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.

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. In this episode, Adam and Ben discuss their thoughts on Wingstop's move into the digital atmosphere and what it could mean for Wingstop's customers and organizational structure.

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.

In this episode, Ben shares insight into the origin of Amazon Prime Day and Adam gives his angle on what is happening with “meme stocks” like GameStop and AMC Theaters.

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. 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 discuss how sweetgreen used mobile and website data to support the full-on shift to digital due to the pandemic. Dan speaks on 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.

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, and what he thinks of data-driven marketing. Kabir is asked about some of the most common misunderstandings that customers have around their data and the biggest sticking point for Amperity. 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. They provide their expertise and experience of how brands can use and/or have used these 5 types of opportunities to share knowledge. Tune in to hear and learn more!

With the unforeseen circumstances of the pandemic, this is now more than ever the digital era. Adam and Ben share their first-hand experience seeing how data can transform your customer experience. They examine and share statistics on the increase of digital ordering and sales due to the pandemic, as well as provide examples of brands and/or corporations that have benefited from this increase. They also explain the three types of data you have access to; first, second, and third-party data.

As we near the end of 2020, we’re going to have our first annual trends and prediction episode. Adam and I both feel that 2021 is going to be a huge year for consumer brands. We’ve come up with 3 key predictions or trends that we’re expecting to see in 2021. - The “new normal” might not be so new - What will be the new normal? - The rise of the recurring revenue business model. What changes will we see? - Will there be another wave of digital-only businesses? Tune in to find out!

Richard Tait joins Adam and Ben in this episode. Richard, previously of Microsoft, Starbucks, and Co-Founder of game company Cranium, is today a Partner with Valor Siren Ventures (VSV). Richard talks of his time at Microsoft, what he learned there, and his experiences in creating products. Hear the interesting story of how Richard created the game Cranium, as well as how he responds to constraint with creativity and reframes friction into opportunities.

This week Adam and Ben capture their conversation at the 2020 Netrush Summit to share on the podcast. The Netrush Summit is an annual event designed for premium consumer brands, hyper-focused on the shifting retail landscape. Leveraging Ben’s experience from his time at Amazon, they go deep into the discussion of the online marketplace (a website or app that facilitates shopping from many different sources) and how it has impacted the new digital customer.

Matt Oppenheimer, the Co-founder and CEO of Remitly joins the show. Remitly is a global money transfer service whose vision is to transform the lives of immigrants and their families by providing the most trusted financial service products on the planet. Matt shares how to deliver peace of mind to customers and how that ties into the brand. He talks about how Remitly started from the first customer, built customer trust, and then began to scale.

This week we are joined by Rodney Hines, the Co-founder and CEO of Métier Brewing Company. Métier Brewing Company is a mission-driven brewery based in the Seattle area. Rodney explains how Métier has changed their business and customer relationships during the pandemic. He also shares how they have increased diversity awareness through those customer relationships.

This week we are joined by Ian Cook, the General Manager of Slalom Build. Slalom Build is a “build-as-a-service” firm that consults and delivers cloud-first software, technology, and data products remotely. Ian explains how Slalom works with a wide range of companies to help them excel in modern technology that takes care of the Digital Customer. Ian shares case studies from some of Slalom’s consumer-facing work, including two very well known exercise brands.

Michael Ramlet, Co-Founder and CEO at Morning Consult joins this week to give a glimpse into the world of customer insight data. Morning Consult is the largest global consumer insights platform revolutionizing ways to collect, organize, and share survey research data to transform how decisions are made. Michael shares his thoughts on how some big brands have maintained and grown relevance with generation after generation.

In this episode, we discuss questions around the new state of digital customer experiences. Whom should a company be focusing on now? Existing customer relationships or new customer acquisition? Shane gives a great example of building the customer journey AFTER the initial customer interaction. We discuss the importance of using social sentiment data and how brands can utilize it to have productive discussions and learnings for guiding their brand’s reaction to social issues.

Joining this episode is Rob Tedesco, VP of Product at Hathaway. Rob shares the trends that should be top of mind in digital customer experience. Adam, Ben, and Rob share experiences with major brands as mobile commerce and marketing converge into customer experience platforms. Get a view of e-comm today vs pre-COVID in terms of the acceleration of digital customer channels. How has introspection and empathy changed as brands and marketing leaders re-focus?