Builders Wanted

This episode features an interview with Kendell Timmers, Senior Vice President and Head of Data and Insights at The New York Times. She spearheaded the paper’s cross-functional advertising mission and built their industry-leading first party data program that powers their digital advertising business. Kendell is a data and analytics expert who has served companies like American Express, ZS Associates, and US Airways.In this episode, Kailey and Kendell discuss NLP, personalizing paywalls, and creating a unified view of the customer in a privacy-forward way.-------------------Key Takeaways:The unsexy side of data, like definitions and processes, allow marketers to make campaign decisions and build audiences in a consistent manner.Personalizing paywalls is all about striking a balance between letting your consumer sample your product and understand it’s worth, and then making a conversion or sale.Marketers can lean on data to serve as the foundation for emotion. Pairing your product to an emotional ad builds a strong connection with your customer and drives higher conversions for your advertiser.-------------------“It's about keeping data from getting siloed into different domains where everybody's creating their own definition and having it all in one place where it's discoverable and usable. So that the dashboards that everybody needs to use to make decisions all reflect consistent definitions, for instance.” – Kendell Timmers-------------------Episode Timestamps:‍*(02:04) - Kendell’s career journey*(07:51) - Industry trends in customer experience*(10:41) - Challenges in the customer engagement journey*(13:47) - How Kendell defines “good data”*(16:14) - How The New York Times is using good data*(24:35) - Changes in the next 6-12 months in customer data‍*(28:28) - An example of another company doing it right with customer experience (hint: it’s The Disney Bundle)*(29:27) - Kendell’s recommendations for building your data foundation-------------------Links:Connect with Kendell on LinkedInConnect with Kailey on LinkedInLearn more about Caspian Studios

This episode features an interview with Eric Mies, Director of Product, Video Experience, Ads and Ad Operations at Crunchyroll, a 360 anime brand. Eric has over a decade of experience specializing in product management and ad operations.In this episode, Kailey and Eric discuss personalization in the age of GDPR, contextual targeting, and unifying data with the help of humans and machines.-------------------Key Takeaways:Unifying customer data is made a lot easier through the use of humans and machines. Machines can identify content classifications to target ads. While humans can make sure content is tagged correctly to get as many eyes on it as possible.With the rise of GDPR, advertisers have to respect the opt-in or opt-out choices made by consumers while still driving high conversions.Understanding the wants and needs of your customers and advertisers leads to impactful data insights.-------------------“It's three things - it's:Understanding your users: what they like, who they are, what they're interested in [...]Understanding your advertisers and their KPIs [...]It's working internally - looking at the data, constantly responding, optimizing, and making sure you're having an impact.” – Eric Mies-------------------Episode Timestamps:‍*(01:44) - Eric’s career journey*(05:53) - Trends in customer experience in the anime streaming industry*(11:31) - Challenges in the customer engagement journey*(13:17) - How Crunchyroll is using humans and machines to build marketing tactics*(19:41) - How Eric defines “good data”‍*(24:02) - An example of another company doing it right with customer experience (hint: it’s YouTube)*(32:10) - Eric’s recommendations for upleveling your customer engagement-------------------Links:Connect with Eric on LinkedInConnect with Kailey on LinkedInLearn more about Caspian Studios

This episode features an interview with John Sheldon, Chief Marketing Officer at SmileDirectClub. A self-proclaimed “truffle pig” of customer data, John has over 30 years of experience in digital marketing, brand value, and growth.In this episode, Kailey sits down with John to discuss marketing differences pre and post iOS 14.5, insights you can gain from observing customers in stores, and the consumerization of healthcare.-------------------Key Takeaways:The CRM is the circulatory system of the marketing system. It’s a vital piece of the machine that helps customers not get lost in the cycle. It helps to remove barriers so customers feel confident and comfortable in their experience.In an industry like teeth straightening, it’s critical to understand what hurdles your customer has to overcome to use your product. You also have to help them envision what life will look like on the other side of those hurdles through marketing and communications.The consumerization of healthcare continues to grow, with more customers taking control by bringing conversations to their doctors. It’s important that marketers empower customers to control the process and get the results they want.-------------------“CRM is the circulatory system of our marketing system. You couldn't rip it out. It's so vital and critical because there are so many places for a customer to kind of get lost in the cycle.” – John Sheldon-------------------Episode Timestamps:‍*(01:39) - John’s career journey*(05:50) - Digital marketing differences pre and post iOS 14.5*(08:12) - Trends in customer experience and behaviors in the teeth straightening industry*(12:19) - Insights John’s gained from viewing customers shop in stores*(14:19): Challenges in the customer engagement journey*(17:36) - How data influences marketing at SmileDirectClub*(18:53) - How John defines “good data”‍*(24:21) - An example of another company doing it right with customer experience (hint: it’s Yeti)*(31:05) - John’s recommendations for upleveling your customer engagement-------------------Links:Connect with John on LinkedInConnect with Kailey on LinkedInLearn more about Caspian Studios

This episode features an interview with Pepe Valiente, Senior Management Consultant at IBM Garage. As a competitive dragon boat steerer, Pepe is used to interpreting data from the elements and his team to stay on course. He translates this skill into consulting strategies by breaking down data into valuable pieces. In this episode, Kailey and Pepe discuss why digital transformations fail, how our brains react to personalization, and why simplicity is key to customer experience. -------------------Key Takeaways:Customers do not expect you to be perfect. So long as you’re improving your strategy day by day and daring to try new things, customers will judge your intention.Digital transformations are risky business, with about 70% of them failing. This happens because there isn’t a clear understanding of why a digital transformation is being implemented in the first place. To be successful, you have to agree on what technology to use, friction points you’re trying to eradicate, and what the customer wants.Personalization, simplicity, and privacy are key to creating a top-tier customer experience. Personalization creates a chemical reaction in the brain that translates to trust within a company. Simplicity helps customers understand that their needs are being met. And privacy compliance ensures that customers trust the brand and will continue doing business with them.-------------------“When we include the person's name in our communication, that creates chemical reactions in our brain that makes us feel good. That may create some excitement and unconscious signals that create empathy, trust. The importance of personalization translates into how much we care about our user.” – Pepe Valiente-------------------Episode Timestamps:‍*(01:49) - Pepe’s career journey and dragon boat background*(06:28) - Pepe’s role at IBM Garage*(11:47) - Trends in customer experience from a consulting perspective*(24:44) - Why 70% of digital transformations fail*(26:19) - How Pepe defines “good data”‍*(32:11) - An example of another company doing it right with customer experience (hint: it’s American Express)*(37:45) - Pepe’s recommendations for upleveling your consulting strategy with data-------------------Links:Connect with Pepe on LinkedInConnect with Kailey on LinkedInLearn more about Caspian Studios-------------------Disclaimer:The views and opinions expressed are personal and do not represent IBM’s point of view.

This episode features an interview with Adele Hedden, Head of Customer Experience at Faire. With nearly a decade of experience at publicly traded companies like Rent The Runway and Uber, Adele is focused on transforming customer journeys through brand loyalty and foundational metrics.In this episode, Kailey and Adele discuss the service recovery paradox, upleveling your CX strategy, and how the employee and customer experience go hand-in-hand.-------------------Key Takeaways:The best customer experience is not having to contact customer support at all. Having robust data allows you to identify opportunities to provide proactive support to customers in need.The customer and employee journey go hand-in-hand. In order to deliver a frictionless customer experience, the same needs to be done for employees. Investing internally is also an investment in your customer experience.Brand loyalty hits an all-time high when a company recovers and corrects issues quickly. This is called the service recovery paradox. Customers feel more positive about a company after an issue is resolved than before there was an issue at all.-------------------“I think that the best customer experience when you're engaging with a brand is generally one that is as frictionless as possible. I really subscribe to this belief that the best customer support you could possibly get is not needing customer support at all.” – Adele Hedden-------------------Episode Timestamps:‍*(02:10) - Adele’s customer journey background*(06:04) - Adele’s role at Faire*(07:11) - Trends in wholesale customer experience*(13:57) - Foundational data points Faire is using to create customer profiles*(18:06) - Biggest challenge in building customer experience journeys‍*(22:49) - An example of another company doing it right with customer experience (hint: it’s Trader Joe’s, Netflix, and Delta)*(32:42) - Adele’s recommendations for upleveling your customer strategy-------------------Links:Connect with Adele on LinkedInConnect with Kailey on LinkedInLearn more about Caspian Studios

This episode features an interview with Rahul Kak, Vice President of Customer Health and Experience at Aetna, a CVS Health Company. Rahul has dedicated his career to being a data-driven and compassionate marketer, guiding patients to healthier outcomes through individualized nudges.In this episode, Kailey and Rahul dive into privacy versus personalization, how to measure patient outcomes, and how AI models can predict customer behavior.-------------------Key Takeaways:With the rise of Medicare Advantage, Medicaid, and individual exchange, healthcare is becoming increasingly consumerized. It’s transitioning from B2B into B2C and, with the help of marketers, puts the consumer’s voice front and center. Healthcare marketers would be wise to invest in technologies that incorporate all patient communications into a single tech stack. Creating better, more integrated experiences along the patient journey with fewer handoffs.  Due to COVID, patients have gotten more comfortable using telehealth services, especially for behavioral health issues. While this experience is relatively new, communicating with your patients in this way benefits the overall customer experience.-------------------“What we are all trying to do is create a better, more integrated experience in the patient journey. You're going to see that play out with more investment in technologies that weave our customer communication platforms onto a single tech stack. CDPs that are bringing all that data together and allowing more coordinated, smart orchestration across all of our communications.” – Rahul Kak-------------------Episode Timestamps:‍*(02:06) - Rahul’s background and role at Aetna ‍*(06:27) - Trends in marketing and customer engagement in healthcare*(15:58) - The importance of privacy in healthcare data*(19:38) - What good data looks like at Aetna*(23:02) - How Aetna is measuring patient outcomes‍*(28:47) - An example of another company doing it right with customer engagement (hint: it’s Spotify)*(33:13) - Changes in customer data and experience in 6-12 months-------------------Links:Connect with Rahul on LinkedInConnect with Kailey on LinkedInLearn more about Caspian Studios

This episode features an interview with Liz Miller, Vice President and Principal Analyst at Constellation Research. Liz is an industry veteran with nearly 30 years of experience instructing global marketing organizations on how to deliver the best customer experience. Previously, Liz worked for GlobalFluency, CMO Council, and Jan Marini Skin Research.In this episode, Liz discusses the evolution of the CDP, what real-time actually means to customers, and how sales training at The Gap made her a better marketer.-------------------Key Takeaways:Composable architecture that holds data, business applications, systems and tools is fundamental to have headless applicationsAsking your customer open-ended questions is key when collecting valuable and personalized dataWe no longer look at customer experience through the lens of our systems, but through the eyes of our customers. They are in charge of what real-time data means to them.-------------------“Marketing's role is to so deeply understand the market and the customer that we act like this translational bridge between what our customer needs, wants, and expects, or just wants to dream about, aspire to. And we translate their language so that they can discover and understand our products and how great it is and all of those wonderful profitable things. We're here to fundamentally drive durable, profitable relationships with our customers, full stop.” – Liz Miller, VP & Principal Analyst at Constellation Research-------------------Episode Timestamps:‍*(02:07) - Liz’s background  ‍*(06:32) - How The Gap made Liz a better marketer ‍*(11:42) - Trends in marketing and customer engagement‍*(19:06) - Liz explains the difference between CDP and CRM‍*(33:23) - How Liz defines good data ‍*(35:40) - An example of another company doing it right with customer engagement (hint: it’s Nespresso)-------------------Links:Connect with Liz on LinkedInConnect with Kailey on LinkedInLearn more about Caspian Studios

This episode features an interview with Ted Chi, Senior Vice President of Digital Marketing & Media Strategy at NBCUniversal. Ted is a digital marketing leader with over 2 decades of experience at Fortune 500 companies and early-stage startups focusing on team leadership, brand management, and consumer insights.In this episode, Ted discusses how data helps build relationships with consumers, why CDPs are essential, and the Holy Grail of data: personalization.-------------------Key Takeaways:Good data is anything that helps marketers build a relationship with the people they’re trying to reach. If you’re able to precisely target a customer through data, you’ll be able to drive conversions.When having a meeting with leaders in the boardroom, always have a seat for your customer. At the end of the day, your efforts need to resonate with them or none of the work matters.Because customers want more privacy and personalization, marketers will have to get creative in the ways they collect and use data. In order for customers to trust marketers, marketers need to provide value back to consumers.-------------------“I had a mentor share this with me early in my career and I've always taken it with me. And he said, picture a big board room and you have your CMO, your CEO, and your CFO, and your Ops person, and all these important people around the room. But there’s always got to be one empty seat every single meeting in the room. And that is the seat for the consumer. In fact, that seat should really be at the head of the table. It’s so easy to get got up into, ‘I gotta do this, this, and I have all these constituents,’ but it doesn't really matter at the end of the day if it doesn’t resonate with the consumer.” – Ted Chi, Digital Marketing Executive-------------------Episode Timestamps:‍*(02:26) - Rapid fire questions with Ted*(12:34) - Top trends that Ted is seeing in the industry*(18:28) - Emerging customer behaviors*(25:01) - How Ted defines good data*(32:07) - Most important piece of data that drives customer engagement*(35:19) - Ted’s favorite data-driven marketing campaign*(36:33) - An example of another company doing it right with customer engagement (hint: it’s Amazon)*(38:37): Ending advice: it’s all about the consumer-------------------Links:Connect with Ted on LinkedInConnect with Kailey on LinkedInLearn more about Caspian Studios

This episode features an interview with Erin Pryor, Executive Vice President, Chief Marketing Officer and Client Experience at First Horizon Bank. Erin has 20 years of experience under her belt in the finance, banking, and media industries. Her specialties include brand marketing, digital marketing and innovation, and social media marketing.In this episode, Erin shares how building connected experiences for customers through data is critical to the banking ecosystem. She also dives into client onboarding and the generation that, surprisingly, wants to visit their local bank branch.-------------------Key Takeaways:It’s critical that marketing teams are aligned with business and sales team to create a connected customer experienceThere is always an opportunity to learn from your customer based on behaviors and demographics to segment the customer journey.Pay attention to the qualitative data, it might producing surprising insights-------------------“With banking, you’ve got so much data. We have more data on our customers and clients than any other industry because we have the behavioral data from how you spend your money, how you’re saving your money, where are you buying your homes, those types of things. And being able to rely stitch together a profile to know the client better and to be able to better serve them is going to be critical. So, the CDP with bringing together the zero, first, second, third party data and creating those profiles to then feed through into your CRM systems and into the marketing engine, really, I think puts you ahead of the game. Data is what everybody wants and really what makes the world go round today, especially from a marketer’s standpoint. If you use the data right, you’re really looking at how do you help the customer move forward and what are their life goals and how do you better lead them or encourage them to what’s next." - Erin Pryor-------------------Episode Timestamps:*(02:44) - Erin’s role at First Horizon Bank and her background*(06:04) - Comparisons between Erin’s journalism and banking experiences*(08:37) - Top trends Erin is seeing in banking today *(12:24) - How data is impacting the customer journey experience at First Horizon*(18:06) - How Erin defines marketing vs. customer experience*(24:45) - How segmentation impacts the client journey *(30:22) - An example of another company doing it right with the customer journey (hint: it’s Away)*(33:21) - Ending advice: surround yourself with a smart team of people-------------------Links:Connect with Erin on LinkedInConnect with Kailey on LinkedInVisit First Horizon’s websiteLearn more about Caspian Studios

This episode features an interview with Waseem Kawaf, Global Vice President of Digital Experience at STANLEY Security, a company that provides security services to institutions all over the world, including schools, hospitals, governments, retailers, airports, and financial institutions. Waseem is an expert in digital strategy and customer experience, having recently shaped STANLEY Security’s digital presence and consulted with many top brands in the past.In this episode, Waseem shares thoughts on how STANLEY Security approaches customer experience and automation, especially when insights from the data might be surprising. He provides advice on the importance of always keeping up with a changing market and prioritizing user-centered design.-------------------Key Takeaways:It’s important to continuously test aspects of the digital experience, because customer needs and wants are always evolvingHaving everyone trained in user-centered design can unite siloed teams and put the customer at the forefront of every initiativeWe’re at the nascency of the emerging field of customer experience, and successful marketers and CX professionals should look at the large tech giants to see what decisions they’re making-------------------“You always start manual. You always start manual, cause you gotta learn. I do think that’s where companies, and a lot of consulting companies, make errors. You can’t assume what a user’s gonna do. You see what they’re gonna do, and then build on it. You do market research – and so, I feel like we were in a period, for many years on the marketing side, where we were building for the board, we were building for our internal teams, we were building for our own user preferences. So it’s flipping the script there.” - Waseem Kawaf-------------------Episode Timestamps:‍*(01:53) - Waseem’s role at STANLEY Security and his background*(03:17) - STANLEY Security’s global footprint*(04:15) - Continuous optimization and evolving with the customer*(05:31) - The importance of governance*(09:17) - Use case of automated chat leading to first natural language processing menu and reduced call times*(12:56) - Why Waseem wants everyone trained in user-centered design*(16:32) - Challenge in cultural transformation and stakeholder communication*(19:24) - Looking toward the future: CX is in its nascency*(23:27) - An example of another company doing it right with customer data (hint: it’s LinkedIn)*(24:53) - Optimism for the future, even when optimism can feel rare-------------------Links:Connect with Waseem on LinkedInConnect with Kailey on LinkedInLearn more about STANLEY SecurityLearn more about Caspian Studios