When it comes to protecting its brand on social media, Glossy Box is taking a “no tolerance” approach to those who are aggressive on its channels and has stopped giving “back-handed” apologies to unsatisfied subscribers.

The stance comes as the beauty subscription service maintains the work it has already undertaken to transform its social media channels from “a customer care platform of abuse” in to a community of beauty fans who are passionate about Glossy Box’s products and content.

Speaking earlier today (25 May) at the New Rules of Beauty Marketing and PR event in London, Glossy Box managing director UK & Ireland, Rachel Kavanagh, said the company has created a ‘social bible’ to set the tone for how it talks to customers and will ask people to unsubscribe from the serivce if they are aggressive or abusive online.

“If there is someone who is persistent on social and on customer care and we see a pattern and it is aggressive and it is abusive, we will nicely ask them to leave the business model… it’s a community and that is how I see it. We are fiercely protective of our community and we want to nurture it.

“We don’t want it to become a customer care platform, that’s quite important. And also no backhanded apologies, no, ‘I’m sorry, you didn’t like that’ that stops. The customer isn’t always right… brands are actually going to start saying 'no you’re not right' to the customer. We have an authority, we know our position and we stand by it. This is our channel so that fear has to stop because you can’t progress. You don’t do your business any favours and you don’t do your customers any favours when you allow that level of negativity to take off.”

Kavanagh added that when she joined the business in 2013 it took a year for Glossy Box to turn around its social platforms.

And the shift comes with good reason. Around 80 per cent of new acquisitions for Glossy Box come from word of mouth on social media, with each Glossy Box subscriber talking to five people about the products they received in their box each month, it has claimed. It’s an organic strategy that means the brand undertakes little paid marketing.

“Ultimately this is the new ROI, it’s the new return on influence and so we very much see our subscribers and our community as our biggest influencers and drivers of our box acquisition.”

As part of its content strategy, the company is now investing heavily in digital video, something it has admittedly struggled with in the past, to capitalise on huge appetite for beauty demonstration videos among the highly engaged beauty audience.