How Hamperapp turned first-time users into loyal customers with Braze

Hamperapp launched in Miami, Florida in 2017 with a simple promise: to make laundry effortless. Its founders believed, and still do, that everyone deserves more time for the things that matter, which means spending less time on things like laundry.

The on-demand service handles pickup, cleaning (both drycleaning and wash and fold), and delivery—seven days a week. Customers can specify detergent type, fold style, water temperature, and fragrance sensitivity, and be assured that their orders are never mixed with another order. The company serves residential customers, but also commercial clients like hotels, Airbnb hosts, restaurants, spas, and healthcare facilities.

Considering that laundry is an always-on, repeat-need service, customer engagement is vital to the brand’s business model, as recurring customers create recurring revenue. And while Hamperapp’s great service led to operational growth that now spans more than 65+ cities across 12+ states since their founding, each new customer registration without an order represented a lost opportunity or a chance for a competitor to swoop in. In short, rapid growth put pressure on Hamperapp's customer engagement strategy in three critical moments: converting a new download into a first order, turning that first order into repeat business, and re-engaging customers who took a break.

Hamperapp needed a technology upgrade to keep pace with growth

As Hamperapp scaled, its original email provider didn’t provide the sophistication they needed to handle both the volume and complexity the brand was growing into. The team required smarter segmentation, multi-channel delivery, personalized campaigns, and automated customer journeys. They also needed a solution that would do the heavy lifting for them, considering that the team was small and moving fast. They discovered the Tech for an Equitable Future program at Braze at just the right time.

With Braze, Hamperapp focused on two primary challenges: retention and new user activation. Users were signing up but not converting to paying customers. The gap between registration and first order represented lost revenue on every marketing dollar spent acquiring those users. On the retention front, the brand wanted to identify at-risk users and reach them with timely, relevant communication before they churned. This required behavioral targeting their previous solution didn’t support.

Achieving personalization at scale through Braze

Hamperapp discovered Braze through the Tech for an Equitable Future program—a Braze initiative now in its seventh year that provides underrepresented entrepreneurs with 12 months of free access to the Braze platform and supporting services. The program gave Hamperapp access to enterprise-grade engagement infrastructure at an earlier stage of growth than would have otherwise been possible, which allowed them to build the kind of data-driven engagement strategy typically available only to larger and better-resourced competitors.

The team integrated the Braze SDK directly into the mobile app to capture user behavior and events in real time as customers interact with the platform, and connected their backend via API to sync customer data and trigger transactional campaigns based on specific actions, such as order placements, pickups, and deliveries. The first version of the campaign was built and launched in approximately 15 days using drag-and-drop email templates. But from there, they’ve continuously refined their approach month over month and added Liquid personalization to run across all messaging, dynamically personalizing content based on each customer's profile, preferences, and order history.

After initial setup, the team focused efforts on a quarterly residential engagement campaign designed to reach all residential users that expressed interest in Hamperapp's services. The campaign runs on a three-month cycle and is continuously refined based on conversion data from the previous period.

What makes this campaign distinctive is its level of personalization within a single unified flow. Rather than running separate campaigns for each segment, the campaign dynamically adapts to each customer. The campaign includes 160 message steps within Braze. Audience Path logic redistributes users weekly based on service interests shown in the previous four days. Then, using Liquid and custom attributes, the campaign personalizes messaging based on the specific service the customer showed interest in, their city, whether they are a first time user or a returning customer, and their recent activity level.

Real revenue results and customer proof

The shift from generic batch-and-blast emails to behavior-based, personalized messaging has produced measurable improvements across every stage of the customer journey. “Since launch, we have seen consistent growth in order volume, improved customer retention rates, and a direct increase in revenue attributed to the campaign,” said Jorge Rodriguez, CEO. “The shift toward personalized, behavior-based messaging has proven significantly more effective at driving conversions and sustaining long term customer engagement compared to our previous approach.”

Hamperapp's email program now runs at a 95.98% delivery rate with a 0.04% bounce rate. And a 35.52% unique open rate reflects that messages are resonating when they arrive.

New user activation is also trending up, as the new automated onboarding flow converts 4.85% of registered users into first-time customers, a rate that outperforms on-demand industry benchmarks. And perhaps most significantly, the residential engagement campaign built in Braze Canvas has generated $25,232.66 in attributed revenue per cycle, driving a 20.2% increase in customer stickiness over time. More importantly, customers are happy. As one customer put it: “Most convenient dry cleaning ever. Our drop off and pick up person is incredibly cordial and always takes good care of our items. Punctual. Fair pricing. Have never had an issue with items not being cleaned well or damaged. Definitely recommend!”

Thus far, Hamperapp has mainly focused on building more sophisticated programs for their residential (B2C) customers. However, they have grown significantly on the commercial side as well, serving Airbnb hosts, spas, healthcare facilities, and government clients. They are actively exploring how to extend their Braze infrastructure into these B2B workflows. They are excited to develop onboarding new commercial accounts, re-engagement for accounts that go quiet, and automated service updates.

“Braze gave us access to enterprise-grade tools that a growing startup like ours might not have prioritized our budget for otherwise, and Braze turned out to be exactly the right fit. Braze allows us to treat each user based on where they are in their journey.”

Jorge Rodriguez

CEO, HamperApp

Now in its seventh year, Tech for an Equitable Future provides underrepresented entrepreneurs with 12 months of free access to the Braze platform and supporting services, helping them build their customer base, accelerate growth, and scale sustainably. By providing access to Braze at an earlier stage of a company, these companies can grow their customer base, and in turn, give underrepresented founders a better chance of building successful businesses. To date, the program has supported over 70 founders to build on customer engagement within their brands.

Key takeaways

1. A single unified Canvas can simplify campaigns: Rather than managing separate campaigns for each user segment, Hamperapp built one residential Canvas with an Audience Path logic that reassigns users weekly based on recent behavior. This keeps messaging current without requiring a new build each cycle.
2. Marketing campaigns can help boost product adoption: Automated onboarding flows with behavioral triggers and personalized messaging helped increase conversion by 4.85% after users registered for the service, motivating them to place their first order.
3. Iteration pays in dividends: Hamperapp’s first email campaign launched in just 15 days after implementing Braze. That’s moving fast. Since then, the team has incorporated performance learnings into each quarterly cycle, leading to sophisticated personalization with measurable revenue results.

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