1. Prioritize customer experience from the start: Jesse highlights that the secret to Fresh Sends' success has been their dedication to providing an outstanding experience from the start. Long-lasting client loyalty is cultivated by a solid CX foundation.
2. Keep customer service in-house: By keeping assistance in-house, Fresh Sends guarantees individualized care that improves client relationships—a crucial component of long-term retention.
3. Adapt to technology but keep the human touch: Jesse points out that maintaining the human connection is essential to creating genuine client connections.
4. Pay attention to brand identity and details: Fresh Sends was able to engage young audiences thanks to Jesse and his wife's painstaking attention to detail. You may differentiate yourself from rivals by emphasizing your brand's individuality.
5. Build a strong, adaptable team: Jesse emphasizes the value of having a committed internal staff that can adjust quickly, particularly during busy times. Even in times of fast expansion, quality and consistency are guaranteed by a competent staff.
Jesse and his spouse used a fresh approach to gift-giving that appeals to a younger customer, together with a focus on sincere connections, to turn their challenges delivering flowers into a profitable business. With its quick growth and commitment to customer satisfaction, Fresh Sends isn't just a company—it's a movement!
Meet Jesse Hiss, Co-Founder of Fresh Sends!
Fresh Sends was founded in 2019 with the hope of reclaiming authentic connection through gifts. Setting out to freshen-up the cookie cutter gifting industry, Fresh Sends has designed a gifting experience not only to deliver exceptional and straightforward products but to also have a core focus on the sentiment behind the gesture.
Fresh Sends began with the idea of simplifying flower delivery while offering unique gift options that appealed to a younger generation. “My wife, Ty, was working as a wedding florist at the time and was often asked if she did deliveries,” Jesse remembers. Not particularly happy with her schedule or difficult clients, Ty branched out only to learn that hand delivering orders wasn’t economically viable. Not ready to give up, Jesse and Ty started looking into more effective ways to ship flowers.
Founding the Company
After deciding to turn their home in Denver, Co into a headquarters and going to live in Ty’s sister’s basement, the couple launched Fresh Sends in 2019. “We’ve taken on a little bit of seed money from angel investors but have mostly bootstrapped the business up until this point,” Jesse says. They have since grown their 2-person team to include 35 members. In addition to streamlined delivery, Jesse credits making the customer experience “awesome and lovely from top to bottom” and attention to detail to Fresh Sends’ early success.
The expenses and logistics for shipping flowers are extensive. “My wife and I always joke that we picked the hardest of hard things to ship,” Jesse admits. While perishable goods such as food can be packed in dry ice, flowers cannot - once sent out, they have a 24-to-48-hour delivery window before starting to wilt. Speed and efficiency are critical. “After receiving an order, we design, build packaging, and ship the day before it’s supposed to arrive,” Jesse reveals. “We use UPS and FedEx among other carriers to overnight orders, and utilize fast last-mile delivery services.”
While Fresh Sends’ Team is hybrid, its core 35 members work onsite. “The predominant operation is light manufacturing, so we need people here fulfilling orders to make this engine run,” Jesse says. They are supported by a corporate staff that works remotely throughout the US and relationships with buyers in South America (all Fresh Sends’ product comes from Columbia and Ecuador).
“Customer experience has been at the forefront from the very beginning,” Jesse states. Shipping flowers comes with many high-stakes, uncontrollable variables. Regardless of how accurate planning and preparation are, relying on third-party shippers to handle a perishable product presents challenges. “Whether it’s refunding or reshipping, we end up eating a lot of the costs,” Jesse reveals. “In these cases, our CX philosophy is always ‘what can we do to make this right? How can we go above and beyond for this customer and win them back?’”
While many E-Commerce companies are outsourcing customer service, Fresh Sends has chosen to keep their team in-house. It’s paid off Jesse says, adding “We get a lot of great feedback – people love and appreciate what we are doing.”
Evolution of Customer Service
“DMs come in on TikTok or Instagram and that person expects a reply immediately,” Jess says. Because Fresh Sends’ target audience, Gen Z and millennials, are so tech savvy, the company has built out systems, utilizing software and tools to make sure the customer service team has the resources they need. They aim for a response time of 4 hours and supplement support with AI and auto-response for repeated and simple questions.
While the landscape of E-Commerce flower delivery has undergone a facelift recently, Jesse points out that many of Fresh Sends’ competitors are still following the cookie-cutter model. To stand out, the company has focused on the ‘gifting experience.’ Jesse explains, “We’ve personalized and made the cards more fun. You can record a message with a selfie video, and we’ll print a QR code on the card for the recipient to scan and watch.” Innovative package design makes ‘unboxing’ a Fresh Sends’ order feel grand, exciting, and memorable. “We want Gen Z and millennials to come to us and feel like they are doing business with a company that is on their same level personality wise,” Jesse finishes.
Revenue Growth Journey
During the first two years, Fresh Sends experienced a revenue growth of 300-400% - astonishing numbers considering the company was still working out the kinks of shipping flowers. “Because we were hand manufacturing everything ourselves, operationally, we couldn’t keep up with demand,” Jesse notes. Since then, they have steadied at 100% nearly doubling revenue every year.
Fresh Sends’ Growth Strategies
Self-proclaimed ‘brand snobs’, Jesse and his wife meticulously focused on detail to create their company’s identity. Their intention was always to create a brand that connects with young people. “We labor over copy, voice, presentation, everything. And I think we just really have a great product. Rarely are you buying flowers for yourself, so every order can be considered as a wave of marketing.” He credits their amazing design and operations teams for helping to make Fresh Sends a brand that resonates.
Prioritizing Customer Retention
Daily, 40 to 45% of Fresh Sends’ orders are repeat customers. Customer retention strategies include reward programs and sending personalized gifts to their highest buyers. Understanding and listening to customers is invaluable for insight. “My wife will get on the phone and set up meetings to ask people what they like and don’t like,” Jesse reveals.
Peak Season Strategies
Fresh Sends’ peak seasons are Valentine’s Day and Mother’s Day. Jesse says, “The biggest challenge we face is how do you grow your business 10 to 20X for a week or two?” After hiring insta-workers to help fulfill orders, Jesse went back to relying on his in-house team. “When people come in for such a short period, the level of quality and care just are not there. Now, we utilize our current staff and friends and family, creating a pool of people who love to come in and work with flowers.”
Goals and Priorities
Looking forward, Jesse hopes to expand operations and make shipping more efficient (from Denver, they are currently working with shipping centers in New York and Los Angeles). He also has sights set on product expansion and elaborates, “We call ourselves a gifting brand, so introducing other items such as food and candles – giftable items that are easy but come off as really thoughtful.”
With all the resources at our fingertips, Jesse urges budding E-Commerce entrepreneurs to “just go for it.” He goes on to say that “a bold, persistent attitude is needed because at every turn in your journey, there’s going to be something there to tear you down.” It’s important to lean into that entrepreneurial mindset and remind yourself that you can figure this out.
Gorgias “We use Gorgias helpdesk to stay organized and not let things slip through the cracks.”
Shopify
Finaloop “It gives you a financial snapshot of where you are at and does a great job plugging into Shopify.”
What Excites You Most About E-Commerce? The opportunity to sell things online without a storefront. With all the tools now, you can build a beautiful, efficient e-commerce site that reaches people.
Can’t-Live-Without-Tool? My background is in finance, and I have been using this e-commerce finance software called Finaloop. It gives you a financial snapshot of where you’re at and does a great job of plugging into Shopify.
Key Hiring Trait? Despite your background, we look for people with a positive attitude and the ability to work hard.
AI or No AI? We are fans of AI. We just installed a chat GPT extension on our website, so you can write a fake card on there and attach it to your order. It’s fun to play around with, for example, if you want to write a witty birthday message in Shakespearean tone. From an operational standpoint, AI has been helpful with automating and filtering tickets by priority. As a small e-commerce company, we are trying to be on the forefront of AI’s capabilities.
Favorite Thought Leader in E-Commerce Space? Eli Weiss. He was the CX Leader at Jones Road Beauty and has a great weekly newsletter.
#1 Challenge as a Leader? The saying everything thrives and dies off leadership. Getting people to care as much as you do is a challenge, especially if they have a lighter role in the company. To send the message that what our staff is doing has an impact, we hold weekly meetings, so they see how their work is making a difference. This leads over to delegating tasks to your team and inspiring them to do things with excellence.
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