Good Behaviour, created in February of 2021, began as an ice cream and sub-sandwich pop-up located in Toronto. When their first brick-and-mortar was opened, they launched a sister-menu of subs to ease the unpredictability and seasonality of ice cream sales. They currently have 2 full-time shops that they operate as well as a pop-up operating out of the harborfront. Like many businesses initiated during the pandemic, they tried to find any way possible to build their brand, create awareness, and minimize expenses. Good Behaviour attributes much of their success to their social media savvy-ness, explaining that without Instagram, none of this would be possible.
These days, most Gen-Z and Millennial customers find new restaurants through social media, particularly Instagram (IG). With a 16K following on IG, the Good Behavior team initially viewed Instagram as the only “free” platform for their growth and as a way for the brand to look “bigger” than it was. They targeted different demographics, first being those in their industry (like chefs and food connoisseurs) and getting approval from people with credibility. Then they understood that the people who would follow in their footsteps would be bloggers and food writers. Finally, the third tier to follow was the general public. Their website engaged customers from Instagram to sign-up for an email list (providing the company with more data) and purchase products. Those two channels fed into each other and brought them to a following of around 4-5k. To get to the idolized 10K, Good Behaviour ran contests and giveaways and partnered with other growing brands to promote cross-traffic and, of course, brand awareness.
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“Instagram is 100% essential in our building of the business because we had no other way of building customers,” says Chow.
In COVID especially, people were isolated in their homes and looking for ways to find engagement. Customers would hear the information over Instagram exclusively and then place their orders on their website. Most of their customers today still DM them rather than call. After gaining a following and building the email list, only then could they start to communicate in other ways. Eric believes that social media is the most cost-effective way to build your business, all while building customer trust and loyalty.
Although customer loyalty is hard to measure, there seems to be a trifecta that has remained for years and likely won’t change anytime soon. That trifecta is how good the product is, how unique, and how good the service is. Social media, however, is still the main way newly established businesses can bring those customers through the door. But, if you’re pushing a specific promise on Instagram and you don’t follow through with the trifecta, you will likely not be able to retain those customers.
Instagram also allows brands to connect with potential customers outside of their geographical realm. Businesses can look at their IG data and understand what cities these individuals were coming from to inform business decisions like where to move next. Instagram also poses an exciting way for businesses to analyze their competitors in other spaces. They can see what they’re doing, how they’re selling, and what content people engage with to learn best practices.
Although Good Behaviour was able to use the power of social media to their advantage, the influx of traffic posed operational errors as well. Before onboarding Deliverect, Good Behaviour was using 3 different delivery channels to receive orders. The operational aspect proved difficult without an aggregator as someone at the cash would need to re-punch all orders into their Square POS, exponentially increasing room for error. Once Deliverect was programmed, operations and inventory management became absolutely seamless.
Flawless operations and killer social media posed to be a recipe for success for the Good Behaviour team.
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