0:00

It doesn't matter what kind of e-commerce brand you're

0:02

building . You still need a rock solid way to grow

0:04

and scale your company like Clockwork . Welcome

0:07

to 7 Figures and Beyond an e-commerce

0:09

marketing podcast for D2C brand owners

0:11

and marketers , looking for best practices

0:14

that include proven strategies and tactics

0:16

to grow an e-commerce brand to 7 Figures

0:18

and Beyond . Bringing 18 plus

0:20

years of marketing experience as an e-commerce

0:23

brand owner and e-commerce agency owner

0:25

, please welcome your host , Greg Shuey

0:27

.

0:27

All right , hey everyone , welcome

0:30

to episode 14 . We're getting

0:32

up there of the 7

0:34

Figures and Beyond podcast

0:36

, so it's that time of

0:38

month again . Laurel is back

0:41

and she is ready

0:43

to talk strategy . I don't know

0:45

if you know , I don't know if she loves this , you

0:47

know , we've never really had that discussion , as if

0:49

, like , I'm almost kind of forcing her

0:51

to do this . Yeah

0:53

, a little bit . So one of the

0:56

large strategic discussions that

0:58

I like to have with our

1:00

prospects and our customers is

1:02

around customer experience

1:04

. Why is that so

1:06

? A positive customer experience

1:09

directly correlates to

1:11

how much money a customer

1:13

spends with your brand over time

1:15

. So if you want to improve your

1:17

customer lifetime value , you

1:19

need to improve the customer experience

1:22

, and it's really as simple as that . Actually

1:25

, it's not that simple . It's simple in terms of execution

1:27

, but it's not

1:30

simple in terms of execution , but it

1:32

is simple in concept . So

1:35

it's going to be a really awesome

1:37

discussion . It's something that brands need

1:39

to put more attention towards

1:41

in 2024 . And

1:45

they need to get on board with this

1:47

. So buckle up , all right

1:49

, I think . What ? Is this the third time we've had

1:51

you on Laurel ? I think so . So

1:54

for any of our new listeners who are wondering

1:56

who the heck Laurel is like . Why is she

1:58

back ? Why don't you

2:00

give us just a brief introduction

2:03

? You don't need to go into as much detail as you

2:05

did the first time . Give

2:07

us a little history lesson on who you are

2:09

and why you are awesome . How

2:12

about that ?

2:13

Why you're awesome .

2:14

Great .

2:15

Hi everyone . I'm Laurel Tuscher

2:17

. I'm the VP of services here at

2:19

Stride . I've been at Stride

2:21

almost nine years helping e-commerce

2:24

businesses grow their revenue through

2:27

really just improving and expanding their

2:29

marketing reach . I have

2:31

a master's degree in library

2:33

and information science and in my

2:35

spare time I read , I travel

2:38

and I'm a season ticket

2:40

holder for the local NWSL

2:42

soccer team and a local college

2:44

basketball team . So , that's

2:46

me in an up show .

2:47

And when she says local college basketball

2:49

team , I assume that's BYU . Is that right ?

2:51

Yeah , yeah .

2:52

So it's a university , it's not even

2:54

a college , it's just a little school here

2:56

in Utah called BYU and

2:59

you know they're pretty good these days , so

3:01

you've probably you've probably heard of them . They

3:03

went a lot of games .

3:06

So they're playing in like an hour and a half

3:08

for the NCAA tournament

3:10

.

3:10

So there you go , there you go . I

3:13

don't follow BYU basketball , I wouldn't

3:15

know that Anyway . So

3:19

I've prepared a couple of questions for our

3:21

conversation today . Are you

3:24

ready to jump in ?

3:25

Yeah , let's do it .

3:27

All right , so let's first

3:29

take just a few minutes to really unpack

3:32

what customer experience

3:34

is and why it's important

3:37

for brands to focus

3:39

on and to allocate resources

3:41

and time Like why is that important

3:43

?

3:44

Yeah , so customer experience

3:47

like I feel like

3:50

it's really hard to explain in

3:52

a digital space . So let's talk about like

3:54

retail stores , because managers

3:56

, employees , are always considering

3:59

the customer experience in like retail

4:02

stores or restaurants . When

4:04

I was a teenager , I worked in a retail store

4:06

and I remember my store

4:08

manager like walking me to the area

4:10

that I was in charge of and

4:13

like she wanted me to like

4:15

look at that space and like figure

4:17

out how to organize the product so that

4:19

the customer could come into that space

4:22

, find what they wanted and

4:24

maybe browse some more and add on to their

4:26

car like multiple things . And

4:29

so that like was the customer experience

4:31

Like in store . What did they see , what did

4:33

they interact with , what did they look

4:35

at Like that's customer experience

4:37

.

4:38

Right , and that's how that was before

4:40

the internet kind of took off

4:43

, right . I remember working at Chick-fil-A

4:45

when I was 15 . That was

4:47

a lifetime ago . You

4:49

know , chick-fil-a , that little fast food company

4:52

that really excels at customer experience

4:54

. Quote , unquote , my pleasure , you

4:56

know we didn't have to say that

4:58

back in the day . That's something

5:00

new . Anyway , you

5:03

know when we were trained and

5:06

throughout , you know the four or five

5:08

years I think it was four , four and a half years that

5:10

I worked there . You know customer

5:13

experience in that fast food setting

5:15

was all about kind of how you

5:17

presented yourself as an employee

5:19

, how friendly

5:21

you were , the speed

5:24

and easiness of the

5:26

ordering process , the

5:29

speed of getting your food , the presentation

5:32

of your food , the cleanliness

5:34

of the dining room and so forth

5:36

. I mean that list can go on and on . And

5:39

, like you mentioned , you know being in a

5:41

retail store , you know me being

5:43

in a restaurant in

5:45

a mall . I mean there didn't used to be freestanding

5:47

right In a mall . You

5:51

know it was all in person and

5:53

you could easily gauge if

5:55

the experience for a customer

5:57

was good or not . You could see

5:59

by the way that they interacted with you if it

6:02

was a positive experience or if it was a negative

6:04

experience , and it's

6:06

just a heck of a

6:08

lot more difficult these days to be able

6:10

to gauge what that experience

6:12

looks like for your customers .

6:15

Yeah , and the reason why it's so hard

6:17

to gauge in an online like

6:19

world is because we

6:21

just don't have that like sensory

6:23

or behavioral data that you

6:26

know we'd observe in a retail

6:28

space Like . And

6:30

then their customer experience , even

6:32

more , just encompasses everything

6:34

. So it encompasses your website

6:37

template , the platform that

6:39

you use , the ease of use of your website

6:41

, but then it even goes to like what your

6:43

social media platform or footprint

6:45

looks like , the content

6:48

that you're posting For

6:50

a service , like it really captures

6:53

like everything that you do is

6:55

built into that customer experience . I

6:58

really liked what Peter Tomasi

7:00

talked about a few episodes back in the podcast

7:02

. Um , when he does SEO

7:04

, when he looks at like site hierarchy he

7:07

talked about , he thinks about the customer

7:09

experience first , and then search engines

7:11

are a distant second . And I think that same

7:14

philosophy has to apply to your

7:16

customer experience . Like , think about your

7:18

customers first , how they talk

7:20

, what they do , how they look

7:22

at the website , before you concern

7:24

yourself with what you believe

7:27

is really important . Um

7:29

, we've talked about , like we've

7:31

talked about in previous episodes , how savvy

7:33

customers are . They just know

7:35

what they're looking for , and so we've

7:38

what we've seen is that customers

7:41

also really like to talk about their

7:43

experiences . They'll leave reviews

7:45

, they'll get on social media and , especially

7:47

if they have a bad experience , they

7:49

will express displeasure .

7:51

They will make sure customers

7:53

are the loudest customers oh

7:55

loud .

7:56

They're going to find ways to make sure that they're

7:59

heard if they've had a really bad experience

8:01

, and sometimes like on the

8:03

flip side , if someone's had a really good experience

8:06

, they'll share that too . So , as a business

8:08

owner , you should be looking at these

8:10

touch points and really trying

8:12

to ensure that customers are having a good

8:14

experience 90% of the time .

8:17

Let's be honest , it probably should . You should

8:19

be striving for about 99%

8:21

of the time I mean like

8:23

that's , that's as as

8:25

a brand owner and as a marketing

8:27

leader inside of an organization

8:29

like a good percentage of

8:31

your time should be spent making

8:34

sure that the customer experience is

8:36

superb at every single touch point , like

8:39

it's absolutely critical . All

8:41

right , let's uh , let's jump into

8:43

our next question . So

8:45

what strategies are most

8:47

effective in understanding

8:49

and meeting the evolving needs

8:52

, because they change like so

8:55

fast , right ? Um

8:57

, and also the expectations

8:59

of your customers ?

9:01

Oh , that's a really good question , cause

9:03

customer expectations are

9:05

really pretty high these days . Amazon

9:08

has trained consumers to just expect

9:11

certain things like two day shipping , free

9:13

shipping , free exchanges

9:15

and returns . Instantaneous

9:19

like customer support , problem resolution and like if you're trying

9:21

to compete in that world , it's

9:23

hard and expensive to compete , so really I

9:28

like to call it the Amazon effect Right Like

9:30

that's

9:33

good .

9:33

Yeah , the Amazon effect . Like it's just as brand owners and

9:35

marketers like they've almost

9:38

ruined it for us , even though , like

9:40

they've created such a fantastic experience

9:43

and it's good , but like they've , they've

9:46

kind of ruined it for us . They've made it so dang hard , yeah

9:49

.

9:49

So the best way , I think , to start with

9:52

to understand what your customers like needs are

9:54

, are to talk with them on a regular

9:56

basis . You know , here at stride , we

9:59

are huge advocates of customer research

10:01

. Nothing beats like just getting on the phone

10:04

with your top customers and talking

10:06

with them for 10 , 15

10:09

minutes , finding out what their needs are , if

10:11

they've changed over time and how you can better serve

10:13

them . Like

10:15

that's amazing . Now , in addition to that , you

10:19

can test out different offers

10:21

at different times . You never know what's going to stick or

10:23

what will work . We have this

10:25

client that for a while has

10:28

been doing a free shipping offer for their first time

10:30

order . But

10:33

like they finally looked at their margins and

10:35

they were like we're , we're kind of losing

10:37

a lot of money here , so they are switching

10:39

to a 10% off the first order rather

10:41

than free shipping , and

10:44

they're finding that the opt-in rate

10:46

is even better . So for some reason , like free

10:48

shipping wasn't the thing

10:50

that people were opting for , so they're like it's

10:54

actually a 10% off . You just have to see what will

10:56

work best for your business . I love that concept

10:58

of being able to test different offers

11:00

and different ideas with your audience Because I mean

11:02

, yes , you can talk to customers .

11:04

You can't talk to all of them , and

11:08

so what are some other ways that you can figure

11:10

out , like , what their needs are

11:13

? And that's just kind of testing testing a lot of different

11:15

things on your website , and so I think

11:17

that's a great idea and that's just

11:19

kind of testing testing a lot of different things

11:21

on your website . So

11:23

another strategy that I like to

11:25

do and that seems to work

11:27

really , really well in understanding

11:30

customer expectations is

11:33

looking at brands that are

11:35

two to three years ahead of

11:37

you . So deep

11:40

dive right , get on their support

11:42

, talk to their , you know , live

11:44

chat , submit some support tickets

11:47

, like , figure out how they

11:49

handle their customer support , what

11:52

their shipping looks like , what

11:54

their exchange and returns process

11:56

looks like , because

11:59

, again , they're two to three years ahead of you . They've

12:01

learned a lot over those two

12:03

to three years that

12:05

you can then take and learn much

12:08

quicker by just studying them and understanding

12:11

them . Bonus points

12:13

if they are in your industry , but again , they

12:15

don't have to be in your industry . They

12:18

can be , you know , in a closely related industry . They

12:20

could be in a completely different industry , but it's

12:23

good to be able to take that time and start studying

12:25

those brands you

12:28

know , as an example , I've talked

12:30

a little bit about true classic

12:32

on LinkedIn . Lately

12:34

I've

12:36

kind of turned into a fanboy of

12:38

them , mostly because

12:41

, well , one , their clothes are great and

12:43

they're quite affordable , which is awesome

12:45

. But I feel

12:47

like they do everything right and

12:50

they set the gold standard for customer

12:52

experience , from their website

12:54

to the educational content

12:57

on their website . I mean , you look at their

12:59

product pages and they've got FAQs

13:01

built out . It's like they've made

13:03

it so easy to be able to gather

13:05

information and make an educated

13:07

decision and place an order . That

13:10

gives a fantastic customer experience

13:12

All the way to

13:14

their customer support and

13:16

to their exchange and return process

13:19

. Like they have it dialed

13:21

in , like absolutely dialed

13:23

in . It's impressive . One

13:26

specific example of this I ordered some

13:28

shirts recently from them and I needed to return

13:31

them . They weren't the right size and

13:34

when I went to start the return process

13:36

, I noticed

13:39

that they have a thing

13:41

similar to Amazon where you

13:43

get a QR code to scan at UPS . You

13:46

don't need to put it in a package , you

13:48

literally take it . You show UPS

13:51

the QR code , you hand

13:53

them the shirts , they put it in a bag , they print

13:55

out a label on it goes

13:57

I didn't even know that

13:59

that was a thing outside of Amazon . This is the

14:01

first time that I've seen a brand

14:03

use a technology like

14:06

this and it's a little feature right , but

14:08

it made my experience so much better and

14:10

it tethered me to the brand that

14:13

much stronger . From that one

14:15

little simple thing , it just it made

14:17

it so easy . So you know

14:19

, if you need an example of what to do from

14:21

a customer experience , I'd go follow them Like

14:24

that's the first brand that you should look at

14:26

and then find two

14:29

or three other brands that have it figured out and

14:31

again just kind of go through that process

14:34

document it , take really

14:36

good notes and then come back and look

14:38

at your business or the business that you're

14:40

marketing for , and figure out where

14:42

are their gaps , where are the things that

14:44

needed to be tested , and

14:47

just start working on the business and

14:49

start working on improving that customer

14:51

experience at every touch point .

14:53

Yeah , I think it's really good

14:55

to look at , like these other businesses

14:57

, and then I think it's really important to take that back

14:59

and actually test it out , like these

15:01

businesses , most likely they tested

15:04

it before they rolled it out , and so

15:06

if you could test it out on your

15:08

website before you fully

15:11

implement it , like testing

15:13

, you testing it out will allow

15:15

you to refine those processes

15:18

before rolling it out , which will make

15:20

the customer experience a hundred

15:22

times better , versus if you just throw

15:24

it up there to test it out and see how it goes

15:26

and then you have to roll back the process

15:28

, like just be willing to test those

15:31

things out and see what will work for

15:33

your business .

15:34

And I think it's important to also understand

15:36

that just because someone else is two to

15:38

three years ahead of you and is doing it , doesn't

15:41

mean it's going to work for

15:43

you , right , and that's why

15:45

it's important to be able to go

15:47

through that testing process . There's

15:49

a high likelihood that it's probably going to

15:51

work for you , especially

15:53

if they've been doing it for a long , long

15:55

time . But

15:57

, yeah , test , test , test , test test . How about that ? I

16:01

think that was four tests . Test that's

16:05

what you got to do as a marketer and a business owner

16:08

is test away . All right

16:10

. So let's talk

16:12

about technology next . So

16:14

how are smart brands utilizing

16:17

technology to enhance the customer

16:20

experience , and what impact

16:22

has this had on customer satisfaction

16:25

and customer loyalty ? Because

16:27

I feel like almost

16:29

every day I'm being pitched by someone

16:31

, right , like , come check out

16:33

our new Shopify app , come look at this

16:35

new piece of technology . Some of them are

16:37

cool , some of them are like

16:39

kind of underwhelming , but I

16:42

think , as we go on , as we get further

16:44

into 2024 and even in the next year

16:46

, we're going to see additional technologies emerge . So

16:49

, you know , help me understand

16:52

, like how , how brands are doing

16:54

that right now .

16:55

Yeah , so a lot of the clients

16:57

that we're working with they're big . The

17:00

big way they're using technology

17:02

is to just manage the flow of information

17:04

and especially when it comes

17:06

to like customer service in

17:08

terms of like requests that come in , support

17:11

tickets , like everything that's coming

17:13

into the organization , just like

17:15

managing it in a more centralized

17:18

platform .

17:18

Yeah , You'd be surprised

17:21

Like how many

17:23

brands I talk with in the

17:25

sales process that

17:27

still run their customer support

17:29

on a Google email account . Right

17:32

, it comes into their Gmail account . Sometimes

17:36

it is a Gmail account , but you know , other

17:39

times it's a G Suite account with the

17:41

domain name , but it's like that's not

17:43

sustainable . You can lose too much information

17:45

. It's so inefficient

17:47

and

17:51

this is a big unlock for a lot of

17:53

brands is getting on a

17:55

platform and really centralizing all of that data . Yeah

17:57

, so finding a platform we like to use .

17:59

Gorgeous . As an option , it'll

18:05

pull in all of the communication channels

18:07

together in this one platform

18:10

and then it can tie to your customer information , the order data , so

18:14

you don't have to like bounce back

18:16

and forth , like be in the Gmail

18:18

account and then like have Shopify

18:20

open on a separate window to like

18:22

find their order and do all of this stuff . It's

18:26

all pulled in there so that you can document it and

18:29

you know then there's a history there too

18:31

and you know that customer

18:34

and you can , you know , speak to them in

18:36

a more personalized way . The

18:38

next step is actually to use

18:41

AI to help with those

18:43

customer requests and kind of questions

18:45

that they have . There are now

18:47

, and I'm sure there will be in the future

18:50

, even more sophisticated chatbots that can

18:52

handle a lot of questions , and it can handle a lot of your

18:54

live chats and customer support emails

18:56

, especially when it comes to like

18:59

consistent or

19:01

those frequently asked questions . I guess I

19:03

know there's a few big e-commerce businesses

19:06

and companies who , like have done this

19:08

, including Amazon . Amazon

19:10

has like chatbots . There's

19:12

not a ton of customer complaints about

19:14

the experience and it actually reduces

19:17

that headcount that's in customer support

19:19

. So it's like utilizing

19:22

this techs , this technology

19:24

, to help

19:26

you find ways to get more efficient , cut

19:29

costs and more to the bottom line . But

19:31

really , at the end of the day , it's also helping

19:33

customers answer their questions

19:36

, because chatbots they

19:38

are built in such a way that they can

19:40

respond to certain questions . People

19:42

get their questions answered faster

19:44

and that satisfies them , especially

19:47

in this world where you know

19:49

they're trained to like get instantaneous

19:51

answers .

19:52

Yeah , can I chime in really

19:54

quick on that ? Yeah , go for it . You

19:57

know , it was probably three

20:00

or four months ago . I saw a really

20:02

, really big brand on LinkedIn

20:04

. One of the owners post that they

20:07

had signed up for a service . I'm going to have to go back and

20:09

find it because I can't remember what

20:11

that tool was , but it

20:13

completely automates all

20:16

of their customer support tickets with

20:18

AI as well . Right , it's

20:20

not just the live chats on the

20:22

website Like this . Ai

20:24

is getting so good that

20:27

it is being

20:30

used for all sorts of pieces

20:32

of customer service . It's quite impressive and

20:35

, like you mentioned , customers are able to get their

20:37

answers a lot faster

20:39

. I mean some of the brands who aren't

20:41

leveraging AI there are a few that I've

20:43

done business with in

20:45

terms of buying products from them . You

20:47

know , when I have to wait three

20:50

to five days to get a response from

20:52

a customer support rep on a question like

20:54

that's maddening . I want to tear

20:56

my little

20:58

bit of hair that

21:01

I have left on my bald head out

21:03

. I just want to pluck those out because

21:05

it's painful . So

21:08

I'm excited I'm really excited

21:10

to be able to see what AI looks like in 12

21:12

months and how that can support

21:14

on the customer service . Side .

21:16

Yeah , I also think there's

21:19

nothing better than just reviewing

21:21

those customer service requests and questions

21:23

at least on a quarterly basis

21:26

to see if there's anything that stands out

21:28

Like are there new friction

21:30

points , are there new frustrations ? And

21:32

then you can take those and make those

21:35

frustrations , that feedback

21:37

, high priority goals for the next quarter

21:39

to try to solve Like so maybe it's

21:41

a shipping issue , maybe it's quality

21:44

of products , but getting invested in solving

21:47

the pain points of your

21:49

customer's experience with

21:51

your business is going to

21:53

help improve that customer

21:55

experience for not just that one

21:58

customer but probably hundreds

22:01

thousands , anyone who comes after them who's

22:03

also going to have that same problem .

22:05

Yeah , I love that , and that's another advantage

22:07

of being able to pull everything into one platform

22:10

, because if you have live chat and

22:12

one platform , if you're running on a Google

22:14

email account for your customer support

22:17

emails , it's really hard to

22:19

be able to mine that data . Now

22:21

you can do it . It takes a lot of

22:23

time , though , but if it's all in one platform

22:25

even some of the platforms I've seen

22:27

have AI inside

22:29

of it that can help kind

22:32

of curate what those most common

22:34

questions and pain points are that customers

22:36

are having , so that you can then take

22:38

that and build a roadmap of how to improve

22:40

the customer experience . And it's just , it's

22:43

so powerful . All

22:46

right , so let's take

22:48

a few minutes and talk about personalization

22:51

. So personalization is

22:53

key to being able to really

22:56

connect with your customers , be

22:59

able to nurture them , grow

23:02

their lifetime value and improve their

23:04

customer experience . So can

23:06

you share how some brands are

23:08

personalizing the shopping experience

23:10

for customers and what impact

23:13

it has on their overall customer

23:15

experience ?

23:16

Yeah , I mean this is a huge topic

23:18

and it should probably just be an episode all

23:20

on its own for

23:23

the future . Just as an FYI , I have just brainstormed

23:26

for you a new episode topic . But

23:29

the smartest brands collect data

23:31

on their website visitors , leads

23:33

, customers and then you use that

23:36

data to segment and just give

23:38

them more targeted content and product

23:41

recommendations . So things

23:43

that I've seen . Number one pre-purchase

23:46

surveys . You can understand

23:48

who the customer is shopping for . Are

23:50

they shopping for themselves , their spouse

23:52

, their kids , as a gift for a friend

23:54

or a family member , whatever ? So

23:58

a pre-purchase survey can find that out . Or

24:00

maybe you want to find out what they're most interested

24:02

in in terms of product categories , like

24:04

are they interested in joggers , shorts

24:07

, dresses , skirts , tops

24:09

, sweaters , all of that and

24:12

more . Like pre-purchase surveys give

24:14

you that opportunity to find out

24:16

why did they come to the website before

24:19

they even made a purchase ? What is

24:21

it that they're looking for or who

24:23

are they trying to buy for ? Because that's

24:25

the other part , too is , sometimes people

24:27

will spend more money on somebody

24:29

else than they will on themselves , and the

24:31

opposite is also true . So knowing who

24:33

they're buying for can help

24:36

determine okay , what do we do ? What's

24:38

our next step ? That

24:41

data that's collected in a pre-purchase

24:43

survey can be pushed back into a platform like

24:45

Klaviyo and then you

24:47

can use it to segment and just deliver

24:49

them information and messaging

24:52

that they really need to convert

24:54

. It's so powerful . I

24:56

think that a lot of times when marketers

24:58

talk about personalization , many

25:01

people think it's just like slapping the

25:03

first name on an email Hi

25:05

, first name . Like hi , joe

25:07

, it's good to see you and they call it a

25:09

day , like it can and

25:11

should be . So much more than that

25:14

. I found there's like scripts that you

25:16

can do in Google ads that

25:19

actually allow you to automatically increase

25:21

your bids if the

25:24

weather is good . Like this is actually

25:26

a script that Google has put out and

25:28

I'm sure we'll link it in like the blog

25:30

post . You don't have to do it manually

25:33

. So how cool is that ? Like you

25:35

can have really good weather in your location

25:37

and suddenly , like we can spend

25:39

more money on gardening products , like

25:41

a garden bed or soil or tools

25:43

, and that person who

25:46

is in that warm weather

25:48

is suddenly thinking I do want to garden

25:50

and they start getting ads . The first

25:53

is , if it's raining or snowing

25:55

and you're indoors , you don't want to be

25:57

spending that money . Like those

25:59

are good , like that's personalization

26:01

. It's finding that right times , understanding

26:04

their circumstances . Personalization

26:07

is all about like speaking directly

26:09

to that specific customer's

26:11

interests and buying behavior because

26:14

of the data you collected about them , and

26:17

I think that's one of the beauties of digital

26:19

marketing is when we know our customers

26:21

enough , we can send them the best

26:23

products for them . I'm going

26:25

to call out a store . I'm

26:27

a consumer myself , and

26:30

one thing like I always wish is that I

26:32

get suggestions for products from

26:35

certain stores , and then I would

26:37

probably spend a lot more money there . So

26:40

a store that I have shopped at

26:42

is Sephora . They have

26:44

some information about me because I provided

26:46

that to them . They know my eye color is blue

26:48

, my hair color is blonde , and

26:51

then they have a list of all of my orders

26:53

, and yet every time I get an email

26:55

from them , that's like a recommended product

26:57

. It's . It has nothing to

27:00

do with like me

27:02

. It's skincare and I'm

27:04

like I have never once

27:06

purchased a skincare product from you

27:08

, and so I'm like I

27:10

would really like to know what you know

27:12

eyeshadow or mascara to buy

27:15

, or you know a million other things

27:17

. They've collected a lot

27:19

of data about me , but I feel like

27:21

they've missed that personalization

27:23

that would actually make me

27:25

want to purchase more from them .

27:27

That's funny Calling out Sephora . I love it . They'll

27:30

never hear this . And the

27:32

funny thing is , with the brand that big

27:34

, I bet you , they have

27:37

no less than two people working

27:39

on their email marketing . They probably

27:41

have more , more people

27:43

that are working on their email marketing , so they have

27:45

the resources to be able to do this and pull this

27:47

off . So , sephora

27:50

, if you ever hear this like you should

27:52

hire Laurel to help you with your email . She

27:54

can get it dialed in for you because she is

27:56

your consumer . But

27:59

it's so true , right , and it's like that was so

28:01

many brands they have the data and

28:04

they don't use it properly . They're

28:06

told or might I say they're brainwashed

28:09

to think that I've just got to send more

28:11

email , I've got to get the next one out , I've

28:14

got to show my boss that I am

28:16

getting stuff done and that I'm getting

28:18

work through the pipeline , when

28:20

that just shouldn't be the mindset

28:23

. I'm feeling

28:25

like calling companies out now , mostly

28:27

because they're never going to hear this . We're

28:30

not jerks , I promise . But

28:33

for another example , because

28:35

I'm wearing a baseball hat today , I'll

28:38

call out New Era . So I'm bald

28:40

, I wear a lot of hats . I buy a

28:42

lot of hats . In fact , my wife gets kind of

28:44

mad at me because I buy so many hats , but

28:46

I just remind her that I don't have

28:49

to spend money on hair care color

28:51

cuts like her each month , and that really ends that

28:53

conversation real fast . Anyway

28:56

, so 99% of the hats I buy are

28:58

angels hats . I'm wearing one

29:00

today . I

29:03

don't want you to send me emails for

29:06

the Dodgers , especially after you poached

29:08

our best player , shohei

29:11

. Get lost . I

29:14

don't want Mariners hats . I don't want Yankees

29:16

hats . Stop sending me this crap . I

29:19

don't remember the last time I saw an email

29:21

from them with like hey

29:23

, we just launched this new line of

29:25

angels hats . Huge lost

29:28

opportunity right there . I think you

29:32

know , at the end of the day , brands

29:34

what they need to be doing is collecting

29:36

the right data , segmenting

29:38

that data like crazy and then

29:40

sending the right content to each

29:43

segment . And when you

29:45

hit each of your segments a few times

29:47

a month , what you're gonna find out is that you'll

29:50

end up sending more email than

29:52

you had before on kind of these spray

29:54

and pray approaches , non-customized

29:57

approaches . So you're gonna send

30:00

more email . You're gonna hit your quotas

30:02

if you have quotas internally , but

30:04

it's going to perform so

30:07

much better than just sending

30:09

stuff that may or may not hit

30:11

, and so I think you know

30:13

that's probably one of the big takeaways

30:15

of this episode . Right there

30:17

, right , there's just so much opportunity

30:20

from an email perspective . So get it

30:22

right , get the data segment

30:24

and send the right content to them .

30:27

Well , I think sorry it comes back to as well , like

30:30

your customer experience

30:32

isn't just what's happening

30:35

on the website , it's not even what's just happening

30:37

on social media , but it's

30:39

your emails , like it's everything . Every

30:42

touchpoint your business has is part

30:45

of the customer experience , and

30:48

so are you turning people off because

30:51

you're not sending them the right stuff , or you keep sending them stuff

30:53

that they're not responding

30:55

to , or are you engaging

30:57

with them and showing them things that would

30:59

actually get them to come back and make a purchase

31:01

?

31:03

Yeah , I love that great . Okay

31:06

. So , looking ahead , what

31:08

emerging trends or technologies do

31:11

you believe will have the biggest impact on

31:13

customer experience , and

31:16

how should brands prepare to leverage

31:18

these ?

31:20

Okay , oh man , I know everyone

31:22

that's big . I know everyone's talking

31:24

about AI and we talked

31:27

about it just like a couple of minutes ago , but

31:29

I think it's gonna be really helpful because

31:31

, if you think about it , consumers

31:36

have some same tastes and interests and

31:39

AI can help identify patterns in

31:42

those consumer behavior faster than we can . I mean , there's some

31:45

trained like data scientists who are able to

31:47

do this , but

31:49

sometimes AI can just help us do that , and

31:53

then that means that as marketers , as business

31:55

owners , we can plan for , execute and

31:59

actually be a step ahead of the consumer , because we

32:01

have that data to help us be ahead

32:03

. I

32:07

think we have to look beyond typical information about the consumer

32:09

and what

32:11

I mean by that is age , their birth date , location and

32:14

really think about what could help

32:16

us , what information could really help us know

32:18

more about

32:22

the customer to recommend to them products . So

32:25

, if you're clothing boutique , what

32:27

category of products do your customers shop in

32:29

most and then focus there ? Are

32:33

they buying specific colors all the time ? Is

32:36

there a pattern to what they buy and

32:39

then building that into your brand

32:41

and then that into your recommendations

32:44

of new products or the products

32:46

that you stock ? We

32:48

are working with one client where

32:50

we built this email automation to

32:52

send to people after

32:54

they purchased a very specific

32:56

collection of products and then we

32:58

would recommend to them two more products

33:00

that are the next products

33:03

that that customer would meet in

33:06

their journey . And

33:08

it's so interesting because

33:11

that's a different approach . There's

33:13

some businesses we often talk about , like replenishment

33:16

flows or subscriptions , where

33:18

it's just you know , refill what you already

33:20

are getting . Like it's not about the next

33:23

product , like think

33:25

about that , what is the next

33:27

product that is for that

33:29

customer ? That could be really

33:31

something to look into as well . A

33:33

product recommender system Like what

33:36

is it ? That's the next thing that they need , and

33:39

then that opens up the possibilities , right

33:41

? I just think it's really important

33:43

to start now . Start where you are , take

33:46

inventory of your customer experience

33:49

and then prioritize , like the

33:51

steps in that experience , find

33:53

the pain points , or what I like

33:55

to call friction points in that experience

33:58

, and fix those . And then look

34:00

for the next opportunity and utilize

34:02

the technologies that are coming out . Start testing

34:05

. We've said that like 7

34:07

billion times in this episode

34:09

. But let's start testing

34:12

these technologies to see what

34:14

works and what really helps your customers

34:16

come back , make a second purchase

34:19

or , you know , start purchasing

34:21

for other people or recommending your stuff

34:23

. I just think there is so much

34:25

opportunity there .

34:27

Yeah , I love that , and

34:29

I love this kind of concept or idea

34:31

of what is the next product that

34:33

they should purchase . You

34:35

and I started using that verbiage when

34:38

we talked to my buddy , andrew , three or four years

34:40

ago . I mean , that's all he does

34:42

is email marketing . He's like your job as an email

34:44

marketer is to figure out what is the

34:46

next product that

34:48

should be purchased by

34:51

that segment , and it makes so

34:53

much sense . I love that . All

34:56

right , so we have a couple of minutes left , so

34:58

I like to throw this question out at the end , when

35:01

we've got some time . So what

35:04

final words of wisdom do you

35:06

have for our listeners when

35:08

it comes to customer experience ? Is there anything

35:10

that you know , you've been thinking about , that

35:12

you're feeling really passionate about right now , that

35:14

you might be able to share with us ?

35:16

You're asking for words of wisdom . Words of wisdom

35:19

, yeah , oh my gosh , for

35:21

me that's intense . There's

35:24

a lot of pressure there . No , I feel like

35:26

I hope that everyone's

35:28

heard , like how passionate I feel

35:31

, like we are about customer experience

35:33

. That you know . I don't

35:35

think that you have to make huge

35:37

changes Like please don't go out

35:39

onto your website and like redo

35:41

the whole template and like buy any

35:44

, like try to change everything

35:46

or become like Amazon , but

35:48

I think you already have a lot of

35:50

the data that you need to

35:52

start making tweaks to improve

35:54

your business . And every

35:56

quarter , I would suggest really

35:59

taking a look at those pain points and

36:02

figuring out , okay , what's the next step , like

36:05

what's the next thing I need to work on ? And

36:07

hyper focus just in that area and

36:10

little by little , you'll see the customer experience

36:13

really improved . So if today it's

36:15

like I don't talk

36:18

to my best customers enough , okay

36:20

, make a goal to like talk to two or three

36:22

customers a week , a month

36:24

, whatever it is , and find out for

36:26

them Like number one , like why

36:29

they purchased from you in the first place

36:31

. And number two , why do they keep coming back ? And

36:33

number three , what are

36:35

some things that would help them either

36:38

want to get , like want to come

36:40

back and purchase more often or like things

36:43

that they're looking for to help that you

36:45

can supply and start there , like

36:47

you don't have to start at like , okay

36:50

, I need to solve the shipping problem

36:52

, because that's a huge problem , I mean . I mean you

36:54

may want to start there , I don't

36:56

know , but start in one place . Don't

36:59

try to take on the whole experience and

37:01

try to improve each aspect

37:04

of it and then go from there , because

37:06

you'll find your customers appreciate the

37:09

efforts that you're putting in to

37:11

keep building that customer experience

37:13

for them .

37:14

I love that . Thank you so much . And

37:16

, laurel , thank you for being with us today . I know

37:19

that you know you're incredibly busy . I probably

37:21

know more than just about anyone else how dang busy you are , and

37:24

taking an hour out of your week is just

37:26

it's painful , but what

37:28

you shared with us today is awesome , so thank

37:31

you . On our next episode , we

37:33

will be speaking with Jason

37:35

Richardson of Genesis , an Amazon

37:37

growth agency , and I know we just barely

37:39

had an Amazon expert on our

37:41

last episode , but this conversation

37:44

is going to be geared around sales channel

37:46

conflict . So a

37:49

lot of brands that I talked to are always concerned

37:51

about moving to a new sales channel we're

37:54

launching on Amazon . Take their sales

37:56

from their website . We're putting up a TikTok

37:58

shop take sales from Amazon . How

38:00

do you track all of it and ensure you don't cannibalize

38:03

yourself ? We are going to talk

38:05

about all of this and I am so

38:07

excited because it is a hot topic and

38:09

he is a really smart dude , so I'm super pumped

38:12

. All right , that's it for today

38:14

. So , as always , take

38:16

what you've learned here , make a plan

38:18

and take massive action this year . Thank

38:21

you so much for joining us .