Based on our June 2020 interview with Meat N’ Bone co-founder Gabriel Llaurado.
Meat N’ Bone wanted to give its customers a reason to stay involved with the brand. People trusted the online butcher to deliver quality cuts, and the team wanted to build on that relationship.
An early loyalty program attracted little participation. Referrals proved a better fit for what the founders wanted: a way for happy customers to share the brand with other people.
About Meat N’ Bone
Friends Luis Mata, Gabriel Llaurado, and German Vollbratch started Meat N’ Bone in 2018 after struggling to find the quality cuts they wanted for their own meals.
Their idea was to bring the personal butcher-shop experience online. Customers could ask questions about cuts and sourcing, then order quality meat for delivery. By the time of the June 2020 interview, the business reported serving more than 14,000 customers across the United States.
“When you used to go to the butcher shop, you trusted the butcher to do right by you. We wanted to deliver the same experience to our customers.”
Gabriel Llaurado
Co-founder, Meat N’ Bone
The challenge: Finding a program customers wanted to use
Meat N’ Bone had tried a loyalty program, but Gabriel felt the business had introduced it too early. After running it for several months, the team shut it down.
“Less than 1% of our users used our loyalty program.” The team had found that customers’ trust came from their purchases and the experience of shopping with Meat N’ Bone.
What Gabriel wanted was a way to recognize that relationship and encourage customers to take part in the brand’s growth.
“What we really wanted was engagement with our customers. You’ve been buying from us for a while, we want you to get something, but also feel proud about buying from us.”
Gabriel Llaurado
Co-founder, Meat N’ Bone
The approach: Making referrals part of the shopping experience
The team turned to ReferralCandy and integrated it throughout the ecommerce site. Customers could share links in chats or on social media, helping other people discover the business.
That gave customers a way to act on their enthusiasm for Meat N’ Bone. It also fit a brand that had built its reputation around helping people find products they would be happy to recommend.
The results: Reported engagement with referral links
The interview reported that over 70% of “people who are going to buy” interacted with ReferralCandy. Those interactions included pasting a link into a chat, posting on social media, or clicking a link.
This is the interaction figure described in the original interview. The buyer group and reporting period were not defined, and no referral conversion rate or sales total was provided.
Gabriel was pleased with how customers were engaging with the program:
“We integrated ReferralCandy everywhere in our eCommerce site, we’re getting high engagement from our users - we’re very happy with it.”
Gabriel Llaurado
Co-founder, Meat N’ Bone
Give satisfied customers a way to share
For Meat N’ Bone, the starting point was the trust customers already had in the business. ReferralCandy gave the team a way to encourage those customers to introduce the brand to others.
The lesson for other merchants is to pay attention to how customers want to participate. Meat N’ Bone tried a program, watched how people used it, and found an approach that better suited its customers at that stage of the business.