Who Gives A Crap eco-friendly toilet paper supports safe sanitation.Who Gives A Crap
The brand with a purpose gives 50 per cent of its profits to help building toilets and improving sanitation around the world. So far,Who Gives A Crap has given more than $10 million to charity. It operates in more than 40 countries and employs more than 160 staff.
“We’re a business at scale-up phase. We had been doubling revenue year-on-year,so even before the pandemic we were on a rollercoaster,” says vice president of people and culture Ellie Smith.
“COVID meant we were on an even more intense and fast-paced ride. We spent a year and a half just doing everything possible to heed the call and make sure people didn’t run out of toilet paper.”
Back to basics
Ellie Smith,vice president of people and culture at Who Gives A Crap.Who Gives A Crap
With the pandemic’s heights hopefully now in the past,Who Gives A Crap is once again building on the solid foundation it established before the health crisis.
“We’re making sure we’re giving people what they want when it comes to toilet paper,while continuing to stay true to our people-first commitment for our team and our community. Right now,it’s all about scaling up and moving from being a young start-up,to hitting our overarching goal to help everyone in the world have access to clean water and toilets,” she says.
Demand for Who Gives A Crap’s toilet paper rose by 1100 per cent during the early stages of the pandemic,driven by lockdowns and the ensuing panic buying. The company was able to track sales activity over three global ecommerce stores in real-time via San Diego-based direct-to-consumer data analytics agency,Daasity.
Using Slack - and specifically Slack’s external communication function,Slack Connect - the company was able to work seamlessly with Daasity throughout this spike in product orders,switching from cluttered inboxes and long email threads to real-time messaging in Slack channels.
“It’s so convenient and easy to communicate and collaborate with our external partners in one place with Slack Connect. Conversations are really easy to lose track of if you’re moving to and from different platforms,and Slack solves this for us,” says Smith.
“It’s an easy way for us to bring people into the business,especially if they need to work with lots of different people in our teams. It’s like bringing someone into an office and introducing them to everyone. And it’s a platform we know how to navigate. So,there’s zero ramp up required when we bring someone new into the business.”
Tracking real-time data with Daasity in this way allowed the Who Gives A Crap team to quickly pivot to setting up an email waitlist while they restocked,to avoid disappointing new customers around the world. Smith says meeting this demand was made easier because the team was already distributed and global.
“Before the pandemic hit,we had moved beyond having to look at our metrics and inventory on an hourly basis. Then,we went right back to a world where we were watching numbers all the time. It helped that our team was already comfortable being remote and distributed. So,we felt like we’d done all the training and it wasn’t a drill anymore. This was for real.”
Who Gives A Crap treats Slack as its virtual office.
“Name any topic or conversation and there will be a home in Slack where that conversation lives. This includes formal communication,updates on changes happening in the business,as well as collaboration and projects,” she says.
Slack Connect also supports fast-paced collaboration. Smith says it also helps improve access to people in the business and helps team members prioritise how they spend their time.
Says Smith:“We encourage our team to update their status so that people can see what they’re doing,so it empowers people to take time out if they need to.”
Sending a positive message
Smith says Who Gives A Crap,whose products are made from bamboo or 100 per cent recycled fibres,also played an important role at the height of pandemic buying,helping to get the message out that there was plenty of toilet paper for all.
“We took the opportunity to spread some joy,positivity and kindness at a stressful time.”
Nevertheless,longer-term supply chain issues remain a challenge.
“We are dealing with the same challenges everyone is dealing with right now. But we let our customers know what’s happening,so they trust us. This means we are supported to focus on finding long-term solutions,” says Smith.
Right now,the Who Gives a Crap team remains focused on converting as many people as possible to more eco-friendly and purposeful consumption,and focusing on meeting its long-term objective of giving everyone in the world access to good sanitation.
“We want to make it easy for people to make great decisions about how they spend their money.”