The New Digital Customer

This episode features a "Digital Strategy Spotlight" on McDonald's national launch of their loyalty program and their announcement of their new customer experience team. Both Adam and Ben talk about the changing definition of "customer experience" and discuss the operational update for the chain. Articles and Sites referenced for this podcast: McDonalds Website - MyMcDonald’s Rewards Forbes - McDonald’s Has Created A New Team To Focus On Customer Experiences Marketing Dive - McDonald's creates team to elevate diner experiences Restaurant Dive - McDonald's takes its loyalty program national CNBC - McDonald’s will launch its loyalty program nationwide in July

Adam and Ben bring you a feature series called "Digital Strategy Spotlight". Here, in these short 15-minute episodes, they discuss a brand's digital strategy or their recent changes to their digital strategy. They then give quick highlights, grade the change, and make predictions for what may be seen next from the brand. On this episode, Adam and Ben will discuss Wingstop. Wingstop announced that they decided to “take a page from the structure of many leading tech companies, which often house marketing and digital/IT functions together to supplement a 'MarTech' structure." With this change, they'll have two distinct teams that focus on varying levels of communication to their guests. One which will lead what they are calling 'micro,' one-to-one communication, and one which will lead 'macro,' one-to-many communication. In this episode, Adam and Ben discuss their thoughts on this move into the digital atmosphere and what it could mean for Wingstop's customers and organizational structure. Articles referenced for this podcast: NRN Wingstop Article: Why Wingstop's corporate shakeup is such a game-changer Wingstop press release Restaurant Dive - Wingstop shakes up marketing structure as it eyes 100% digital transactions Restaurant Business - Wingstop Prepares To Take On Manhattan

In this episode, Ben is joined by Brightloom CTO Brian Zimmer and two of Brightloom’s Sr. Data Scientists, Bryan Prazen and Felix Duyls. They discuss cool things happening in data science in regard to the retail and marketing landscapes. Ben and his team discuss the massive opportunities that exist in data to elevate customer experience and drive efficiencies in terms of how work gets done and to have an impact. They give examples of how broadly the range of opportunities is to use data science in predicting the future.

Ben shares insight into the origin of Amazon Prime Day and how retail companies like Amazon have been able to leverage technology at a massive scale to improve customer experience. Adam gives his angle on what is happening with “meme stocks” like GameStop and AMC Theaters. He comments on how their recent stock roller coaster and similar crypto activity may signal that we are entering a new era. They wrap with a brief talk about the resurgence of community into the picture of Community, Commerce, and Content.

On this episode, Adam and Ben speak with restaurant industry analyst Andrew Charles from Cowen. The three discuss what the restaurant industry is looking like now that people are getting "back to normal". Andrew dives into topics like digital sales from the restaurant's platform vs a third-party service and the new dynamics of ghost kitchens and AI voice ordering. Also mentioned is how brands are now fueled by data and data analytics around what customers want, as well as challenges that have arisen.