Birchbox’s fourth annual Customer Appreciation Day commemorated customers with a 40-person social media war room. Team members from all departments filled the space, perched and ready to respond to those who mentioned the beauty retailer and subscription company on social media. Personalized messages and offers were shot off into the depths of the SM realm toward Birchbox's consumer targets.

According to Glossy, “The war room required months of prep, and employees who don’t typically work in customer service were trained on brand voice, dos and don’ts, and how to handle difficult questions.” The 40 soldiers were primed for rapid-fire real-time social media mentions and kept Birchbox’s main goal for the 2017 year in mind: customization and personalization.

Their ambitious and pointed objective to reach more people on an individual basis worked, and they have the stats to show for it:

• There was a 211% increase of traffic to the site from social media platforms.
• A 55% increase in social media-driven revenue, year over year.
• The team saw a total of 225,000 social media engagements.
• Revenue from the e-commerce site grew 35% past the expected target, and 10% over the same day last year, which fit Birchbox's objective of driving attention and sales to its e-commerce store.
• There were 60% more subscription box sign-ups than on an average day.

Despite a few rocky moments in 2016, Birchbox turned things around, and rapidly so, in 2017. The company became profitable for the first time in April, and with such a successful Customer Appreciation Day the sky is definitely not the limit for this beauty retailer.

To read more about what went on inside Birchbox’s social media war room, go to Glossy.