When I was about 23 years old, I managed an online education startup. In this role, I was responsible for leading teams to design a high school curriculum from scratch.
I had the benefit of partnering with college professors and high school teachers, but it was my job to shape the vision of the whole program, understand the books used in each course, and be able to justify our team’s choices.
Our customers were conservative, Christian parents of homeschool and private school students. These parents were very careful about the level of academic rigor and moral backbone of their students’ educational material.
Among our customers, there was a wide range of opinions about what constituted “good educational material.”
One parent might be into classical education, allowing their children to read adult Greek and Roman myths. Another parent might be completely offended by the same stories.
No matter how carefully we worked with our teachers to design a curriculum that was both challenging and relatively kid-friendly, we’d still have parents call and complain.
So, rather than try to sanitize our content perfectly—an impossible task—or ignore the wishes of our customers entirely, we tried a new approach altogether.
We copied a fashion brand.
Around 2010, a new fashion brand opened. A true industry rebel. This brand built a cult following through ethically sourced materials, a transparent production process, fair pricing, and a unique direct-to-consumer sales approach.
That brand was called Everlane.
When I came across this brand, I was impressed by their website. It was nothing like anything I’d seen before. The website included a profile on each of Everlane’s manufacturing facilities, complete with photos of the staff and buildings. There was information on where the fabric came from, how the clothing was made, and how everything was done above board.
The product pages were even more unique. Every product page included the price of the item, along with the true cost. The product descriptions informed customers about everything, from the cost of the materials, to labor, to transportation costs. Customers knew the exact markup.
A $70 shirt is expensive. But when you find out it cost the company $35 to make, the price doesn’t sting quite as much. At least you know you’re not paying $70 for what might be a $10 shirt.
So, in the end, it’s not really about the price at all. It’s about trust.
If trust is important for a clothing company, it’s even more important in the world of education.
With the Everlane playbook in mind, we overhauled our website.
We decided that no matter how many customers we lost through transparency, we’d just be losing the ones who’d be disappointed anyway.
On each of our product listings (in this case, online courses), we included a full description of each book in the curriculum, complete with the major themes covered, the reasons why we chose the book, and a disclaimer about any content we thought parents might find offensive—even if some of the offensive content seemed really minor.
The result?
Our customers loved it.
The complaints got fewer. The angry calls started to fade away.
Instead, parents called and said things like “I wasn’t sure if I was going to sign up for your program, but when I saw how honest you were upfront, I decided you must be a trustworthy company. I knew I could trust you with my kids.”
Even if your customers don’t agree with all your decisions, it goes a long way when they can at least understand those decisions.
Instead of a one-sided sales pitch, the purchasing decision becomes a dialogue. A conversation between you and your customers.
Transparency earns trust.
And trust fuels growth.
this is such a good example of transparency doing something far more valuable than simply making a brand look trustworthy. You actually used it to improve customer fit.what I find fascinating is that you stopped trying to convince every parent that your curriculum was right for them and instead gave them enough information to decide for themselves. That probably saved your team an enormous amount of time managing disappointed customers, too.
there's a commercial lesson here that businesses often overlook: sometimes the best way to improve customer satisfaction isn't to change the product, but to be more honest about who it's for and who it isn't.
I'm so glad you brought this one back for Throwback Thursday. It's a wonderful example of an idea travelling from one industry into another and actually working!
Thank you for sharing! Trust and transparency are always key aspects! Great post :)