Eight Cig's Customer Spotlight: Vape Savvy

Eight Cig's Customer Spotlight: Vape Savvy

Before probably one of the biggest days of his life, Jason of Vape Savvy had another significantly life changing event. On July 6th 2017, the day before his wedding, he and a friend went on a hike in Italy. When they reached their destination Jason was excited to pull out his treasured cigars, which he habitually smoked two a day for 15 years, and puff away in celebration. Instead, the future vape shop owner realized he had forgotten them. It was a good thing his friend had brought along his vape. Because after the two shared that, Jason’s life and career took a new turn.

Today Jason owns Vape Savvy in Kirkland, Washington. A new shop on the block that has become a bastion of customer satisfaction among the local vape scene. Jason’s digital marketing background gave him his central focus of the shop that maintains it as one of the best in customer satisfaction.

“It’s all about personalization… It’s a privilege to have a customer and you want to keep them, so you tailor the experience to them.”

Jason learned this valuable lesson while visiting a vape shop in London after an unfortunate incident left him with a broken tank. He walked in and was greeted warmly, taken care of, and he saw an incredible tasting station like he had never seen before. He was able to have a tailored vape experience and even came across a new favorite juice that he would eventually bring across the pond to his shop. He is the only store in Washington who carries this gem.

He carried over his experience in London to Kirkland, where he has implemented a 65 flavor tasting station, warm welcomes, and of course, a tailored experience.

“I would walk into shops and ask, ‘Hey can you let me know when you get this or that in, and they would say, ‘well we don’t really have the ability to do that.’ So I started researching the industry and went to shops in Athens, Paris, London just to see if there was anything like this. And London is where he kept offering me different products that were tailored to me. And I had to tell him, ‘Man, I live in Washington I don’t live in London.’ But the marketing wasn’t just ‘Hey here’s 20% iJoy products’ it was specific to me. And that’s exactly what I was not getting from stores in the US. So I went home and interviewed him about his whole business plan.”

Jason asked the owner of this London based vape shop about everything from their location, the look and feel of the store, their business model, their tasting station, and he found one key element that he knew would give his future vape shop the tailored experience he was looking for.

“What it all came down to was they had this super predictable business that was facilitated by a great rewards program. And it didn’t just send out emails to get you to come in for 20% off. It was personalized for each rewards member. And when we started our business, coming from my [Marketing] background the companies I worked for know their customer, they know what they like, and how to bring them back. And that buyer journey is all about personalization.”

“We find out from the customer what they like through conversation and what they buy, and we feed all of that into our reward program. So when they get any text or emails from us it is all related to their buying habits. And they thank us all the time for not sending them a bunch of crap.”

When we asked about how the rewards program was going in terms of new members signing up we were pleasantly surprised by the numbers.

“We add about 30-40 rewards members a week. And whenever they come in we pull up their rewards page and we know if they like watermelon vape juice, we see it right up on the screen. [We can see] When they bought their last coil so we know if they need a new one. Or we can ask, ‘Oh you bought The Reds, how’d you like it? That company released something new you might like. We’ve got it set up for you over here to try it out.”

It sounded like a lot, so we asked if it is a hard system to keep up with.

“Oh, it’s a pain in the ass up front. But it’s so worth it in the back. In our POS system, we use Lightspeed, and Kangaroo as the marketing system. And when they come in we put their interest in their tags. So say Randy comes in and buys watermelon vape juice and something from SMOK… we just go click-click-click and his interests are saved in his profile for next time. It took a while but now it’s very easy on the sales floor. We pull it up and see their info which facilitates the conversation. And when we create a marketing campaign for something, we filter it down to those individuals who are interested in that.”

“If they buy a particular coil, it’s in their profile, and two weeks go by and they’ll get a text or email, depending on how they opted in, with a special on that coil. A promo just for them. We have so many return customers.”

He also broke down his referral program for us:

“If I eat at a good restaurant, I’m gonna recommend it to someone. If that someone goes there, and I go back, they’re not giving me a free drink with my meal. But [Vape Savvy] will… We set that up and we give 100 reward points, which is equal to ten bucks, and give a text to let them know and tell them we appreciate it.”

If the name Vape Savvy sounds vaguely familiar it may be because they were the winners of our Swaggy Set Ups contest, where they submitted photos of their awesome new space and won our grand prize. When asked how important the look and vibe of his shop was he responded saying it was “Critical”.

“We knew if we provided a great environment, if you see pictures of our shop it’s very different from anything else out there. It’s super open, it’s kind of swanky and fun. We have the 65 flavor testing station. You walk in and we have a big couch and a TV. And...” he chuckled, “We have this big case when you walk in. And we noticed people weren't going to this big case and I was like, ‘Wow, we have all these great products in there, what’s going on?’ So we were brainstorming last week and I was like, ‘Let’s make this thing so when people walk in they just want to go right to the case. How do we do that?’ So we set up all our high end stuff there, with pink lighting, and a light projector that people use on their houses to make it look like snow is falling…” he chuckled again, “And I put a fog machine under it. So every thirty seconds fog goes up this case and the lighting… It just goes totally insane. We thought, ‘Lets try it, what the heck.’ And now when people walk in the first thing they do is go, ‘What the hell is going on there?’ And we’ve got our DotMods and Paranormals in there, all the high end stuff and ever since then these things have been selling like crazy.”

Another thing that makes them stand out among others is their roommate. A craft beer vendor.

“They have a super unique business model too and we share the space. They sell a thousand different craft beers from all over the world... So the cross over is great. They grab their new vape juice, new coil, grab a pint and sit down on our couch and watch the game.”

As for the future of Vape Savvy? Their website launches next week, they are looking to open three new shops locally within 18 months with hopes to franchise the business, and of course DIY. Jason and his partner Jim have been working to find a chemist that will meet Jason’s high business standards. “We’re gonna do it right,” he promises.

Jim has been on board with Jason from the ground up. “Without him there would be no Vape Savvy.” Says Jason, “He the manager, and he thinks like an owner. And that’s what you have to do to have a good manager, give them a voice, make them an owner. He has veto power if I come up with something he doesn’t like, it’s gone. And he’ll find a new solution. He’s an anomaly… It’s hard to find anyone, let alone someone who is 22, who can do what he does.”

Yes, that’s correct, Jim is only 22.

As for giving back to the community, a factor that can really make a difference in any shop, Vape Savvy has found a great way to mix vaping with community service. Due to FDA regulations, Vape Savvy, like all Vape Shops, has to charge a dollar for their testing station. But when customers come in for testing new flavors, they are giving their dollar directly to the local children’s hospital, and Vape Savvy matches every dollar donation.

He’s very happy to be working with EightCig. Sitting in and conducting most of the interview was his sales rep Eric, and it was apparent the two had a personal connection. They talked about meeting up here in Las Vegas during the Vape Expo, and going out to dinner together. Eric asked about his holidays, and how Jason’s wife’s recent surgery went. Eric even made Jason blush through the phone when he asked how working on having another baby was going. Jason and his wife, a teacher, have three children ages 27, 18 and 7, and could see another one in the future.

“The EightCig customer experience is great. Here’s the thing with Eric, he was working with us for three or four months before we even had a store. He was instrumental in taking our thoughts and making them realities. He was asking his other customers for advice for us about the location, the shop size, and inventory, all that. We have a few other people we work with. But they’re vendors. Eric is a partner. You’re our first call 100%. No Jim, no Eric, no Vape Savvy.”

Eric responded with humble appreciation, regarding them as a pleasure to work with. Almost immediately after, the two talked about Firefly, the Spanish tapas place they visited together in Vegas again and laughed.