The Experience Strategy Podcast

Welcome to this episode of The Experience Strategy Podcast! Aransas and Dave are joined today by Kylie Sachs, the owner of two thriving Milk Bar Cafes in Brooklyn, New York. Kylie’s café venture started in 2016 as a significant career and lifestyle change. Prior to making the switch to café/restaurant life, Kylie spent more than 20 years in management and finance at growing companies. Tune in to this episode as Aransas and Dave talk with Kylie about her “Team First” approach to running a business and how she achieves positive customer experiences.  You don’t want to miss this insightful episode!    IN THIS EPISODE:  [01:30] Kylie’s life-changing career transition from working in  finance to owning and operating cafes. [06:00] The big surprises of running a business  [10:00] How Kylie redefined success for herself and engages her team. [15:00] How Kylie creates an outstanding experience for her employees with her “Team First” approach, which benefits not only her employees, but also her customers.  [20:00] Kylie describes the steps she takes to ensure her customers have a remarkable experience from the moment they approach the cafe [24:00] Instead of feeling like she must continually be innovative and creating something new, Kylie explains why she is solely focusing on where her business is now and perfecting that.   [27:19] Dave shares the research he’s done on the influence of trust and authenticity in relationship building between brand and consumers [30:00] How Kylie’s team has built strong relationships with their customers, extending to life outside of the cafe.    KEY TAKEAWAYS: Kylie’s “Team First” approach with her employees has created happy employees who are equipped to provide customers with top-level service that keeps customers coming back. This approach has kept team members working there for years and former employees returning. Kylie and her employees have come to depend on each other and solve problems together.  The influence of integrity and consistency Kylie and her team have designed at Milk Bar is demonstrated in contented employees who connect with their customers, building a community within their neighborhood. Focusing on the simple elements of her business, Kylie has created a meaningful and trustworthy environment for employees and customers. Prioritizing reliable consistency and steadiness, making the cafe a part of customers’ daily lives.   Links Mentioned: Milk Bar BIO:   In 2016, Kylie bought two cafes in Brooklyn and in 2017 built a third. They are neighborhood favorites, serving breakfast and lunch in lovely settings. As a result of Covid-19, she shuttered one of them; happily, the other two are operating and thriving through this challenging time. Kylie’s café venture started in 2016 as a significant career and lifestyle change. Prior to making the switch to café/restaurant life, Kylie spent more than 20 years in management and finance, bringing together skills in financial leadership at growing companies. She has broad experience managing functions including finance & accounting, legal, human resources and investor relations. Specialties include business modeling, strategic planning and plan execution. She has significant industry experience in for-profit education and high transaction-oriented businesses. From 2010 – 2015 Kylie was CFO at Frontier Payments, a leader in point-of-sale and dispatch technology for more than 10,000 taxi drivers across 40 cities. Under Kylie’s financial leadership, Frontier processed more than a half a billion dollars of transactions. From 2003 to 2010, as a venture capitalist at Ascend Ventures, Kylie focused primarily on the Education and Media sectors.  Before joining Ascend, Kylie served in several operating and managerial roles at PRIMEDIA Inc. Prior to her tenure at PRIMEDIA, Kylie served as a Director of Corporate and Business Development at 360HipHop, a media company founded by Russell Simmons. Kylie also has a background in investment banking, having worked for Goldman, Sachs & Co. and Peter J. Solomon Company. Kylie earned a B.A. in Economics from Georgetown University and an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School.

Welcome to this episode of The Experience Strategy Podcast! Aransas and Dave are joined today by tech executive Liz Grausam, who shares her personal experience consolidating her finances. Managing personal finances has become an epic chore for many consumers. Big banks, burdened by outdated technology, aren’t making it easier for consumers to choose them in an increasingly competitive market. In this episode we look at the cost of tech debt on the customer experience, and ways businesses can use omni-channel experience strategies to create lasting loyalty.   In This Episode: [03:00] After Liz left her job, she felt it was imperative to investigate her own financial situation. Examining the variety of bank accounts she was using and consolidating those accounts to ensure efficiency, convenience and satisfaction. [05:11] When Liz had to navigate the digital experience with Merrill Lynch, she felt it was like travelling back in time, reflecting an archaic and arduous software. [08:34] What are robo-advisors? Liz explains what they were doing for her when she tried to consolidate all of her accounts into Merrill. [10:25] Which financial companies have the best robo-advisors?  [11:06] Liz’s positive digital experience consolidating her accounts with Fidelity. The overall usability and user-friendliness Fidelity provided to her. [18:39] Navigating Merrill Lynch’s systems between the lack of intuitive response from robo-advisors, to the challenges of speaking to an experienced advisor.  [23:00] Competitiveness between banks is contributing to providing customers with the  highest level of consumer experience. [25:00] The importance of channel strategy to building consumer relationships.  [26:03] Another issue with regards to Merrill Lynch and Bank of America’s poor customer experience is that they are most likely not using experience strategy to define their audiences. [28:11] The grade Dave gives Merrill Lynch based on Liz’s experience   Key Takeaways: Many well established companies are bogged down by legacy technology. The antiquated systems and poor digital customer experiences of these companies are pushing customers to pursue omni-channel solutions.  Competitiveness between banks is higher than it ever has been before. It’s crucial for those companies to learn how to keep customers and how to deepen their relationships. Banks have to be agile and customer focused in order to create loyalty.  It’s paramount that businesses use experience strategy to define their audiences, not just rely on marketing strategy.  Overall, online banks and financial institutions need to have a user centered and friendly experience that you can trust and feel confident using in order to be successful. Having good human interactions available as needed and the best technology is key to a great consumer experience.    Bio: Liz Grausam has spent her career analyzing and participating in the technology sector in a variety of ways.  She spent almost the first decade of her career on Wall Street as an equity research analyst, covering software and services stocks at Goldman Sachs. In 2008, her love of innovation and strategic problem solving drew her to work at Amdocs, one of the software firms she covered as an analyst. At Amdocs, Liz managed the Strategic Planning process for the company along with the Investor Relations program. With an itch to run a P&L, in 2015 Liz joined GLG, an early innovator in the expert network sector, to incubate their entry into the Tech Vertical after utilizing GLG’s service as a client.  During her tenure at GLG, she helped the company reinvent its service offerings for F500 companies, expanding the legacy offering tailored to the investment community into a robust B2B insights platform supporting strategic planning, innovation, and go-to-market activities at large companies. At GLG, she eventually became General Manager of the Corporate Markets business unit comprising the Tech, Consumer, Industrials and Life Sciences verticals.  Liz is currently on a professional sabbatical taking the spring and summer away from the grind and will be planning her next moves in the Fall of 2021.

In this episode, Aransas and Dave are joined by the experience strategy pioneers, Lou Carbone, Joe Pine, and Bernd Schmitt to take us back to the birth of Experience Strategy, Design and Marketing. In this episode we dig into the cultural and business forces that drove the experience revolution, explore how experience strategy has transformed business development, product design, and marketing, and discover what these pioneers predict is on the horizon.   In This Episode: [03:12] Lou Carbone talks about his career background in advertising [08:55] Aransas speaks with Bernd about creating and selling consumers an experience, not just a product,  while adding value to their lives [11:00] Experiential marketing to influence how people think, feel, act and relate to product features [17:27] Joe sharet how we enable differentiated experiences and how they adapt and change over time  [25:00] Lou digs deeper into the the influence ofconsumer’s environments [32:39] Joe speaks about the progression of economic value [34:10] Bernd explains more about the project/customer experience management framework. Focusing on how customers see things rationally, emotionally, and experientially and creating value-based experiential platforms [44:00] How experiences have changed from the early 2000’s digital revolution and how technology has been integrated into our daily lives.    Key Takeaways:   Many companies are bogged down by Industrial Age ideas that prioritize process over experience Goods and services are not enough anymore in this day in age- companies must emphasize the experience for their customers in order to create lasting relationships with consumers. Focusing on how customers feel and relate and how the business can help them with any pain points in their lives and solve any problems is key to creating a connection.  Fusionomics is the exploration of how consumer experience will continue to change with developing technology and how this integrates into our lives. How companies and businesses adapt and change to keep up with technology will be the key to creating a positive experience for consumers.  The future will belong to companies that create platforms integrating services, products, and meaningful experiences     Bio: Lou Carbone Lou Carbone is founder and CEO of Experience Engineering®, Inc.. Since the late 1980’s, Carbone has continuously been at the forefront of studying, exploring and developing value creation through experience management and is often referred to as the Godfather of Experience Management. He is recognized as a thought leader in the field as well as an experience management futurist, continuously innovative, hands-on academic/practitioner. He wrote the book “Clued In: How to keep customers coming back, again and again, published by FT Prentice Hall which won Fast Company’s Reader’s Choice Award. Lou originated the concept of Emotional and Unconscious Clue Based Experience Design and Total Experience Management® and a robust proprietary methodology and perspective called Experience Engineering®.    Joe Pine B. Joseph Pine II is an internationally acclaimed author, speaker, and management advisor to Fortune 500 companies and entrepreneurial start-ups alike. He is cofounder of Strategic Horizons LLP, a thinking studio dedicated to helping businesses conceive and design new ways of adding value to their economic offerings. In 2020 Mr. Pine and his partner James H. Gilmore re-released in hardcover The Experience Economy: Competing for Customer Time, Attention, and Money with many new ideas, frameworks, and exemplars plus a new Preview to their best-selling 1999 book The Experience Economy: Work Is Theatre; Every Business a Stage. The book demonstrates how goods and services are no longer enough; what companies must offer today are experiences – memorable events that engage each customer in an inherently personal way. It further shows that in today’s Experience Economy companies now compete against the world for the time, attention, and money of individual customers.    Bernd Schmitt Bernd Schmitt is Robert D. Calkins Professor of International Business and Faculty Director of the Center on Global Brand Leadership at Columbia Business School in New York. He is widely recognized for his major contributions to branding, marketing, and new technologies through his unique focus on the customer experience and innovation. He has published in the major marketing journals and written nine books which have been translated into 25 languages, including, among others, Experiential Marketing, Customer Experience Management, Big Think Strategy and Happy Customers Everywhere. Schmitt has consulted and developed brand, experience and innovation strategies for clients in consumer packaged goods, automobile, electronics, software, financial services, pharmaceuticals, beauty and cosmetics, hospitality, and media industries.

Welcome to the Experience Strategy Podcast! Today we are shining a spotlight on Spotify. Spotify has completely transformed how we listen to music forever. Launched in 2008, Spotify has grown to have over 356 millions users and includes a free or premium membership to access exclusive features of music listening, offline access, and ad free listening experiences. Spotify has found a way to connect with consumers on a deep level of emotional response by noticing our likes and dislikes in music and even offering new suggestions for you to discover. Your hosts Aransas and Dave welcome guest Margaret Callcott to talk about her own personal experience using Spotify for herself and her family. Margaret holds a PhD in advertising and consumer behavior from The University of Texas and has a long career in TV and digital content development. Tune into this episode as we speak with Margaret about her user insights and understanding how Spotify creates meaningful experiences with consumers.     In This Episode: [02:31] Margaret’s background and start at HGTV, her main projects and goal to make sure that everyone in the family could enjoy the content [04:42] Margaret’s previous music listening experiences with Apple music, and Amazon’s Alexa echo. How they started using Spotify and what brought her and her family to continue using it [06:46] Spotify was an early adopter of AB testing and used that research to meet the needs across different generations in families as Margaret discovered on trips with her family [08:20] Margaret explains more about deciding to be a paying subscriber to Spotify and why that makes it worth the effort and commitment to create a really nice experience for all members of the family [11:00] How Spotify becomes personalized to you and your music preferences and how using it in your everyday life develops a connection to the music and feelings it gives you during that time [13:00] Spotify exposes you to new music that you wouldn’t normally listen to, but can guess based on your likes  [16:17] Aransas describes what Spotify has done for its consumers; collecting music, and giving ownership and making collections feel personal to them  [20:45] Dave talks about the term “Jobs to be Done” in Experience Strategy and how it’s used to approach consumers by assessing their needs and creating a solution [24:00] Music is used in everyday events in our lives and impacts us emotionally allowing us to feel and connect more deeply and how Spotify uses it’s services to facilitate those feelings   Key Takeaways:   Early on, Spotify made it their mission to understand their customer and to create a product that provided a very satisfying experience and that’s a direct reflection of the fact that they did a lot of AB testing and user centered design. This helped them adapt and keep up with user needs  to focus on what was important to their customers.  Music gives humans a very emotional response to their everyday lives. Spotify has found a way to help their customers connect with music on an emotional level and also connect with other people by being able to share their playlists. Whether you need to destress, work, get ready for an event, or meditate, music is there to cultivate those modes. Spotify has done an excellent job at creating a meaningful experience for consumers with their music.    Bio: Margaret Callcott completed her PhD in Advertising and Consumer Behavior at the University of Texas, and was present at the creation of Home & Garden Television, the springboard to her career in television and digital content development for Scripps Networks and Discovery.  As our television viewing experience was transformed by a succession of digital innovations - including the Internet, the mobile phone and social media - Margaret developed a passion for consumer-driven insights and the creation of meaningful experiences in all the places where consumers interacted with their brands.   

Welcome to the Experience Strategy Podcast, the only podcast focused on the challenges of creating and executing an experience strategy.   In this debut episode, your hosts, Aransas Savas and Dave Norton welcome you to their new podcast. Aransas is a coach and Experience Designer who has worked with leading consumer brands for the last 20 years. Dave is an Experience Strategist and the founder of the Insights Consultancy, Stone Mantle and author. Listen in to learn a little more about Dave and Aransas and the ways this show is going to tap into smart consumers, small business owners and big business experts to understand what makes an impactful experience strategy.    In This Episode: [01:00] Getting to know Dave and Aransas and how they met [04:18] Aransas’s start in theatre and her love for storytelling that led her to became interested in Experience Strategy [06:20] Dave’s PhD work and time at a design firm where he led design research  [08:00] The influence of Joe Pine and Jim Gilmore’s book, The Experience Economy[09:20] The thrill of redesigning a resort private island and cruise lines experience industry [11:27] The genesis of The Stone Mantel Collaborative [13:00] Stories of working with CocoaVia, Disney and the Smithsonian [15:00] Creating meaningful experience strategies in 2021 [17:17] The goals of the Experience Strategy Podcast [20:00] How we will grade companies that we dig into on The Experience Strategy Podcast   Key Takeaways: There are hundreds of Customer Experience Podcasts out there, but this is the only one designed to help companies big and small design experience strategies that deepen brand relationships The show will feature small business owners, big names in experience strategy and smart consumers to create actionable impact  The hosts main hope for this podcast is to help a business think about things from the consumer’s standpoint. Questions like, Did the consumer feel like this was time well spent? Did they reach their target audience? What are different techniques that can be used?