Felix: Today, I'm joined by Kelley Higney from Bug Bite Thing. Bug Bite Thing dedicates itself to offering customers a chemical free, eco-friendly solution that effectively alleviates the discomfort, stinging, itching, and swelling caused by insect bites and stings, and was started in 2016 and based out of Port St. Lucie, Florida.
Felix: Welcome, Kelley.
Kelley: Thank you so much for having me on.
Felix: Yes. So you originally made this product for your daughter, right? Tell us more about that. Where did the idea come from?
Kelley: So this product, so let me just back up. I had made a move. I had a job opportunity back in 2013. And we relocated from California to South Florida. I had a young daughter at the time. She was six months old, and when we moved out here, one thing we were completely not anticipating was how bad the mosquito problem was. And when I say bad, I mean it was completely affecting our quality of life. I was avoiding the outdoors at all costs. My daughter would get one mosquito bite, and she'd react so severely, it turns into a blister and days of golf ball sized welts, pain, itching, swelling.
And what was happening was we had just moved out here, and it was almost instant, where we were avoiding the outdoors. And she was getting skin infections, I was suffering. So I started doing some research. What products were available in the market? And I tried every over the counter cream, I tried every home remedy. I was looking up home remedies on Pinterest, how to prevent mosquito bites, how to relieve mosquito bites. Nothing was working.
And I came across a little known tool that was sold through some industrial first aid kits overseas. And the premise behind it was it used suction, and that removed the irritant so your body stops producing the uncomfortable symptoms, like itching, swelling, stinging. Because it's the irritant that you're reacting to. So the premise behind the tool was you remove the irritant, your body stops producing a reaction.
So I ordered one in. Not thinking much of it, because I'm a year into suffering, and nothing here that's available is working. And I ordered one in, got one in, got a mosquito bite walking to my mailbox, ironically, and tried it, and I was dumbfounded. All the itching, the swelling, the pain, within a matter of 30 seconds, just disappeared. And I was like, "What the heck? Why is this not here?"
So that started making me do more research, and figuring out okay, If this product is helping me so much, and helping my daughter so much, there's got to be other parents that would find the validity in this product, or other people that are suffering that need this.
So I was able to track down the manufacturer, and we teamed up together. And I branded the product Bug Bite Thing. And I wanted to launch here in the U.S. And that's kind of how I came across the product and started selling it.
Felix: Yeah. So did you have a background in entrepreneurship or business? How did you go from looking for a solution to a problem that you having, finding out that there was already a solution out there in these, like you mentioned, industrial first aid kits, to then deciding, "You know what? This is a problem that just doesn't exist in the market, let me see how I can bring it out." What's your background?
Kelley: So I actually grew up from a long line of entrepreneurs. My grandmother was an entrepreneur. My mother is an entrepreneur. She has an import/export business called A.C. Kerman. It's been in existence for 30 years. So I literally grew up in an office. I started answering phones from the time I could talk. I was filing paperwork. I could recognize all the UPS/FedEx trucks, and all the names of them by the time I was 10. So I kind of always had that entrepreneurship instilled in me. I credit my mom a lot to that. My thought process on things is very different, that I notice, a lot of people think.
I always try to figure out how to make things a win/win/win. And for this, there was a product on the market that worked amazing. It was little known, and I was a mom who took away all my child's pain and suffering, and it was working on me. So why wouldn't I try to see if there was a need for it? And that's kind of what started the journey.
Felix: Yeah. I think that some of your background, your upbringing, kind of prepared you for this opportunity. Because I think a lot of folks out there will have an idea for a product, or maybe even come across an idea for a solution to a problem that they have, and then they find out that it already exists. You found out it already existed, a solution already existed. And the immediate reaction is, "Oh no, this is a dead end. I got to start over. I got to find something else." How did you think about this differently?
Kelley: I kept thinking, "Why is this not here?" Because it worked on me. And so, kind of the next step, honestly, was I started field testing it. I had one tool, and we're in South Florida, so mosquito bites are a huge problem out here. So I had lots of test subjects. And the time that I had the product. This is even before I ordered my first batch of real inventory. I'm talking about pre-sales. I was just testing the market to see if there was an interest. Because I was a mom. I was working, my daughter was in preschool, and I wasn't thinking of starting a new business. It kind of came to me, and I couldn't get out of my head, and I kept thinking, "If this could help me so much..." And I mean, I was suffering. My daughter was on antibiotics, because she would get skin infections, and I hate that.
And there had to be other parents. And after talking to other moms and parents in my own community, there was a huge demand for a chemical free solution to this problem. I don't know. I couldn't get out of my head. I was dreaming about it, I was thinking about it non stop, and I just knew I needed to make it available to anybody else that was suffering.
Felix: Yeah. So during this phase where you are still trying to figure out if anyone else interested in this like you were, you mentioned you were testing the market out. Sounded like you were talking to other parents. What did that mean? What kind of answers were you looking for when you were going around to other moms and dads that might have a similar situation as you?
Kelley: Before I purchased our first batch of inventory, before I wanted to go full throttle, I did a lot of my market research at the preschool, because I was there. My daughter was there. There was other moms and parents there. And just talking to the preschool itself, there were kids coming into the nurse's station on a daily basis having to put cream on, because it has to be administered by a nurse, because there's chemicals in it. I would just ask, "What are you guys using?" And everybody was using the exact same thing that wasn't working on them or myself. They were having to reapply creams over and over, because essentially, you're masking the problem. You're not getting to the root of the problem.
When an insect bites or stings you, they're injecting their saliva or venom under the surface of the skin. And it's your own body that's reacting to that irritant that's causing those symptoms. So a cream is just, essentially, numbing those symptoms. And your body kind of has to run it's course. So our product, it removes the irritant, so your body doesn't even produce those symptoms. So it's a game changer for a lot of people that really great severe reactions to mosquito bites, because you're removing it before they get so severe that you're having to get antibiotic creams and other things like that.
Felix: Yeah, you were gracious enough to send me a sample of your product. And it was funny to me, because I never thought that there was another solution other than what you were talking about.
Kelley: Yeah.
Felix: Where you just put some cream on it or something.
Kelley: And I'm determined to make this the first solution, because why wouldn't we try to make the chemical option, that's more effective, that has science behind it, clinical testing, why wouldn't we try to make that the first go-to method, aside from trying to apply creams and chemicals over, and over, and over again on children and yourself, for that matter?
Felix: Yeah, exactly. So I think for anyone else out there who might have, in other industries, where they might have identified that there's a better solution out there, but it's just not here in the particular market that they're in, you mentioned that the next step you took was to track down the manufacturer. Which again, is another step that I think a lot of people might not think about doing. They might think, "Okay, let me just try to recreate this thing myself." Or start from scratch. But you went to the source, the manufacturer that you already saw that knew how to do this.
Felix: So tell us about that. What was the process like to find the manufacturer of that product?
Kelley: It's very simple. We tracked them down, and essentially, I pitched it. I explained how I was shocked that this wasn't here in the United States. How I felt that every parent should have this tool to be armed with for relief for their children. Everybody that enjoys time outside needed this product. And we completely aligned. My background through my mother's companies, and my past entrepreneurship is all in marketing. So I have a real knack for marketing, I love getting on a consumer level. I'm a consumer. I always put our customers first.
And he saw my vision, and he gave me a chance. And we had a contract that was signed. Essentially, my first contract was just for the United States. It was exclusive distribution rights for the first year. This was my very first contract before we hit our numbers. And essentially, I ordered my first batch of inventory, and I started selling it. I branded it Bug Bite Thing, and that's when I kind of launched it. And ironically enough, I started right in my own backyard at my daughter's preschool bake sales.
Felix: Yeah. Yeah. It all starts somewhere. That's awesome. When you took the step to approach a manufacturer, it could be daunting for a lot of people to think, "Okay, I am a nobody. I don't have a company at all right now. I have an idea. I see a demand, but that's all I have. I'm going to approach a manufacturer."
What do you think about your specific conversation/conversations that made you seem like an attractive partner for them? Especially when you're coming in with basically no company at that time.
Kelley: Honestly, I think, if you want my honest opinion, it was my passion that came through. I still, to this day, I'm on a mission, because this product is a game changer. When I say that, not only my customer, at this point, we've got millions of people that have product in their hands. Just on Amazon alone, there's 30 thousand positive reviews. We're the number one best selling product on Amazon for insect bite relief.
I just needed people to know it existed. So I think just having that mindset really resonated with our factory, and he believed in us since the beginning. Since then, we're three years down, we've partnered completely with them for global distribution rights. So we're, just this year, we're launching into 25 countries.Their headquarters, they don't sell any OEM product anymore. They've converted it to Bug Bite Thing headquarters, Europe. And essentially, the U.S. and Europe now, we're tackling the world globally to make this a household name.
Felix: Wow, that's amazing.
Kelley: Yeah.
Felix: And it all started, you mentioned, by selling it locally. So even before you had that much sales online...
Kelley: Yeah. That's right. Yes. Grassroots. So my first batch of inventory, let's back up. I ordered it, and I literally started in my own backyard. I started selling at bake sales, and that's where I got a good chunk of the consumer feedback on validity of the product. People were coming to me saying they were using it on bee stings and wasps, and red ants. And their child that have been suffering for years, and years, and years. And exact same thing that was happening with my child. Antibiotic creams, and miserable nights of waking up and itching, and nothing giving their children relief.
And so, when I started selling, what I recognized really quickly was our product almost became an impulse item once people realized what it is and what it did. And I could explain the science behind it. Then people were willing to give it a chance. So that's kind of where I got my start.
Felix: Okay, so you mentioned that you were getting this feedback when you were selling it locally, and you got this validation that people were using it. That the kind of problems they were having, that you thought they would need help with. Did you learn anything else about the product at that time? About how to market, what kind of maybe changes you might need to make from talking to your customers?
Kelley: Well, I realized very quickly after a few bake sales, I exhausted my customer base there. And so, now was the figuring out how I bring this from selling them in person to bake sales, to online, and seeing if there was even a bigger demand for our product.
Felix: Yeah. And one thing you had told to us was that one major lesson around how to market, especially online, especially with e-commerce business, was that you need to understand how customers reacted to the product, and then translate those reactions to your online marketing strategy.
Kelley: Yeah.
Felix: So this is really interesting insight. Can you tell us more about that? What does that mean to you?
Kelley: To me, it means everything. So immediately, right when I started selling them in person, I knew the skepticism that was coming. Just the questions that were being asked. There's no way that will work. It would already be here if it worked. Something so simple can't work. There was no testimonials on it, there was no credibility on it. So those were the negative feedback that I knew right off the bat that I had to figure out how to overcome when I launched this through e-commerce.
So one of the first things that I did was I made our product have 100% money back guarantee. Because I knew, once people used it, and they realized what it was, how it worked, and they used it for the first time, I knew that they were going to tell 10 more people about it. So the obstacle became how do I get that first person to try it, test it, and now become part of the Bug Bite Thing family, but then tell 10 more people about it.
So that kind of was my strategy from day one. I didn't have a lot of funds to invest in marketing dollars. Everything was grassroots. When I made the leap from quitting my job working with my mother to launching Bug Bite Thing full time, this was after I had the testing at the trade shows, and I knew I wanted to go to online, that's when I kind of flipped the switch. We ended up selling our house, and we moved into a rental house, and that paid for our first batch of inventory.
I started teaching myself social media marketing, because I didn't have the funds to invest in an agency at the beginning. So there was just a lot of figuring things out once I was able to prove to validity of my product. That there was a demand, that there was an interest, that people were responding to it.
Felix: That's amazing. I've never heard of someone that believed so much in their business, especially early on, that they were willing to sell their house to keep this thing funded. So tell us more about that. What did you see? What was it for you that totally convinced you, you said, "You know what? Let's put everything on the line. This is going to work. There's a need for this. Let's go all in."
Kelley: When I started having parents track me down in the parking lot to purchase product outside of bake sales. That's when I knew there was a demand for my product. It was growing word of mouth just in my own backyard. I had people literally meeting me in the parking lot. I downloaded my Shopify point of sale app, and I was literally taking orders from the trunk of my car selling Bug Bite Things.
And that's how I knew there was a demand. So again, if I could take what I did on a smaller level, and I could translate that to digital and get it out there on a bigger level, I was convinced that it was going to be the same response.
Felix: Yeah. And the thing you mentioned about this worked locally, because they saw who you were, you're a member of the community. So you got over a lot of that kind of lack of trust, and I think that's what you're getting at. About how it's a brand new company, there's, like, why does this probably not exist? It's so simple. It's a simple solution. If it worked, why isn't someone already selling it?
Kelley: Right.
Felix: And you mentioned you fixed this by having this 100% money back guarantee. Was there anything else in there that helped you get people to just try it out for the first time?
Kelley: Honestly, at the beginning, I was begging people to try it, and saying, "If it doesn't work, give it back to me, and I will give you your money back." That's literally what I did at the beginning. And I had enough people that tried the product and ended up telling 10 more people about it, that it started growing like wildfire by word of mouth.
Felix: Yeah. And the reviews speak for themselves. You mentioned 30 thousand positive reviews on Amazon. Also a bunch on your site, as well. Was there anything that you did? Obviously the product has to work, but were there other ways to help encourage that proof, that kind of social proof that other people are using this product, and you should give it a chance, too?
Kelley: My number one marketing strategy, still to this day, is repurposing real testimonials and stories about our product. That's all I do. I never sell our product. I never want people to feel pressured to buying our product, because that's not what it was for me at the beginning. I was truly trying to find relief for my daughter. And I want parents and other people who are really suffering to just give it a try. Because there's enough people that, I have proof. It works on enough people, and the testimonials, when you read through them, they're not like, "It works." It's like, "They're life changing. Where has this been my entire life?"
We have pediatric cancer doctors referring our product. There's something in chemo treatment that makes children more susceptible to mosquito bites. And the chemicals can be risky. So we're a chemical free option we're providing to other people. And I don't know. It feels great to be helping that many people at the same time.
So it was never really about selling the product. I think people just can see real. I think the consumer's smart. And I never wanted to trick them into anything. I just was always honest from the beginning.
Felix: Makes sense, yeah. And you mentioned a lot of this is just sold by your past customers. They are leaving testimonials.
Kelley: All of them.
Felix: Stories, and reviews. Can you say more about that? How are you repurposing this great feedback, and these great reviews? How are you using it in your marketing to make sure that, if there's other people that might not know about it, about your product, that can hear about it, and hear the efficacy of it.
Kelley: I mean, we're just, like I said, we have a whole social strategy that we repurpose testimonials. We have the Shopify review app installed on our website. That creates a ton of SEO around our product. So when people search, "Does the Bug Bite Thing work," Shopify reviews pop right up to help combat that. And again, the consumer's smart. They know, at this stage, if they're fake reviews or not. Again, by giving people that 100% money back guarantee, it just takes the guesswork out of the product. I'm not trying to make a sale, I'm trying to give people relief.
Felix: Now, you said that you use the kind of social proof and testimonials on social media. Can you say more about that? I think that other people that might have reviews might not be getting the most mileage out of it. What have you been doing on social media with the testimonials and reviews?
Kelley: Just repurposing them into ad content. We use a lot of user-generated content that we will combine them to showcase multiple people's viewpoint on our product. I mean, it's really just displaying it everywhere. Anywhere that we can showcase a life changing situation or scenario, or something really impactful. Like, I'm just going to throw out a scenario.
Somebody got stung by three bees in one spot and used our product and didn't have any reaction. Where previously, they gave us an example where they had one bee sting, and they had to go to the emergency room. So just stuff like that that comes in. It's just so impactful, and as a brand, you're reading that. And if we could tell other people other people's experiences, not only does it help get the word out there, it's giving other people a tool that can help them get relief and not be in pain and avoid doctor's visits. I mean, read through the testimonials. That's all I encourage people to do.
Felix: Yeah. I think the good lesson here is that if you have a product that works and gets results, a lot of the marketing can be done for you. Your job is to kind of amplify the testimonials and the results that your customers have gotten. I think that makes marketing a lot easier in some ways, right?
Kelley: It really does.
Felix: Just that focus on the product.
Kelley: It really does, because you're just showcasing real. And it feels good. Again, we just need people to know what our product is and that it exists. And I think we're doing a pretty good job at that.
Felix: Yeah. So, so far, we've been talking about parents and moms who are using this for their children. One interesting thing you had shared with us was that when you initially launched, you had thought that maybe the market would be male outdoors men. And you had mentioned that that demographic is still a piece of your market, but the big piece of your market is still moms like you who are on a mission to help their kids. Tell us more about that. What was the discovery like, that, "Wait a second, maybe we're missing a big chunk of who actually needs this."
Kelley: It was honestly when I flipped to digital. So I have all the consumer feedback from the preschool. We're rocking and rolling, I have people tracking me down. So now it came to how am I going to launch this thing online? And so I started teaching myself basic social media classes. And I started doing target marketing. And in my head, I picked a demographic. And I thought that the male outdoors men who's spending time fishing, camping, hiking, that would be the first demographic I would go after to really hit it hard online.
And although that now remains a big part of our market, when I launched this, the skepticism that met me right when I launched this online with the male outdoors men was so 180 degrees backward from the response I was getting when I was able to sell and talk about it in person, that I knew I had a problem. There was a big disconnect there.
And I had to pick it. And that's when I started saying, "Okay, well, what was really working for me at the bake sales, and in the parking lot? Who was my customer?" And they were all moms. They were all moms who were getting their husbands to use it, or who were getting their children to use it who were suffering. Who were telling their girlfriends about it, who were telling their family members about it.
So I switched my social strategy back to moms, just like me. And almost instantly, I saw the turn. And traffic, and everything, started going in the right direction.
Felix: That's really interesting, and a good point about how, when you stepped onto this new stage about how to really blow this thing up online, you said, "There's probably a big market of outdoors men, let's go after them." Didn't work as you expected, and then you went back and said, "What's already working? And let's just kind of do that."
Kelley: Right.
Felix: And it's funny that the answer is kind of that simple, but a lot of times, we're so focused on maybe something else that we lose sight of what's already working.
Kelley: And how easy, out of all the hiccups that I ran into, would it have been to just say, "You know what? This isn't going to work. I can't invest anymore money. I can't invest time." There was a lot of that at the beginning. Figuring out how to really figure this out. And I just, again, it was the feedback. I say that in every interview that I'm on. The feedback was what really motivated and kept driving me, because at the end of the day, I found this product, because I was in the same boat as all these other people. I was suffering. My daughter was suffering. It was literally effecting our lives on a daily basis to some capacity. And there's a lot of other people around the world that are in the exact same boat as us.
Felix: Yeah. Makes sense.
Now, when you do have kind of these different demographics, you mentioned still the male outdoors men, that demographic is still customers of yours. What changes did you have to make in your marketing or your branding, or the packaging, to kind of serve multiple demographics?
Kelley: A lot of it was testing. I mean, we're on package version number five. On the retail level now. And it's listening to, again, I credit our customers. If you listen to your customers, they tell you how to run your business. In a way. They tell you the next products they want, they tell you the modifications, they tell you what they're happy with, they tell you what they're unhappy with. They tell you about the skepticism they have, they tell you about what got them to purchase the product. They're your key, right there. If you can figure out your own customers and decode what gets in their head to make it a win/win/win. We've done that since the beginning. We listen to our customers.
Felix: Yeah. Makes sense. You said that you're now on version number five of the packaging.
Kelley: Yep.
Felix: Can you tell us more about that? What kind of changes have you made over time to kind of address some of these?
Kelley: So let me just back up. So this year is a big year for Bug Bite Thing. We're going to be launching in 25,000 retail locations this year. From Wal-Mart, to Lowe's, to Home Depot, to CVS. But previous to that, we had packaging issues. Our product is new to the market, so not only is our product new to the market, it's a new concept. So just like you had said earlier in the interview, when you think of a bug bite, your brain doesn't even go to another alternative. You don't even think there's another alterative. You're going to the store, and you're buying a cream to put on and let it run it's course.
So this year, our product's going to be everywhere, and I think it's going to be really interesting this year what happens with Bug Bite Thing. But in previous years, the feedback that we got, we started out with our packaging completely in a box. Think of it like a cream. It's completely hidden, it's behind a box. Even though we were calling out insect bite relief suction tool, people's brains don't go there when they're walking in a shop, and they see a cream, and then they see something similar on the shelf. They're thinking it's an alternative.
So we failed, I would say, the first year we launched at retail, I was not happy with the results. And I give that to not having enough education around our product. So one of the things that we did, and we've done since we've revised our packaging over the last few years, is we now market, and we drive people to the stores in addition to educating them.
So I have a program that we have called retail target marketing. And essentially, we work with the buyers of these big box stores, and we create a custom program. Essentially, it's just geo-targeting around certain locations to really educate people around the retail stores that are going to be carrying our product. What our product is, what it does, and where they can purchase it. And I think working in conjunction with that has really helped us sell through at the retail level.
Felix: I think that's really interesting. So I want to dive into this a little bit more. So geo-targeting around locations that are now carrying your product. You mentioned the focus on this is not necessarily getting the sale, but around education. Not getting the sale on your website, but educating the area about you and your product, and the efficacy about it. Can you say more about that? What does that actually look like? How do you educate these people?
Kelley: Just through ads. I mean, we have a lot of educational ads out. What our product is, what it does, the science behind the product, and then where they can purchase it. Again, it's just a mixture of things. I don't know if you know, we're a Shark Tank company. So we got the chance to be featured on Shark Tank in 2019. And again, that was because of my marketing. I'm self-taught, and it ended up catching the eyes of a producer at Shark Tank, and they tracked me down, and they encouraged me to audition for the show.
And so, there's just a whole combination of things going on now that I think is driving the success of Bug Bite Thing. We've got the Shark Tank validity, we've got retail, we've got international happening, we've got social media, we've got e-commerce. And we're just branching wherever we can.
Felix: Yeah. So lots of really fast-paced growth over the last years. And then certainly this year, you said worldwide. How many countries are you expanding into this year?
Kelley: 25.
Felix: 25.
Kelley: This is going to be the year. I feel it in my bones.
Felix: Yeah.
Kelley: I keep telling all my team that. I feel it. Last year, we just had so much growth. So prior to Shark Tank airing, I was running inside my house. I had two employees. It was very small potatoes. And when we aired on Shark Tank, we had to move very quickly. We moved into a 5,000 square foot facility. We outgrew that, so then we moved into a 10,000 square foot facility. We have over 30 employees now, and again, this is all just in just over a year. So we had to kind of figure everything out really quick. And just do the best we can.
Felix: Yeah, and I can imagine there are different kind of challenges and different areas of focus for you at these different stages. So now that this year, and the last year, has really focused on kind of this quick, rapid growth. What kind of challenges are you facing these days that you're putting your attention on?
Kelley: I mean, honestly, the challenges that we face are education around the product. That's still something that's at the forefront. Most of our attention on marketing is educating people what our product is, the science behind our product, and that it exists. So that's been challenging. Keeping up with the growth and the demand with inventory requirements. Especially navigating all that during COVID. That has been a really big challenge for us, because at this level, we're producing them by the millions, so you have to have planning.
So that's been a challenge, but we've got everything in order this year. We ran into some inventory issues last year that we're ahead of the game on this year, so that will be good. I mean, it's just growing pains. At the very beginning, the challenges that we faced was figuring out who the right demographic was on social media. And that was the big change from targeting male outdoors men to going back to my grassroots of what started this. And just the growing pains. I mean, there's a lot happening all at one time, and there's only so many hours in a day, and there's only so many people you can train in a day. And so yeah, I would say that.
Felix: Mm-hmm (affirmative). Makes sense. Now, around the science and the education of the product, especially when it's a new product category that you're talking about, how do you know what your customers, your prospective customers need to learn before they're ready to give it a chance?
Kelley: That's a great question, and I don't have an answer for that. I didn't know, and I had to do a lot of testing. So again, going back to what we stay true to as a company, our consumer experience is number one for us, always. From their first interaction from hearing about our product, to ordering it on our website, to receiving it, to reviewing it. Everything is customer-driven. So I think if you just focus on your customers, and listen to them, it gives you more insight than you think. Don't forget to listen to your own customers, and a lot of the times they give you what you need to pivot or change directions.
Felix: Makes sense. And one thing I want to touch on was around that, you mentioned social media already is something that you're focusing on. But you also mentioned that there's an affiliate marketing program, too. Tell us about that. How do you use the affiliate marketing program to grow your business?
Kelley: Yeah. We created our own affiliate marketing program. So because, again, I did this grassroots, our customers have almost become like family to me. We treat everybody like they're a part of this. So no matter, if you're just a customer that used it for the first time and want to tell 10 more people about it, or you're an influencer with a big audience that feel like you want to educate people about a chemical-free solution that's better, you can be involved in our program.
We're working on a loyalty program for customers. I believe there's a third party program that integrates, that's called Refersion that we use. That essentially is just tracking, so we can track if a sale was made from a link that one of our influencers put out there.
But again, we always teach our influencers and our affiliates, and whoever we're involved with that's going to be talking about Bug Bite Thing the same thing. You don't have to sell the product. We don't want people on their selling the product, because that's not who we are. We just need to educate people what our product is, what it does, that it exists, and how many other people are getting relief from the product. And back it up with that 100% money back guarantee so there's no risk to try it.
Felix: Yeah. So speaking of the 100% money back guarantee, you had also mentioned that it sounds like your core value, core tenant, is around quality customer service experience.
Kelley: Yes.
Felix: Which obviously will encourage things like word of mouth if someone's having a great experience with you and your company. Can you talk more about that? What other things have you done that has improved the customer service experience for your customers?
Kelley: I mean, we're still doing it. I think it's something that we will do as long as Bug Bite Thing is in existence. We roll new things out all the time. We just rolled out a live chat feature to help be more interactive with our customers. Our website is focused on our customers. One of things that we do often is keep the banner on our website updated so people know that we're there, we're relevant. We have a phone number. You can pick up the phone and call us. We have a team here ready to take your questions, or help you place an order.
I grew up in a family-owned business, so I don't know another way. And maybe that's just me being naïve. But our customers drive our product, and they drive our business. And i think it's critical to take care of them at all levels. And make sure that their experience is the best.
Felix: Right. And you mentioned the website being a big part of that, around banner updates. You've implemented live chat, you have a phone number, somebody can pick up and talk to a real person.
Felix: What other changes have you made over the years, on the website specifically, to improve the experience, to make people more comfortable, and trust to try the product out.
Kelley: Well, the wonderful thing about Shopify is it can grow with your business. Let me tell you that. My first Shopify web front was terrible. I did it myself, but it still worked. And the platform and the themes, they make it so easy. So even if you have no experience, and you think everything is terrible, it still looks good enough to put out there. And then you go off of that. You start tweaking. You start adding tools to help you get smarter. We have Google Analytics installed on our website. So we can track where people are falling off our webpages.
Again, customer experience. Where are customers hanging out on our website? What are they reading? What more can we put out there to get them to purchase? Just again, just focusing your entire website around consumer experience.
Felix: Yeah, that totally makes sense. So yeah, the changes around, like the banner you had mentioned, there's a demo video showing them how the product works, what it does. And you mentioned that you just kind of see where people are spending their time on the website. Are there any certain parts on the website that surprise you? Like, "Wow, we should invest more time here," that you had not thought about?
Kelley: Yeah, we actually are in the process, too, of revamping some things on our website. But there's a lot of people now, because of Shark Tank, that are hanging out on our Mom on a Mission section. So again, a brand story, I think, is really important. We're in a day and age where there's a lot of distrust in the online community. There's a lot of counterfeit product out there, there's a lot of companies that aren't U.S. based companies, that you can't pick up the phone and call to find out why your product hasn't been here for three months that you paid for.
And I just think that we're simplifying things a little bit. We just want to be there for our customers and make things easy for them. We want to offer them a line of products, so we can be the trusted source that they come back to. So yeah.
Felix: Awesome. So yeah, BugBiteThing.com is the website. And I'll lead with this last question. What do you think has been the biggest lesson that you've learned over the past year that you and you as a company are applying moving forward?
Kelley: Honestly, don't be afraid to pivot. That's the biggest thing I can tell companies. If you have a great idea and you do market research and get feedback from people, consumers, but if it's not what you think, don't be afraid to pivot and try that same approach just a different way, or to a different audience. Or tweak it. Or ask, "What could make this better?" Or, "What would make your experience better?" Don't be afraid to ask. I think a lot of brands get in their head, and they don't get down on the consumer level. These are just people that are taking their money, and they're purchasing something in hopes that they're going to get something out of it. So how can you make that experience the best for them, and the easiest? And keep them coming back.
Felix: Yeah, I think there's something there about putting your original idea on a pedestal, where you do everything to protect and defend it when the market might tell you something different.
Kelley: Yeah, right.
Felix: And you're saying don't do that.
Kelley: Yep, that's exactly my point. Just listen to the market. Even though you have an idea, it may not be 100% there. Like, mine wasn't. I went after male outdoors men, if I would have stuck with that, I would never have grown at the pace that we're growing now. And I wouldn't have even branched into that demographic as fast as I have if I didn't go back to the moms at the beginning that was what was driving this. So I think it's really important to listen to your customer and feedback.
Felix: Totally. Makes sense. So again, BugBiteThing.com. Thank you so much for coming on and sharing your experience, Kelley.
Kelley: Thank you so much for having me. It was such a pleasure talking with you.