that believes in its mission. Aaron explains, “We’ve connected with people that love working in the pet industry and love working with a brand like ours that is serving really good value for the community” 5-star reviews on TrustPilot and Google reviews further prove the positive impact Bailey’s CBD is having on the well-being of pets and their owners. Fun photos of pets and testimonials are sent to the brand’s Instagram daily. “That’s what fuels the fire. Knowing that we’re building something of substance that is mutually fulfilling,” Aaron adds.
Bailey’s CBD is made up of a close-knit, hybrid team with some members working at the brand’s production + fulfillment center/retail storefront in Costa Mesa, CA. Jay O’Keefe oversees production and fulfillment, ensuring Bailey’s products maintain the highest quality, while Aaron Argueta focuses on driving brand growth and fostering connections within the pet community. Together, they’ve cultivated a team that aligns with their mission to provide relief and value for pets and their families. Some of the remote team members consist of the VP of Marketing who lives in Las Vegas, NV, and sales reps based in San Diego and Brooklyn, NY. Aaron credits the dynamic structure for increasing the brand’s business and visibility in retailers throughout the US. “We have a good influx of stores in the Tri-State area thanks to our rep there who has helped us become a part of the thriving pet community. Our rep in San Diego has helped Bailey CBD expand our wings and penetrate markets we weren’t able to before.”
For the first 8 years, Bailey CBD’s founders handled all aspects of customer service. Just recently, its NY sales rep took on the role of internal customer support member. Recognizing that CBD pet products is a knowledge-based industry, Aaron reasons the decision to make an internal hire, noting they needed a person who could execute on information that customers ask about. They know the brand’s values, products, ingredient lists, sourcing, and licensing details. “It takes a lot of commitment to be part of the Bailey’s team. That’s why our B2B sales rep made the most ideal candidate.” Using Ruby as a phone receptionist, Aaron, Jay, and another team member at HQ step in to answer calls during busy periods.
Teaching Good Customer Service by Example
Taking part in pet expos, festivals, and holiday themed events has been critical for Bailey’s establishing itself as a brand pet owners can trust. “When we are out in the field representing our brand face-to-face in the community, the team gets to see Jay and I talk to customers, answer questions, and deliver and maintain a level of value,” Aaron says. Leadership sets the example of good customer service which members strive for in their own work.
Going the Extra Mile: When Helping Customers Pays Off
People care deeply about their pets. Being passionate about helping owners is necessary, “I’m naturally one that will keep answering your questions and reaffirming that you are making the right decision,” Aaron says. He has built strong relationships with customers and knows many on a first name basis and through Facebook. A customer in Arizona was so happy with the support he provided that she went on to become a leading voice of Bailey’s affiliate program. Aaron remembers, “It started from an hour-long conversation on the phone, answering questions, reassuring, and providing value.” The impactful exchange resulted with the customer promoting Bailey’s CBD products on Facebook groups for dogs with lymphoma cancer. “She became a powerful advocate, helping us to bring in a lot of new customers and getting our products into a few retailers in Arizona,” he adds.
Bailey’s commitment to caring for customers is anything but anything but give-and-take – they understand that each pet owner’s needs are different from the next. Often, customer calls last between 20 mins to 1.5 hours. Their goal is to make sure that every Bailey’s customer hangs up feeling at ease and taken care of.
Asked about the brand’s future goals, Aaron says they are currently talking with independent retailer chains, outside of working with a distributor. “Conversations are going in a positive direction. The impact could be us getting into chains that have anywhere from 50 to 500 locations around the country.”
Product Development: Listening to Customers
Customer feedback is critical for product development. In exchange for taking post-purchase surveys and sharing their experience with Bailey’s CBD, customers receive a $25 gift card. “They provide a lot of value for us as a brand,” Aaron says. “It’s one thing for us to create things that we think the market wants, but we’ve taken that extra step of asking our customers what they want.” Listing to customer’s needs led to Baileys developing one of the first CBD pet shampoos on the market. Requested products in the pipeline include a non-CBD probiotic soft chew for dogs for digestion and itch support and CBD cat chews. “Pushing the meter of R&D and new products keeps us on our feet and keeps our customers happy and excited. Ultimately listening to customers keeps our brand in good reverence with the pet community – they see we are catering to their needs, taking that extra step, and that we really care.”
To be a successful entrepreneur, Aaron stresses the importance of maintaining a solid, growth-driven mindset. Staying humble and treating your business like your child is also critical. He explains, “We don’t want to be gluttonous on our journey, we want to make sure we are feeding our brand. It’s like a child. Just like any parent, you are going to want to sacrifice what you can to provide for that child and make sure that it grows big and strong.”
Cultivating value-adding relationships should also be a priority when starting a business. Bailey’s CBD has benefited from the camaraderie it’s found connecting with other like-minded brands in the Orange County and LA pet communities. “I see a piece of what we do and what they do – it makes me want to work with them, support them, and help our friends thrive. It comes around and they want to support our brand in return.” He goes on to say, “We get to look back and see that we’re creating this beautiful community of awesome relationships and be a strong cornerstone of the pet community.”
Can’t Live Without Tool? Klaviyo. It’s essential. When you start getting into building out flows and automation, it can be game-changing.
Key Hiring Trait? Their love for pets is really big for us. Most of our members are pet owners themselves. It makes it easier for us to build interest, then they can advocate directly on our behalf of our products and feel aligned with them. We love seeing people that are avid about pet parenthood and ownership, and pet wellness and pet health because it’s becoming a popular category in the pet industry.
Recent Book or Podcast? My foundation is the 10x rule and taking an abundance of action. Not looking at the noes but looking up at the yeses. Every no is a step closer to a yes – that’s some Zig Ziglar right there. I love that Zig Ziglar, Carnegie, get-you-pumped-up witty sales stuff. During the early days of Baileys, one of the biggest things that helped get me over the hump, when you’re getting the door slammed in your face at pet stores, which are supposed to be a happy environment. But people are treating you like the plague. It can diminish your soul, make you feel like you’re not worthwhile, that your product isn’t serving real value. It’s so easy to get down on yourself when you’re hearing ‘no’ all the time. We happen to be in a very difficult retail sales environment. It's very competitive. It's very nuanced. There's a lot of brands out there with a lot more money and resources than we do. We've been able to survive on resilience and a mindset knowing that every ‘no’ is one step closer to the next ‘yes.’ Every time we get that next yes, we get to reflect, knowing that we overcame all that rejection. I feel like it's so pivotal for really any business because sales are the solution. if you're not getting those sales, then it gets tough to keep that mindset and that motivation. But I would say one of the most important things that's gotten me through the journey.
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