Latest / Leaders in Customer Loyalty, Powered by Loyalty360 / Bringing Homes to Life: A Q&A with At Home on Making the Customer Experience Richer Through Value

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Bringing Homes to Life: A Q&A with At Home on Making the Customer Experience Richer Through Value · Leaders in Customer Loyalty, Powered by Loyalty360

• 0:05
  Mark Johnson: Good afternoon, good morning.
• 0:06
  Mark Johnson: This is Mark Johnson from Loyalty 360.
• 0:08
  Mark Johnson: Hope everyone's happy, safe and well Wanted to welcome you back to another edition of our Leaders in Customer Loyalty series.
• 0:14
  Mark Johnson: In this series we have the privilege of speaking with leading brands about what they are seeing and hearing on the front lines of customer channel and brand loyalty.
• 0:21
  Mark Johnson: Today we have the pleasure of speaking with Susan Rodgers.
• 0:24
  Mark Johnson: She's a chief marketing officer at At Home.
• 0:27
  Mark Johnson: Thanks for taking the time to talk with us, Susan.
• 0:29
  Mark Johnson: It's great to meet you.
• 0:31
  Susan Rodgers: Great to meet you, mark.
• 0:32
  Susan Rodgers: Thank you so much for having me on the program and talking about at home.
• 0:37
  Mark Johnson: Absolutely.
• 0:37
  Mark Johnson: First off, we'd like to start these on a more personal level.
• 0:40
  Mark Johnson: So we'd like to get to know the individual we're speaking with.
• 0:42
  Mark Johnson: So we'd love to know a little bit more about you, you're role at home and maybe a fun fact or a passion you have outside of work Fun?
• 0:51
  Susan Rodgers: Great question.
• 0:52
  Susan Rodgers: So I'm Susan Rodgers.
• 0:54
  Susan Rodgers: I am the chief marketing officer for at home, and so I lead the team from a marketing perspective at at the at home brand, proud to have been there for what is going on 18 months and so really starting to feel like I, like I'm beyond getting my feet wet, which is really nice.
• 1:14
  Susan Rodgers: From a personal perspective, I'm married to an IT guy and I have two stepkids a 22 year old stepdaughter, 19 year old stepson and two 10 year old twin daughters.
• 1:31
  Susan Rodgers: Love them so much, and so we spend a lot of time on the weekends at softball games, volleyball games, and I one of my twin girls is playing youth girls flag football this fall, and she just got named as QB one.
• 1:50
  Susan Rodgers: And so she.
• 1:51
  Susan Rodgers: She's having a lot of fun with that, but honestly, we spend the majority of our weekends on the field somewhere or on the court.
• 1:59
  Susan Rodgers: So fun fact about me is that I am a huge, passionate college football fan and have been to a ton of college football stadiums 26 and have plans to go to so many more.
• 2:16
  Susan Rodgers: But at this stage in life I am on the field and on the court with my girls on many, many Saturdays throughout the fall.
• 2:24
  Susan Rodgers: So in the next stage of life I plan to resume my college football stadium tour.
• 2:34
  Mark Johnson: That's good.
• 2:34
  Mark Johnson: College football is good.
• 2:35
  Mark Johnson: I'm not as passionate about college football, but I do commiserate with the twin things.
• 2:39
  Mark Johnson: I have twin girls my, my own just went to college, yes, and one swimming at Bowling Green and one play soccer, so enjoy the oh cool.
• 2:49
  Susan Rodgers: Oh, cool yes.
• 2:50
  Susan Rodgers: So, maybe we'll never be out of the sports thing.
• 2:52
  Susan Rodgers: I don't know.
• 2:54
  Mark Johnson: It seems to go on and on and on, but it a long as you enjoy it with him, it's a great ride.
• 2:57
  Mark Johnson: And for those who may not be familiar with at home, can you give us history of at home what you guys do?
• 3:06
  Susan Rodgers: Yes, yeah, we're honestly a young brand More nine years old we used but we were originated in 1979 under the name Garden Ridge Pottery, so many, many, many consumers, especially in the south and southeast, might know us by by that name in many markets.
• 3:28
  Susan Rodgers: Garden Ridge started in Texas and in South Texas, grew to about 50 stores or so under the name Garden Ridge, and then, in 2000 and 12, lee Bird, our current CEO, joined the organization and transform the brand in 2014 to the name at home and really gave the entire fleet that we had at that time a facelift and formulated a brand that's really carried us to to, honestly, where we are right now, and so we're really, really proud to be a value player in the home decor space, bringing bringing life to home for for those that that maybe can't and don't want to shop at a really really high end, stuffy home decor retailer.
• 4:25
  Susan Rodgers: So, again, at Home became our name in 2014.
• 4:32
  Susan Rodgers: And so we'll celebrate our tenure anniversary next month with the brand name At Home and, yeah, have 267 stores, but really focused on growth and on the future continuing to take market share.
• 4:49
  Mark Johnson: Excellent, that's great.
• 4:50
  Mark Johnson: I mean, we talked about this a little bit.
• 4:52
  Mark Johnson: The At Home space is challenging for some competitors right, we sent Bankruptcy and another brand took their name.
• 5:01
  Mark Johnson: How are you seeing so much success in what you're doing?
• 5:05
  Mark Johnson: What are you guys doing differently that makes you so successful?
• 5:08
  Susan Rodgers: Yeah, well, what I would say first is that we always start with a customer.
• 5:13
  Susan Rodgers: We're really, really passionate about our customer.
• 5:16
  Susan Rodgers: We call her lovingly the restless refresher.
• 5:18
  Susan Rodgers: It's a customer that is sort of like always browsing, always being inspired, always shopping, no matter what platform she's on and no matter if she's in an in-store environment or looking online, and so we love our restless refresher and we've really found success over the last 10 years, really since becoming At Home, by really being focused on the customer and the value proposition of the brand.
• 5:43
  Susan Rodgers: We know we have large stores, so the number one thing that we're able to offer our customer is really being focused on selection and selection across style, across rooms, across budgets, across seasons, and so really always being focused on selection and making sure that our customer can literally find anything and everything that she might want for her home outside of really large appliances at At Home.
• 6:09
  Susan Rodgers: So focused on the customer, focused on selection, focused on the value that we provide to the customer, so always being unbeatably priced and always offering the best price that we can for the consumer were focused on that day in and day out.
• 6:27
  Mark Johnson: Excellent your insider perks loyalty program.
• 6:30
  Mark Johnson: Can you just overview the program how it was constructed, what it does, who it does it for, how the members engage with the program.
• 6:38
  Susan Rodgers: Definitely.
• 6:38
  Susan Rodgers: And I know that we sort of got connected, mark, because of the fact that we just celebrated 15 million participants in the program.
• 6:48
  Susan Rodgers: So we're pretty, pretty proud of how it's grown over six years.
• 6:51
  Susan Rodgers: So the program is really a way for us to be able to connect with our consumer and offer that consumer more benefits than non-loyalty program members receive.
• 7:07
  Susan Rodgers: So we offer what we call flash fines or special pricing on products.
• 7:13
  Susan Rodgers: Every single week, day in and day out, our members receive member pricing on select products throughout the store.
• 7:21
  Susan Rodgers: We provide our consumer our insider perks member early access to Black Friday, early access to fall going on seasonal savings, early access to Halloween, going on seasonal savings, and so all of our members receive better pricing on seasonal product and many other products that non-members don't.
• 7:46
  Susan Rodgers: And they're the first to hear about exclusive new private brands, exclusive launches with collaborations and celebrities, and so that's fun for them.
• 7:57
  Susan Rodgers: We are always focused on our return policy because we want to make sure that consumers feel safe in trying out new products and being expired and taking it home and making sure that it works for their home and in their space, and so we're focused on having a best in class return policy for everybody and our insider perks members actually get better, a better return policy than anyone else, and so no receipt is not a problem.
• 8:29
  Susan Rodgers: We want customers to feel excited to revisit and return and shop for more if they so choose, and so our insider perks members actually get 90 days to return product, even if it's seasonal.
• 8:42
  Susan Rodgers: So really, really, really great customer experience and return program.
• 8:47
  Mark Johnson: Excellent.
• 8:48
  Mark Johnson: You talked about some of the benefits of the insider perks program Early access, a lot of surprise and delight opportunities.
• 8:56
  Susan Rodgers: Gift with purchases?
• 8:57
  Mark Johnson: yeah, yeah, great opportunities to engage the customers.
• 9:01
  Mark Johnson: How are those creating extra value, extra engagement opportunities for your consumers?
• 9:09
  Susan Rodgers: Yeah, we're always focused on the number one reason why a customer should shop that week, because we do know that our customers always looking and always browsing, always popping in and just trying to source inspiration for herself or for something that she might want to think about for the future.
• 9:26
  Susan Rodgers: And so we really try to make sure that we're providing our customer every single week a reason to shop and a reason to return.
• 9:35
  Susan Rodgers: And so those member only prices on certain flash finds we call them or certain items throughout the store.
• 9:42
  Susan Rodgers: They pulse in and out, and so one week it might be this week, as an example it's special pricing on Halloween pillows and Halloween doormats, and next week it's going to be something completely different, and the week after it's something completely different, and then we'll have a gift with purchase for that customer.
• 9:58
  Susan Rodgers: So it's really about always making sure that our customer knows number one, about the great reason to shop that week and just to pop into it at home.
• 10:07
  Susan Rodgers: But also it's about making sure that they feel special and valued, making sure that they understand what the member pricing is.
• 10:16
  Susan Rodgers: It's right there when you walk in the store, on the flash find table, so it's not even hard to find.
• 10:21
  Susan Rodgers: So our stores are really, really big and we know that, so we try to make it as easy for the customer as possible.
• 10:27
  Mark Johnson: Absolutely.
• 10:28
  Mark Johnson: That's great.
• 10:28
  Mark Johnson: I know your program has had a lot of success, recently Passing 15 million.
• 10:35
  Mark Johnson: Customers voted the best.
• 10:38
  Mark Johnson: I want the best loyalty programs by Newsweek in 21 and 22.
• 10:41
  Mark Johnson: Yeah, what can you attribute to the success of the program?
• 10:48
  Susan Rodgers: Yeah, I mean I think I've going to just play on something that I said, but we really do stay focused on what the customer wants from us all the time, even in member pricing.
• 11:00
  Susan Rodgers: If we see that certain flash finds like I mentioned that we call them aren't driving customer engagement, customers aren't seeing value from them, we won't do that one again.
• 11:09
  Susan Rodgers: So we'll make sure that in every single case, we're listening to the customer and just continuing to make sure that we're providing that customer value.
• 11:18
  Susan Rodgers: Also, we're always trying to make sure that we're sourcing the best deals for the customer, and so it's our insider perks members that really drive us day in and day out to make sure that we're providing great value across the board.
• 11:31
  Mark Johnson: Excellent.
• 11:31
  Mark Johnson: Ok, when you look at the data and the feedback you get from the customers, how did you leverage that to create such an amazing program?
• 11:43
  Susan Rodgers: Yeah.
• 11:44
  Susan Rodgers: So the great news is that on every single transaction, every single receipt a customer, when a customer is an insider perks member, they have an opportunity to say this is what I love today about the experience, this is what I didn't necessarily love.
• 11:59
  Susan Rodgers: And so we go through the love.
• 12:02
  Susan Rodgers: And then we go through the not so love and we really listen to the customer and say, oh gosh, she had a hard time finding this flash find, she had a hard time finding this category in the store even, and so we're constantly mining the customer feedback.
• 12:16
  Susan Rodgers: We have a social team that's incredibly dedicated and focused to making sure that we're going through every single social comment as well, and so we stay focused, like really in-depth focused, on making sure that we're listening to the customer and we're really passionate about making sure that we're constantly optimizing the experience for her.
• 12:39
  Susan Rodgers: We run a very low labor model store and so really our labor is dedicated to making sure that the shopping experience is being listened to and as easy as possible, to make sure that we keep the customers that we have and find new ones too.
• 12:57
  Mark Johnson: That's awesome.
• 12:57
  Mark Johnson: I know you work with Synchrony on your insider program from a program you're probably offering.
• 13:06
  Mark Johnson: How does that work?
• 13:08
  Mark Johnson: Can you share a little bit more with how that partnership works to bring extra value to the customers and how At Home is looking at partnerships in general?
• 13:17
  Susan Rodgers: Yeah.
• 13:17
  Susan Rodgers: So, as anyone might imagine, a pretty large percentage of our business is done in categories that not everybody has access to on a day in and day out basis.
• 13:29
  Susan Rodgers: They may be waiting for their next paycheck saving up for a while, and so we want to make sure that all of our customers feel empowered to bring their best home and bring it to life, and so we really want to make sure that we're offering easy access to certain financing opportunities with our co-branded credit card to make sure that everybody feels empowered to make their house a home.
• 13:56
  Susan Rodgers: And so our Synchrony credit card and that partnership and that relationship allows us to to bring a great co-branded credit card to life and private-label credit card to life and give customers really easy access, great approval ratings across the board and really easy access to make sure that they have access to and open to buy to help them make sure that they can bring that best rug that they really are craving and love, make sure that they can bring that home.
• 14:24
  Susan Rodgers: Furniture is really important to customers, and so it's really important that we make sure that we're bringing them special financing options with no payments and interest and things like that.
• 14:37
  Susan Rodgers: And then we've also recently partnered with Synchrony by NowPay Later and their program as well.
• 14:44
  Susan Rodgers: So that is both enabled on our website and it's also enabled in our stores.
• 14:48
  Susan Rodgers: Not everybody knows this.
• 14:50
  Susan Rodgers: It's pretty new and it's a little bit revolutionary from a store experience perspective.
• 14:55
  Susan Rodgers: But customers can even sign up in stores for by Now Pay Later.
• 14:59
  Susan Rodgers: Typically it's sort of an online value proposition only, but it's enabled in our stores and so you can easily apply, easily be accepted and easily have open to buy at the register to make sure that customers feel like they can get what they want and take it home that day.
• 15:15
  Mark Johnson: That's awesome If you could ask a competitor, or maybe a marquee brand, one question about their customer loyalty program, their process, and what question would that be?
• 15:25
  Susan Rodgers: Yes, you know.
• 15:30
  Susan Rodgers: A couple of programs come to mind.
• 15:31
  Susan Rodgers: Number one I've been a loyal DSW elite member for a very long time, loved their gift with Purchase program as a piece of their loyalty program, and so they have absolutely figured out a way to operationalize that online, which is fantastic.
• 15:47
  Susan Rodgers: One question I would ask them is how they operationalize gift with Purchase for their online consumer, how they bring that to life, because right now our gift with Purchase is an in-store program only.
• 15:59
  Susan Rodgers: And then Panera Bread just love their loyalty program and the fact that they really seem to know me and get me and offer me special incentives to come in and eat way too much Panera.
• 16:11
  Susan Rodgers: All of their offerings seem really tailored to my taste buds and would love to understand how they continue to mine and refine customer data to make sure that they're always offering me my favorite bagel or my favorite pick two.
• 16:29
  Susan Rodgers: And would love to just continue to understand how other great brands are playing in the space as well, especially with personalized offers.
• 16:39
  Mark Johnson: Absolutely, and you kind of touched on a little bit.
• 16:41
  Mark Johnson: What brands do you admire or are you loyal to?
• 16:46
  Susan Rodgers: from a customer's loyalty perspective, yeah, Well, it's probably a little bit of a cop out answer, but the juggernaut in the space is obviously Amazon Prime, and it's really because they have almost their brand is almost synonymous with their loyalty program.
• 17:01
  Susan Rodgers: I am almost certain that their sales penetration rate of their loyalty program for their brand is probably upwards of 90%, and what they have been able to do in offering every day, day in and day out, value to the customer and it's really centered around convenience is truly remarkable in what they've been able to do from what was once just a bookseller to now.
• 17:31
  Susan Rodgers: Their selection is obviously passed across multiple categories and playing in all sorts of spaces and even from a digital media perspective, and so they're obviously the juggernaut in the space.
• 17:44
  Susan Rodgers: But again, my Panera program is it's pretty killer in my mind.
• 17:50
  Mark Johnson: So that's awesome.
• 17:52
  Mark Johnson: And last question, before the rapid fire questions what can Loyalty 360 do to help you and your team with your custom loyalty program?
• 18:00
  Susan Rodgers: Oh gosh, shop shop.
• 18:04
  Susan Rodgers: In some cases and for many, many sort of verticals within retail, the macro environment is, it's a little bit of an interesting one right now.
• 18:16
  Susan Rodgers: I won't call it tough, but I won't call it easy.
• 18:19
  Susan Rodgers: And so, for many cases, for many consumers and in many cases consumers are finding it hard to buy right now, especially in non-discretionary categories.
• 18:30
  Susan Rodgers: And so, as we continue to move towards the holiday season, shop, shop where you can shop, when you can shop local.
• 18:41
  Susan Rodgers: Shop your favorite home decor store that brings great selection to life.
• 18:46
  Susan Rodgers: And so, as we move towards holiday and as we move towards Halloween, just know that Halloween is going fast at home, and so we're sort of known for our Halloween.
• 18:58
  Susan Rodgers: It's truly remarkable what we have in store right now and what we'll have in store for Christmas.
• 19:03
  Susan Rodgers: So shop, shop, shop.
• 19:05
  Mark Johnson: Excellent.
• 19:05
  Mark Johnson: So now we have the infamous rapid fire questions.
• 19:10
  Mark Johnson: First off, what is your favorite word?
• 19:17
  Susan Rodgers: I really not from a customer facing perspective, but I really love the word ingenious.
• 19:21
  Susan Rodgers: I almost actually had it as a customer facing word a few years ago when I worked for a different brand.
• 19:28
  Susan Rodgers: But I love the ingenuity of ingenious and kind of the ingenuity that it sparks within people.
• 19:35
  Mark Johnson: Okay, what's your least favorite word?
• 19:38
  Susan Rodgers: I think my least favorite word is can't or cannot.
• 19:41
  Susan Rodgers: Yeah, it's just, it's sort of a no go.
• 19:44
  Mark Johnson: It's actually reading a reading book, a sidebar, real quick.
• 19:47
  Mark Johnson: But magic words by an author from Penn, Jenna Berger, came out yesterday, wrote a number of books on behavioral science and there's a big chapter in there between can't and don't, so always use don't.
• 20:01
  Susan Rodgers: Okay yeah, perfect yeah.
• 20:03
  Susan Rodgers: Great, great example.
• 20:04
  Mark Johnson: I'm going to go read that book, yeah, because my wife told me to do it.
• 20:07
  Mark Johnson: I can't do it because my kids right, I don't eat donuts, I don't Right.
• 20:13
  Susan Rodgers: I'm choosing to do something else Control Absolutely.
• 20:15
  Susan Rodgers: Yeah.
• 20:16
  Mark Johnson: Yeah, what excites you?
• 20:20
  Susan Rodgers: Oh gosh, I know I've said this and it's going to sound so cheesy, but I'll say two things.
• 20:29
  Susan Rodgers: One home decor, big home decor fan.
• 20:32
  Susan Rodgers: But then number two, customer research and customer insights really excites me.
• 20:37
  Susan Rodgers: Figuring out, kind of like, what makes the consumer In my case, in many cases it's a woman, but what makes the consumer tick.
• 20:46
  Mark Johnson: Okay, what word do you find tiresome?
• 20:48
  Mark Johnson: What do you find tiresome?
• 20:51
  Susan Rodgers: Yeah, I would have to say when executive teams can't or don't align, can't or don't, when there's a lot of back and forth across leadership, it's really important that leadership be lost at holding hands really inspired by each other.
• 21:13
  Susan Rodgers: When they're not, it is tiresome for all teams.
• 21:16
  Susan Rodgers: So I appreciate leadership teams that walk alongside each other and carry each other's torches.
• 21:23
  Mark Johnson: That's awesome.
• 21:23
  Mark Johnson: What truly makes a house a home?
• 21:28
  Susan Rodgers: I love this At home.
• 21:29
  Susan Rodgers: At home makes a house a home.
• 21:31
  Susan Rodgers: No, without being cheesy, family Whether it be those that come from afar or those that live right across the street, or friends that you call family that makes a house a home.
• 21:47
  Mark Johnson: Okay, what profession other than the one you have now would have you liked to attempt if you weren't a chief marketing officer?
• 21:56
  Susan Rodgers: Oh gosh Again.
• 22:03
  Susan Rodgers: Sounds so cheesy, sounds like I'm totally playing to my space.
• 22:05
  Susan Rodgers: But interior decorator slash HGTV production.
• 22:09
  Susan Rodgers: What a fun, fun, fun job.
• 22:12
  Mark Johnson: Okay, and what profession would you avoid at all costs?
• 22:15
  Susan Rodgers: Oh gosh, you know what?
• 22:21
  Susan Rodgers: The hardest job I ever had was being a waitress and trying to read between the lines of what people did and didn't want.
• 22:28
  Susan Rodgers: And one time I served some salmon to somebody and they said where's my ketchup with my salmon?
• 22:34
  Susan Rodgers: And I was like I wouldn't even put those two things together.
• 22:37
  Susan Rodgers: So being a waitress is really hard.
• 22:39
  Susan Rodgers: I tip well, because it's a tough job.
• 22:43
  Mark Johnson: That's good.
• 22:43
  Mark Johnson: Who inspired you to become the person you are today?
• 22:48
  Susan Rodgers: Oh, such a good question.
• 22:49
  Susan Rodgers: My grandfather, my grandfather, ran a grocery store in a tiny, tiny, tiny town in Texas Only grocery store for, you know 60 miles, or something like that and he absolutely inspired me as it relates to retail.
• 23:05
  Susan Rodgers: He absolutely inspired me as it relates to work ethic, and so my grandfather absolutely.
• 23:12
  Mark Johnson: That's awesome, and what do you typically think about at the end of the day?
• 23:17
  Susan Rodgers: My team, Every day, every minute.
• 23:20
  Susan Rodgers: My team.
• 23:20
  Susan Rodgers: How do I make things better, easier, clearer for them?
• 23:28
  Mark Johnson: Absolutely my team, and what do you want to be remembered, or how do you want to be remembered by your friends and family?
• 23:35
  Susan Rodgers: Gosh guys, these are good questions.
• 23:36
  Susan Rodgers: I would hope to be remembered as a positive, optimistic person, always trying to find the best in people and be inspired by the best in people, and a person that really like doesn't back down from a challenge and wants to be challenged by her customer.
• 23:52
  Susan Rodgers: If a customer tells me, do it this way instead, I might ask why, but at the end of the day, it really is all about the customer that we serve, and so I would want to be remembered by my friends, family and coworkers as somebody that rises to the challenge in an optimistic way and always trying to do the best thing for everybody.
• 24:15
  Mark Johnson: That's awesome.
• 24:15
  Mark Johnson: Well, susan, thank you very much for taking the time to talk to us today, absolutely, and getting to know you and a little bit more about the At Home and At Home program.
• 24:23
  Mark Johnson: So thank you very much.
• 24:25
  Susan Rodgers: Thank you, mark, it was really nice chatting with you.
• 24:27
  Mark Johnson: Absolutely, and thank you, everyone else, for taking the time to listen today.
• 24:30
  Mark Johnson: Make sure you join us again for another edition of our Leaders in Customer Loyalty Series.
• 24:34
  Mark Johnson: Until then have a wonderful day.