Podcasts about theatro

Kimberly Drobny with Theatro joins Megan Lynch talking about new survey that shows majority of retail workers not feeling safe on the job.

RETIRED SGT BETSY BRANTNER SMITH OF THE NATIONAL POLICE ASSOC. BETSY REACTS TO CHAOS SEEN AT JERSEY SHORE OVER THE WEEKEND... DAWN WAS IN WILDWOOD - HOW CAN WE FIND MORE ORDER WITH TEENS IN BEACH TOWNS? STATE OF EMERGENCY SEEN IN MULTIPLE BEACH TOWNS... BETSY ALSO EXPANDS ON THE STATE OF RETAIL WORKERS AS MANY ARE WORKING ON EDGE WITH CRIME A CONCERN MORE CONSISTENTLY...  (Chain Storage)A wide majority of retailer workers feel unsafe on the job.Eighty-percent of retail workers are “scared every day” as they clock in for work, and 72% have experienced incidents in which staff couldn't respond to a threat because their store was understaffed, according to the 2024 Retail Worker Safety Survey, conducted by Theatro by third-party platform Pollfish... The survey included 600 in-store retail workers aged 18+ in the top 15 metropolitan areas across the United States. Read more. For perspective on what can be done to make retail workers feel more secure, turn to a 29-year law enforcement veteran who now trains officers around the world. Sgt. Betsy Brantner Smith (Ret.) is spokesperson for National Police Association, a non-profit that supports law enforcement officers across the U.S. Betsy began her career as a police dispatcher at age 17 and has held positions in patrol, investigations, narcotics, juvenile, hostage negotiation, crime prevention, K-9 and field training. She has been a law enforcement trainer for over 20 years.  Tune in weekdays 10 AM - 12 PM EST on Talk Radio 1210 WPHT; or on the Audacy app!

Scott Baradell, Spokesperson for Theatro, a retail technology company that recently commissioned a study on retail safety, joins guest host Ian Hoch to explain why 80% of retail workers say they feel unsafe on the job.

This hour, guest host Ian Hoch talks to Scott Baradell, Spokesperson for Theatro, about retail theft. Then, Ian asks what's your favorite military movie, and how do you define a "military movie"?

With a career dedicated to revolutionizing the retail experience, Chris Todd, CEO of Theatro, is here on the Retail Corner Podcast to discuss the groundbreaking advancements in AI-driven wearable technology for frontline staff. As the head of Theatro, a leading innovator in this field, Chris brings unparalleled insights into how AI is not just transforming operations but also elevating customer engagement to new heights. About our guest, Chris Todd: Chris is responsible for leading Theatro's overall direction, strategy, and growth. Chris is a “roll up your sleeves” type of leader who is passionate about the strategy of a business. Chris believes that most every idea can be a winner. It's all about figuring out the strategic angles to drive success! As a co-founder, Chris has been instrumental in guiding Theatro from an early innovative concept into a fast-paced growth company. Chris has 25+ years of experience in senior executive positions with small start-ups and large multinationals in a diverse array of industries, including software, networking, and apps for leading hardware and software companies including Cisco Systems, AppTrigger, Metaswitch, Extreme Networks, and Newbridge Networks. Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chris-todd-98b134b/ Website: https://www.theatro.com About Retail Corner Podcast: Guest Host: Cole Koumalats Producer: Sachin Kumar Bhate Podcast Sponsor: Proxima360 Listen to other podcasts at: https://proxima360.com/retail-corner.podcast or https://retailcorner.live Subscribe our Podcast: Apple iTunes: https://apple.co/3eoeUdT Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3dvjpDJ Google Podcast: https://bit.ly/3DFHXHw Amazon Music: https://amzn.to/3tkbhk1 Interested in being on our podcast? Submit request at: retailcorner@proxima360.com  

atriz Leona Cavalli, que apresenta peça no Theatro São Pedro - 22/03/2024 by Rádio Gaúcha

Podcast de leitura. Neste episódio o Psicólogo vandemberg ferreira compartilha sua leitura da obra de José de Alencar. Com uma adaptação da obra de José de Alencar. Literatura. Lucíola José de Alencar. Adaptação Psicólogo vandemberg ferreira. Baseado na obra de José de Alencar.

Sesión en directo por DJ Nexxa y Reda Soussia en Antique Theatro Sevilla el 28 de Enero de 2024, en la fiesta Black. NEXXA: Inicio a 0.40:40 REDA: 0.40.40 a 1.48:04 NEXXA: 1.48:04 a final

Edição de 07 Novembro 2023

Atriz Miá Mello fala sobre a peça “Mãe Fora da Caixa”, que será apresentada no sábado no Theatro São Pedro

Um espetáculo inédito baseado na obra "O Elogio da Loucura" de Erasmo de Rotterdam, satirizando a sociedade dos séculos XV e XVI com uma nova perspectiva sobre a loucura, protagonizado pela atriz Leona Cavalli e dirigido por Eduardo Figueiredo. A apresentação acontecerá no dia 29 de outubro às 20h no Grande Theatro Unimed-BH, localizado no Cine Theatro Brasil Vallourec, em Belo Horizonte. Os ingressos custam R$80 (inteira) e R$40 (meia).

Nesta coluna, o professor Milton Teixeira fala sobre a inauguração, no dia 12 de outubro de 1813, do Real Theatro de São João, hoje onde funciona o Teatro João Caetano, na Praça Tiradentes, no Centro do Rio.

Next to Plebiscito Square, one of the symbols of Naples, stands the shrine to Italian opera, whose foundation precedes the Scala theatre in Milan by 41 years and the Fenice theatre in Venice by 55 years.

Porto Alegre promulga o 8 de janeiro como dia do patriota. E ainda: Mel Lisboa e Marcello Airoldi falam sobre o espetáculo "Misery" que tem apresentações no Theatro São Pedro

Cristiano Quevedo antecipa show do Theatro São Pedro cantando ao vivo no Timeline

Cristiano Quevedo faz show no Theatro São Pedro nesse domingo - 30/06/2023 by Rádio Gaúcha

ERT

Um papo delicioso com Marisa Orth! Ela apresenta a peça "Barbara" no Theatro São Pedro.

Marisa presenta "Barbara" o primeiro espetáculo solo da atriz no Theatro São Pedro

Odilon Wagner fala sobre a existência de Deus e a peça "A Última Sessão de Freud" no Theatro São Pedro

Hoje vamos explorar o Theatro da Paz! O programa Pela Cidade traz informações e curiosidades em formato de boletins sobre locais, espaços e bairros destinados ao teatro, música, shows, exposições, eventos culturais e alimentação. Roteiro, produção e locução: Giulia Lira Sonoplastia: Danilo Nunes. Coordenação: Fernando Mariano. E-mail: canal.fapcom@fapcom.edu.br NPC 2023 Canal FAPCOM / Instagram

Johnny Hooker faz show em homenagem a Marilia Mendonça, dia 26, no Theatro São Pedro

Mariana Xavier apresenta a comédia "Antes do Ano Que Vem" no Theatro São Pedro

Physical retail is far from dead, but for many retailers traffic is increasingly harder to come by. In a fascinating panel recorded live on the floor at last month's NRF "Big Show," we welcome three founding CEO's to discuss how to create a more remarkable customer experience by leveraging innovative technology.Our guests are Daniel Black from Glass Media, Morgan Davis from MarketDial and Chris Todd from TheatroBut we kick-off the episode with a run-down of the headlines making waves in the world of retail including whether Bed, Bath & Beyond got a real life line or just a temporary reprieve, what to make of earnings reports from Capri, Under Armour, and Simon Property, and the possibility that expanding layoffs might have a cascading effect. We also discuss whether declining imports are a cause for concern, before wrapping up with Canada Goose's strategy to ramp up its growth plans.We're headed to Las Vegas in March for another edition of Shoptalk. Retailers and brands can get a Shoptalk ticket for a reduced rate of just $1950 rate here using our special discount code RBREMARK1950.About MorganMorgan is the co-founder add CEO of MarketDial.  Prior to MarketDial, Morgan was an associate at Kickstart Seed Fund. He also previously worked at the Boston Consulting Group (BCG) and focused in its Consumer Practice Area. While at BCG his projects included several due diligences for top-tier PE funds, a data-driven brand redesign for a nationalQSR chain, international marketing and sales benchmarking and training for a large consumer goods company, and a strategic overhaul and implementation of a consumer-facing education program for a specialty consumer goods manufacturer.About DanielDaniel, a Silicon Valley native, is often referred to as an entrepreneurial rebel for choosing to launch his retail technology company “Glass-Media” in Dallas, Texas. Since moving to Dallas in 2013, Daniel has quickly become an integral part of the startup community/ecosystem. In February 2015, Daniel was co-featured on the cover of “D CEO Magazine" in an article entitled “The New Faces of Dallas Tech.” Later that year, he was named a finalist for the Tech Titans - Emerging Company CEO Award and was honored in the Tech Titans Gala. Daniel is a firm believer in giving back. He is a mentor at a local, leading venture accelerator and remains actively involved with the Dallas Entrepreneurial Center and various other entrepreneurial organizations throughout the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex. Daniel attributes much of his success to the education he received at Claremont McKenna College. He graduated with a dual major in Economics/Government and completed the Leadership Studies Sequence. During his senior year, he was awarded “Claremont McKenna College Entrepreneur of the Year”. To date, Daniel remains involved with the College's Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (CIE) and was honored to have been selected as a Kravis Leadership Fellow.About ChisChris is responsible for leading Theatro's overall direction, strategy, and growth. Chris is a “roll up your sleeves” type leader who is passionate about the strategy of a business. Chris believes that most every idea can be a winner…it's all about figuring out the strategy angles to drive success! As a co-founder, Chris has been instrumental in guiding Theatro from an early innovative concept into a fast-paced growth company.Chris has 25+ years of experience in senior executive positions with small start-ups and large multinationals in a diverse array of industries, including software, networking and apps for leading hardware and software companies including Cisco Systems, AppTrigger, Metaswitch, Extreme Networks and Newbridge Networks.About UsSteve Dennis is an advisor, keynote speaker and author on strategic growth and business innovation. You can learn more about Steve on his       website.    The expanded and revised edition of his bestselling book  Remarkable Retail: How To Win & Keep Customers in the Age of Disruption is now available at  Amazon or just about anywhere else books are sold. Steve regularly shares his insights in his role as a      Forbes senior contributor and on       Twitter and       LinkedIn. You can also check out his speaker "sizzle" reel      here.Michael LeBlanc  is the Founder & President of M.E. LeBlanc & Company Inc and a Senior Advisor to Retail Council of Canada as part of his advisory and consulting practice.   He brings 25+ years of brand/retail/marketing & eCommerce leadership experience, and has been on the front lines of retail industry change for his entire career.  Michael is the producer and host of a network of leading podcasts including Canada's top retail industry podcast,       The Voice of Retail, plus  Global eCommerce Leaders podcast, and The Food Professor  with Dr. Sylvain Charlebois.    You can learn more about Michael   here  or on     LinkedIn. Be sure and check out Michael's latest venture for fun and influencer riches - Last Request Barbecue,  his YouTube BBQ cooking channel!

Faz hoje 16 anos que reabriu o Theatro Circo em Braga. É um dos teatros mais bonitos em Portugal.

Livia Camargo ou “Tiça Camargo” Visagista e caracterizadora atuante há onze anos no mercado artístico (teatros, TV e cinema), especializada na produção de óperas, balés e grandes espetáculos. Em 2011 iniciou nas Óperas com “O menino e os sortilégios” com direção da Livia Sabag no Theatro Municipal de São Paulo. De 2013 a 2015 assumiu as temporadas líricas do Theatro Municipal de São Paulo – onde a partir de 2016 passou a ser visagista residente. Em 2017 realizou intercâmbio para o Teatro Colón, Buenos Aires (Argentina). Realizou mais de 50 produções de óperas entre elas, as mais recentes “Sonho de uma Noite de Verão” com direção de Jorge Takla, no Theatro São Pedro e “The Rakes Progress” com direção de Maria Thais e Julianna Santos no Theatro Municipal de São Paulo. Atua há 9 anos com treinamento e preparo de jovens da periferia para inseri-los no departamento de visagismo e caracterização, bem como treinamento e preparo do elenco artístico através de oficinas e cursos de formação livre. Desde 2019 realiza um projeto de workshop de visagismo, em parceria com a EMESP, para os alunos da Academia de Ópera do Theatro São Pedro. Em 2020 ministrou o curso “Maquiagem Artística para a Ópera”, realizado no XIX Festival de Ópera do Theatro da Paz. No universo da dança realizou diversos títulos com o Balé da Cidade de São Paulo, sendo o espetáculo “Transe” de Clébio Oliveira o mais recente estreado e com a Cia Quasar de Dança e Cia K, com o espetáculo “Lenda das Cataratas”, que teve sua estreia mundial pelo Itaipu Binacional no Pavilhão Brasil na Dubai 2020 Expo, nos Emirados Árabes em 2022. Atua também na criação, produção e fabricação de adereços, perucas e postiços. Em paralelo, desenvolve o projeto: "Naturalização da Beleza", há 6 anos em atividade, que atua como um tratamento terapêutico de beleza, considerando a beleza e seus aspectos num formato holístico e integrativo. Release: Com libreto de Felice Romani, a ópera não se baseia no famoso texto de Shakespeare, mas em uma fonte italiana da história, uma peça teatral de Luigi Scevola escrita em 1818. Estreada em 1830, no Teatro La Fenice, de Veneza, a obra é um dos maiores sucessos do compositor, e tem como particularidade o fato de os dois protagonistas serem interpretados por mulheres: Giulietta por uma soprano, e Romeo por uma mezzo-soprano. Vincenzo Bellini (1801- 1835), conhecido por suas belas linhas melódicas, é considerado um dos maiores expoentes do bel-canto, ao lado de Gioachino Rossini e Gaetano Donizetti. A produção inédita do Theatro São Pedro tem direção cênica de Antonio Araujo, fundador do Teatro da Vertigem. O diretor parte de dois eixos principais. Um deles atualiza a luta entre os tradicionais clãs dos Capuletos e Montéquios e ganha nova roupagem, mostrando a rivalidade entre milícia e tráfico. O outro critica a visão patriarcal da sociedade e da própria ópera, com a presença de Giulietta cercada por figuras masculinas. Além disso, a presença de um coro de atrizes, faz participações pontuais na montagem, também estabelece um distanciamento crítico em relação a essa predominância dos homens na narrativa. Ficha técnica Alessandro Sangiorgi, direção musical Antonio Araujo, direção cênica Guilherme Bonfanti, iluminação Antonio Duran e Silvia Fernandes, dramaturgismo André Cortez e Carol Bucek, cenografia Cristian Duarte, coreografia Tiça Camargo, visagismo Elenco Denise de Freitas, mezzo-soprano (Romeo) Carla Cottini, soprano (Giulietta) Aníbal Mancini, tenor (Teobaldo) Douglas Hann, barítono (Lorenzo) Anderson Barbosa, baixo (Capelio) Participação da ORQUESTRA DO THEATRO SÃO PEDRO e do CORAL JOVEM DO ESTADO

Músico Cristiano Quevedo Artista gaúcho fala do mês do gaúcho e da apresentação no dia 29 no Theatro São Pedro

Tiago Flores (maestro), Débora Acauan Dreyer, Roger Scarton, Verônica Burger, Iuri Correa Soares, Andreia Maliszewski Antonio Greco, Chirlei Fabrícia Wildner e Guilherme Roman Marongon integrantes do grupo Vocal Takt./

O show Choro Caiçara – A música Brasileira no Século XIX será na sala Mário Tavares do Theatro, às 17 horas, com entrada franca. Como incentivo à participação dos angrenses, a Costazul FM, através do departamento de Marketing fará em sorteio a escolha de oito pessoas para acompanharem o evento, com transporte gratuito de ida e volta até o Rio de Janeiro.

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Ouça Dulce Miranda, atriz fantasma do Theatro São Pedro interpretada por Bruna Tessuto - 27/06/2022 by Rádio Gaúcha

KADIMA EM PELOTAS - SÁBADO, 09 DE JULHO - 20H - THEATRO GUARANY - LUCAS KADIMA - Podcast

Presidente Da Fundação Theatro São Pedro, Professor Antonio Hohlfeldt - 22062022 by Rádio Gaúcha

Zé Vitor Castiel, Oscar Simch e Rogério Beretta

O Cine Theatro Brasil vai exibir o espetáculo "Elton John por Rafael Dentini". O show vai celebrar os maiores sucessos de toda carreira do cantor britânico, desde os primórdios até os momentos atuais. Para garantir seu ingresso, basta acessar o site do Eventim. No Fica a Dica de hoje, Isabela Lapa traz mais informações sobre o evento. Confira! See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Novidade para os fãs de música de qualidade: Fernanda Takai tem show marcado para o próximo sábado, no Cine Theatro Brasil. Além de ser o lançamento da nova turnê, o evento também contará com músicas de sucesso da carreira solo da cantora. Para mais informações, confira o Fica a Dica de hoje. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Essa dissertação é um estudo das possibilidades relacionadas à iluminação cênica, em um teatro monumento: o Theatro José de Alencar. O estudo foi desenvolvido em três etapas de coleta de dados: visita em campo, pesquisa documental e entrevistas. Para tal, foi utilizado um guia, fundamentado em teóricos nacionais e internacionais, como Simões (2015), Camargo (2000), Gillette (1987) e Strong (2010), para encontrar as possibilidades cênicas na execução de projetos luminotécnicos. A pesquisa documental visou encontrar informações históricas sobre as estruturas cenotécnicas do referido teatro. As entrevistas aconteceram com artistas que se utilizaram do mesmo, com a finalidade de colher dados empíricos envolvendo a iluminação cênica para, através de análise comparativa com as estruturas luminotécnicas avaliadas, encontrar um repertório de possibilidades técnico-artísticas para o Theatro José de Alencar. Um diferencial desse estudo é investigar relações entre espaço cênico e possibilidades artísticas de iluminação. Como legado, essa pesquisa visa deixar um estudo piloto, abordando as temáticas da história da iluminação e história dos espaços teatrais e suas interligações nas concepções de projetos luminotécnicos. Por fim, esse estudo também pretende, ao alcançar os seus objetivos, fortalecer o Theatro José de Alencar como equipamento, entregando e propagando uma pesquisa que ajudará aos profissionais que se utilizam dele, a terem subsídios técnicos mais precisos para a realização de seus projetos e criações, sobretudo através da iluminação cênica. Palavras chaves: Iluminação. Teatro. Possibilidades Luminotécnicas. @wfacanha

Susana Vieira, atriz apresenta monólogo "Uma Shirley Qualquer" no Theatro São Pedro - 30/03/2022 by Rádio Gaúcha

Programação Jan/Fev ’22 do Theatro Circo; Resultados nacionais de bilheteira de Homem-Aranha - Sem Volta para Casa; obra de Pedro Costa em Paris no Verão de 2022.

Programação Jan-Jun ’22 da culturgest; Programação Jan/Fev ’22 do Theatro Circo; «Shine a Light», de Keep Razors Sharp.

Dan Rosen, Founder and General Partner at Commerce Ventures, talks about the evolution of fintech over the last two decades. Dan shares real-life examples of innovative fintech entrepreneurs building solutions that touch customers and businesses in a meaningful way, and his thoughts on whether or not now is still a good time to start a company in the fintech space.In this episode, you'll learn:[4:57]  Why many of the early investments in FinTech were in enablers and infrastructure[9:27] Having domain expertise is good, but passionate outsiders are doing equally great in modern FinTech[13:46] How telling your journey first connects you with the right investor[19:04] Have we reached peak FinTech, or is there more to go?About Guest SpeakerDan Rosen is the Founder and General Partner at Commerce Ventures. Dan is one of the original FinTech VCs and has been investing in tech startups for 20 years. He focuses on technology innovations in the payments, financial services and insurance fields, serves on the boards of Blooom, ClickSWITCH, Kin and Socure, and participates as an observer on several other portfolio boards, such as BillGO and MX Technologies.Fun Fact: Dan funded his adolescent baseball card and comic book collecting habits by delivering the Boston Globe newspaper early each morning (rain or shine).About Commerce VenturesCommerce Ventures is a Silicon Valley-based early stage venture capital firm focused on investing and empowering the next generation of technology innovators in the retail and financial services industries. Portfolio companies include: bill.com. BILLGO, ClickSWITCH, InAUTH, Kin, MARQETA, Blooom, Theatro, Boomtown, Vestwell, Mulberry and Socure.Subscribe to our podcast and stay tuned for our next episode that will drop next Tuesday. Follow Us:  Twitter | Linkedin | Instagram | Facebook

S1E2 – The Retail Avengers & The Future of Frontline Staff, Part 2Welcome to Season 1, Episode 2, the second ever episode of The Retail Razor Show!I'm your host, Ricardo Belmar, a RETHINK Retail Top 100 Retail Influencer, RIS News Top Movers and Shakers in Retail for 2021, advisory council member at George Mason University's Center for Retail Transformation, and lead partner marketing advisor for retail & consumer goods at Microsoft.And I'm your co-host, Casey Golden, CEO of Luxlock and slayer of retail frankenstacks!Together, we're your guides on the retail transformation journey. Whether you're thinking digital and online, mobile, or brick & mortar stores, there'll be something for you!In episode 2 we dive into the future of retail frontline workers, with none other than Ron Thurston, author of Retail Pride, The Guide to Celebrating Your Accidental Career. Ron joins our Retail Avengers team on Clubhouse to talk about the impact of AI and automation on store teams and how retailers can, and should, equip their frontline staff with technology. Plus, Ron gives us a preview of his latest project, kicking off in 2022 – Retail In America!For more information about Ron, and how you can Take Pride Today in your retail career, visit Ron's website: https://www.retailpride.comThe Retail Razor ShowFollow us on Twitter: https://bit.ly/TwRRazorConnect with us on LinkedIn: https://bit.ly/LI-RRazorJoin our club on Clubhouse: http://bit.ly/RRazorClubListen to us on Callin: https://bit.ly/RRCallinSubscribe on YouTube: https://bit.ly/RRShowYouTubeSubscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://bit.ly/RetailRazorShowRetail Razor Show Episode Page: https://bit.ly/RRShowPodHost → Ricardo Belmar,Follow on Twitter - ****https://bit.ly/twRBelmarConnect on LinkedIn - ****https://bit.ly/LIRBelmarRead my comments on RetailWire - ****https://bit.ly/RWRBelmarCo-host → Casey Golden,Follow on Twitter - ****https://bit.ly/twCaseyConnect on LinkedIn - ****https://bit.ly/LICaseyRead my comments on RetailWire - https://bit.ly/RWCaseyTRANSCRIPTS1E2 Retail Avengers & The Future of Frontline Staff, Part 2[00:00:20] Ricardo Belmar: Hello. Good morning. Good afternoon. Good evening. No matter what time of day you're listening. Welcome. Welcome to season one, episode two, the second ever episode of the Retail Razor Show. I'm your host, Ricardo Belmar, one of RIS News top 10 movers and shakers in retail for 2021 and lead partner marketing advisor for retail and consumer goods at Microsoft. [00:00:42] Casey Golden: And I'm your co-host Casey Golden, CEO of Luxlock obsessed with the customer relationship between a brand and the consumer. I spend my days slaying franken-stacks.[00:00:52] Ricardo Belmar: So Casey, how many franken-stacks have you slain since our last episode? [00:00:55] Casey Golden: I can't even count right now. [00:00:57] Ricardo Belmar: Okay. No worries. I think maybe our listeners are gonna want to start keeping track though, since we keep, , talking about it, maybe, maybe they'll start tweeting out to us, their guesses on how many between episodes.[00:01:06] Casey Golden: I love a good tweet storm. [00:01:07] Ricardo Belmar: Yeah, me too. So any listeners out there who want to tweet a guess on how many franken-stacks Casey has slain since episode one. Be sure and tweet your guess and tag the Retail Razor account so we see it. We'll be sure to give a shout out to whoever [00:01:20] comes the closest next time we record our episode, right Casey?[00:01:24] Casey Golden: I guess I'm going to have to start keeping count myself. [00:01:26] Ricardo Belmar: There you go. [00:01:29] Casey Golden: So regarding the last week we kicked off the show with our friend, Ron Thurston, author of retail pride, and he's joining us again this week [00:01:36] Ricardo Belmar: that's right. This is part two of our Retail Avengers and the Future of Frontline Staff session. Last week, we focused on the current state of frontline workers in retail and how tech will become more and more of an integral part of that experience.[00:01:49] And this week we tackle a few of the biggest issues that concern the retail workforce, around automation and AI versus the human staff, how to best leverage technology in the hands of store associates. And we take on some interesting questions from the clubhouse audience on digital versus analog experiences and in the human connection in retail.[00:02:08] Casey Golden: These are tough topics. I'm a big proponent of human augmentation, but let's face it. We gotta automate the things we don't want to do. [00:02:16] Ricardo Belmar: That's right. Yeah. , I totally hear you. And I completely agree. So [00:02:20] many people are getting scared of the automation that's coming, but I think that's the wrong way to look at it.[00:02:25] And we'll, talk about that in this session, because there's so many benefits to having that automation do exactly what you just said, right. To get rid of all the tasks that are not the interesting fun ones and let's face it, not the ones that make the customer experience better. [00:02:39] Casey Golden: Exactly. We've got to enable the heart of our business, which is that engagement between the consumer in the brand and the consumer never walks into corporate, you know, they walk into the stores and that's where their experiences. So I really believe, you know, scaling that part of the business and making sure that the heart has software. It's going to be able to just move everything further.[00:03:11] They're not spending any time doing admin work. And there's ways to, for them to focus on what's really important to the business and what's important to the [00:03:20] consumer. [00:03:20] Ricardo Belmar: Yeah, I totally agree. And even when we're talking about basic things like we're going to get to in this session about store associates, getting mobile devices to use when they engage with customers [00:03:29] Casey Golden: Yeah, I love talking about frontline staff and Ron is one of the best people to dive into this topic. So glad he'll be joining us after we listen to the clubhouse recording, let's go get to it. [00:03:39] Ricardo Belmar: You got it. So without further delay, let's give a listen to the Retail Avengers and the Future of Frontline Staff, Part 2.Clubhouse Session[00:03:54] Ricardo Belmar: Welcome everyone. Thank you for joining us here in the retail razor club room, we're continuing our conversation with special guest Ron Thurston, and about the future of frontline retail staff.[00:04:04] So let's do some quick introductions. I'll start with our special guests, Ron Thurston, author of retail pride, and Ron, I know you have some special announcements that I'll let you share about what, you're going to be doing.[00:04:16] I think then you've also got some special activities happening in New York this weekend share with us. So let me give you a moment to introduce yourself and tell us about those two things. [00:04:25] Ron Thurston: Awesome. Thanks so much, Ricardo. I really appreciate it. So yes, I'm the author of retail pride, the guide to celebrating your accidental career, which is why I love to talk about everything, frontline worker retail related, and I'll start with myself.[00:04:39] So yes, until last week I was the head of stores of intermix, as part of kind of their sale to private equity and such. It was a great time for me to launch my own brand. So I'm launching an umbrella, brand under Take Pride [00:04:54] Today, which will be consulting. And I'm speaking opportunities, additional books under the umbrella of retail pride.[00:05:01] And I'm really excited to get this started, kind of building out the infrastructure for what that will look like. So thank you for, for helping me, get that out into the world. [00:05:10] Ricardo Belmar: All right. Thank you for that, Ron. Appreciate it, [00:05:13] Trevor welcome. Why don't you introduce yourself? [00:05:15] Trevor Sumner: Hi, I'm Trevor Sumner. I'm the CEO of perch. We do interactive displays at retail.[00:05:21] And what's cool about them is they use computer vision to detect which products you touch. So it's like minority report, it touch a product. And literally the shelf starts talking to you about the product ratings, reviews, videos, augmented reality, all that kind of stuff. [00:05:33] Ricardo Belmar: All right, fantastic. And move on to Shish. [00:05:35] Shish Shridhar: Hi, good morning. Good afternoon. I'm the retail lead, with Microsoft for startups and essentially create a portfolio of retail tech, early stage retail, tech startups, I'm, on the lookout for innovative startups in the space. I'm always meeting up with [00:05:54] startups and learning a lot as well in that process. I've been in retail for about 20 something years, 24 years in Microsoft.[00:06:02] And about 15 of those years, working very closely with the top retailers around the world. Looking forward to the conversation today. Thank you.. [00:06:11] Ricardo Belmar: Thank you, Shish. Brandon. [00:06:12] Brandon Rael: Hello everyone, my name is Brandan Rael.. I've been in around the retail industry, both within retail companies, across a variety of merchandising and planning.[00:06:21] And I love that that role but I'm mostly on the other side now, currently I'm one of the transformation leaders at Reach Partners a boutique consultancy that works with the retailers, CPG companies, DTC companies to not only, stay ahead of disruption, but self disrupt themselves to really pivot their organizations and, provide an amazing customer experiences, both in store and online and, happy to be here. [00:06:46] Ricardo Belmar: All right, thank you, Brandon. And Jeff. [00:06:48] Jeff Roster: Hi, Jeff roster, a former Gartner and IHL retail sector analysts. Now, sit on several advisory [00:06:54] boards as well as the co-host for This week in Innovation podcast.. [00:06:57] Ricardo Belmar: Thank you, Jeff and I'm Ricardo Belmar. I founded the Retail Razor Club here on Clubhouse. I've been in retail tech for the better part of the last two decades, working for a different technology providers and service providers in retail, currently at Microsoft as a senior partner marketing advisor for retail and consumer goods.[00:07:15] Recap of Part 1[00:07:15] Ricardo Belmar: So let me do a quick recap of what we discussed at the last session. We've focused then on what new roles may emerge for frontline workers. We had an example of Levi's talking about, skills training and data science. We talked about new skills for clientelling supporting self-checkout and click and collect operations at the store. We came to a conclusion there was going to be a strong focus on supporting convenience services and experiential retail, which in this case led to a prediction that there will be more segmenting of staff into specialists or subject matter expert areas so that you won't see [00:07:54] a frontline position description might not just be as a sales associate, but it may include things like being a live streamer or doing something else around a particular area of product expertise based on what the store sells.[00:08:06] And that segmenting is something that should lead to an embracing of uniqueness and diversity in the staff. And then we also covered some interesting new retail tech, that we thought front lines are going to be enabled with around collaboration, assisted selling, other store operational tools, things that would support fulfillment, particularly stores that may operate sort of a micro fulfillment area, in part of their footprint.[00:08:30] And that led us to also talk about what the perception of roles would be. Ron had brought up an interesting point about frontline workers asking, what do I call my role? Because it was becoming much more than a traditional sales role. And again, that tied back to the area of segmenting. [00:08:47] This week we're going to dive into a couple of different areas.[00:08:50] The main one is going to be what the impact of [00:08:54] AI and automation will have on frontline staff. And we're also going to touch on things we think retailers could be doing to improve that work environment for front lines, but both in and out of the automation conversation. So for example, before we dive into those, I'm going to pose a question for the panel , we learned that Walmart is buying 740,000 Samsung smartphones for their frontline workers, that's going to include a very special integrated app. That's supposed to help them with all of their daily work tasks and, and managing everything related to being on the job essentially.[00:09:27] And also they're going to give their frontline staff the option of adopting that device as their personal device. And the claim from Walmart is that they are not going to have any visibility or access to any of those personal data areas, on the device should you choose to use it that way.[00:09:44] So I'm sure everyone has some thoughts on that. My question do you see this a, is this a trend? You know, we we've always talked in the past about how this was going to be the [00:09:54]year of associate enablement, whether it was technology or training.[00:09:57] And it seemed every year that we would start the year talking about that, but we wouldn't see a lot of evidence from most retailers to do anything about that. And here comes Walmart with what I've seen, some calculations posted online that, depending on what Samsung's price was for these devices, it's easily a 350 to 380 million investment.[00:10:16] Mobile Devices for Store Associates Trend[00:10:16] Ricardo Belmar: Is this a trend? Is this a sort of a turning point that we're going to see retailers put frontline workers, in a better light and really focus on equipping them with the technology they need to put them on par with the technology, customers are walking into the store with, or is there some other meaning to this?[00:10:33] For example, one of the app functions, is an AI based tool called ask Sam, which Walmart says has been heavily used in, trials already where workers can ask just about any question to this AI sort of a chat bot, I suppose, that helps them find answers and help customers. So with my long explanation there, Ron, [00:10:54] I'll start with you.[00:10:54] What do you think of this? [00:10:55] Ron Thurston: Thanks Ricardo. So I I'll approach it from two different sides. I think from the, from the Walmart side. And as, as someone who was kind of deep into also providing tech to employees, there, there are so many legal implications about the idea of offering you. I know the pilot was about bringing your own device and let's pilot this, but it's become increasingly difficult from a legal perspective to ask anyone to do anything off the clock as they shouldn't.[00:11:25] And so when you think about the majority of these employees, significant majority are hourly employees, the ability for then Walmart to provide things like scheduling tools requesting time off, probably putting in something around like vacation days. You can do all of that on this device actually is really helpful for them to be able to just control the control the data control the, the use.[00:11:53] It [00:11:54] sounds like it is only enabled when they're in the store. It's probably connected to the wifi, which is, pretty normal. And so I actually think it's a fantastic way for Walmart to have a recruiting advantage because that's also a huge call-out today of how do we attract and retain top talent, or, at least be able to fill all of our open jobs.[00:12:15] And this is a great way to do that. And secondly, provide The opportunity for, kind of data collection data use and be able to provide tools that the employees have access to, where normally in scheduling, you'd have to kind of come into the store and make a phone call and you can't ask an employee to check their personal email, or even use their personal email accounts when they're off the clock.[00:12:38] There's so many legal implications. And on the employee side, it's a huge perk for a low hourly frontline worker to have something you could use for your personal device, whether you think the company is, is tracking you or not, this is [00:12:54] TBD, but the benefits, I could see huge benefits on both sides.[00:12:57] And I, applaud them for making the move. And I think it's the first of many, many to come in this, in this arena. And, I'm excited that they were the first to move. [00:13:07] Ricardo Belmar: Yeah, thanks, Ron. I agree with you , , I see this as a overall positive move, although certainly with plenty of potential gotchas and, I suspect Trevor has a few things to say about some of those gotchas. [00:13:18] Trevor Sumner: I have I've, I've lots of things about many gotchas. I Ron, I think that's a really interesting point about, you know, kind of compliance and risk mitigation and, you know, even, making sure that off the clock, you have a device that they could use and could log and could track.[00:13:34] And so they are properly compensated for such. And I don't know if they're going to start that it doesn't sound like they're starting there yet to be connected to wifi, but they may end up going in that direction. In terms of greater compliance, as we, continually kind of do CRM and one-to-one marketing and for sales associates outside of store, [00:13:51] I think this is. There's [00:13:54] something else at play. Like I think this is great. And you know, there's no reason you can't have most of the utilities that they talked about in the release on, some type of web based app or, or support both iOS and Android and basically hit everything anyway. So why provide your own devices?[00:14:10] And I think, you know, part of it's like the controlled environment it's access, but I also think the data play is really interesting. So I think about, like ask Sam and other tools that, I think voice interfaces are highly inefficient. A lot of these technologies need to be refined. A lot of data needs to be collected to optimize things.[00:14:27] And all of a sudden you've got, basically you can track every sales associate in the store and where they are at all times. You can track if they're using ask Sam, you can look at the most common queries you can, you know, do a bunch of voice recognition. You can give yourself an advantage. Like one of the things that, Google, had a voice recognition advantage over a lot of people is that they already had all these voice recordings and all this voice data.[00:14:49] So I think there's a data pipeline play here that they're going to use and, to [00:14:54] test bed different applications before they release them to consumers and, and use the sales associates as a testing ground, to improve the UX, the UI and the underlying technology, for everything that they do.[00:15:04] And I think that that ultimately is the value because that makes everything they do from a technology perspective that they eventually released to the, to the end consumer, to be a much more mature. And well-vetted. [00:15:15] Brandon Rael: No to add to that point, I think, there probably rarefied the amount of companies that can make these significant investments in digital technologies and sales associate enablement via technologies like mobile devices.[00:15:28] So, it's can take, , such an investment like from a Walmart or potentially a Target that can actually, , invest in these capabilities, but also do the training necessary to empower store associates, to really make these a value added asset of what providing a, an outstanding associate experience, which w you know, Ron and others know, will translate over to a outstanding customer experience, then it, to help them enhance that relationship and enable the store associates to keep up with it, with, evolving [00:15:54] and always informed, and always empowered a customer who has a mobile device in their hands and access to information, review his competitor information prices.[00:16:03] Why not empower and enable your store associates keep up with that changing paradigm.[00:16:07] Shish Shridhar: I kind of think this is actually a very interesting move for Walmart. I've been, following the space and working on that space and empowering employees for a couple of years. And one of the points that Ron made about the legal implications, that was one of the big barriers in the past where they wanted, you know, The ability to control it, where the information and the task list and the ability to read work-based information outside of hours was a big concern.[00:16:38] And today with the capabilities available of controlling that I think it is becoming more of a possibility. Then it was maybe about five to 10 years ago. And that is, I think one of the drivers as well. And the other [00:16:54] aspect is, if I look at it from a startup perspective, oldest startup are in the space.[00:17:00] There's a lot of interesting technologies that are, that are being deployed. A lot of retailers are experimented with it primarily because the looking at, one, the more empowered the employees are, the happier customers are going to be. And also the other aspect of it, you know, when we look at it from the perspective of the future of frontline staff, And the, the evolving role of the frontline staff.[00:17:25] This is an important element of that. And I think it is the start of that journey where a frontline staff is going to be empowered, but a lot of information that they need, as they grow into, into that new role of being subject matter experts, into that role. Really fitting into a higher level of customer expectation.[00:17:49] So the features like the ask Sam, those are things that I'm seeing a lot of [00:17:54] where store associates can connect to real time information that can connect to conversational systems and be able to ask questions, get responses very quickly so that they're better informed and are able to help customers as a result.[00:18:11] They know exactly whether a product is in stock than not. They know if it's in the back room. So that quick access to information is an important element of that evolving role of the, of the frontline worker. And I think this is, this is huge in a way. I've been working with companies like Theatro, for example, that use a headset based system.[00:18:35] There's a company called Turnpike that is deployed in H and M. That is using wearables for companies that feel that, you know, a mobile device looks like a bit of a distraction. There is, other companies that use mobile devices and working with natural gourds that are using mobile devices. So there's multiple [00:18:54] formats that startups are experimenting with and also, what appeals to different types of retailers.[00:19:00] And, and in my mind, this is actually the beginning of that journey of evolution for, for the frontline worker, where they become empowered and also become subject matter experts, not necessarily to knowledge they have, but the connection to the backend knowledge that enables them to be far more effective and, and cater to the, the evolving expectations.[00:19:24] Trevor Sumner: Shish that actually just, inspired something, connecting the dots. When you talked about all these new startups doing interesting things, there's a startup out of VRA where I mentor, and they're called RilaVoice. And what they do is they mic up sales associates and they listen to every conversation they tag.[00:19:41] They look at the most common questions they can provide compliance on whether sales associates are answering questions well, using the right keywords, et cetera. But, again, I focus on the sheer scale of [00:19:54] this network. And what if, Walmart couldn't do that with your own device, but they couldn't do that.[00:19:58] I mean, we, we joke about how face you say something and all of a sudden you see Facebook ads for that thing. Like, there's no reason that Walmart couldn't enable these devices to listen all the time and start recording conversations and use that information in an interesting way. There's just so many tremendous opportunities to leverage this.[00:20:16] Ron Thurston: Yeah. And it's Ron, I was going to jump into about what Shish said, because this kind of idea of being enabled and encouraged and empowered, I think what was likely happening is that customers were engaged in. With frontline asking questions and they were pulling their own phone out of their back pocket.[00:20:35] And, and probably going to the website, probably looking at pricing, trying to do whatever they could to do that. And that there's legal risk put into that. So the idea of say, we're providing you all of these resources, we're empowering you with information and data. We're giving you everything that you need and let's leave your [00:20:54] personal phone in your locker when you get to work.[00:20:56] Like there's a lot of, there's a lot of potential, kind of positive and positive employee sentiment doing something like this that can really help from a recruiting standpoint to,[00:21:08] Brandon Rael: I also think to Ron's point, this generation is ready for this, these technologies and tools and solutions. We have a generation that's grown up, the next wave of retail, frontline workers who know nothing but digital. So why not empower these gen Z or, or the younger millennials to truly take on , and run with it because, when the guy came up with a customer who is light years ahead, so it's all about empowerment, it's all about enabling.[00:21:32] It's all about trusting your associates and given the tools and capabilities and need to provide an experience that's extraordinary and really helped our discovery [00:21:42] Ricardo Belmar: for the customers [00:21:42] and isn't there an element of consistency , too? [00:21:44] Because you want that experience to be consistent across associates, across stores, across customers.[00:21:50] I'm just thinking of Ron's example of the associate pulling their own device [00:21:54] out of their pocket to try to answer a question for a customer. That just seems like it's always going to lead to inconsistency, right? Because you're not providing the associate with the right tool for the job to get that consistent response.[00:22:06] And I have to believe that, if I'm Walmart, I want that consistency because what's my brand value to the customer. It's part of it is that consistency of experience that any Walmart you walk into, you know you're going to get this experience and if I'm not providing the tools to the staff, then how can I deliver that?[00:22:23] Shish Shridhar: That actually reminds me of the conversation I had with the retailer couple of years ago, where, we found when we were working with that retailer, every one of the stores had a Facebook group for having internal conversations. And this was mainly because the company hadn't provided a platform for store associates to have those conversations, to sort of standardize it and not go rogue.[00:22:46] And, and they kind of found that when they were able to provide that platform, there was sort of a control place, [00:22:54] but things could happen. This is secure and it's not out in the public. Many of these sites were actually out in the public and you could go into these Facebook groups, look at all the internal conversations and bright the was going on, within, within the store itself.[00:23:09] That was, again, I think one of those things where companies decide we need to standardize and provide a consistent interface. Thank you. [00:23:17] Trevor Sumner: Well, not just consistency, something that you can monitor. Right. And, that's one of the values and, and, and I thought the earlier point is great. It's like, let's be honest that a lot of Walmart, you know, sales associates, they're making minimum wage or close to it.[00:23:31] So the notion of having, free phone service and a free device that's meaningful. Right? And if you think about the data rates that are probably pre negotiated by Walmart, they're probably getting a very good deal.[00:23:43] Ricardo Belmar: Yeah, I think that speaks back to Ron's point earlier about the incentive as a recruiting incentive, right.[00:23:48] To find more as we've heard, certainly in other rooms and in clubhouse at another news stories, there's [00:23:54] a big difficulty right now for a lot of retailers to recruit enough staff as stores have reopened and customers are coming back. So I think I do agree that that serves as a good incentive. I think Trevor, your point is right about that.[00:24:06] I'm going to ask Jeff, you've been quiet and listening to everybody's comments. If you had anything that you disagreed with or wanted to add to this? [00:24:13] Jeff Roster: Yeah, so really interesting. First, first thought is we've been waiting forever to really get into the BYO D discussion, bring your own device in this case, it's really not a BYO D it's a, B Y B Y CD.[00:24:25] Bring your own company device. So there's gonna just be some amazing learnings that are going to come out of this huge fan of, of having associates have to have the tools, probably everyone in this, in this conversation. And obviously everyone on clubhouse has, has a powerful, a smartphone that they're using.[00:24:40] Why shouldn't our, our store associates have it, that I pop on my loss prevention hat and think what happened. And so I agree with Trevor that there's some crazy interesting voice technology that's coming out, sentiment analysis, how, you know, tone of voice, all that sort of stuff. Before [00:24:54] listening to the conversations to help in that.[00:24:56] What happens when you can recover some loss prevention problems, two associates, maybe, maybe talking a about stealing something or whatnot. What do we do there? Is there a privacy concern there? How do we turn that device off? When store associates have the expectation for, for a private conversation, don't have the answers, but this is going to be fascinating to watch.[00:25:16] Ricardo Belmar: Yeah. I think that's a good point. It is absolutely going to be interesting to watch the deployment of this. I think it's gonna be fascinating to see what percentage of employees decide to use this device as their personal device. [00:25:26] One of the things that I think is interesting in, in a couple of us touched on this . So, the ask Sam app is an example of that.[00:25:33] AI Impact on Frontline Workers[00:25:33] Ricardo Belmar: Where else do we see AI based technologies, stepping in whether in that case being billed as an augmentation or something to assist in associated, or you could see this as well in a clientelling scenario, and compare that with other automation technologies. And is this going to be competition for [00:25:54] frontline workers?[00:25:54] Is it going to be an assistance? Is it a combination of the two there there's certainly a perception out there that certain types of automation technology are a threat to frontline jobs. Certainly if you start talking about robotics, you get lots of folks who will come back and say, the robots are going to take those jobs away from frontline workers.[00:26:13] And if you think about a grocery store scenario where you're using a robot to do shelf counts, for example, people start to think there may be some truth in that statement. In other scenarios, you, you might respond to something like that and say, well, what's really happening is we're shifting the tasks.[00:26:27] We're trying to eliminate the more mundane, repetitive tasks that don't really add to the employees. Productivity don't necessarily help that frontline worker help a customer and free them up to do those jobs. So we're, we're shifting tasks, not necessarily shifting labor. There there's arguments on all sides of this.[00:26:46] I want to open up the discussion now to that point. Where do you see this, dividing line between. AI [00:26:54] technologies, automation, technologies being a threat versus it assisting frontline workers. And Ron, I'm going to start with you again, putting you on the spot. [00:27:03] Ron Thurston: This is the complicated question, but you got to thank you. I mean, here's what, what I would say is that there, there has always been, and there will always be a high demand and a high expectation of people who are exceptional every day and committed to delivering great customer experiences.[00:27:24] And, and maybe as the types of our businesses evolve and scale in different ways and you know, kind of evolution continues in retail. There will always be that side of it that needs great people who have incredible human interaction skills and they, they are unaffected by all of this because what they're hired for and what they're celebrated for is their ability to connect and sell.[00:27:51] And then I think that there's a whole other [00:27:54] side of the pendulum that says, could some of these things be automated and, put through machines and done differently. Absolutely. Yes. And I think that that's fine, but when I look at it, I say, well, then there's an enormous training opportunity and ability to take, to up-skill people who may potentially frontline workers and then build their careers in retail, through training, and that they can become that person that becomes really invaluable to companies because of their ability to connect, because that's, what's bringing people back to stores today.[00:28:28] And so that's how I kind of look at it of like the ultimate machine and the ultimate, lack of machinery that is entirely human. [00:28:38] Trevor Sumner: Yeah. And, you know, I think that's really an interesting point because especially as you look at this pandemic and who did really, really well, Walmart target best buy all these guys took e-commerce share from Amazon because in part, because there's this identity of being local, being part of a local [00:28:54] community.[00:28:54] And even as we talked about the 740,000 devices. Maybe that's a way that Walmart's looking at creating communities of its workers and those workers are a significant presence in the community. So I think this focus on community is absolutely right, whether it's, you know, sales associate to customer, whether it's sales, associate and worker to worker, I think there are new opportunities that are going to be uncovered as we create some of this automation to, to connect the connect the world.[00:29:20] Brandon Rael: And I think a retail and especially the luxury sector, which can't wait to hear Casey's perspective on is the battleground to win the hearts and minds of consumers. That retailer's always going to be a blend of the arts and sciences. Yes, automation, AI, machine learning, artificial intelligence, everything, augmented reality that really adds to the value of the customer experience matters.[00:29:44] But also the in-person engagement that Ron has alluded to that sense of community. The sense of togetherness all matters. And if it can be personalized by knowing your customers, by having the data [00:29:54] first customer first strategy that all the better, and it will make the store associates empowered, then have a really defined career path that's built on data and analytics [00:30:03] Casey Golden: a hundred percent. This is Casey. I think being able to separate what builds value versus administration work and how we can automate more administration work and streamlining the processes so that sales associates or retail associates can focus on things that create value to the customer and to the company.[00:30:25] I mean, how much time do you spend with customers and selling versus doing all of the paperwork or logging. And measuring everything that you need to do to, to be able to pick up that conversation again, or to create more value or to follow up. There's a lot of sales associates that either have no software or they have to use three or four pieces of software.[00:30:49] And I think that can cause a lot of, just it's more work that great, we got technology, but [00:30:54] now they have so much technology that's not connected or not helping them. It's just creating more work. But social media has, has really been at the pinnacle of building relationships and being able to have that sense of community, clubhouse is a perfect example of that.[00:31:10] In store experiences can facilitate it, but retail hasn't really facilitated that on e-commerce, or built their own community. A lot of retailers have relied on other social platforms to build their community on. And at the end of the day, they don't have access to their customer because it's on somebody else's platform.[00:31:31] So I think the more we can kind of bring those experiences and connect them to the brand, consumers will be able to start feeling what brand loyalty is supposed to like, why they would want to be loyal to a brand.[00:31:42] Ricardo Belmar: Yeah, I agree. To build that loyalty, right? It requires people. I don't think you can. Claim you'll accomplish that by just automating every interaction. It makes me think about, the typical customer service [00:31:54] scenario that every comedian will talk about, right.[00:31:56] When they're trying to reach a retailer to return something, for example, and they have to get through the chat bot or they have to get through the AI before they can reach a person. It's not too many years ago when the jokes used to be about, IVR phone systems where you'd call in and you'd have to keep, press nine to get through this menu, then press seven, then press five.[00:32:14] And everyone tried to figure out what's the special key. You have to press on the phone to get out of the automated part and get to the person. And it's in some ways, right? From a customer experience, point of view, that doesn't change that, that human component of it doesn't change. And that's why you need people.[00:32:30] Casey Golden: Yeah. a subscription to a company called Billy and their, a, razorblade like subscription for women. And I picked them because there were a startup, a New York startup. I liked the founders. I signed up for it. I've been on a reoccurring for probably three years.[00:32:47] I liked them, but they just magically show up in my mailbox. I don't engage with the brand. I never go to the brand's website. I don't [00:32:54] touch anything. They just arrive in my mailbox every other month. Which is nice and convenient and I never have to shop for them, but I also never say the brand out loud.[00:33:02] I never think about the brand. I never think about the company ever. I'm never engaged with the company whatsoever. So I think there's a, there's a difference between seamless building brand loyalty and also. What kind of brand loyalty am I, am I loyal to the brand or am I loyal to the fact that they just show up every other month?[00:33:20] And I never think about the brand. It could be anybody. [00:33:23] Trevor Sumner: Yeah. And so I think it's dangerous to say like, yes, there, there are always going to be sales, some sales associates, but what if we removed half the sales associates or half the warehouse pickers, or, half that's a pretty significant reduction.[00:33:37] And I think it's, we just have to be careful about being reductionist here. I think technology and automation is going to reduce a lot of the repetitive tasks. And ultimately the question is, can we find new tasks that are valued at minimum wage or higher that add enough value [00:33:54] to be competitive? And, you know, certainly at a luxury, like a Gucci or Chanel, there are plenty of ways that you can surprise and delight, and they'll always find new ways to differentiate, but at a Walmart or target where convenience is really kind of, and the affordability value is the key. I think you're going to see significant reductions in staff and that's I think, does anybody disagree with that? Like when I say significant, let's call it 20% [00:34:21] Ricardo Belmar: i'll give you another example, along those lines, Trevor. Cause I'm not going to disagree with you. In fact, let's go beyond the mass merchandisers, but let's think about a franchise businesses like QSRs, where, you also have a scenario with limited staff, lower wages and no business running on an extremely slim margin, right? So if that's your scenario and let's face it in, in a franchise QSR, the highest cost that franchise owner has is their labor costs. So anything they can do, that's going to cut that in some way, without hurting the customer [00:34:54] service, you can bet I think that franchise owner will pursue it. What I think happens is that there's a mix here, right? There's yes. There a reduction. I don't think you can get away from that. In fact, I could, I won't name the brand, but I can give you an anecdotal story from a brand in Europe where over a lengthy period of time, many years, they actually reduced kitchen staff across their restaurants, by as much as 40% because of automation.[00:35:19] And of course, this isn't something you heard about in the news. You're not, it's not something they would publicize, but they did. In fact, create new positions and new roles in their restaurants when they did other things that were more front of house customer facing. Did those new roles displace all of the kitchen staff reduction?[00:35:38] Probably not. So there is an aspect here of eliminating the. Let's call them more mundane jobs because they're very repetitive, and not necessarily the more enjoyable tasks that get eliminated by automation. The [00:35:54] efficiency brought from that has distinct business advantages for the business owner.[00:35:59] Of course not so much for the frontline worker who's at risk of losing that job. This usually leads to discussions which we kind of touched on in our last session, but the example of Levi's wanting to train frontline workers in areas like data science and trying to create those new roles and areas.[00:36:15] And you are, as Ron described last time, those new segmented skill sets that can allow them to stay on in a different capacity, perhaps in a different wage or different salary, but not completely risk losing all of those jobs. I think that's what we've seen throughout history, right. You know, once upon a time we had people that operated elevators and then the elevators got buttons that automated the process.[00:36:36] What happened to all of the elevator operators?[00:36:38] Trevor Sumner: Yeah. Yeah. I mean, you're talking about, I think you're going to have fewer, potentially fewer sales associates who are superpowered. And can summon products and inventory and help you do omnichannel delivery, you know, at will. But you're going to have fewer of them. They'll [00:36:54] probably be slightly higher paid because to Ron's point, there'll be even better at customer service.[00:36:58] And in the back of the house, you're going to see a gutting in terms of number of people. I mean, we're not even talking about self-driving trucks, right? There are 3.5 million truck drivers in the U S like, I don't know how you turn a truck driver or a warehouse worker into a premier sales associate at an Uber echelon, kind of value where it's even more highly competitive.[00:37:21] The expectations are higher. Your ability to adopt technology is more critical. I think, we're really going to struggle with what that looks like. [00:37:30] Casey Golden: Yeah. I mean, as a Walmart and a Target implement more things that automate and reduce workforce at. I feel like at the same time, we've got premium brands that need to increase their workforce because Gucci still has 10 million pieces of monthly traffic.[00:37:49] How do you provide that high touch service to all of those people? I think there's going to be a [00:37:54] massive need to flux the skillsets and hopefully it can become more of a career again, that stable, I only time will tell, [00:38:03] Brandon Rael: Casey and everyone would the, the fact that the intangibles that matter as well, especially luxury and fashion, as it relate to the customer and the emotional intelligence that is needed in the marketplace, to understand the customer's needs to have empathy, to build community, to build relationships that extend beyond just an AI/AR.[00:38:22] Machine learning model, but that's certainly it can be there, but, end of the day, it's about relationships and one-to-one personalized selling whether it's through digital channels or in person, and that's not the Walmart model, but for sure, but for the luxury market, it's great. [00:38:36] Ricardo Belmar: That's a good point, Brandon. [00:38:38][00:38:38] How Do We Use Digital to Solve Analog Problems?[00:38:38] Ricardo Belmar: We brought a couple of folks up to the stage with a, hopefully some questions for us. Michael, welcome to the stage. No stranger to the retail razor club.[00:38:45] Michael Zakkour: Hey Ricardo. Hey guys. The only thing I want to posit is. [00:38:51] That technology is the means to the end. It's not [00:38:54] the end. Right? So when we think about the frontline worker and the empowerment that technology data, AI, VR, AR will give them in the workplace. Ultimately, I go with what Ron's saying it's to empower great frontline employees, great frontline workers who want to move up through the organization. The technology is about applying digital means to solve analog problems. So when I think about what's going on in the rest of the world today. You look in China where somebody sits down at the salon and they sit in the hairdresser's chair and they're looking at an AR extended reality, augmented reality mirror.[00:39:39] And they can see their head with every kind of color cut style, whatever they go through a million permutations. Ultimately that technology is empowering the hairdresser to better serve the frontline consumer.[00:39:54][00:39:54] And I just wanted to chime in and say, it's not an either, or for me it's how do we use technology and how do we use AI and data? How do we use digital to solve analog problems? That's what this is about for me.[00:40:07] Ricardo Belmar: Yeah. I think an excellent point. I'm going to put it to the panel here, Ron and everyone went, what do you think.[00:40:13] Casey Golden: I'm going to, I feel like there's a lot of solutions out in the marketplace, but at the end of the day, they have to be implemented and sold in. I have had several conversations with people saying, this is exactly where we want to go. We've loved this, but we're not there yet. We're still working on basics and it's like, why are you spending money on basics instead of spending money on things that generate revenue and value and fill in the basics afterwards, we can build basics while you're making revenue.[00:40:48] That's the biggest struggle of any of these tech companies. Being able to create these solutions is to be [00:40:54] able to have proof of concept and run at scale. And it's really hard for a lot of them to get in, and, and actually adopt and roll out the entire software.[00:41:07] Brandon Rael: I think Casey, you touched on a critical point, change management and organizational change are the most critical components of any adoption of any innovative technology solutions that will drive a better associate experience or customer experience. And, it's been a challenge in my field as an advisor and consultant a critical part of our, our transformation work is around change management.[00:41:29] And without that adoption rates. Be very minimal and most transformations fail for that matter. The cultural obstacles and challenges of the companies are not ready to change or understand the imperative to change. So the why is that they can pick and pull it there. [00:41:44] Casey Golden: Yeah. I mean, we need to be able to build with customers and with real use case scenarios and do AB testing. And I feel like a lot of brands expect [00:41:54] everything to have already been done and working, even though they haven't had the chance to do it in real time with those brands that have real use cases.[00:42:05] So it's hard to have innovation and technology go when the sales cycle is too slow or traction numbers are too slow because. That's how you build tech, right? I'm not building just to sit on my server. [00:42:16] Ricardo Belmar: No one ever said it was easy. [00:42:17] Trevor Sumner: Yeah. And what I think is really interesting is I think that kind of COVID has, is because retailers and brands have had to more fiercely collaborate around data inventory, supply chain, because of the need to create, you know, omni-channel delivery and BOPIS and all these different things that we actually do need real-time data on a per store basis about what's going on at a product level.[00:42:40] I actually do need all the products and the skews and all the data about those products to be available and, have integrity and I think what's really interesting to me is that some of the foundations that we're missing to [00:42:54] be able to execute on this plan are now starting to be in place so that we can get to these kind of higher level experiences, these higher level technologies and you know, given all the money flowing into retail right now I think there's going to be the cash to actually do [00:43:06] Casey Golden: I agree the next two years is going to be, really fun [00:43:09] Ricardo Belmar: absolutely, absolutely wildly it's going to happen and the embracing of technology to facilitate that change.[00:43:16] What I like to say is that it's finally expected to happen in a way that's not going to be technology for the sake of technology. It's going to be technology with the purpose and ideally technology that's seamless and as well as transparent. So it doesn't get in the way it just helps accomplish something.[00:43:32] So with that, let me move on to Neil, I think you were the next one up on stage. You had a question or comment for us.[00:43:37][00:43:37] Is Tech Disrupting Human to Human Connection? [00:43:37] Neil Redding: Yeah. Thanks so much, Ricardo. [00:43:39] It's great to be here I'm Neil Redding. I run a boutique consultancy called Redding futures, which is really focused on creating holistically integrated digital and physical ecosystems around brands. And we've done a lot of work for retail clients over the years. Ron and I had a [00:43:54]conversation this past week where I think I just expressed my fundamental enthusiasm about technology in this whole context.[00:44:01] But what's funny to me is, earlier in the conversation, listening to the discussion about Walmart deploying all of these phones into the hands of store associates, I felt actually a little bit sad because I also am super passionate and just love the quality of human interaction that comes when technology is not a mediator.[00:44:24] And I've been thinking a lot during this conversation about, and I guess I'm also excited about the next few years about how technology can fade a bit into the background when we are physically together. And I suppose I'm old enough to not find a. Being on my smartphone, but someone standing next to me on their smartphone, you know I find that sort of a substandard kind of quality of interaction at the human level that I I'm excited to see how [00:44:54] yeah, AR and sensors and spaces and various other kinds of technologies and gather the data that's needed, that we've talked so much about in this conversation and provide access to, all this cloud-based information about products and services, inventory, and so on.[00:45:10] Well also getting out of the way the allowing humans to have when they're physically together have a really rich interaction. So I guess if there's a question in there, I'm curious about those of you who are paying close attention to having phones in hands. You know, when you're a store associate at a customer, is there any thought going in yet to that context or that use case to how that can be done?[00:45:34] While minimally disrupting the human to human connection, you know? [00:45:37] Shish Shridhar: So, so that's one of the areas that have been working with a bunch of startups that have alternatives. And specifically for the scenario that you described, where many retailers are reluctant to have the store associates walking around with the phone and using the phone [00:45:54] appear distracted and not interested in the customer.[00:45:57] And you're right. It creates that barrier. Between the customer and the store associates and makes them unapproachable. And as resolved, they're looking at alternatives to bonds that have seen headsets is one of them, which is still a question of whether that makes you unapproachable.[00:46:12] And the one that I particularly like is from a startup called Turnpike, and they use thing variables, which is the watches, but they can get information. It is discreet in a way where there is constant information flow on tasks and, and aisle clean ups or replenishing products and all those things keep coming in, but they're not, holding a phone or appear distracted.[00:46:37] And I see other technologies coming in as well as we progress that will kind of make it sort of invisible. And I think it's all about that, the best technologies invisible and they are heading towards that direction, moving away from [00:46:54] a device that is, making the store associates unapproachable and creating that barrier. [00:47:00] Ron Thurston: Hi Neil. I would just add, I don't think the challenge, isn't the technology and using it. The challenge is great store leadership as someone that can spends a lot of time in stores and coaching leaders, a great leader on the floor manager on duty, whatever terminology you want to use, you're observing the interactions, you're coaching the team.[00:47:20] You're seeing who's paying attention and who who's not, you're fully engaged, which comes from great training, but I've actually liked to provide the opportunity for the technology when necessary, but at the same time kind of be involved as a leader and coach and, and say it's time to put it away and time to bring it out.[00:47:41] And I, I love that idea that we can actually do both with well-trained leaders in our retail space. [00:47:47] Ricardo Belmar: I think that really underscores the point that the ability to really recognize what [00:47:54] frontline workers mean to the brand really does start at the top of the management chain.[00:47:58] Just like the corporate culture that's established in any organization also starts at the top. And if those things don't align, then you're not going to get the results that you want to see from that frontline staff, because they're in turn, not going to recognize what you're hoping will recognize out of the organization, because you're just not delivering it to them in the first place.[00:48:18] So you can't get what you don't give back. And in a sense, and I think that's pretty much reflected there. [00:48:24] Casey Golden: Hundred percent. [00:48:24] Ron Thurston: Yeah. I don't want to give Cathy the floor, but I'm looking at the, my homepage on LinkedIn. The number two story is why retail workers on why they fled. And I clicked into it and the stories are horrendous about the way they were treated, , from their leaders and quotas.[00:48:40] And yeah, I mean, it pains me to even read these when I think about the power of retail, but it's the number two story on LinkedIn. Like we have so much work to do as leaders. I put it back on the, I put it back on all of us that work in [00:48:54] stores. Our responsibility is to lead these teams in a way that engages and that they're proud to work for who they work for and the leaders that are around them.[00:49:03] And they're getting trained and they're being inspired and they're doing better every day. These stories are, and they're from a variety of different brands. They're terrible. I mean, God forbid you go on Glassdoor. That's even worse, but I mean, just. The story was posted on LinkedIn and now it's trending, it really pains me and we can do better.[00:49:23] We have to do better. And this is, this is the future of our industry tech or not these stories about how retail employees are treated is the future of this growth and all this money that's being fueled into it, or the continued bad news and high turnover rates. It's really like this just put me in a spin right now, but I think it's really critical.[00:49:47] Casey Golden: Or what is it titled? Is it on your LinkedIn? [00:49:49] Ron Thurston: Yeah, it's, it's on, you know, where it says LinkedIn news. It says retail [00:49:54] workers on why they fled. [00:49:55] Casey Golden: Okay. I've just been hearing some horror stories myself. I interview about a hundred people every two weeks. We have these massive rooms and then everybody breaks out into segmented, next group interviews and it's been absolutely horrendous. [00:50:10] Some of the things that I've heard and there's been a lot of highlight lately on wellness and a lot of corporate culture and brain culture around wellness and providing services to your employees and things of that nature. But it's only for corporate it's for corporate employees.[00:50:27] It's not for the retail associates that work in the stores. They don't get summer Fridays. They don't get the wellness program. They don't have access to so much. That's part of corporate. It's like, they're all, they've always been like the ugly redheaded stepsister. That's just kind of been used in a lot of ways.[00:50:45] And they're, they're brilliant. They've got so much information. I really think that this is the time where they're able to get the recognition and support that they've [00:50:54] deserved for the last 50 years. And start being part of corporate. [00:50:57] Ricardo Belmar: Ron I know you get asked this question all the time, but as you raised a moment ago, it does require the right leadership for these things.[00:51:08] And you have to start asking why don't we see more leaders come out and say the things that you're saying about frontline workers and giving the reasons why we need to change the way we look at the front line. And I know they're out there. I know they exist. I've talked to other retail leaders who agree in principle, what's executed is not always aligned with the principle of what they believe, but I have to say that, the evidence makes it seem that there just aren't enough of those leaders.[00:51:36] Why do you think that is?[00:51:37] Ron Thurston: Yeah, I I think often by the time. you've. Maybe ended up in those positions where you're, you are the decision-maker you were likely didn't come from stores. And so I don't know that you have a full grasp of actually what it means to do this work [00:51:54] every day and to experience it and, spending a few days a month or sometimes less just doing store visits, which is, always the show and the entourage as we used to call it, is that that's not enough to know what's going on.[00:52:09] And so I think more of more people like myself that grew up from sales to heads of stores, we have to be the ones that speak because we understand it. And sometimes that's not always the case, but even if you didn't the ability to find your voice and speak for all of them, that can't, that don't have that voice or the ability to influence change again, I'm sure all these Walmart employees are really happy. And most of them, I should say, but they can't influence change the decision makers influence change, and we have to be able to listen and learn and make the tough decisions sometimes, which is in the benefit and, and the cost investment of doing the right things for our store [00:52:54] teams.[00:52:54] And I, want to be someone that actually encourages other heads of stores to talk about it because that's how we'll make a difference in our industry for all of these people writing these things about their experience working in retail. [00:53:06] Ricardo Belmar: Yeah, you're absolutely right. It does require all of us to, in a sense fight for the industry and raise the issues that need to be raised and also highlight the positives that, that just don't get highlighted enough in order to shift the mindset.[00:53:19] How Does Adoption Factor Into Successful Tech Deployment?[00:53:19] Ricardo Belmar: All right. Let me have a couple more folks up on the audience, Cathy welcome to the stage.[00:53:23] Cathy McCabe: Hi. Hi, good to see everybody. I'm Cathy CEO of Proximity Insight, and we're a clienteling and a tool really to sort of do all of those things about connecting and helping stores to connect and transact with their customers. [00:53:38] There were a couple of points around adoption. And obviously because we have a tool that's very much there to, to help, to deliver sales associates, to have as much information at their fingertips as possible so that they can serve the customer more adoption is absolutely key.[00:53:53] And there are [00:53:54] definitely ways in which you can ensure that adoption and onboarding is as seamless as possible and is easy for the store teams. To be embraced, from the top down and you have to be able to also share the successes.[00:54:07] And if you don't, you know, if it's not just a project that you stick in and then walk away and move on to the next project, it has to be something that becomes your DNA and part of what you're doing as a brand and very sort of your purpose, your values that you wrap around the tools and the tools aren't there.[00:54:24] It's not the tech, the tech is gives you the capability, but you have to deliver the why, why you're using it, what it's there for, how you're, how you're going to use it. [00:54:34] And I think one of the other things that I just wanted to say, cause it's, there's so many points that resonated. Really interesting point. We're actually seeing some of our brands investing in more people on the shop floor now because they're giving them tools to be able to connect to not just the person that's in the store, but also [00:54:54] the people that you know, that the customers that are online and therefore, you know, the demand is there to be able to actually speak to a person, to show them the product, to, sort of talk about their expertise and share their knowledge and information, and to be able to, find those items that someone's looking for.[00:55:12] And actually now we're seeing that they're actually investing more in their teams. So. All of the automation that AI that goes into the backend of the tool and is then surface to help the store teams to, to connect more and ultimately to transact more, you know, we're seeing them actually investing more on the sales floor, which is a great, a great place to be.[00:55:32] Ricardo Belmar: Thanks Cathy for those comments. I agree. I think this, as, many of us now on the stage have said, and this is a really great industry and there are so many positives to be drawn from it and so much that it contributes to, so many other industries. And I think it's just unfortunate that we don't necessarily all say collectively do enough to highlight the benefits and the positives.[00:55:53] I

Hique Gomez e Simone Rasslan voltam ao Theatro São Pedro em A Sbornia KontrAtracka by Rádio Gaúcha

Acompanhe as principais informações, destaques, novidades e dicas culturais da semana. “Luz do Norte”: Dividida entre os eixos do experimentalismo, atualidade e cotidiano da região amazônica, a exposição conta com imagens de 33 artistas de Belém, Manaus, Rio Branco e Porto Velho. As visitas ocorrem em grupos de 7 pessoas até o dia 4 de dezembro, de terça a sábado, das 9 da manhã às 9 da noite Zizi Possi: Ao lado dos pianistas convidados Keco Brandão e Jether Garotti Junior, Zizi Possi surpreende a plateia ao incluir no repertório músicas que gravou como convidada, mas nunca foram apresentadas ao vivo, como “Dueto”  e “Com Açúcar, com Afeto”. O show será apresentado em formato híbrido no dia 26 de novembro, às 9 da noite, no Cine Theatro Brasil Vallourec See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

S1E1 – The Retail Avengers & The Future of Frontline Staff, Part 1Welcome to Season 1, Episode 1, the first-ever episode of The Retail Razor Show!I'm your host, Ricardo Belmar, a RETHINK Retail Top 100 Retail Influencer, RIS News Top Movers and Shakers in Retail for 2021, advisory council member at George Mason University's Center for Retail Transformation, and lead partner marketing advisor for retail & consumer goods at Microsoft.And I'm your co-host, Casey Golden, CEO of Luxlock and slayer of retail frankenstacks!Together, we're your guides on the retail transformation journey. Whether you're thinking digital and online, mobile, or brick & mortar stores, there'll be something for you!In episode 1 we dive into the future of retail frontline workers, with none other than Ron Thurston, author of Retail Pride, The Guide to Celebrating Your Accidental Career. Ron joins our Retail Avengers team on Clubhouse to talk about what retailers need to do to foster the right environment for their store teams.For more information about Ron, and how you can Take Pride Today in your retail career, visit Ron's website: https://www.retailpride.comThe Retail Razor ShowFollow us on Twitter: https://bit.ly/TwRRazorConnect with us on LinkedIn: https://bit.ly/LI-RRazorJoin our club on Clubhouse: http://bit.ly/RRazorClubListen to us on Callin: https://bit.ly/RRCallinSubscribe on YouTube: https://bit.ly/RRShowYouTubeSubscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://bit.ly/RetailRazorShowRetail Razor Show Episode Page: https://bit.ly/RRShowPodHost → Ricardo Belmar,Follow on Twitter - ****https://bit.ly/twRBelmarConnect on LinkedIn - ****https://bit.ly/LIRBelmarRead my comments on RetailWire - ****https://bit.ly/RWRBelmarCo-host → Casey Golden,Follow on Twitter - ****https://bit.ly/twCaseyConnect on LinkedIn - ****https://bit.ly/LICaseyRead my comments on RetailWire - https://bit.ly/RWCaseyTRANSCRIPTThe Retail Avengers & The Future of Frontline Staff, Part 1[00:00:20] Ricardo: Hello. Good morning. Good afternoon. Good evening. No matter what time of day you're listening. Welcome. Welcome to season one, episode one, the first ever episode of the retail razor show. I'm your host Ricardo Belmar, a top 100 retail influencer and lead partner marketing advisor for retail and consumer goods at Microsoft.[00:00:37] Casey: And I'm your co-host Casey Golden CEO of Luxlock and Slayer of retail frankenstacks, [00:00:43] Ricardo: retail, frankenstacks. I love that intro. I really need to get a tagline like that. Casey. [00:00:48] Casey: Slaying, frankenstacks. It's a messy job it's earned.[00:00:51] Ricardo: Oh, I believe it![00:00:52] Casey: So I'm super stoked to kick off our first episode ever of the show! [00:00:56] Ricardo: I am too. I am too. So let's talk a little bit about what the show will be like. This all started some months ago with the retail razor club on clubhouse and a powerhouse group of retail experts and thought leaders to just talk retail, talk tech and host some really good deep discussions on what we think people in this industry need to make a difference and to be a change maker.[00:01:14] Casey: Tell us more Ricardo, tell us more. I feel like we need some dramatic [00:01:20] music here [00:01:20] Ricardo: and maybe for episode two, we'll add some budget for dramatic music. So our goal is to cut through all the noise, cut through the clutter, make it all actionable. Let everybody learn from the people who've actually done things.[00:01:33] Anyone who's solving challenges and not afraid to expose the hard truths.. [00:01:37] Casey: And best of all, since we started this on clubhouse, we made it interactive. So people could ask tough questions and voice their opinions. [00:01:44] Ricardo: A hundred percent, a hundred percent all the way. This is an open forum. One that really moves the industry forward.[00:01:50] By sharing deep, deep knowledge, we started an amazing series of rooms initially called retail tech predictions 2025. But you know, our group quickly earned the nickname, the Retail Avengers, [00:02:00] Casey: Captain America., right here![00:02:02] Ricardo: And I am iron man, you know, you're right Casey. We really do need some dramatic music and we got to work on that [00:02:06] Casey: maybe by episode three next time, next time.[00:02:10] Ricardo: Yeah, episode three, that I'm going to take, make a note of that. Okay. So in each episode listeners will hear one of our fabulous clubhouse rooms and we'll bring back [00:02:20] guests from those discussions for a few last words. But don't think that's all we have to offer in future episodes. We're going to introduce new segments, extra guests, and we'll also have some unique interview sessions that we're going to record in another app called Callin. [00:02:32] Casey: Can't wait for those. [00:02:34] So Ricardo, who's our special guests for the opening episode. [00:02:37] Ricardo: We are starting up strong with one of the best out there. Ron Thurston, the author of the book, Retail Pride, former head of stores at Intermix and quite possibly, one of our favorite retail executives out there.[00:02:48] Right? Casey, [00:02:49] Casey: I'm a fan. Let's get to it! [00:02:50] Ricardo: Okay. So let's quickly introduce the rest of our Retail Avengers team and everyone will be hearing from them quite often in these sessions. So besides Casey and myself, we have Jeff Roster, fellow RETHINK Retail, top one hundred influencer and fellow advisory council member at the George Mason University Center for Retail Transformation and former analyst.[00:03:11] Then we have Shish Shridhar, the global retail lead at Microsoft for Startups.[00:03:16] Casey: And Brandon Rael transformation delivery strategy leader at [00:03:20] Reach Partners, and one of my faves, Trevor Sumner, CEO of Perch Interactive. [00:03:25] Ricardo: All right. So without further delay, let's give a listen to the Retail Avengers and the future of Frontline Staff, Part 1.Clubhouse Session[00:03:42] Ricardo: So with that my name is Ricardo Belmar. I host the retail razor club here on Clubhouse. Retail tech guy have been in retail tech for the better part of the last two decades, working at various different solution providers and managed service providers, and of course, I like to say the best technology in retail is the kind that's seamless and transparent that you don't even notice.[00:04:02] Jeff: Hi Jeff Roster co-host of this week in innovation and serve on several advisory boards and a former Gartner and IHL retail sector analyst [00:04:11] Brandon: Hi, Brandon Rael here. I'm currently one of the transformation and delivery and strategy leaders here at Reach Partners a consultancy. My background is retail and consumer products, industries, and I've been working in the strategy consulting space, focusing predominantly on digital and it's impact on organizations and helping companies transform and evolve.[00:04:29] Casey: Hi, Casey here, founder of Luxlock we're a retail experience platform and we are deploying an independent workforce and re-skilling them. So I love this topic of the conversation. Worked a lot in enterprise retail tech [00:04:42] and on the e-commerce side. So excited to be here you guys, fun conversation! [00:04:46] Ricardo: Definitely will be! Shish. [00:04:47] Shish: Hi, good afternoon. I'm the retail lead at Microsoft for Startups and I'm actually working on building out a portfolio of retail tech B2B startups solving complex business challenges in retail. Absolutely love the topic that we're we're we're we're talking about today. Looking forward to it. Thank you. [00:05:03] Ricardo: I see Trevor has joined us. Trevor why don't you do a quick intro. [00:05:06] Trevor: My name is Trevor Sumner. I'm the CEO of perch. We do interactive displays in IOT that detect which products you touch and like minority report. They just wake up and start telling you about the product, they call them shelf talkers. So I've been deep in retail and retail tech for almost a decade now. So excited to be on board with everybody here. [00:05:26] Ricardo: All right. Wonderful. We have a special guest with us this week, Ron Thurston author of the book, retail pride, which I highly recommend.[00:05:33] Ron, why don't you go ahead and give us your introduction [00:05:36] Ron: hi everyone. Thank you. Yes. My name is Ron Thurston and I am the author of Retail Pride, the guide to [00:05:42] celebrating your accidental career, which is really about recognizing the hard work that the millions of people that work in all of our stores all around the world do every day.[00:05:50] And my full-time role is as the vice president of stores Intermix which officially today is a freestanding business on its own no longer under the Gap umbrella. And so we have a lot of exciting momentum behind us now being privately held and it will be an exciting adventure. And I sit on the board of directors of Goodwill here for New York and New Jersey, which also has a really exciting retail component to it, which I'm happy to talk about.[00:06:18] So thanks for inviting me, Ricardo. [00:06:19] Ricardo: Fantastic. We're really happy to have you here with us today, Ron, this is a topic that I know many of us on the panel have been wanting to do for a while. Not the least of which is because of the added focus that retail frontline workers have seen over the past 15 months.[00:06:34] Frontline Worker Sentiment[00:06:34] Ricardo: I want to ask everybody on the panel, What's the sentiment these days about frontline workers, has it swung more positive to the point where [00:06:42] frontline workers are going to get the recognition that they deserve to have for the job they do and the service they provide to customers and retail brands? [00:06:49] Ron, I'm going to ask you to respond first because I'd really like to hear what your feeling is on that. [00:06:53] Ron: Sure. Thanks, Ricardo. I have probably never been more excited about the opportunity for store teams. And I think as customers have come back in and , every day it's getting bigger, the opportunity to recognize in many ways the increased skillset necessary to manage the emotional, the tougher part of retail in conjunction with more tech in conjunction with higher customer demands and kind of new ways to shop has put this pressure and, excitement back into stores and the training that's necessary. [00:07:29] The up skill in the hiring process has never been more important. They, kind of challenge of the value of the brick and mortar business in compared to e-commerce.[00:07:39] This is the time where more [00:07:42] than ever, we need highly skilled people that are, that work in brick and mortar, retail, and are compensated for that work and the business models that are evolving out of it.[00:07:52] And I think it's just every day, I'm more excited about what I'm seeing my own business and what I'm reading about every day.[00:07:59] Brandon: I could not agree more with Ron. , if anything, the pandemic has accelerated the recognition of how critical the retail staff or brand ambassador to the store associates and how important they are to run the operation of building that trusted relationship with the customer.[00:08:15] I consider that the retail associates, part of the last mile of fulfillment and not necessarily the product, but of the relationship of the brand or the brand equity. [00:08:23] people go to the store to engage, to get inspired, to discover. And, , I'm all digital first. We know everyone is digital first and shopping e-commerce, , percentage wise, it's still , 15% of the business is converted on ecommerce.[00:08:36] The physical stores are as critical as ever to bridge that digital and physical gap and the journey [00:08:42]may begin in the store may ultimately end on the retailer's app, but the store associates plays a vital role in that relationship.[00:08:47] Casey: A hundred percent. , one of our biggest goal, which was to deploy an on-demand distributed workforce and it's been pretty amazing to put a lot of people back to work and give them opportunities to sell products that they've never had access to because they worked at a single brand.[00:09:02] Shish: agree with everyone I think there is going to be a big transformational element to it as well. I kind of look at the convenient spot of retail. There's a lot of things that has accelerated, during COVID, , BOPIS in particular. And I think that is going to change what the frontline workers do and, how to do it.[00:09:23] For example, I think there's going to be so much more focused on click and collect orders, because, cashierless becoming more prominent and accelerated. I also think the assisting the self checkout will be one aspect that frontline workers will be doing more of. There might also be a lot of clientelling [00:09:42] that has accelerated as a result.[00:09:43] And also I think from the experiential part of retail, that's going to be a lot more skills and expertise needed because that is leaning more towards that personalized, aspect of it where engaging with customers becomes more more of a requirement. [00:10:02] Trevor: Yeah. I agree with that. I think one of the transformational changes underlying is data. Because of the need for real-time inventory and product information for BOPIS for better supply chain management and COVID is an accelerator for that.[00:10:17] All of a sudden, we've normalized all this data that we can now put in the hands of sales associates. It's not their fault. If you go to a Macy's and you ask your question about what inventory looks like. Yeah, go look at those screens. They're green screens, right? I think they were programmed with punch cards.[00:10:29] Now that has all been changing, right? So the data is now available in normalized and formatted. It's now accessible, not just to be a tablets and iPads in the hands of sales associates, but, even like with Theatro in [00:10:42] a, in a mic format in an ear piece. So that's one piece of it. The second Shish hit on around you have the experiential being more part of it.[00:10:49] And that means being able to do brand storytelling. And while I love the thought that that's all gonna be done by purchasing digital tools like that, I, the role as a sales associate is going to be critical.[00:10:56] Ricardo: Interesting points there about the added roles for store associates to do, especially in light of things like picking up online orders in the store, other operational processes, either for picking product off the shelf to fulfill those orders, that these are new roles, new skills, new functions, we're asking those store associates to do and asking them to leverage real-time data about customers they're working with or items in the store, whether it's product information or other operational components.[00:11:23] Frontline Roles[00:11:23] Ricardo: One of the things that I would like to get into next is what are some of these additional roles? We've mentioned a few now, which were brought about by the nature of the pandemic, but what other new roles are we going to see frontline workers in retail taking on and particularly what are the required skills and I'll reference, really interesting article that I believe was in the wall street [00:11:42] journal about Levi's offering machine learning training for their retail workers. Presumably because it's a recognition that the need to understand data is going to become so much more important in how these frontline workers work with customers.[00:11:56] So what does everyone think of that? [00:11:58] Ron: I can jump in Ricardo , it's Ron. I actually think that the, width of the skillset has become so wide today that it's kind of become less about we're all cross-trained and we're all good in retail. We could work in stock room and we can work on the sales floor and we can do visual merchandising.[00:12:15] I think it's actually become a little more segmented than said if I have a skillset that is highly engaged and motivated and I'm good on camera for live selling, I'm good in front of customers, I can sell via chat that you have that level of personality. It's actually fully embracing that and saying, let's give you[00:12:34] that kind of customer facing roles or chat roles and not try to expect you to also run out to the curb and do a BOPIS [00:12:42] order and also fulfill a web order in the stock room, or when can you work an overnight to change the visual merchandising? I think we have to say, we have a team of people who are really good at tech people who are maybe good at tasks and people who are highly customer centric because what's coming with the customer coming in today more than ever wants a level of engagement.[00:13:03] And has it's curious, wants to be educated, wants to be styled once all the things that they haven't had. And that, that skill is really high. So I'm actually even looking at my own organization and saying, it's actually less about cross training and more about specialization and being the best version of that specialty based on your skills and your experience and your personality.[00:13:26] Because today, we're also expecting you to be on Instagram. We expect you to live sell. We expect you to, kind of show up every day in a new most highest version of what that would look like in the past. [00:13:39] Trevor: I really loved that. And one of the reasons [00:13:42] is because, I think this provides a new sense of career pathing, and compensation structures.[00:13:48] And so, Ron, I would love to, to understand better how you start thinking through that as the head of stores at the end, you get certified as, an influencer or as a live seller, or for example, there are technologies where during your downtime, you might do online clientelling and reach out in on a one-to-one basis.[00:14:05] Are you.becoming a certified personal shopper. And each of these, has a course associated with that. Some type of certification, some real-time training and evaluation, but also a better pay, better training. And not feeling like you're stuck in a specific kind of job that says a generalist with no place to go.[00:14:25] Ron: I was just going to say it, and having led apple stores. That's very much the apple model. You are a specialist and maybe you in phone or Mac or in software, and then you're next. kind of even more of a specialty or in training or in genius bar. [00:14:42] And that every step is a career trajectory. And I think in fashion, we've also kind of thought of it as we all have to be good at everything.[00:14:50] And I actually think it's more of the apple model, which is very structured and create benchmarks for growth. I agree with you, Trevor.[00:14:59] Casey: I was just going to say that, now that sales associates are able to sell online and get that commission tracked and productivity tracked, it changes the entire model of every single salesperson is able and has the opportunity to become a million dollar seller and not make $35,000 a year or 40,000, $50,000 a year.[00:15:20] We've seen the most of having what the industry used stylists for before, which is doing content on a, on an Instagram or putting lookbooks together or working in, like a stitch fix model and putting outfits or clothes into a box. They're coming to us and they have the passion. They have the skillset, they have the know-how, but they've never talked to a customer before.[00:15:41] And [00:15:42] so they don't know fit, they just get returned. And so, being able to communicate with the client, maintain that relationship over time and learn fit. We've actually had to start segmenting just like Trevor was saying is we're essentially segmenting talent into different talent pools and putting programs together to bring people who have worked at Citrix for the last six years into being able that they would be skilled enough to walk into Gucci on the floor and do a million dollars in sales. And so it's been really interesting and I think that there's going to be a lot of, differentiation between I'm a stylist versus I'm a sales person or a personal shopper right now.[00:16:24] I can't get a single person to agree on what they want to be called because salespeople don't want to be called the stylist and everybody gets called and everybody's called the stylist on Instagram. If you can put an outfit together. So it's like almost [00:16:42] diluted that job title almost in a way where no, I'm more than that. It's been interesting. We're still trying to figure out what. What everybody is going to be called.[00:16:54] Brandon: Is this the transformation evolution of what a store associate really is? I think to Ron's point and Trevor's point, there certainly is doing an operation stocking shelves or whatever else. Actually, what I want engagement with the customer is blended with the arts and sciences of social media, digital marketing, and micro influencing [00:17:14] Ricardo: I agree. I think it's fascinating point here about segmenting and the skills and Ron I like how you compare that to an apple model. One of the things that comes to my mind when I hear everyone saying that is a sort of implies a need for more staff in the store, as you get more specialized, depending of course, on what kind of store it is for format. It is the size of the store. The product categories are in, but if I were to generalize it, it makes me believe that I'm going to need [00:17:42] more staff. The more I specialize in to handle each of these different aspects. And if I compare again to an apple store for me as a consumer, walking into an apple store, there's an overwhelming number of staff.[00:17:52] Trevor: And also think about the revenue per square foot. [00:17:55] Ricardo: That too. Exactly. [00:17:57] Ron: I think that [00:17:58] on a really high margin business, you do have more room for that.[00:18:04] Ricardo: So you distinguish between luxury retailers at that point versus a discounter value retailer, where the model may be sufficiently different, that you don't need to apply that. segmentation or specialization of skills. [00:18:15] Trevor: You mean there's not going to be stylists at dollar stores[00:18:21] Ricardo: that would be, the question, [00:18:22] Shish: natural progression, but there is a customer expectation, which is generally followed by retail tech, responding to it. And one of the aspects that's really happening out there is technologies providing capabilities to address some of these things. For example, expertise in stores.[00:18:39] Today there is an expectation for [00:18:42] expertise. When you go into a store, a specialized store where, electronics or something like that, where you need a store associates to have a lot more knowledge, but with technology capabilities, it is possible to sort of democratize that make available. The expertise from different stores right across all of the stores. And those kinds of things are really making it possible to, to address those expectations as well. [00:19:09] Trevor: Yeah. I mean, one of the things that I'm a big fan of is that's kind of pushing out a technology to the edge. And certainly I look at this through my perch lens.[00:19:17] Which is, when you think about putting the digital experience has guided product storytelling that is available to obviously all the consumers on their own, but also the sales associates. But similarly, if you've got an iPad in your hand, that's a training device for downtime.[00:19:31] That's a career pathing and improvement device. and you can make the most of the hours that you're in store. So I think this pushing technology to the edge and into the fingertips of everyone, has the ability for those [00:19:42] who have the motivation and the desire to hold those skillsets up rapidly than what was available to them in the past.[00:19:48] Ron: A bit of a counter to the, more is better is that this is an industry in brick and mortar retail that has not always been given the accolade as a career that it deserves.[00:19:59] And sometimes this, people that are highly committed and highly skilled, and this is very much an intentional career become that much better at their job. They are retained longer and sometimes it's kind of a quality versus quantity. And so you could actually have a smaller team that's highly skilled, very engaged, works really well under, whatever kind of product categories you're selling and the culture of the company, but provide a level of service because of their expertise and their commitment to the industry.[00:20:30] And that's, I think the kind of temporary nature sometimes of people in stores then requires, more of them versus fewer that are highly skilled. And then, so it's a conversation and a balance that I [00:20:42] think every retailer, is talking about today. [00:20:44] Ricardo: I think that's true. I agree with you I like to view the technology piece of that in many cases, equalizer, sometimes to address the point, you just mentioned about the temporary aspect of people coming and going, and then the turnover and some ways if done properly and seamlessly enough, I think the technology can help normalize that approach a little bit and compensate for loss of skill. When you have people that leave that were perhaps one of those high-end skilled individuals that really knew how to do that job. And therefore they could handle working with many customers at once versus perhaps some of the other staff that are newer at the role might only be able to handle one or two at a time, depending on the type of store environment that you were in.[00:21:25] Question from Evan Kirstel[00:21:25] Ricardo: I want to turn attention over to, Evan who's joined us on stage. Why don't you go ahead and give us your question for the panel. [00:21:30] Evan Kirstel: Yeah. Happy Friday, everyone. I've been most interested in the technology side of retail behind the scenes. I laughed out loud, referenced to green CRT screen [00:21:42] flashing. Sadly, see that far too often. [00:21:46] Ricardo: still see that too often. I agree. [00:21:48] Evan Kirstel: Yeah. Well, the other hand, I talked to a lot of clients who are participating in the kind of digital transformation of retail. And I'd love your opinion on who were some of the players to watch.[00:21:58] I mean, when I'm talking to a lot lately with Facebook workplace or workplace from Facebook, it's their enterprise communications division. So basically taking all of their messaging and video and apps and tools and enabling, or powering retailers like Petco and Domino's and others to improve the employee experience.[00:22:18] So think about, group messaging and calling video tension, live video streaming education, all kinds of analytics around that as well. Are you seeing adoption of more modern communication tools like that or others or what's most interesting to you when it comes to, real-time communication messaging, voice, video, or other apps within the frontline for the workers. [00:22:40] Jeff: Are we talking about [00:22:42] retailers or are we talking about services, service providers to retail? [00:22:45] Evan Kirstel: Yeah, the retailers are adopting a lot of these tools with their frontline employees, for employee engagement, employee communications messaging. We used to call the intranet, but it's basically apps on phones now.[00:22:57] Ricardo: And so we could look at this from both perspectives. I think Jeff, from the prospective of which retailers are doing this well, and what kind of technology are they using?[00:23:04] Ron: I mean, I can share what I use on today, which is retail zip-line line, which is actually used by all of gap, Inc. which is an incredible platform and not an intranet. But it's a communication tool. It's a tracking tool. It's a way to send out quick messages. There's a lot of functionality from multiple reasons. But I think within the store team at every level, day in day out, I've not actually not seen one that does that, come seamlessly that everyone uses without providing, devices to everyone, which is depending on the state and depending on what's happening, that can be a tricky conversation.[00:23:38] But so far that's what I've seen and, has worked really well for me. [00:23:41] Casey: [00:23:42] I'm obviously biased, but, there's going to be a lot more tools that are going to be coming in over the next, 12 to 18 months just because this was a really hard product to sell into a brand three years ago.[00:23:55] A lot of people, in this space that wanted to do it, had to pivot into doing something else because it was just a hard sell. But now I think that, It's going to be a requirement. Just as standard as, having a computer at work, if you have sales associates, and they're going to have to have a tool.[00:24:12] So I think we're going to see more of a standardized school. That's going to be coming out that more brands will start using the same one. But right now everybody's kind of spread all across the board. And there's reasons that brands are choosing one over the other. There hasn't really been one that does everything necessarily doesn't necessarily even do everything well, but obviously I'm biased with my own, but, there's pros and cons to kind of everything right now.[00:24:35] I think we'll see the leader next year. [00:24:36] Shish: And a lot of examples that I've seen, one of them is a startup that I'm working with, called askSID[00:24:42] they have to QR code, on wine bottles or the shelves and customers can scan it and it instantly brings an expert to them and they can ask questions have a conversation.[00:24:52] So this is one way that retailers have actually, really figured out how can they have experts in every store that knows their wines really well without necessarily staffing every store. [00:25:04] Another example I've seen as for call centers itself, where, the expertise that they wanted to provide was to a chat bot. So when a customer calls a call center, the challenges the call center person is looking up information. There's a lot of delays. They're following up an app in the background, doing the search, trying to find the answers to the question the customer wants. So what they're doing to empower this is there is a chat bot and AI based chat bot that is picking up the customer call at the same time in parallel to the human operator.[00:25:39] And the chat bot is [00:25:42] transcribing the call, learning the intent of the questions that the customer is asking, connecting to backe nd showing it to the call center operator at the same time. And this essentially means that the call center operators is far more intelligent in his responses is able to respond very quickly and efficiently to the customer.[00:25:59] So that was one area from a communications perspective that I thought was, very interesting. The third one is really empowering the store associates and, and today there's many companies that provide communication devices. for example, there's a company called Theatro that does a headset based communication device for store associates.[00:26:20] yeah, [00:26:23] Ricardo: love their solution.. [00:26:25] Shish: Turnpike turnpike is out of Sweden and they have, , a, wearable. DASSI wristwatches that send information over to the store associates and it's generally far more discrete, , and store associates can actually use those communication devices to talk to systems in the back [00:26:42] end.[00:26:42] So if they have a question about, do we have a certain product in stock right now? They can ask a chat bot the chat bot will look up the systems instantaneously and be able to get the responses. And this again, I think is another thing that's really transforming the frontline worker, in a way, making them far more efficient , with tools like this.[00:27:03] Jeff: Yep. Hang on, hang on a sec. Let me follow up on that question. Are you doing anything with voice, voice AI? [00:27:10] Shish: Yes. there is, a lot of, I would say controversy around voice. So in terms of voice, for store associates, the one scenario that I talked about last was one where store associates are actually using the headsets to talk to a chat bot.[00:27:27] So if a customer is looking for a certain product, typically what they would do is radio someone in the back room to say, do we have that in the back room? Or is it an order or something like that. But, in this situation they're actually using voice [00:27:42] to talk to a chat bot that is connecting to backend systems to determine if something is in the backroom.[00:27:48] If it does an order, if it's in a nearby store and it is providing the response by voice immediately to the store associate. And that to me is extremely powerful, where the store associates are empowered, but all that information that they using voice queries to query back end systems. [00:28:05] Jeff: How about sentiment or, sense of, either happiness or urgency in the invoice. I'm actually going to be talking to a couple of startups that are actually going to that level of sophistication.[00:28:16] Shish: So, , in call center, there is, I've seen situations where, when, someone calls a call center and the operators talking to that person, there is AI models that the chat bot that it was talking about earlier, that it's, transcribing the call looking at the intent of the questions. At the same time, it is also detecting the sentiment, of each speaker. So if there is, frustration, for example, it'll detect that and it will [00:28:42] notify the call center supervisor that here's the call where there's potentially a problem, and you want to listen to what you want to intervene. So it's actually detecting all of that.[00:28:52] Jeff: Yeah. Interesting.[00:28:53] Brandon: We also need to consider the human element of the organization, the frontline associates, or our ambassadors, how we want to refer to them. The stylist interacting with the customer technology are all referencing it innovative is right up there and on trend and having this be powered by AI AR , virtual reality or critical components of driving personalization, seamless, intuitive, and we're driving adoption rate by the store associates of stylists and the way.[00:29:25] Their ability to effectively serve the customer and effectively providing outstanding customer experience in store and connect that digital aspect of it as well. And help drive conversion as customers come to the store for advice or engagement or a building connection to the brand.[00:29:41] Ricardo: Yeah, [00:29:42] there's an interesting element there I'm reminded of one retailer I talked to a few years back who was deploying devices just as we're talking about and some of the feedback they had from their associates in the pilot stores, is that they were starting to feel like Batman wearing a utility belt because they were being asked to carry all this technology everywhere they went around the store. That tells us there's a threshold somewhere where it becomes too cumbersome to just hand over technology to the associates that way. I think that's a consideration, Brandon, maybe that's what you're getting at as far as paying attention to the human component of this, you can't just ask a store associate to say, here's three devices you need to carry around all day to do these three different tasks. Or there has to be a little bit more thought behind how transparent the technology is and how seamlessly it can be incorporated into their workflow in a way that makes sense. [00:30:28] Brandon: Correct. And we see companies do clienteling and then trying to streamline it to one app or one ipad or mobile first and it's worked for most situations, but again, it has to be connected to the [00:30:42] customer, empowering the store associates and driving outstanding customer experience.[00:30:46] Then I'd love to hear Ron's perspective on that. How technology can help the store associates drive a outstanding customer experience. [00:30:52] Ron: Yeah, no, thanks, Brandon. And you're exactly right. And I think the experience that is most, I think, recognized and celebrated by the customer is, how much history you have to the idea of in clientelling, which, the facts show that the average spend is that much higher.[00:31:10] The retention rate is higher. The return rate is lower. Like the benefits are enormous, but if you can say to someone, oh my gosh, like, let me. Quickly look at your purchase history on my phone, on my iPad that I have in my hand. Wow. It looks like you were here last month and this is what you bought. I have some things I know you're going to love.[00:31:28] And so you begin this relationship building with facts and with information that arms you to provide an exceptional experience. And so the technology kind of in your pocket provides you [00:31:42] information and then you can go and then, the client is entirely engaged because they, feel seen and heard.[00:31:49] They know that their business is appreciated. You can say that kind of along the way. I'm so glad that you came back. I'd really love to help you build on those wardrobe pieces or add that, that other. You know, the technology piece too. your last purchase here at apple. So there's, there's a lot that can happen with technology that just supports relationship building and all of the data in how that benefits an overall company is all positive.[00:32:15] There's no downside to it when done well, other than overwhelming at the store team. And that's where I think you can dial back and say, well, actually who's really good at this let's arm them. This person actually is much better just converting on the sales floor. Doesn't need to have the full deck in front of them.[00:32:34] So I think great leaders can look at that. I do at my own using hero in chat functions and who does confinements, who [00:32:42] converts, who sells more? You can dial in, and it's not one size fits all. And that's where people really, that retention piece starts to escalate because you would say thank you for recognizing that I'm actually not comfortable using this technology, but I'm really good doing this.[00:33:00] Let me do this more. That's a winning formula to retaining your team, building great client relationships and growing your business. But , that's where I put a lot of effort and time today. And, I believe that it really pays off. [00:33:14] Ricardo: That's not even advice specific to retailers organization, but many businesses adopt that approach and, let's call it company culture around how to encourage certain behaviors and how to reward people who are doing the job the best way they can. And also to create an environment that promotes this, the ability to do better and do more, whether it's with technology or without, or is that really, isn't the point, right?[00:33:39] This comes back to your earlier point Ron, about more [00:33:42] specialization and segmentation and the skills and the roles within the store. [00:33:46] All of this plays together into building that better company culture that fosters an environment that encourages this kind of activity and rewards people in these roles because they're filling a really important need for the retailer.[00:34:00] Ron: Yeah. I think that's where we had sometimes dug ourselves into our own trap of saying everyone needs to be good at everything. And then it'd be kind of to become a generalist as at all of it. And the customer's ability to remember their experience is diluted because no one really stood out in their mind, but we created that ourselves.[00:34:21] We created this kind of generic retail, you know, everyone's nice. Are you finding everything? Okay. And then you walk away and that, kind of generic version of retail, you know, Steve, Dennis likes to talk about Is what got us in trouble. And so that's where I'm saying it should not be generic. It should actually be very specialized.[00:34:41] We should hire [00:34:42] people with specialty, and invest in them and be better at what you hired them to do. And those are the people when you see NPS surveys that mention people by name, and I see it every day, you don't go home and write a survey about your experience and reference people's names. If you didn't have an experience that created, it's not through a business card in your shopping bag, you remembered their name because you were so engaged.[00:35:08] That's what happens when you invest in them. And then they deliver that to the customer. And it's like this winning cycle. But not everyone plays that game. And that, is so much fun because you see it in your business. And that's what we're all trying to reestablish today in our industry. [00:35:24] Ricardo: That is so well said, Ron, it's all about embracing the uniqueness and the skill sets that you're bringing into the environment and to the team and encouraging more of that to make the entire team better and ultimately that's reflected in the revenue that you're going to generate through that team, because they're such a [00:35:42] critical part of that process. [00:35:44] Question from Jeff Brand[00:35:44] Ricardo: I, I've, brought a few more folks up on stage so I'm Jeff, I'm going to go to you next , what was your comment for us? [00:35:50] Jeff Brand: Yeah, thank you. I'm an owner of a brick and mortar retail buildings. I'm a landlord, but I'm also a consumer and something that Trevor said, which was interesting to me is that his goal is to create engaging content for consumers that would draw them into the store, but giving them a lot of information to really engage them.[00:36:11] So what I wanted to find out about frontline workers, how do you make sure that the frontline worker knows more than the consumer does when they walk in the store? Because the consumer has the ability to research ad nauseum about the products they're going to shop for. [00:36:28] Trevor: I think that's a great question. I think about that often, right. 70% of shoppers think that they know more than the sales associates, because they have access to that very data. so I think there, are a couple of different ways to think through this. One is, making sure you've got all the [00:36:42] learning management systems for your sales associates, but the other way to think about it is to really think through proprietary tools that walk you through the category.[00:36:51] Most of this content out there is product by product. And what I'm seeing a lot of is digital tools that are being deployed in store and online to do a needs analysis and walk you through the category. I'll give you an example. If I'm buying a drill at home Depot, you got all the drills on the shelf.[00:37:09] But, I don't want to pick control, oh, this is this many Watts and this is that many Watts and great, well, what does that mean? , I don't know the difference between the wattage's . And , what will I be able to do or not be able to do what, walk me through, like, what do I need to strive for?[00:37:23] It's just like, Hey, Trevor just needs to make sure not to call the handyman too much, you know? And, and to look good in front of his wife, that he can fix some things or Trevor, you're really into home improvement projects to do a lot of serious work. And so, thinking through a category type tour and a needs [00:37:42] analysis and providing some of these proprietary tools, I think we'll create a type of guided experience that ends up lending itself in a differentiated way to what you can find out.[00:37:50] Jeff: And I also think we're really getting to , a paradigm where we shouldn't expect store associates to know more than customers coming in. If it's a passionate purchase. When I bought my kayak, I knew probably more about that. I guarantee you, I knew more about that kayak that I settled on, than the REI associates, because I researched it.[00:38:07] I spent days researching it. And so I think, we're sort of at that point where retailers just have to be comfortable with, sort of that, that maybe shift in knowledge and, accelerate and work with that and not necessarily try to fight against it.[00:38:19] Jeff Brand: That's very interesting. Thank you.[00:38:21] Ron: Yeah. And, I think apple again, does a really nice job of putting so much effort into training and yes, clients come in all day. And I remember when I joined apple as a store manager, The launch of iPhone two, and I was really nervous about, I don't know how this is going to work.[00:38:40] And [00:38:42] the calming kind of words are, they, customers will always know more than you do about the product. People are obsessed with this brand, but to say, you know what? I don't know, but I'm going to find out I'm going to help you learn how to use this. I'm going to find someone who's an expert in this particular skill of what you're looking for.[00:39:01] And if you can say, you know what, I don't have any idea how to do that, but I'm going to find someone that does, can calm it down. And the customer's like great, happy to make that happen. So I also think we don't always want to put so much pressure on ourselves. Everyone at every store has to be an expert in everything it's not realistic, but we can just drill down and think about expertise and putting the right people with the right customers for that specific ask that applies in all of our businesses, including, fashion for me. And I love this idea of it. Every experience should be unique and individual based on what the customer came in looking for.[00:39:41] Ricardo: [00:39:42] Yeah. I agree with that absolutely critical to deliver a great service that you want to have in your store. So Jeff, thank you for that question. [00:39:50] Question from Tim Tang[00:39:50] Ricardo: Tim, do you have a comment or question for us? [00:39:52] Tim Tang: Yeah, the question I wanted to ask you was, when we think about retail and we think about employment, frontline workers in retail, there's an enormously high turnover rate, as well as, some studies suggest, suggested very low engagement rate.[00:40:06] And I was wondering if you were aware of any progress or any meaningful innovations or any changes, in recent years on those two fronts.[00:40:15] Ron: Hi Tim. To answer your question on, on evolutions of the, great part about some of the technology that we're talking about, that there are ways to survey teams more quickly. So there's, apps like butterfly that where you can, you're in constant contact of how, how are you feeling today?[00:40:34] Kind of on a, on a scale of different faces or on numbers. How are let's check in with you about how [00:40:42] you're feeling, which is a really important, component to emotional leadership today, emotional intelligence. So you're, kind of constant checking in and, feeling connected, but I think , more importantly than anything that the quality and the intent of retail leadership today at the store level specifically, but at the multi-store space that all of us today in any kind of retail leadership that touches store teams and has influence on that experience, it is really our responsibility to do that in a way that is more emotionally, engaged than ever before.[00:41:20] And I think the idea of store visits that are checklist of numbers and. Store operations and audits and things that seem very tactical are really a thing of the past. And today I just, I was in stores all week. And what I did was spend time on the floor, talking to the teams, engaging with customers side by [00:41:42] side, learning how they're, how they feel learning, how they're experiencing the math challenge of week two and what it all means.[00:41:52] And that actually goes a really long way to engaging with those teams and say, I really appreciate that. Ron spent the day on the floor with selling with us today, and [00:42:01] I was able to ask questions and I was able to get solutions and hear what's happening at the company today. We just have to be closer than we've ever been before to what's really happening face-to-face with the customer and we have to listen and learn and act and engage and be curious more than ever before. And that's, that's what will change our industry. And that's how teams are repaying. And you, you learn, I come back to the office today with armed, with so much information about spending the week on the sales floor and about how people really feel.[00:42:37] And I can pretty much guarantee that those people I engage with [00:42:42] are happy that someone listened to them this week. I hope that answers your question.[00:42:48] Tim Tang: I think that's an interesting perspective, I mean that it's, if I'm hearing you correctly, it's the idea of using that customer feedback. That's kind of a motivator for the employees and you mean something to be celebrated, something to be highlighted, but it's, that kind of, positive feedback to get encouraged more out of the employee base.[00:43:06] Ron: Yeah. I actually think the employee feedback is more important than customer feedback sometimes. So that's the first thing that I would ask is how do you feel, how was your experience working here right now? How you feel having the math conversation it's uncomfortable. Let's do this together so that you can feel more comfortable when someone comes in and, wants to have a more difficult conversation.[00:43:27] So their feedback about their experience as an employee drives the customer experience that drives the business. And that's, why I would talk about surveys or being really close to them. That's what's going to change the game [00:43:39] Brandon: That ties back, Ron [00:43:42] to outstanding employee experience, customer experience. And you, you can say once that the, this empowered customer who has access to data to other brands and social media channels picked up once at the head of them and really personalize things.[00:44:05] Ricardo: That's a pretty impressive approach. And I say that Ron because listening to you describe how you've gone and collected that feedback on the floor reminds me of many retailer conversations that I had in years past and Tim may even remember some of these as in full disclosure for the audience, here Tim, and I used to work together.[00:44:26] And he may remember that being in some retailer meetings where we would ask them the question. When was the last time you were walked your store floor and understood both your customer and employee experience? And there, I think too many times that I remember being met with blank faces, when asking that [00:44:42] question?[00:44:42] And I always thought to myself, wondering how could they not have had a response for that? How could we be in a room full of retail executives that didn't have an immediate answer as to not only when was the last time they did this, what kind of feedback did they get? I would expect this is something you should know, because you're not going to be able to improve on your associates environment.[00:45:01] You're not going to be able to improve on that customer experience without ongoing feedback. And I don't think it's sufficient to claim that the feedback process could just be asking customers to fill out a response form and an email post-transaction or asking employees to do the same thing at the end of their Workday.[00:45:19] So please go in and fill out this survey form, but tell us how the day went. You really want to get that direct one-on-one feedback to really understand exactly how things are going. [00:45:29] Ron: And I would just add the store teams know that. And when decisions are made in the C-suite by people who have not spent time in stores and it impacts them, that's where [00:45:42] the problem lies is in the turnover happens because the responses will, did they not understand what we do every day? How hard this is the conversations that we have to have, and the workload that happens every day in brick and mortar stores. There's an assumption that people that sit in our leadership chairs don't understand that. And if you can demonstrate your at least willingness to show up and listen, you may not be able to solve every problem. If you use just show up and you say hello, I went to Greenwich the other day and some new team members.[00:46:14] And just to be able to sit in the morning, have a coffee, listen, where did you work before? I'll like, that will keep them going for months. And it was very little effort on my part and a huge return. And that's what all of us in leadership, we have to do that more. And particularly today, they're in a very difficult situation of being customer engaging.[00:46:37] Not only last year, it's still hard today. And that's why I just [00:46:42] encourage everyone be as close as you can, to the people doing the work technology aside. The human conversation goes a really long way. [00:46:49] Shish: Yeah. That's the great point also from the employee perspective, one of the things I'm looking at is, stores are putting more emphasis on customer engagement and employee spending more time with customers versus doing mundane jobs. And that's another transformation I'm seeing where automation comes in.[00:47:09] A very common example that I'm seeing in terms of automation is, on-shelf availability where almost every retailer is. Automating that in the past, it was, employees going round and making sure that the products are on shelf. And today they're looking at cameras and sensors to do that job so that the store associates can spend that time engaging with customers rather than doing that.[00:47:35] Ricardo: Yeah, that is absolutely an interesting point. And we could probably another room just on that topic alone and [00:47:42] going through the reality versus perceptions, right, automation, AI, and machine learning. What does that mean for other jobs? Whether we're talking about frontline staff or other roles within a retail organization, where's the balance you can draw between those areas.[00:48:00] So thanks Tim . That was a great, topic to touch on.[00:48:02] Question from Jeff Sward[00:48:02] Ricardo: Jeff, What was your question or comment for us and welcome to the stage. [00:48:06] Jeff Sward: Actually, the last conversation is going to be a perfect segue for my question, which is how does the frontline associates become, more useful, I guess, in helping the whole company understand the why of best sellers and worst sellers. Ron was describing these great interactions between sellers and customers that are data-driven about past history and prior purchases. So when the customer buys something, the system captures all the hard information, but it doesn't capture is the [00:48:42] why, why was something that bestseller, why was something a worst seller. Nobody sets out and puts worst sellers in the stores to begin with. So what happens? [00:48:53] Brandon: It's a great question. And I think that that's where it'd be social selling aspect comes in, that the sentiments could be the emotional multisensory sentiments through Instagram and Twitter and other feedback loop that retailers will receive from the customers. And it's not captured within the transactional systems, ERP systems, et cetera, social commerce, digital marketing is where that system lies.[00:49:18] So I think it's a very complex challenge to capture all the emotional sentiment, but that might be a place to start.[00:49:24] Shish: I totally agree. I think it's a data challenge. Many of the retailers that I work with, look at the other influencing data factors that will tell them why something a best seller. And this could be anything from the demographics around the store and the correlation of a certain [00:49:42] product or plan with that demographic, being the cause, it could be something going viral on the internet.[00:49:49] It could be other factors and influences that make something a best seller. And a lot of times is the inference models that they build from the combinations of data. And that typically is one of the approaches that many retailers use. [00:50:05] Ron: Yeah. And it's Ron. I would just add, I think again, Jeff, the more we can engage with the sales teams that are selling the product the better. So there's definitely feedback that can come through customers on social, or maybe it's live selling and you can capture information via chat.[00:50:22] There's a lot of ways to learn, but my office that's right out in front of, the design team for our own private label at intermix. And, you know, I spend a lot of time with them about this is what I've seen. This is what I've heard. Let's bring a team of New York stylist to the office and give you feedback from sketch review.[00:50:41] Like I [00:50:42] I'm, we're doing walkthroughs on sketches before they even become samples before fit before production. Like we stayed so close to it every step of the way so that we try to minimize the risks and the misses. I recognize that that's a small business compared to many people on this phone, but it's important that at every and every part that we've listened and we've learned and we've acted accordingly. , and I think the benefit from that is enormous.[00:51:11] Jeff Sward: Great, thanks, Ron. [00:51:12] Ricardo: Thanks, Jeff. For that question - good discussion topic, [00:51:16] Question from Amanda Fetch[00:51:16] Ricardo: Amanda, what is your question or comment for us? [00:51:19] Amanda Fetch: Yeah. Hello, thank you so much for the opportunity to join the stage. I know that the wave of the future has been to the point of the topic of the room, the future of frontline staff and how that's been sort of disappearing. We had, for example, Amazon Go in Rock Center where there is nobody to basically check you out. And, how now we have tech companies pivoting off of Amazon, like Facebook, [00:51:42] who is looking to have the live shopping Fridays and things like that.[00:51:45] Where again, it's not totally eliminating what we want to call a checkout. There's a human being involved, but again, it's online. So you still have the tech aspects, but so what I wanted to present to the panel and hear your thoughts on is what about, the customer of, for example, a Lulu lemon where their core is assisting the customer, what they like to call was more educating their customer on the fabrics and on the brand of things of that nature.[00:52:10] So I'm curious to hear your thoughts on companies like that. As the world's going to this really tech and to the point of the room, you know, future front Line staff.[00:52:18] If they start disappearing, what happens to companies or retailers like Lulu lemon, will they survive if we start seeing less and less of these, how do you see companies like that weathering this sort of tech storm that's coming on the horizon there? [00:52:33] Ricardo: Thank you for bringing up this topic. Where are we headed in the reality of more automation versus human interaction the [00:52:42] way frontline staff operationally works in a store as well as interacts with customers, as well as what's the customer preference going to be.[00:52:49] If we think about our consumers and what they expect when they come to the store. I think a lot of this depends on what the brand relationship is with the consumer I would argue that, for a Lululemon there is a consumer expectation that when they come to the store, they know they can count on the staff there.[00:53:05] Would that same customer have a similar expectation if they knew that they were going to be greeted by some kind of AI or a bot or some other automated process instead of a human being, I don't know that that would meet the customer's satisfaction for a brand like Lululemon.[00:53:21] I think that becomes a differentiator. So while there could be a discussion in a board room at Lulu lemon that says. You know, is our labor costs getting too high? Do we need to balance our a rising labor costs with some form of automation to handle certain customer interactions? I think they're going to conclude that they can't just [00:53:42] ignore this aspect.[00:53:43] I think that the filter you can apply to this is to say, is the brand relationship purely transactional.[00:53:49] If it is, then chances are a lot of that relationship could be replaced with automation, and to the retailer that's probably a cost saving exercise at some level. If that relationship is not purely transactional, if it's really based on what I think everybody on the stage would define as a real brand relationship where there's an emotional connection for the customer.[00:54:10] I personally don't believe that those relationships can be easily replaced with automation in that way. I think it requires a person to be involved, and I think it's required from the customer's point of view, but would younger generations be more okay with the thought of being greeted by some form of AI or automation rather than a human being versus an older generation?[00:54:33] I don't know that I can predict. But I think that would just be another interesting way to look at. [00:54:38] Jeff: I love that question so much because, I get asked all the [00:54:42] time is, so what is retail doing? Literally they're doing everything at all all the same time. So when I start thinking about, the role of automation and AI, there's clearly going to be a very significant chunk of retail that is going to embrace that. And there's going to be clearly another chunk of retail that's not. It's going to be high touch, high experience. And the best example I can point to right now is in an in and out burger, in and out burger has always paid well above market rate for, for really fast food jobs. And people go there. Me included, literally go by far cheaper solutions and sit in pretty darn long lines because we want that experience.[00:55:16] And I love the fact that people like that experience. And I love the fact that a retailer has created an opportunity for fast food workers to actually become, real career opportunities and a whole lot of people that are going to be running companies in 10 or 15 or 20 years really got their start there under that training.[00:55:32] So the answer is, we're going to see it's going to be the future is going to be all of the above. The key thing is what do people want and what do people want from their [00:55:42] retail experience. That's also going to be the big driver. So if, if all of a sudden the next three or four years people say, you know, I like the human touch. I don't want to be greeted by an AI. Retailers will respond. I think there clearly will be a lot more automation and there's clearly going to be a lot more people involved.[00:55:58] Ron: I definitely agree with, Jeff. I think it will depend on the business, but I would say today where we sit in the way the client is behaving, that her expectation of engagement and the time spent in the store and the amount of energy that goes into these very human interactions has never been higher.[00:56:18] And that may be a surge of, having spent 18 months online and really craving that human interaction. But I don't think it's going to completely pendulum swing the other way. I think there will always be a need for great human engaged selling, educational, retail. And for me that, that the best version of that, not just [00:56:42] in luxury will be the ones that kind of set the bar for

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