Any company with a logo that says “Better Loving Through Chemistry”—and whose signature product is called “Clone-A-Willy”—has to be an entertaining place to work. And a discussion with Vice President and CEO Joe Hanson bears that out.
“We make a conscious effort to maintain a really creative and fun atmosphere,” Hanson says. “We welcome everyone’s ideas and try to make this business a group effort. We’ve found that everyone seems to appreciate that.”
Empire Labs began as a synergy between Hanson and his partner, chemist David Claus, who is the inventor of the Clone-A-Willy process. At the time, Hanson was running an advertising agency in New York; he did an ad campaign for Claus and then became a distributor.
In 2001, the two men partnered up and restructured the company so it was no longer a sideline but a fully fledged business standing on its own. It’s been going strong ever since in Portland, Oregon. Besides the Clone-A-Willy kit, the company also produces Clone-A-Pussy and Make Your Own Dildo kits, as well as somewhat more traditional, but still unusual, adult toys.
Hanson says that Empire Labs’ strongest point is customer service—not so much for its retailers, but for the end users of its products.
“I think our level of customer service is very unusual in the adult industry,” he says. “Think about it: With most adult products, you take one home and take it out of the package, and it’s kind of obvious what to do with it.
However, because we’re selling uncured products to the general public, there’s a process involved. There’s no way this would work if we didn’t have an amazing customer service program.”
In the package instructions, Hanson says, customers are strongly encouraged to call the company directly if they run into any problems.
“If someone calls us and they messed up the mold, or they had a little too much wine the night before and they tried to do the kit—which happens a lot—we will send out molding powder, talk to them on the phone, or do whatever it takes to help them use the product correctly,” he says. “We want everyone who buys a kit to get a replica of what they’re trying to replicate, and we stand behind that. The company absolutely would not work if we didn’t do that. I think we’ve been successful because we’ve make a huge effort to do that from the beginning.”
Even—or especially—a customer who writes or calls to claim the product doesn’t work gets a personal phone call from customer service offering to help.
“We call them back within the next business day and help them, and then they end up telling 10 of their friends,” Hanson says. “This is a great word-of-mouth product. Customers can’t help but tell people about it, because you cannot not have a good time making one of our kits.”
Hanson provides a tantalizing glimpse of where the company may be going in the next 18 months.
“We’re trying to develop more crossover products, such as something that might sell in a convenience store,” he says. “I think that’s where the industry is going—to try to find things that are a little racy but also that would sell somewhere like that. In fact, we just got one of our products into Spencer Gifts. We’re trying to come up with more products like that.”
One area they’re particularly working on is using their molding process to develop Halloween products that should be available for Halloween of 2010.
“We’ve developed a new technology just for the Halloween market,” Hanson says. “David is a real expert when it comes to plastics and molding, so there’s always something interesting going on around here. Sometimes the UPS guy will come into my office and look around and go, ‘What the hell is going on in here?’ It’s definitely a horror show in my office sometimes.”
One thing that makes Empire Labs so much fun, Hanson says, is employee participation with new product development.
“If we come up with a new product, we make everyone a little kit to take home and try over the weekend,” he says. “Then we take everybody’s feedback. That’s one of the benefits of working here—you get to use your creative side of the brain, no matter what department you work in.”
This article originally ran in the December 2009 issue of AVN.
