# Wyld Chyld Tattoos Canonical page: https://sunlocke.com/case-studies/wyld-chyld-tattoos-email-sms Page type: caseStudy ## Summary Every consent form at Wyld Chyld Tattoos asked for a name, a birthday and an address. At the shop in Merrick, New York, those forms went into a file, and staff rarely typed any of it into a computer. By law, the shop must give every client aftercare instructions after a tattoo or piercing. When the consent form moved to iPad kiosks, the names, birthdays and addresses started going straight into the shop's CRM. A CRM, short for customer relationship management, is the system that holds client records. After the signature and the ID, the iPad consent form now ends with a one tap option to join the shop's email list for promotions, deals and events. We grew that list on purpose, because the shop owns the data. In winters without an ad budget, email was a safe fallback, and when the budget was there, the shop ran both ads and email. To cover the new custom work, the shop moved from our Foundation tier to our Growth tier. We covered the cost of the email list, which the email platform bills by subscriber count. Postmark, a transactional email service, automatically sends every client aftercare instructions after a tattoo or piercing, whether they subscribe or not. We still run the shop's email program, which we built for them. The list grew from about 1,000 subscribers in the first year to about 16,000 in the fourth. We plan seasonal promotions with the shop, based on pooled data from all of their tattoo clients. In the first year, client retention rose 22 percent. That figure compares the past clients in the system when we started with how many of them came back. Over two years, Google reviews grew from about 200 to more than 500, and their rating rose from about 4.2 to 4.7 stars. ## Client Wyld Chyld Tattoos Industry: [Tattoos](/industries/beauty-and-body-art/tattoos) Services * [Email & SMS Marketing](/email-sms) ## Before Every consent form at Wyld Chyld Tattoos asked for a name, a birthday and an address. At the shop in Merrick, New York, those forms went into a file, and staff rarely typed any of it into a computer. By law, the shop must give every client aftercare instructions after a tattoo or piercing. When the consent form moved to iPad kiosks, the names, birthdays and addresses started going straight into the shop's CRM. A CRM, short for customer relationship management, is the system that holds client records. ## The hidden cost The owner of the Merrick shop needed past clients to come back, because walk ins alone were no longer enough. Once a client left, no one followed up to ask how the session went or whether the tattoo needed a touch up. On Google, the shop had about 200 reviews and a rating of about 4.2 stars. ## What we did After the signature and the ID, the iPad consent form now ends with a one tap option to join the shop's email list for promotions, deals and events. We grew that list on purpose, because the shop owns the data. In winters without an ad budget, email was a safe fallback, and when the budget was there, the shop ran both ads and email. To cover the new custom work, the shop moved from our Foundation tier to our Growth tier. We covered the cost of the email list, which the email platform bills by subscriber count. Postmark, a transactional email service, automatically sends every client aftercare instructions after a tattoo or piercing, whether they subscribe or not. ## How they felt ## Outcome We still run the shop's email program, which we built for them. The list grew from about 1,000 subscribers in the first year to about 16,000 in the fourth. We plan seasonal promotions with the shop, based on pooled data from all of their tattoo clients. In the first year, client retention rose 22 percent. That figure compares the past clients in the system when we started with how many of them came back. Over two years, Google reviews grew from about 200 to more than 500, and their rating rose from about 4.2 to 4.7 stars. ## How we did it We split the list into groups, and new subscribers get a series of welcome emails. After a tattoo, a check in email asks how the session went and whether a touch up is needed, and a yes alerts the front counter to book it. An internal triage receives all client feedback, and the shop deals with the bad experiences it turns up, sometimes by fixing a tattoo or giving store credit. Then, a few weeks after a tattoo or piercing, every client gets a request for a Google review. Clients who have not been in for 180 days get a win back email inviting them to return. We first sent it at 90 days, which was too early. ## Results * **Retention Up 22%**: Client retention rose 22 percent in year one. * **16,000 Subscribers**: The email list grew from about 1,000 in the first year to about 16,000 in the fourth. * **500+ Google Reviews**: Over two years, reviews grew from about 200 to more than 500, and the rating rose from about 4.2 to 4.7 stars.