1. Prioritize High-Touch in CS: Because DoggieLawn ships a perishable product, the company takes a hands-on, personalized approach to customer service. Natalie believes that emphasizing live support and empathy builds trust and shows genuine care for both the customer and their dog.
2. Cultivate Customer Relationships: Natalie stresses the importance of cultivating customer relationships to build confidence within a company. Using a sophisticated system, DoggieLawn tracked customer profiles and history – having this information available made customer interactions easy and efficient while making people feel like they were being taken care of.
3. Value Customer Feedback: Natalie credits customer feedback as integral to understanding how your product is performing and the reception of your company. By listening to an early customer, DoggieLawn overcame shipping challenges, eventually being able to send its perishable product to addresses within the contiguous United States.
4. Foster a Collaborative Team Environment: Natalie fosters internal innovation by empowering team members to test their ideas through low-cost, proof-of-concept approaches—an essential strategy for the company’s bootstrapped and resource-conscious growth model.
5. Avoid ‘Paralysis by Analysis: Natalie advises E-commerce entrepreneurs to combat burnout and indecision by focusing on one task at a time and avoiding overanalysis – emphasizing action and learning through doing over perfection in planning.
Short of a convenient and eco-minded option for an indoor dog bathroom that would work well in her apartment, Natalie Youn took matters into her own hands and founded DoggieLawn (followed later by Bark Potty). The solution: a real grass pee pad that mimicked the natural ground of a backyard. You’ll be inspired by how Natalie built a successful E-Commerce company by listening to product feedback, empowering her team to share ideas, and cultivating meaningful customer relationships.
Meet Natalie Youn, Founder of DoggieLawn and BarkPotty!
Our subscription service is designed to maximize the time spent playing with and loving your furry friend and minimize the time spent cleaning up after them. DoggieLawn provides an easy way for owners to allow their dogs access to a bathroom, yet it doesn't require the extra work that other indoor dog potties, such as pet pee pads, require. Better yet, our indoor dog grass pads lack the smell that is often associated with other indoor litter boxes or pee pads.
DoggieLawn has a ‘necessity is the mother of invention’ origin story. Natalie Youn was living in an apartment with her dogs and as a responsible pet owner, wanted an easy indoor dog bathroom that was both convenient and eco-friendly. At the time, the only options available were made of synthetic grass (incredibly taxing on the environment) and high maintenance. The solution: a pee pad made of natural grass that mimicked the ground of a backyard. Not just sustainable and simpler to maintain, Natalie’s option supported potty training for pets. She launched DoggieLawn 14 years ago and says looking back, “we’ve been distributing this product nationwide and helping people who have dogs and are looking for an alternative natural solution… It's been a great journey.” In 2014, she started Bark Potty, offering shelf-stable indoor dog pee pads made of bark.
Heading an E-Commerce company has allowed Natalie to connect with other dog owners over a shared commitment to finding healthy and eco-minded ways to care for their pets. “Thankfully, our business is still growing because people love their dogs now more than ever before and see them as an extension of their family,” she says. The joys of having a dog were made measurably clear during COVID when the company experienced an increase in sales due to people being home and spending more quality time with their pets or fostering. “Hearing the feedback from our customers about how our products have helped them and their dogs is always gratifying,” Natalie adds.
DoggieLawn’s team works remotely with the exception of a few in-office employees who manage order fulfillment. The customer service team is outsourced with agents based in other countries. The company has found success adapting to a hybrid model within an everchanging global economy. Natalie elaborates, “what’s been really good for us walking away from COVID is that we were able to open our doors to getting a wider talent pool and meeting people from different cultures.”
Shipping a perishable product means that DoggieLawn takes a high-touch approach to customer service to ensure orders arrive fresh and meet expectations. If a customer has any problems, there is a CS team member available and ready to help. “Our philosophy is that we want to be able to not just provide a service or product, but as fellow dog lovers, provide a convenient and helpful solution, and be there for them,” says Natalie. She adds that although their customer service team is larger than average for a company of their size, it's essential to provide customers the option to speak with live agents about their questions and concerns. “I think it helps people know that our company’s not out there just for money. But we’re out there to help them with a product to care for their dog.”
Evolution of CX at DoggieLawn
DoggieLawn has come a long way from its early days when Natalie was answering phone calls and emails. Today, the company uses a tracking system to keep record of customers’ profiles and contact history. Having this information readily on hand boosts customers’ confidence. “It helps people feel better. They think, ‘oh, DoggieLawn really understands me. They’ve already pulled up my profile and know what I like, what I don’t like, what my frequency is, and why I’ve called before.’ It helps to build the relationship,” Natalie comments. Because the natural grass pee pad is a high touch point product, they haven’t incorporated AI into CX operations just yet.
The critical nature of making sure products arrive safely and undamaged made shipping an issue after launch. When a woman in Florida, a state DoggieLawn wasn’t shipping to just yet reached out, Natalie decided to send her a product every week in exchange for honest feedback. “We’d be in constant contact. I always remember her being so important in our business,” Natalie says about how going above and beyond in turn helped push her company forward. “She will always stick out to me as a key customer that was critical to our business. I really appreciated her.”
At DoggieLawn, innovation comes from within, and Natalie empowers her team to share any ideas about products or operations. “I say ‘look, if you really believe in this idea, see it through, try it, and then throw it against the wall. And if it sticks, then it’s successful.” Approaching innovation this way has been especially useful for the bootstrapped company that focuses on frugal, proof of concept testing over investing without guaranteed returns.
DoggieLawn is primarily a direct-to-consumer company, Natalie says, noting that being a bootstrapped business forced her to take a methodical and careful approach to scaling. “Everything we do is with purpose and not out of step with each other. So, if we grow in sales, we are also growing with our team. This allows us to continue to support our customers and give them a high-quality product.” Being adaptable, flexible, and open to new technologies has also been critical business growth.
DoggieLawn is a subscription-based company, making customer retention a crucial part of its business model. Explaining their strong focus on customer service, Natalie says their goal is “to make our customers happy. We don’t view them as one-time buyers—we see them as part of a long-term relationship. How can we support them, so they continue to stay within the DoggieLawn family?”
It’s easy to get overwhelmed by the endless to-do list that comes with launching a business. To avoid burn out, Natalie advises aspiring entrepreneurs in the E-Commerce space to focus on one task at a time – each ‘checked’ item, over time, amounts to measurable progress. She also warns about ‘paralysis by analysis’ stressing that outlining one strategy after another isn’t ideal for a start-up. “I’ve seen so many situations where people overthink things, they become scared, and don’t know which decision to make. You just got to go out and try it.”
Can’t-live-without-tool? My phone is my #1 tool because it allows me to work and be in touch anywhere. Some people are like ‘why would you want to be so tied to work?’ But I see it in a more positive way – it gives me the freedom to do whatever I need to do to continue to have balance in my life. I can pick up my kids, or run errands, and still be plugged in. I can do my work but also do what I need to do during those moments in my life. I find it to be really convenient.
Key hiring trait? In addition to a culture and team fit, I look for a person who is a problem solver. In a start-up or small company mentality, you want to look for people who can solve problems on their own. They may not have the answer, but that is not going to stop them from doing something about it – go on Google, ask AI, watch a YouTube video, go on the platform and read the FAQs, ask customer support. Nothing is going to stop them because at this point in time, we have so much technology, we have all the answers at our fingertips. To not take advantage of that and find an answer - there’s no excuse for that.
#1 challenge as a leader? Finding work/life balance. I have a family and that has always been a struggle – being able to dedicate enough time to being a mom and to being a good boss. Growing up, it was always explained to me that you could be amazing at both. Now that I’m much older, it’s actually not true and I vehemently deny that claim. I think it sets up an unreal expectation for all of us, especially as a mom. You are not going to be good at certain things and that’s OK because you shouldn’t have to expect to be good at everything.Recent book or podcast? I don’t remember the title, but a recent podcast I listened to was about small talk – the reason why is because despite being a founder, I’m very introverted. I find it extremely exhausting to go out in certain social situations, meet people, and have extended conversations. So, I just wanted a little refresher on how to navigate through that scene, the importance of it, and getting a different take. I feel like the reason these podcasts are so beneficial is because it’s always good to keep learning and keep your brain fresh
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