Poppy’s Picnic was founded in 2016 with a clear mission - to help dog owners feed their pets a raw food diet, the way nature intended.
As a startup, they had a lot to learn incredibly quickly. But their positive attitude, strong brand image and ethos helped them amass a loyal following of customers right from the start. Their fuschia brand colours, dog puns, and quirky communication makes shopping with them about so much more than filling up a pet bowl - it’s an experience.
Poppy’s Picnic sells both direct to consumers and in stores around the UK and Hong Kong.
Since startup, the focus has been on educating the customer.
In November 2019, founders Dylan and Poppy made a TV appearance on James Martin’s Saturday Morning show, showcasing a variety of recipes dog owners could whip up for their pets at home. This led to a hugely successful ad campaign, and an increase in demand, just as the pandemic began to take hold.
Despite the global situation, Poppy’s Picnic moved into a new factory in July 2020 to meet the growing desire for their products:
It’s great to have the space and capacity to properly respond to customer demand. Not only that, we are now able to expand on our B2B trade sales, garnering more stockists nationwide, which helps further our brand awareness.
They also took a range of newly improved recipes to market, and introduced compostable and recyclable packaging:
Our latest recipes were developed by an expert vet and nutritionist. We launched the world’s first bone free ranges which can be served raw or cooked, offering dog owners more flexibility when switching or to give their dogs a more varied taste experience.
COVID-19 came as a major challenge for everyone, but Poppy’s Picnic were reactive. Investment in the new, bigger factory allowed for greater safety precautions, and office staff were able to work from home.
As a brand that sees experience as key, fulfillment and customer service remained a top priority:
"We continued to cater to the steep rise in demand, especially throughout a period of panic purchasing in March 2020, and made arrangements from the start to protect our customers by introducing contact-free deliveries while social distancing restrictions were in place."
Alongside this, they focused on the needs of their customer base, offering tailored subscriptions and advice. They made great use of social media to enhance the buyer experience, with helpful tips and guidance around their product range, and offered accessible contact through multiple channels.
They also demonstrated their social conscious, with a commitment to making a difference wherever possible:
Poppy’s Picnic have made donations of our nutritious dog food to a number of dog rescue charities struggling to care for an increase of abandoned animals throughout COVID-19.
All of this has helped drive brand awareness and cement their trusted reputation, which they’ve managed to secure through a solid review strategy.
Right from the start, Poppy’s Picnic latched on to why reviews are essential for brands. They knew trust signals would be paramount to their success, and that customer feedback not only instills this trust, but offers greater insight into consumer expectations.
"We believe in our high quality raw dog food and excellent customer service, so we actively ask our customers to write their honest feedback post purchase. This approach allows us to envision and plan for our long term goals for Poppy’s Picnic."
Operating on Shopify, they needed a solution that was easy to integrate, and allowed them to enhance the brand persona they’d created. In REVIEWS.io, they found just what they were looking for.
With Shopify integration at the click of a button, Poppy’s Picnic were almost immediately able to start pulling in reviews. REVIEW.io links up with Shopify to enable automatic sending of review invitations everytime an order is complete, allowing brands to easily collect product reviews for Shopify stores.
Invitation emails can be customised to fit with a businesses’ brand image - a feature Poppy’s Picnic have taken advantage of. Using their familiar, fun and friendly TOV and bright logo, the customer journey is fluid from start to finish. It’s a brilliant example of an awesome review request email.
The reviews they've collected are featured front and centre on their homepage using our Carousel Inline Widget. They've again modified this widget to fit in with their branding, resulting in a really sleek testimonial section, complemented by their proactive approach to review management.
"We keep a document with all the feedback, and try to go back and update our reviewers on their queries or complaints, or once we have implemented their feedback."
They know the importance of responding to negative and positive reviews, and in doing so as soon as possible, build long term trust and consumer loyalty. Complaints are publicly acknowledged and followed up by customer service, and positive feedback is received with thanks.
We also always mention any running offers or new product launches that they may be able to take advantage of, and invite them back to create an engaging community around our business.
Poppy’s Picnic understood the value of customer feedback from day one, and they’ve used it wisely with impressive results.
For this brand, it’s all about the consumer experience. What reviews give them is the ability to share that experience effectively to build trust, loyalty, and a level of brand awareness that helps them achieve continual growth.
