The Clienteling Podcast

Interview with Scott Lux

In this episode, Scott Lux joins the show and is interviewed by Bryan Amaral. Scott is a senior executive with experience in various aspects of ecommerce, digital strategy, marketing and analytics from both the brand side and agency perspective. He is currently an Adjunct Professor at Columbia and FIT and is the VP/Head of Digital Marketing and Digital Commerce at Theory and Helmut Lang.

The show starts with Bryan and Scott discussing what it was like to join a new company just as retail shut down due to the pandemic. He discussed the need to lead and manage a team remotely and make a determination of what was the appropriate tone and voice to message their customers given the crisis... especially when ecommerce was the only channel open that "could keep the lights on".

He shared that as the realization that the crisis was not short term, inventory issues needed to be addressed through aggressive promotional strategies. Scott shares how clienteling outreach and associate communication with customers made a positive impact on the business and how customers welcomed hearing from associates.

Scott discussed how they were mindful of proven best practices and knew exactly what data measurements were important. The data was used to assess if their strategy was working and if were they meeting objectives and if not, how could they optimize. Scott shares examples of cost of acquisition and what LTV could be anticipated so they could determine if the customer acquisition spend was prudent. He explained how they set records on daily and monthly volume with rapid promotional programs designed to move inventory quickly in the early stages and how those same metrics were leveraged to help move audiences to full price product later.
Scott explained how chat was an example of a rapid customer experience design initiative to get customers back to full price selling. He talked about his optimism for the next generation of retail stores, and elevated experience (experience design) and the need to have a tactile experience with product.
Bryan asked Scott about how he prioritized activity and made it work remotely.
1. Need to instill trust that they will get their job done.
2. Leadership and mentorship - maintain culture to unify the team
Scott talked about how he thought about prioritizing new feature and capability platform enhancements and assessing if current solutions can meet future demand. He shared his perspective on how ISV's should do their homework prior to reaching out to busy leaders.
The show wrapped up with three nuggets that retailers should keep in mind for the journey ahead:
1. Customer First/Experience Design across all touch points
2. Foundational elements - ensure that you have solid practices in place
3. Maintain your culture and team

Resources:

Scott's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/scottlux/

Scott's Email: [email protected]
Bryan's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bryanamaral/
Bryan's Email: [email protected]

In this episode, David Ressinger and Jim Malafronte join the show and are interviewed by Bryan Amaral. David and Jim are founding partners at a new retail consultancy, Zenza Consulting.
David is a Strategy and Operations consultant with over 25 years of experience delivering business value for his clients in areas such as retail and brand strategy, store operations, and technology innovation. David was previously with several boutique consulting firms as well as Andersen Consulting.
Jim has over 30 years of experience with a concentration in workforce management, retail strategy, omnichannel retail, customer engagement, technology, merchandising, analytics and process engineering. Jim was previously with Macys as well as KPMG and Deloitte.

First, the guests explain why they formed the new consultancy and what makes Zenza relevant in today's challenging retail environment.
Next, the duo discussed those issues that are impacting retail operations today. Topics included demand fluctuations and the impact on inventory, spending patterns, traffic, and labor requirements. Jim shared perspectives on workforce management and why existing models and metrics don't make sense in a post-COVID world.
The team discussed the changing complexion of stores, the development of new and smaller store formats, new staffing decisions consistent with the changing roles of stores, new technology investments, and improving customer experiences. They more deeply explored key operational areas such as revisiting the labor model, forcasting challenges, operational execution, utilization, and the importance of doing the right thing for a specific time of day, every day, every week.
Finally, Jim and David shared a few golden nuggets that retailers should be considering as they move forward into the next age of retail.

Enjoy the show!

Resources:

Zenza Consulting Website: zenzaconsulting.com
Zenza Consulting Phone: 1-630-240-2034
David's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/daressinger/

Jim's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jim-malafronte-7015b23/

Bryan’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bryanamaral/

Bryan’s Website: https://www.clientricity.net

Bryan’s Email: [email protected] or [email protected]

Call Bryan: 404-348-4849

Tags: retail clienteling clientricity zenza consulting

By popular demand! In this episode of The Clienteling Podcast, Bryan Amaral discusses the reasons that many retailers are failing to transform in the face of disruption and he offers an Organizational and Customer Manifesto highlighting what retailers need to do to thrive in 2021 and beyond. Today's podcast is based on a presentation Amaral gave at the Retail Touchpoints Live event at RetailX in Chicago in June of 2019.
The original slide content is available here:
http://clientricity.net/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/The-Retail-Landscape-of-2021-RTP-RetalX-Presentation-June-2019.pdf
Highlights of today's podcast:

Everybody talking about the digital transformation, but what does it mean?

Retail is trying to get its shift together...

The first step on the journey...

13 Ways Retailers are Failing to Make the Transition

1. Lack of Clarity for What “Good” Looks Like.
2. Culture is not driven by data insights.
3. Fiefdoms and disparate systems.
4. A ROI mandate that doesn't support innovative ideas.
5. Risk Adversity. Lack of internal leadership.
6. Protect the organizational structure.
7. Lack of store-side CX insight or expertise.
8. Failing store level execution.
9. Underinvest in Technology
10. No single view of what is happening.
11. Lack of capital to acquire systems and personnel.
12. Hoping technology alone will solve the problem.

A New Organizational Manifesto for Retailers

• The truth will set you free! Start with Real World Data...
• Lead boldly, tear down convention, hire CX skills, create new customer value and execute “top down” flawlessly!
• Don’t just DO digital...BE digital!

A New Customer Manifesto for Retail

• Make it easy! Fast, efficient, frictionless & flexible.
• Tell Me What I Want to Know! Don’t Abuse My Data!
• Make it Mine! Express my individuality and identity through your brand and products. Engage Me in Fun, Memorable Experiences! Make the exploration fun!
• Let me Drive! But be there when I need help!
• Know my “Shopper DNA” and what it takes to make me happy!
• I’m social, I’m digital, I’m always on...you should be too!
• Let me become part a community of wildly passionate advocates! Create experiences and formats that connect people and immerse them in the brand narrative.

New Formats & Operating Models

What’s working and why?

New Formats and Models

• Showrooms and Discovery Zones
• Personalized & Customized Products
• Storefront as a Service
• Immersive “Phygital” Storytelling

What We Can Expect in 2021?

Resources:

Bryan’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bryanamaral/

Bryan’s Website: https://www.clientricity.net

Bryan’s Email: [email protected] or [email protected]

Call Bryan: 404-348-4849

Clienteling Best Practice Series:
Part 1 - Pre-Implementation
Part 2 - Implementation & Go-Live
Part 3 - Engagement and Selling

In this episode of The Clienteling Podcast, Bryan Amaral highlights those topics that must be considered prior to implementation of a successful Clienteling project.
1. Vision, Alignment and Baseline Metrics:
• A thoughtful approach with a disciplined methodology
• What is the Vision for your brand? What are your goals?
• What types of engagement and journeys?
• How and when do you customers want to engage?
• What types of engagement are possible for your brand?
• What is the role for your associates?
• What does clienteling success look like for all stakeholders
• Analyze Data. What does it tell us about relationships & behavior?
• What winning practices can be replicated at scale
• What can be measured and what ROI could be expected?

2. Assess Current & Desired Behaviors:

• Interview store teams and analyze customer engagement at every touchpoint.
• How are associates engaging? Labor & staff/customer ratio?
• What are the “hero” outcomes? What are the failure points?
• Do you monetize store events? Are associates reaching out? Scheduling appointments? Engaging in specific dialogues? Capturing information and contact preference? Identifying the next best action?
• Do your associates have adequate product knowledge & customer info? Have you identified archetypes?
• How do your customers use mobile today?
• Where is there friction? What’s missing?
• What are customers unhappy about?

3. Assess Training and Change Management

• Do you currently have a sales methodology? If so, how will clienteling fit into that? What can clienteling do to enhance it?
• How are sales skills trained, monitored and managed?
• Will you identify store-level solution champions?
• Who will do the solution training? Who trains the trainers?
• How will your Sales Associates, SM’s, DM’s be incentivized to use the solution? Programs and contests?
• How will adoption be monitored and managed?

4. Marketing, Ecommerce & BI Alignment

• Who owns the customer experience? How does each functional area of the business collaborate to leverage customer data to create the CX?
• How will Marketing and Ecommerce initiatives be executed at the store level?
• How will “store to customer” digital transactions be attributed? Will store associates get credit for online sales?
• What customer and associate data attributes need to be shared across all constituents?
• What data insights will be used to drive personalization and communication from clienteling?

5. Pre-Implementation Checklist

1. Baseline Data Analysis and Existing Relationship Practice Insights
2. Document Desired Sales and Omni-channel Engagement Practices
3. Define Roles and Linkage Between Marketing, Ecomm and Store Execution
4. Document Strategy for Training and Change Management Approach
5. Pro-forma Business Impact Model Yielding ROI/IRR from Desired Behaviors

Resources:

Bryan’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bryanamaral/

Bryan’s Website: https://www.clientricity.net

Bryan’s Email: [email protected] or [email protected]

Call Bryan: 404-348-4849

John Liebler Interview Pt. 2 of 2

In this episode, John Liebler joins the show and is interviewed by Bryan Amaral. John is a senior executive offering 30+ years of visionary leadership in-store operations, multi-unit management, and operations logistics with brands such as Kay Jewelers, Jared, Peoples Jewelers and Shinola. He is a passionate, motivational leader who builds successful, inspired, and customer-focused sales teams that drive results.

First, John describes the challenges of implementing clienteling. Nobody wants to spend a substantial sum of money on technology and then have no one use it. John has had both successes and misses; he reveals the top three things that have most impacted clienteling:

1. The most tenured salespeople are resistant. So, John would reach out to this group and get their feedback on the technology before and after implementation. You need to be willing to make changes.

2. John did not fully understand the impact that technology would have on the selling process. When do you capture guest information? How will technology impact the sales process? If not careful you could be losing the guest’s engagement. Some issues didn’t come to light until after testing the technology.

3. Make sure you get the data right. John had a big challenge with duplicate records.
Then, John reveals the most effective metrics:

· Sales made after outreach.

· New guest acquisition.

Later, John explains the importance of getting your customer’s name. Every customer that comes into your store is an opportunity. In many organizations, they did secret shopping. They find out if their salespeople captured a name and if they did an outreach. From there, his team would create KPIs and create a training around it.

John shared his formula regarding transforming with new technology.

OP+NT=EOP (Old Process plus New Technology equals Expensive Old Process).

There are three things that incredibly important when implementing clienteling:

1. Choosing the right solution.

2. Putting the steps in place to ensure a successful implementation. Don’t let the business drive the timeline.

3. Drive user-adoption.

Enjoy the show!

Timestamps:

• [01:00] About John Liebler

• [03:00] The most significant challenges with adopting clienteling

• [09:30] Perfection is the enemy of progress

• [11:00] The most effective metrics

• [16:45] Advice for implementing clienteling

Resources:

John’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/johnliebler1/

John’s Website: https://retailsuccessconsulting.com/

Call John: 330-283-6449

Bryan’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bryanamaral/

Bryan’s Website: https://www.clientricity.net

Bryan’s Email: [email protected] or [email protected]

Call Bryan: 404-348-4849

Quotes:

̈ “There is going to be a hesitancy to use a new system.” -John

̈ “Getting it right the first time becomes extremely important.” -John

̈ “You have to give a reason for the customer to give you their name that’s noninvasive.” -John