How OpenPhone helped modernize and revolutionize the way Zazzy Box does business

Zazzy Box and its founder, Asit Shah, face a (literal) wake-up call 

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How do you transform a 40-year-old family business that’s always been run with pen-and-paper so it’s fully accessible online? And do so without losing the personal touch that made it so successful in the first place?

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It’s a daunting challenge, but it was the exact one Asit Shah faced when he took over his family’s custom diamond jewelry business.

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"When I entered the business, I wanted to create a digitally friendly experience so we could make amazing jewelry for people across the United States," Asit explains. "It’s been a turbulent, challenging process."

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He’s not alone in facing this challenge. Asit has seen many of his competitors tackle the same problems. Second- and third-generation business owners grapple with increasing their family companies' relevance in an era where online shopping is dominant. Many are struggling to adapt, unable to bridge the gap between skilled craftsmanship and a base of customers who expect everything to be accessible at the touch of their fingers. 

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Asit couldn’t just come in, design a nice website, add some buy now buttons, and call it a day. When a customer invests in a $3,000 custom diamond ring — a deeply personal purchase likely to become a cherished family heirloom in the years to come — they expect more than just transactional service. A chat box exchange or a series of emails sent off into the ether to face unpredictable and unknowable response times aren’t going to cut it.

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Customers want real connection. They want to feel like they’re talking to a human being, not an automated system. This means having conversations, building trust, and providing the kind of experience that can only be delivered in the same way many customers talk to their friends and family: via text. 

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“I actually hated texting in the beginning. But I had to quickly learn to text with everyone because the supply chain side of our business uses WhatsApp and other texting tools. I just had to accept that this is how our supply chain likes to talk.” says Asit. “And then I found out that customers also like that experience.”

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In the early days, Asit was the main point of contact for Zazzy Box. Every order, every customer conversation, every update; it all went through his personal phone. This ensured customers had direct access to the human connection they craved while also guaranteeing a high level of support.

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But as the business grew, so did his stress. 

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With everything tied to his phone, Asit started to become a bottleneck. His assistants couldn’t step in to help, and every task that involved interacting with a customer — from sending designs for approval to answering basic questions about store hours — demanded his personal attention. Every notification and text exchange chipped away at his ability to scale the business without going crazy. 

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He knew it was a problem, but with a million other priorities, finding a solution kept getting pushed to the bottom of the list. Plus, he’d never seen a tool that could support what Zazzy Box needed. 

Until one day…

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“I got a few text messages between 3 a.m. and 6 a.m. I was like, yeah, no, we can't be doing this anymore. This is my breaking point. The business had grown from one customer to hundreds of customers. And as we scaled, my phone became anxiety inducing. I either needed something that could contain this or change the entire way we managed customer communication.”