The quiz everyone filled in and nobody used
At signup, subscribers answer a short quiz: T-shirt size, sock size, foundation shade range, skin type, 'anything you never want to receive'. It feels personal, and it is one of the reasons people choose your box. The answers go into a form tool, and some are copied into customer tags in the shop.
On packing day, the team packs medium socks for everyone who has no tag and works from memory for the rest. A subscriber who said 'no fragrance, sensitive skin' gets a scented lotion. Another changed their size by email three months ago; the tag was never updated.
The answers never reach the packing data
The quiz, the shop and the subscription app were set up at different times, and each holds part of the picture.
- Quiz answers are in a form tool that is not connected to orders.
- Tags in the shop are free text, so 'Size M', 'medium' and 'M ' are three different things.
- Updates arrive by email and are applied when someone has time.
- Subscribers who joined before the quiz existed have no profile at all.
- The packing list has no column for preferences, so they are checked by eye or not at all.
The promise of a box that fits is made at signup and quietly dropped at packing.
What mismatched boxes cost
A wrong size or a product the subscriber said they could not use is the kind of mistake that ends subscriptions, because it tells them their answers were ignored. Each one also costs a replacement posted separately and a support conversation. Where the preference relates to sensitivity or dietary needs, getting it wrong is more serious still, so the process needs to be reliable, not just usually right.
Your stock plan suffers too. Without counts of sizes and shades per month, you order by guesswork and end up short in one variant and overstocked in another.
How we connect preferences to packing
- Every subscriber gets a structured preference profile with fixed options for each question, stored alongside their subscription.
- Existing quiz answers and shop tags are imported and cleaned, with a person reviewing anything that does not map to an option.
- Subscribers can view and update their profile on the manage-my-box page, and changes made before cut-off apply to this month.
- Before you order stock, you get counts for each variant for the coming month, based on active subscribers' profiles.
- The packing plan turns each profile into a box recipe, so sizes and exclusions appear on the pick sheet for that box.
- Subscribers with a missing or unclear profile are listed before packing, with a short email asking them to complete it.
| Preference type | Example options | Effect on packing |
|---|---|---|
| Size | XS to XXL, shoe size bands | Selects the variant on the pick sheet |
| Shade or colour | Light, medium, deep | Selects the variant on the pick sheet |
| Exclusions | No fragrance, no caffeine | Swaps the item for a set alternative |
| Style | Bold or classic | Chooses between two box versions |
What an exclusion means, and which alternatives are suitable, is your decision based on your product knowledge. The system applies your rules consistently; it does not judge whether a product is suitable for someone.
Ordering and packing with profiles in place
When you plan next month, the variant counts are on screen: how many need each size, how many have a fragrance exclusion. You order to those numbers plus your own margin. On packing day, each box recipe on the pick sheet already shows the right size or the alternative item, and the few subscribers with missing profiles have been emailed and, where they replied, updated.
Changes made by subscribers during the month show up in the next plan without anyone copying them over.
Signs your preferences are getting lost
- Quiz answers live in a form tool that packing never sees.
- Size and preference tags are typed in different ways.
- Subscribers have received products they said they could not use.
- You order variant stock without knowing the counts.
- Profile updates by email take days to be applied.