Creative Founders Mine Their Community for a New Hire and Get an Added Bonus
Who knows and loves your brand more than your loyal customers?
Recently one of Findaway Adventures’ investment companies, the women’s cycle health brand De Lune, was looking for some part-time help with customer service calls and social media. De Lune’s founder, Mimi Millard, did something I thought very interesting and resourceful: she reached out to the company’s community for prospects.
De Lune has about 12,000 of their Instagram followers and another 4,000 repeat customers, for a total of 16,000 prospects. They clearly articulated their need as well as the kind of knowledge, experience, skills and attitude they were looking for.
Their thinking was as follows: we don’t want to hire somebody who doesn’t already love our business to be in front of potential customers.. Much like the parents of very young children, the founders of young startups want new hires who are like an amazing nanny who will love and care for their baby. Of course, no nanny will ever be able to love the child as much as mom and dad, which can be a frustration for founders, but surely a devoted customer would get the parents closer to the ideal than a random search, right?
Out of 16,000 people, De Lune got 72 responses, which Mimi whittled down to 15 to invite to be interviewed. “We felt overwhelmed with gratitude that we got so many positive responses,” Mimi told me. “People really love the brand and expressed their passion for our mission in their replies to us.” During the interview process, Mimi and I kept in touch and I learned that Mimi felt she could have hired all of the 15 finalists.
Ultimately, the De Lune team decided to bring on two perfect-fit customer care team members to be able to stagger their schedules, further reduce customer response time, and elevate their experience with the brand. They also discovered additional creative partners among the applicant pool with whom they’ll be working on project-based content and outreach. According to Mimi, De Lune was “not only able to fill the customer care position perfectly, but also to expand into other strategies with like-minded evangelists.”
All in a few part-time positions.
Looking back at the hiring process, De Lune also acknowledges that it pretty much blew up their preconceived notion of how the interview process would go. They went in hoping to find one person to fit a targeted need but discovered instead an array of skill sets waiting to be brought to the table from within their own community. De Lune had also underestimated how deeply these applicants might share their own passion. What’s more, Mimi notes that their prior relationship as De Lune customers gave them something in common from the start.
“In fact, the new hires are kicking off this week and already meshing wonderfully, thanks to their already established connection of being fellow De Lune users,” she said.
Of course, Mimi’s final challenge with the hiring process was figuring out how to leave all the applicants who weren’t chosen for these specific roles still feeling valued and appreciated. To accomplish this, Mimi shared with me that she’ll be sending them a short video expressing her gratitude directly and an invite to be part of her inner circle feedback group. “This whole process really opened my eyes to the fact that there are tons of ways we can harness the power of community, not just through one specific hire,” Mimi told me. “I plan to stay in close communication with every inner circle member and keep an open mind for how we can work together to accomplish our mission.”
Let me know what innovative ways you’re engaging your community with your brand.
Sincerely,
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All credit to my ghostwriting partner, Dave Moore, who is instrumental in getting my thoughts out in a coherent manner & into these blogs. Thanks Dave!