When the Digital Customer Becomes Shareholder

This episode features a "Digital Strategy Spotlight" on McDonald's national launch of their loyalty program and their announcement of their new customer experience team. Both Adam and Ben talk about the changing definition of "customer experience" and discuss the operational update for the chain. Articles and Sites referenced for this podcast: McDonalds Website - MyMcDonald’s Rewards Forbes - McDonald’s Has Created A New Team To Focus On Customer Experiences Marketing Dive - McDonald's creates team to elevate diner experiences Restaurant Dive - McDonald's takes its loyalty program national CNBC - McDonald’s will launch its loyalty program nationwide in July

Adam and Ben bring you a feature series called "Digital Strategy Spotlight". Here, in these short 15-minute episodes, they discuss a brand's digital strategy or their recent changes to their digital strategy. They then give quick highlights, grade the change, and make predictions for what may be seen next from the brand. On this episode, Adam and Ben will discuss Wingstop. Wingstop announced that they decided to “take a page from the structure of many leading tech companies, which often house marketing and digital/IT functions together to supplement a 'MarTech' structure." With this change, they'll have two distinct teams that focus on varying levels of communication to their guests. One which will lead what they are calling 'micro,' one-to-one communication, and one which will lead 'macro,' one-to-many communication. In this episode, Adam and Ben discuss their thoughts on this move into the digital atmosphere and what it could mean for Wingstop's customers and organizational structure. Articles referenced for this podcast: NRN Wingstop Article: Why Wingstop's corporate shakeup is such a game-changer Wingstop press release Restaurant Dive - Wingstop shakes up marketing structure as it eyes 100% digital transactions Restaurant Business - Wingstop Prepares To Take On Manhattan

In this episode, Ben is joined by Brightloom CTO Brian Zimmer and two of Brightloom’s Sr. Data Scientists, Bryan Prazen and Felix Duyls. They discuss cool things happening in data science in regard to the retail and marketing landscapes. Ben and his team discuss the massive opportunities that exist in data to elevate customer experience and drive efficiencies in terms of how work gets done and to have an impact. They give examples of how broadly the range of opportunities is to use data science in predicting the future.

Ben shares insight into the origin of Amazon Prime Day and how retail companies like Amazon have been able to leverage technology at a massive scale to improve customer experience. Adam gives his angle on what is happening with “meme stocks” like GameStop and AMC Theaters. He comments on how their recent stock roller coaster and similar crypto activity may signal that we are entering a new era. They wrap with a brief talk about the resurgence of community into the picture of Community, Commerce, and Content.

On this episode, Adam and Ben speak with restaurant industry analyst Andrew Charles from Cowen. The three discuss what the restaurant industry is looking like now that people are getting "back to normal". Andrew dives into topics like digital sales from the restaurant's platform vs a third-party service and the new dynamics of ghost kitchens and AI voice ordering. Also mentioned is how brands are now fueled by data and data analytics around what customers want, as well as challenges that have arisen.

On this episode, Adam and Ben dive into the hot topic of cryptocurrency and its potential effect on the digital customer. They also talk about: How blockchain and the digitization of money are affecting customer interactions. Bitcoin versus other alt-coins and whether or not this is an opportunity for customer loyalty programs. How blockchain technology can provide additional flexibility of loyalty programs when data is distributed by blockchain and not controlled by the retailer.

In this episode, Adam and Ben speak with Aimee Johnson, the CMO of Zillow. Aimee describes her path to Zillow, how the buying/selling journey been digitized and accelerated by the pandemic, and even speaks about the Saturday Night Live skit around Zillow. Adam and Ben ask Aimee about houses that have been bought in the past 6 months through digital without anyone seeing the house in person. They discuss what parts of the customer journey for Zillow that still require a human touch. Aimee shares how she maintains focus with multiple opportunities and who she feels is doing a good job in the digital marketing area.

In this episode, we are joined by Dan Beranek, Vice President, Digital Product at sweetgreen. Dan shares insights on learning about in-store merchandising and cross-selling using the customer data available. We talk about creating better customer experiences and service by using big data. Dan shares how sweetgreen used mobile and website data to support the full-on shift to digital due to the pandemic. We discuss the growth of additional customer channels and what that means to business. Plus how sweetgreen went about balancing the data coming in through those channels. You'll hear the answer to -  How do you use data to simultaneously improve the customer experience while building available customer data? The discussion leans into how data can help give customers more of what they respond to positively versus what they may say they like. Dan answers the podcast’s favorite question: What digital customer experience is exciting to him right now?

Adam and Ben are joined by the CEO and Founder of Amperity, Kabir Shahani. Kabir discusses the inspiration behind starting Amperity, trends that he has seen in the marketplace over the past year, how the landscape has changed due to COVID, and what he thinks of data-driven marketing. Kabir talks about some of the most common misunderstandings that customers have around their data and the biggest sticking point for Amperity. Kabir gives advice to marketing and tech leaders. Lastly, Ben asks Kabir to speak on the brands that have impressed him as a customer.

This episode is a continuation of the awesome discussion from episode 14. We discuss how consumer brands can organize and manage data to unlock value. Adam and Ben examine and share examples of ways to utilize data to attract, build better relationships, and share worth with consumers. 1) Acquisition 2) Use data to understand & reward customers 3) Operations 4) Use data to better plan for future 5) Using data to generate customer insight. Adam and Ben also examine what brands need to do to leverage data using one of the 5 purposes. They explore one type of data acquisition to explain and provide details of how to accurately utilize that opportunity to assist with removing friction, product development, inventory planning, customer service, and more. Adam and Ben then stress the importance of having a team to effectively focus and implement strategies for all 5 opportunities in order to gather, examine, and process data to create more engaging content to attract and retain customers. They strongly believe that following these processes and systems is a stepping stone to growing your business. Tune in to hear and learn more!