This Startup's Brilliant Customer Service Strategy Is To Treat People 'The Way We Wish Our College Boyfriends Had Treated Us'

Jane Park, cofounder and CEO of the make-up startup, Julep, takes customer service very seriously. After all, Julep relies on its customers: Every new product the company makes is tested on a community of monthly subscribers before it gets mass-produced.

"We want to treat our customers the way we wish our college boyfriends had treated us," she told Business Insider.

Julep, which raised a $30 million Series C in April from Azure Capital, Madrona Venture Group and others, is constantly getting feedback to help it launch more than 300 new products every year. It's moving 10 times faster than traditional beauty brands.

Like a good boyfriend or girlfriend, Park says that Julep really listens to and values the input of the people who love it. It collects feedback from social media, its "Maven" subscription service, and a 6,000-strong community of fans that it calls its "Idea Lab." The company wants the relationship to be two-sided, and makes changes and launches products because of feedback. It also keeps a lot of data about its customers' likes and dislikes so that it can surprise them with tailored product recommendations.

In January, Julep went hands-on with a group of women to brainstorm the design of its unique (and crowd-funded) new product: the Julep Plié Wand, which helps people do their own nails more easily.

Park helps herself stick to Julep's customer service philosophy by interacting with people on her personal social media accounts and remembering to think of Julep's many customers as real people, not just numbers on a balance sheet.

Every day she clicks on several Julep orders and tries to imagine who those customers are as human beings. She then sends out three or four thank you emails, where she she tries to tie-in something personal that she noticed about the person, like relating to where they're ordering from.

Ultimately, Park says that Julep wants to emulate the perfect partner by making its customers feel really good: About how they look, what they can do, and how much their ideas matter. Julep wants to use beauty as a way to connect and to help women realize that there are no rules when it comes to make-up.

"Well, actually, there is one rule," she added. "Always wear sunscreen!"