BattlBox is a subscription service that provides camping, survival, EDC, and all-around epic outdoor gear at affordable prices. The brand has an expert team of outdoor professionals who curate and test hundreds of products and select thet best equipment to send to customers. To date, BattlBox has shipped over 1 million boxes.

For years, BattlBox has built a large community of engaged customers thanks to high-quality products and excellent customer service. John Roman, CEO BattlBox, soon realized such strong connections are their opportunity to turn CS into a profit center.

In a recent interview, John shared what they've done to win back churned customers, drive revenue from customer service, and achieve their goal.

1. Create a specific coupon code for each agent

The BattlBox customer service team has 17 agents. They gave each agent an exclusive coupon code to share with customers. While this tactic is low-hanging fruit, it didn't help them move the needle — only generating $200 per month.

2. Reach out to customers personally across channels

BattlBox discovered that many customers didn't choose to cancel. "They just had a credit card that didn't work or not respond to emails," John explained. So the team decided to use a revenue recovery service (Gravy) to approach passively churned customers via all forms of communication.

"There was a return, but Gravy is expensive. Our CS agents could do it internally."

BattlBox started using Gorgias to send text-only emails to their customers. "Previously, we contacted customers through a traditional email platform, and those emails often went to the promotion tab or spam folder. Now with Gorgias, a lot of our emails hit customers' inboxes," John said.

After a few months of implementing this idea, Gorgias helped BattlBox double revenue generated from customer service, from $2K (when using Gravy) to $4.7K.

"We were paying Gravy, and now we don't have to pay them because our CS staff can do that with Gorgias," John said.

3. Upsell products to boost revenue from new customers

Battlbox's CS team uses Gorgias integrations to create an automated welcome email. They also include relevant products in the email to upsell to new customers.

Out of 1,700 customers who received the email, 23% of them purchased the upsells. "That was $44,000 in revenue," John emphasized.

Moving forward

Gorgias doesn't only help BattlBox recover churned customers but also retain existing customers. During last year's holiday season, they generated a 25% increase in revenue (212K$) via Gorgias. They also achieved a customer satisfaction rating of 4.78. John said they'll continue using Gorgias to test ideas that can help them delight customers and drive more revenue from customer service.