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Customer Engagement Platform · The Retail Podcast

• 0:09
  Hello, welcome to the Retail podcast live from NRF.
• 0:13
  I'm here with Twilio CMO. Regional CMO, VP of marketing
• 0:20
  for Twilio A PJ. Nicholas Kontopoulos
• 0:23
  Contopoulos. Actually quite easier to say
• 0:25
  than Reed, which which always makes me nervous.
• 0:34
  I have a horrible habit of getting the names really wrong,
• 0:37
  so it's off to a flying start. Got the right name company at
• 0:41
  the right start. All off to a great start.
• 0:43
  I I've seen you guys literally everywhere, you know, in terms
• 0:47
  of solution provider at conferences.
• 0:51
  But for those who don't know you and and what you are all about,
• 0:55
  can you just all give us an overview?
• 0:57
  Of virtual yeah, yeah, I mean truly is a communications
• 1:01
  company. That's where we started.
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  We started out in the world of SMS and Jeff who was the founder
• 1:08
  of, created the category, I guess you could say of CPASS or
• 1:11
  help create that category. Yeah.
• 1:12
  But we've evolved over the years.
• 1:14
  We've now become a customer engagement platform.
• 1:17
  Yeah, able to help customers basically create a channel
• 1:20
  that's customer experience. So you know, whether it's SMS,
• 1:23
  WhatsApp, e-mail, we'll provide a set of solutions that enable
• 1:27
  you to engage your customers in a frictionless fashion.
• 1:31
  We've all through that journey. We also acquired a company
• 1:34
  called Segment, which brought in a CDP capabilities and that's
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  now enabling us to really tailor our experiences through the
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  channel of preference with our customers.
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  So yeah, really exciting times to be a toilet.
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  So I can imagine an event like this.
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  You must be in a really happy and positive way, overrun with
• 1:52
  customer meetings. I'm just curious what's at the
• 1:56
  top of everyone's mind when they're coming to talk to you
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  right now? What's the problem they're
• 2:00
  trying? To solve, I mean there's
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  obviously every customer's got different problems, Yeah, but
• 2:05
  you know, not just attracting customers, but retaining and
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  converting and retaining and become two key areas I'm seeing
• 2:12
  a lot of businesses really focusing in on.
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  That seems to be a common theme across the customers.
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  Do you feel so from a customer journey perspective in terms of
• 2:20
  the communication circle that you must work with your
• 2:23
  customers in? Is it like at the front end like
• 2:25
  when they're registering or is it like literally at any part
• 2:28
  from delivery? In terms of what they're looking
• 2:31
  to solve. Yeah.
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  Yeah, against holistically. So it can depends who you're
• 2:34
  talking to, where they sit in the organisation.
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  But if you're talking with CMO's or heads of customer experience,
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  obviously looking at the holistic experience, yeah.
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  And looking at it not only in how they can attract those
• 2:44
  customers, but again, as I sort of said, retain, convert and
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  retain, looking at how they can increase lifetime value and also
• 2:50
  just to create more richer experience whether it's through
• 2:53
  the digital or physical world. So those you know, the physical
• 2:56
  world, they're looking at how they.
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  Can you guys sit in the middle of, I mean, that's the way I, I
• 2:59
  see how if I'm in a physical store signing up for some
• 3:03
  something that's the connection to digital, which I think you
• 3:08
  guys bridge. I mean, actually it's from
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  pretty much any part of the journey, whether you're signing
• 3:14
  up in store or on your mobile on the train, you know, we, we help
• 3:17
  power companies abilities to help onboard you as a customer.
• 3:21
  We're OTP processes right through to, as I said, you know,
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  taking that data that we're collecting about you and then
• 3:28
  using that to enrich the offers that we make to you again
• 3:32
  through the physical or digital channels.
• 3:34
  Yeah. And, and is there something that
• 3:36
  this year has really surprised you like, you know, when you're
• 3:39
  in a customer meeting or you're like, is there, is there
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  something that's just you weren't, you weren't expecting
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  that? No, why, what, what have I am
• 3:49
  pleasantly surprised. That is just the willingness for
• 3:51
  folks to really take a really close look at AI in a new
• 3:55
  through a new lens. So obviously a I is not new.
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  It's been around for a while, but we're generating AI coming
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  on. It's obviously presenting a
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  whole new host of new possibilities for businesses.
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  So a lot of retailers are now really looking at how can they
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  get predictive and generative AI working together in a way they
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  can enable them to, you know, Dr increased value for the
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  customers, but also help them scale and reduce cost in their
• 4:15
  businesses as well. And then is there any, I mean,
• 4:18
  we're hearing grocery or food, but I, I assume you guys must go
• 4:24
  across all categories, right? There isn't one category that
• 4:27
  stands out more than the. Other, I mean whether you're a
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  pure ecommerce vendor through to a traditional bricks and
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  mortars, we work across all those categories from a retail
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  perspective. Yeah and again each is coming at
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  the same problem from different vantage points.
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  Obviously ecommerce vendors are you know that were pure
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  ecommerce vendors are looking at how they can move into retail
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  spaces and great retail experiences in the retail
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  businesses have been heavily focused on looking at how they
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  can improve their digital experiences.
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  Biggest inhibitor I see typically is not necessarily the
• 4:56
  technology, it's actually operationally organizationally.
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  So these are the types of challenges a lot of our
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  customers we're working with is helping them reframe their way.
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  They think about how they set their businesses up.
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  Because again, if we look at the most organisational structures,
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  they've been created around quite honestly, 19th, 20th
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  century business operating practises, right?
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  So we're really a lot of the, especially the traditional
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  businesses are looking at how they can reimagine the way they
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  organise themselves around their customers and use technology as
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  an enabler to have more meaningful interactions with
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  their customers. But most importantly, to also
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  help their employees deliver on their brand promise.
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  Because this is the other thing I think we often talk about
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  customer experience. Yeah, but what about the
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  employee experience? And again, this is an area that
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  we're having a lot of great conversations with our
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  customers. What does that look like?
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  You know, you sort of run for an example.
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  Ohh, yeah. I mean, good simple example
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  might be if you're a retailer has a call centre capability.
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  Yeah. And obviously those call centre
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  agents are there to feel cause obviously giving them access to
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  the information that enable them to have meaningful, impactful
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  conversations, you know, with the customer as they call in.
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  You know, it really is quite critical.
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  And especially we see that when that isn't the case, you see
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  high churn rates in terms of staff as a result of that.
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  Yeah. So how can you know through the
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  smart use of technology, but also the reimagining of the
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  people process side of the equation is absolutely critical
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  if you're going to drive transformational change.
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  It's not just technology alone as those three elements coming
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  together. Ohh, I love that.
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  Yeah. In terms of the the messaging
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  platforms, what's happened sort of ruled the roost for for a
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  long time, specifically in in Europe.
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  Yeah. I'm just curious here with the
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  plethora of messaging apps that you have.
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  Yeah. Do you, do you see any trends?
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  Are there anything, is there anything happening in that
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  world? There's no one channel.
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  This is the problem. I mean for businesses, this is
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  the reality. Like again I sort of referenced
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  earlier this idea of having we talked about Omni channel for a
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  long time and it's become a very channel sort of or technology
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  specific conversation. What I'm challenging customers
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  to think about is the channel's experience and the reality is
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  you and I will have different channel preferences.
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  Yeah, you might start in through an SMS engagement, I wanna start
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  an e-mail or chat part or I might want to talk to a human.
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  Everyone's different. So this is the real challenge
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  for businesses. The problem they have is that
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  historically those channels are being set up in a much silo,
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  very siloed fashion in the organisation and.
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  Experience, right? Exactly.
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  You can have a different e-mail experience with different.
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  Messaging and that's what the that's where we come in to try
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  to help customers through our customer engagement capabilities
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  deliver a solution that enables you to bring those channels
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  together in a much more integrated fashion so that if
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  I'm serving you, I'm you know I've got a clearer understanding
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  of who you are, which channel you you've come through to us
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  before on what are the issues you've raised and how having
• 7:40
  that aggregated view and enabling me to have a more
• 7:43
  meaningful conversation with you is really at the heart of what
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  we're trying to help I've got. You with this, this is a tech
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  question, so I don't mind if if because I haven't prepped you
• 7:51
  for it. But in terms of the number of
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  channels that you've seen, like what are we?
• 7:56
  Look what we're talking about in terms of like, because you know,
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  I can think about e-mail. I can think about.
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  I'm just curious. It's like, I mean.
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  Is there a number? I don't know if there is an
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  actual number, I haven't got a number that jumped straight out.
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  But the reality is, is that the, the challenge is that the, the
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  channels keep evolving, right And new channels come online.
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  And the real challenge also for businesses, if you think about
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  it, is how do I create content and serve that content up
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  through the right? I know, yeah, the form factor of
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  contents changing. So there's a lot of, as a
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  marketing leader, that's something I'm always thinking
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  about. Right?
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  Yeah. So you've gotta.
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  Yeah. I actually think it's about
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  putting in place the capabilities that enable you to
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  scale up with existing channels, but also potentially bring on
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  new channels as and when they come.
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  OK. And then just jumping little bit
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  back to AI in terms of you talking about your AI
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  capabilities, because I mean, I talk about retail experiences
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  being like a conversation, right?
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  A good conversation, you wanna stay in a bad conversation, you
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  wanna leave. Yeah.
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  Where does the AI bit come in? Like what?
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  What elements of AI would you help me as a retailer?
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  Yeah. I mean, we've got, again,
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  historically we've had a a long history in terms of the segment
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  2 segment capability, CDP with predictive AI.
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  What we're now bringing in is building on those capabilities
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  and the predictive side, but also marrying that with the
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  generative AI capabilities. So actually we demoed a really
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  cool demo just yesterday. So we haven't shown you that.
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  I've got to show you that. OK, lay down where, you know, we
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  can actually deploy, you know, chatbot or or you know, through
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  voice, actually through a voice channel AVR.
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  Yeah, the ability to talk to it, AI, which, OK, very human
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  sounding, actually has an Aussie accent.
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  Alright, you got kitchen eyes in the background.
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  It's you. I'm placing an order from a
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  pizza perspective. I can actually have a
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  conversation with the AI and actually I wouldn't even know
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  that that is an AI that I'm talking to.
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  The cool thing about that is as I'm having that conversation,
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  I'm sharing insights about what my preferences are for pizzas,
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  etcetera. That data is being collected and
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  actually mapped against my profile, so from future.
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  Calls. Yeah, can be brought back into
• 9:59
  the conversation with the AI to say, hey, Nicholas, did you want
• 10:02
  the ham and cheese? Pineapple pizza again?
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  It kills. Me Friday night pizza time
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  pizza. I I need to recommend them to
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  come to you guys because every time you have to put the same
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  well, you order back in exactly to get it.
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  You mentioned the future and as we sort of come to a close on
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  this, where do you see the future going?
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  How, What? What's like the vision of the
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  future? Here, what's the vision of the
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  future? That's a big one.
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  I'm, I'm not a big, I don't like trying to predict the future
• 10:27
  because it's, it's always hard. But I, I do feel that what we're
• 10:30
  going to start to see is businesses reimagine the way
• 10:34
  they organise themselves internally around their
• 10:36
  customers. Again, as I sort of signalled
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  earlier, I think a lot of businesses still very operate,
• 10:41
  still much structured around old world operating model.
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  Yeah. And it does require more
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  innovation in how we actually structure our organisations and
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  how do we empower those individuals have more, you know,
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  have the capabilities to actually drive change inside
• 10:58
  their organisation. So I think the future for retail
• 11:01
  or as well as, yeah, if you think about it, you know, when
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  with the advent of ecommerce, you know, it's how do I bring
• 11:07
  ecommerce and digital channels and integrate them more
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  seamlessly with the retail traditional channels.
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  Again, I see a lot of challenges there where they're still
• 11:14
  operating those in silos. Yeah.
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  And you know, I kind of 100%, yeah.
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  So I think that's the future really innovating the actual
• 11:21
  business models that we use to operate our businesses against I
• 11:24
  think will be a key area of innovation.
• 11:26
  Yeah, I mean, I, I was at Shanghai the week before I came
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  here and the one thing that was so evident there, technology
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  almost sort of dissipates. It's so irrelevant.
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  It's about how you engage the customer for for the life cycle,
• 11:38
  right? How are they gonna?
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  Are you gonna be with them? And it's always changing.
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  That's the other thing. That's the other thing that
• 11:44
  consumer behaviour is always evolving.
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  So there's, there's no silver bullet here like to say there's
• 11:48
  a silver bullet there is. You have to be constantly
• 11:50
  adapting and leaning into that customer experience and employee
• 11:54
  experience and helping. Basically, those two have a
• 11:56
  meaningful engagement. Experience, yeah, it's how much
• 11:59
  data you lose as well. But again, that's a whole
• 12:01
  because just listening, going through like all the data that
• 12:04
  you're capturing about my pizza, how much of that is?
• 12:06
  Lost. Well, that actually really good
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  point. If you're thinking about it from
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  an internal perspective, sort of what I said earlier about
• 12:12
  collapsing the silos. Yeah.
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  The big challenge it faces, most organisations, this idea of dark
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  data are not familiar with that. No, no, no, God no.
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  Coined the term, got data. OK, Dark data, and I love it.
• 12:23
  Most of the data that we have is siloed in our organisations
• 12:26
  based around functions. So this is again, where the
• 12:28
  innovation will come and this is where we're helping.
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  If you look at Twilio segment, we're helping brands unlock that
• 12:34
  dark data across the organisation and bring that
• 12:37
  together so that I can engage you through the right channel
• 12:39
  based on your preference. Right.
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  So that will be where a key part of the innovation comes, not
• 12:43
  just from the technology, but as I said earlier, how we organise
• 12:46
  ourselves internally around that data.
• 12:48
  I think it's going to be important.
• 12:49
  Final question. I've got so many more questions,
• 12:52
  but like integration, is it? Is it difficult?
• 12:54
  Is this like something that's gonna take me like months System
• 12:58
  integrator to how quickly can I get value from?
• 13:00
  This I mean, obviously I I can't give you an exact time without.
• 13:03
  Knowing how big I am, yeah. One of the things that Twilio is
• 13:05
  strong at is we're an API LED company, so assemblies are much,
• 13:10
  much more agile to deploy. What I love about it is we can
• 13:13
  drop our capabilities in on existing legacy applications and
• 13:18
  actually help you extract value out of those quite quickly in
• 13:21
  that respect. But obviously it depends.
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  On the use case. But yeah.
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  I'll give you like final question like fine, do you find
• 13:28
  that e-commerce is driving more than physical?
• 13:31
  Then no, actually, interestingly I think there's not one of.
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  This is the last question. It's a great question and actual
• 13:37
  fact. I think everyone thought as we
• 13:39
  came out of COVID, ecommerce was going to be the primary channel.
• 13:42
  We haven't seen that. What we've seen actually was
• 13:45
  people flow back into physical, but it's the interplay between
• 13:49
  the two that's becoming increasingly.
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  Important. And how you connect those
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  experiences, whether it's in the store or in the digital format,
• 13:56
  and having a seamless experience is absolutely critical.
• 13:59
  Yeah. Fantastic.
• 14:00
  I love it. Thank you so much.
• 14:01
  Pleasure mate, No problem at all.
• 14:02
  Cheers.