Season 3 Episode 4: Innovation Post-Pandemic

Welcome back to our Fourth (4th) Episode of 2021 Drink Like a Lady

In Season 3 of the podcast, we are exploring the growth opportunities post pandemic.  In today's episode, we are tackling the opportunities for innovation. Note that:

• 80% of consumers will switch to another company after just ONE poor customer experience,
• 59% of consumers will care more about their customer experience than they did “before COVID times” when deciding which companies to support or buy from.

The companies that innovated well and worth noting are:

Dialogue  

Because it's an e-commerce platform is backed by machine learning, your sales systems are always getting smarter.  Dialogue will create tailored messages for different potential customers based on specific preferences and sales patterns to achieve the best possible outcomes. Its been known to  boost conversion rates by up to 25 percent. 

With the multitude of businesses going online, competition in the e-commerce is fierce. Personalization and customization is key. 

 WalkMe 

This company offers a platform that can help any organization of any size go digital.  WalkMe helps train employees who use software, websites, apps, and other digital solutions. It also trains management on how to use analytics.

Better.com

Better.com is a fintech concern. The company is disrupting the mortgage application process by bringing it to the internet.  With automation, it shortens the weeks of mortgage application waiting time to minutes. 

Its business model is such that instead of charging fees or commission for transactions, the company focuses on interest. The company says it has already extended more than $4 billion to homebuyers in 2019.  The company has already received approval to operate in 44 states across the USA and is set to cover all territories.

Innovating for the next normal

Companies involved in the internet, software, finance, e-commerce, and business intelligence will play a big role in the upcoming economic recovery everyone is hoping to see soon.

BUT IF YOU ARE IN AN ESTABLISHED COMPANY, then there are 3 themes for change:

1. Create or confirm a case for change (e.g. burning platform for growth)
2. Talk about innovation in terms of tangible results to help create a better future.
3. Provide a step-wise approach to getting these results and make the journey credible through anecdotes, past successes and visualizing the story.

In our next Episode of Drink Like A Lady, we'll focus on the GIG ECONOMY.  

Joya is currently enrolling members for international (Europe) and domestic (NYC) strategy days. She also leads a year-long intensive mastermind of C-Suite level women, which is accepting applications for 2024.

https://www.joyadass.com/
info@joyadass.com

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:01

Hey, Hey, Hey, is Wednesday at three o'clock Eastern time, which is right about the time that we host the drink, like a lady podcast, which is designed to get female emerging leaders, a seat at the bar and a seat in the boardroom. And very shortly here, I'm going to be joined by my, my, uh, compatriot and partner in crime, Kathy DeCicco Stewart, who is going to be talking with me today about innovation. Now this is actually season three of our podcast. And what we're doing this season is really looking at the rear view mirror of 2020 and seeing where exactly where their growth opportunities and what is it that we need to remember going into 2021. So we've spent some time talking about customer service. We spent some time talking about, um, uh, products and services and innovating there. And today we're going to share some more examples of innovation and who did it well in 2020. And we've got some interesting examples for you today. So I'm just waiting for Kathy to join us, but we host this podcast every single week at three o'clock Eastern time on Wednesday. And we welcome you to ask us questions. As we're talking here, I see Sri has joined. I see Lisa has joined. Anna has joined. Molly has joined welcome everyone. I'm just waiting for Kathy to join us. And we're going to launch right into our fourth episode of drink, like a lady. Now, while I'm waiting for her, one of the episodes in season three, we spent some time talking about customer service and here's, what's interesting is that 80% of consumers will switch to another company. This is in the post COVID world after just one bad customer experience. The second point to that is 59% of consumers actually care more about their customer service experience. Now it influencing

Speaker 2: 1:58

Who it is buy from, and I'll be the first to raise my hand and saying I'm buying from Amazon a lot of days of the week, simply because their customer service is amazing. Kathy, how are you? Good morning. I guess it's good afternoon. Good morning. I'm still waiting for the coffee to hit my veins. So I was just sharing that, um, you know, some of the metrics that we've shared in the last few episodes on customer service, that 80% will switch to another company after just one poor customer service. Oh, you can't hear me?

Speaker 3: 2:34

Um, let's see. My volume is up.

Speaker 2: 2:37

I will keep talking. Maybe not sure. Maybe log off and log back on technology. So great. When it actually works. Um, 80% of consumers will switch to another company. I could just one bad experience and then 59% of consumers will care more their customer service experience bef now versus pre COVID times, which I thought was interesting. And today we're going to be talking Kathy and I, as soon as we get our technology issues sorted out here, we're going to be talking about innovation and a totally new way of adding business as well as market value. Now Kathy's done some really great, um, all right, Kathy, how about if you log off and log back on,

Speaker 4: 3:29

[inaudible]

Speaker 2: 3:30

Great. We're going to try that again. So, um, some of the companies that we think are doing some really great innovative work in 2020, and now can influence what happens in 2021 is, is basically e-commerce right. Any company that managed to take their brick and mortar situation or their brick and mortar presence and switch that over to e-commerce has managed to do pretty well. Um, I know Sreya is on this call and you've managed to really leverage social media to be able to get commissions for your artwork. And that's another example of how you can leverage e-commerce to be able to continue to sell, even if your brick and mortar has been shuttered. But the new piece that I want to share today is something called dialogue. So dialogue is a system that's been designed to harness artificial intelligence. So, you know, now that it's not just enough to be selling, but you have to be doing hyper-targeted, hyperlocalized selling. So for an example, you know, that if you've managed to look at, I don't know, rugs at Lulu and Georgia, that's one of the furniture stores that I love. I'll notice that I'm constantly getting ads and flyers in the mail and Facebook ads for rugs from many different vendors. So that just means that artificial intelligence is already at work. It seen what you viewed, and now it's blasting you with all kinds of other rugs from other vendors, because those other vendors have that artificial intelligence already set on their systems. They're retargeting people that are in their universe. So for example, I'm not looking for a blender, I'm looking for a rug. And that is where something like dialogue comes in, because dialogue is essentially something that you retrofit on your website and it's checking to see what is it that you're looking for? Why are you visiting the site? But it's also collecting information about like-minded people that it can be sending some of that information to hi Mira. Good to see you, a poem for your heart. Good to see you today. We are talking on the drink, like a lady podcast on the merits of innovation. We're looking in the rear view mirror of 2020, and seeing who did something well and who can iterate on that going into 2021. Kathy, can you hear me? I can hear you now. All right. I was just talking about dialogue. I don't know that I was doing it justice. So why don't you jump in and explain what dialogue does really, what it, you, you know, w how you started to explain it is actually perfect. And what's important today is that the e-commerce component of, of sales is really exploding. And we know that based on the pandemic, we know that people have created new lifestyles. Um, I was just talking to someone recently and they said that they're not even sure if they'll go back to a lot of the store buying that they did, but this part, the dialogue, but it does is it really is about that, that data analytics that immediately says they've been looking for rugs, okay, here let's do that. And this platform actually allows an e-commerce a new startup or an established one, and be able to convert sales very, very quickly. This is very exciting for next year and this year. And so dialogue is essentially a e-commerce platform that you can retrofit on top of your existing website or Shopify or whatever it is that you used to be able to collect all of that data. So you can be hyper-focused and hyper-targeted, and who you're going after the other company that you wanted to talk about. We're talking about innovation folks today on the drink, like a lady podcast, and who has it when we look in the rear view mirror of 2020, who innovated well, and who is it that we can kind of keep an eye on as we're heading into 2021. So the next company you talk about is walk me, and this really speaks to the fact that if you don't have a digital presence, you're kind of screwed. And if you'll notice that a lot of these companies really, that we're going to be talking about are startups, because they don't get in their own way. They're actually saying, okay, I've got to find a different solution, but this is a platform company. What this does is it actually helps to facilitate digital transformation within your own company, whether it's the websites, whether it's talking about training employees, in order to do this apps, digital solutions, it all pulls it together. And it allows you to manage under one roof. I remember hearing, I listen to Bloomberg every morning, and there was a woman that has a baby good store in New Jersey. And because she was really dependent on the mall, traffic from the strip mall of people, walking by wandering into a store browsing and possibly purchasing, she was lamenting on Bloomberg radio that, oh, you know, my sales are down. What am I going to do? So on and so forth. So it sounds like walk me would be a great suggestion to someone like that, who knows if they have to create a digital presence, but they just don't know how to do it. I think so, too. I think that's one of the things that individuals who have been, you know, putting it at arms length, um, not knowing digital. They've really got to, they've got to turn themselves around and they've got to get in, they've got to jump into the pool, so to speak. And it's for some of us who might be Luddites and not so technologically savvy, it sounds like walk me is at least a one-stop shop for you to help make that transition. Absolutely, absolutely. So the other company that you talk about is a FinTech concerns called better.com. And I think this is really interesting because the housing market is sitting at two different polarities. Right now it's either foreclosures or you can't buy a house because there's no inventory well, and that's, what's interesting here is that what this has done, it's taken the whole idea of mortgages and it's sort of thrown it its side and say, what is really the new consumer looking for it? And in this case, what they're looking for is not with all those closing costs, not with all of the paperwork that's involved, this is very much streamlined it. And it's based on a whole different model. And that's what innovation is about. It's creating companies and or ideas on a whole different model. And that is based on interest rates and charging just a little bit more over the life of a mortgage. That's what I'm saying. So where better makes their money is the fact that they're not instead of charging fees or commissions for the transactions where the company makes their money is on the interest on your mortgage. Exactly, exactly. And what it is is really a streamlined if you've gone in and go on to get a mortgage, and we're actually remortgaging now because rates have gone down again here, um, it's, the paperwork is unbelievable and they're streamlining that as well, making it much more accessible for young adults. I would be curious to see a better.com works in Manhattan because I feel like buying a Manhattan is a beast unto itself, and God help you if you're buying into a co-op right. I know I've heard that. And what we've, what we're seeing is that this has already been accepted and approved in 44 states out of our 50 states. So there is something here that is getting the, you know, th the good housekeeping, uh, check of appeal that says good, it's going to work. And, um, let's see what, what it means is, you know, in a lot of ways, people have talked about this for years. Let's see whether or not this is one of those who will really change the whole industry. I want to say hi to Lisa and Trey and Jimena and Mira who have joined us on this IgE live today. This is the drink, like a lady podcast. And every single week at Wednesday at three o'clock myself and Cathy,[inaudible] Stewart, who is a business strategist get together. And we talk about business. And in this particular episode, we're actually in the season three episode, four of our podcast, and we're talking about innovation and who did it well in the last year? And what can we iterate on going into 2021? So the number one example that you'd given is dialogue, which is a company that really puts a bit of muscle behind artificial intelligence and making sure that you're not just selling to everyone, you can be hyper-local and you can be hyper-targeted. Right. Exactly. Exactly. And this goes on and, you know, joy, we talked a lot about the industries and where, what industries are important. And this fits nicely into the fact that the e-commerce over the last year has quadrupled. And it really is important for it to be, um, that other individuals can sort of, uh, coattail onto that as well. Other business, what are we really talking about? There's so many outlets for you to buy. Let's say socks. I was looking for socks the other day. You know, there's so many places that I could go to buy socks. So who is going to stand out in the sea of SOC vendors that are out there? Well, probably if I go and visit the site I did and they come back and retarget me, or they email me saying, Hey, you looked at these sucks. Did you forget them? Or did you like them? You know, it's being able to stand out in a sea of noise and have that sort of process where you're reinforcing the fact that you came, you looked, you didn't buy, but you still can. And so being able to collect that artificial intelligence is something that dialogue allows you to do. The next company you talked about is walk me and that's for anyone who is thinking about taking their brick and mortar and turning it into a digital platform, but what's the bells and whistles around. Walk me, well, we're talking, talking about that. What it does is it actually pulls the whole platform together, right? From the beginning, it has training as well. Um, that goes right to your employees, as well as creating apps, you know, because that's always something when you're doing digital that you look and they say, well, now, do I need an app? This all becomes like one package. It's a, one-stop shopping for many individuals looking for digital transformation. Yep. And then the third one that you shared as a FinTech concern, which is better.com, which is allowing you to get your mortgage quicker and faster. And what's, what's interesting about this is, you know, in the banking industry, it has not had a shift in a long time in terms of what that looks like in mortgages. So this is something that I'm very curious about to see whether or not this now becomes even for the banks, whether or not they're going to take a look at this seriously and see that this may be a very competitive edge for this company. I wonder what the thresholds are like could better.com be equally applicable to a$400,000 house as small as a$2 million house. Well, that's interesting because, you know, when you start to go into analytics and take a look at what their market is, um, you know, that would be interesting to find that out. I might, I might put that down as a note to take a look at that for us. I wouldn't be very curious. So just in conclusion, when we're innovating for what is now our new normal in 2021, I, I see that you listed a couple of different areas that you think are gonna play a big role in our economic recovery. Since now we can actually say those words with a little bit of conviction. Um, what are those verticals, Kathy? It's the internet it's software, finance e-commerce and business intelligence. Those are the areas where individuals are going to find the best possibility for growth and opportunity for marketing. Sure. And as we bring this episode to a close, it's not only enough to think about innovation, but you also have to think about who's going to be the shepherd of that innovation inside of your own company. Like who's going to be the leader of the innovation challenges. So what are some of the, um, the things you need to think about when it comes to the leadership that's going to implement? You know, it's interesting. If you're an already in an established company, we talk a lot about this. You can still be innovative, but you've got to get the right mindset. You've got to be able to unleash things. So you got to create a great case for where you're going, and it's gotta be in such a, in such a way that it's talking about the tangible assets. What's bottom line. How will it shift you? Um, and then you'll talk about, you know, what does the future look like based on those tangible outcomes, you know, will, will it only be 20% of your company or will it finally shift to 50%? We always know, talk about Blackberry, you know, great. Everybody needed a Blackberry back in the eighties and hardly anyone has a Blackberry now because they didn't shift. And that's the point. And then you want a step-by-step approach within a company. You want to make sure that everyone understands what their part is in the innovation. And that's really integral to making that happen and making sure that you have checkpoints. So you're going to, are you checking in to see if you've gone up on that progress bar or if you're heading down on that progress bar? Exactly. So Kathy, I know that we're, I'm thinking about a couple of different things as we're looking in the rear view mirror of 2020, but what's happening in next week's episode next week, we're going to talk about the gig economy. And that really is the, the part-time workers. They're the contract workers. It's also about the entrepreneurs and how they can fit right in. And this is very important because a lot of this, um, labor and talent has shifted to this gig economy. And we're going to take a real good look on how we're going to harness that all, pull it all together for you. I can say I'm somebody who is putting a lot of the gig economy right now because I've hired yoga teachers and trainers because the gym situation is driving me batty. So I'm happy to be talking about this. So join us next week on Wednesday at three o'clock for drink, like a lady for another episode of this podcast. Hey, if anyone wants to work with you, Cathy, how do they get in touch with you? Two ways you can either call me directly six oh nine nine three three seven 600. That is my private line. And then at Stewart, Cathy at Gmail, S T U a R T K a T H I e@gmail.com and Cathy, I am hosting an art of influence masterclass since public speaking is in my wheelhouse. That's starting up next week and we still have a spot for one more woman who I'd love to invite and have her be part of the part of the next six weeks. And so if you would like to be part of that, you can just email me@infoatladydrinks.com. I would love to have you, so I, it's always a pleasure to be working with you on this. Awesome, Kathy. See you next week. We'll do bye now.