Greenvelope is an electronic invitation company that is “inviting a greener future.” CEO Sam Franklin’s love of the outdoors growing up in the Pacific Northwest fueled his passion to build a business that became Greenvelope, a startup that provides an eco-friendly
alternative to “traditional” printed invitations.
Electronic Invitations Save Trees!
Greenvelope focuses on elegant design and emulates the experience of opening a “traditional” printed invitation. The company creates invitations for weddings, business events, parties—any event for which an invitation is needed. The invitations are beautiful,
look just like “real” paper, and are delivered electronically in an interactive envelope that focuses on user experience. The company tagline is “You Save Trees—We Make Donations.” For every package purchased, Greenvelope donates a significant percentage to
Mountains to Sound, So far there are over 10,000 happy customers.
An Entrepreneurial Spirit
Sam has been interested in the idea of a philanthropic ecommerce model since his senior year of high school:
“I had an idea that people would be interested in an electronic invitation service, even for a milestone event like a wedding, if the product could offer a beautiful design, a positive online experience and personalized customer service “
“The concept behind Greenvelope is to provide elegant electronic invitations, where guests feel like they are opening a personally addressed paper invitation. I knew that we could create that kind of experience, and I was convinced that customers would be interested in beautiful electronic invitations that have no ads.”
A Progressive Startup, Aware of the Power of Customer Service
“When I started looking for a customer service format, I was really considering what would be best for an early startup. Providing great customer service was a top
priority from the beginning and I knew this would have to scale as the company grew.
I think the thing that sets Desk.com apart is the customer service, and how they support and connect with all their customers – even us small guys! I have been inspired by how Desk.com has treated me as a customer, and how they help me deliver this same level of support to my customers.”
Word of Mouth
“Word of mouth is our goal. When somebody has a good experience, they tell others, and many of my competitors don’t have the advantage of personal interaction to drive word of mouth sales. I learned in my Washington University (in St. Louis) marketing class that the ultimate question for customer satisfaction is ‘Would you recommend this product to a friend’? It’s not just the customer I’m speaking to, but the people they come in contact with—it’s a viral effect. It’s proved true for us. We don’t do too much advertising, but revenue is up, and sales are up. I attribute this directly to word of mouth.”
Desk.com: Before and After
“Before I found Desk.com, I was using email to address customer requests, and it wasn’t working very well. Customer issues were slipping through the cracks. I had a Word document of canned responses that I would draw from. It was just unwieldy
and inefficient.”
“Now I have set up the Content Library with all those common questions, so I can personalize them and drop them into replies. I save so much time and energy with the macros. Now we handle 1000 cases a month in just 2-3 hours a day. It’s making a huge difference for us.”
“With the customer Help Center, the majority of our customers go right through our process with no issues. We constantly refine the Help Center content to keep people on the right track to self-serve. We’re learning from customers every day, and Desk.com is so easy to use that we can implement changes very quickly.”
“The fact that Desk.com is free for startups is amazing. I’m always going to be a Desk customer. We’re growing and I’m about to hire my first full-time service person. It’s great to know that Desk.com will scale and grow with us.”
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