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221: Creating Memorable Experiences - The Alpin Haus Journey · Customer Service Revolution | Customer Experience & Employee Experience for Business Leaders

0:58
Hello, revolutionaries, and welcome back to the Experience Revolution podcast.
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I am Dave Murray.
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I am the vice president of consulting for the DeJulius Group.
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I am your host on this particular session of the Experience Revolution podcast.
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And I am super excited to be here this week because I have an amazing guest.
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I'm so excited to share with you Katie Osborne from Alpenhaus.
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Katie, welcome.
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Thank you.
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Thank you very much.
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It's so nice to have you here.
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I have so many questions for you.
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You guys have done such amazing work.
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So Katie is the co-owner and vice president of marketing for Alpenhaus, which is a retailer.
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So Katie, how about if we start here?
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Could you just give our audience a little background on who you guys are, what you do, who your customers are, and then maybe a little background too on why you engaged with the
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DeGiulius Group way back when, 2017.
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and really started this process.
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Okay, well, Alpen House started in 1964 as a ski shop.
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And then through the years, we just kept adding different product lines.
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And now we just say, we sell all things fun.
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So my dad started the business with his childhood friend.
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And then my brothers purchased his shares and became co-owners.
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And then I joined later on as co-owner.
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And so now we sell, we still have our ski shop.
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We actually have three ski shops.
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And then we got into RVs back in the sixties and snowmobiles and boats in the eighties, in-ground and above ground swimming pool, patio, furniture.
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So anything that you need for outdoor fun, hot tubs.
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So it's been 61 years of being a family run business, focusing on creating memories for families and friends.
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the relationships is what really means a lot to us.
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And that's really what drew us to the DeJulius group was Andy happened to see John DeJulius at an event.
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And came back and was so energized and just said, we have to, we have to start working with this team.
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You know, this is, this is going to take us to the next level.
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because our customers are what are most important to us, you know, both internal and external customers.
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And so we, we brought a team of people to see John when he came locally and they all agreed.
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said, yep, we have to, we have to do this.
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And so.
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We signed on and started using your consulting services back in 2017.
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And, you know, started out by just having some in-person workshops a couple of years.
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And then, you know, when we stopped that, we transitioned to me going through the CXEA Academy and have just continued it since.
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So, I mean, I remember back when we started in 2017 and, you know, we had all of our managers and frontline staff and everybody thought.
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hey, this is just the flavor of the week.
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This is just something they found that they want us to do.
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And here we are almost nine years later.
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And it's the flavor of the day.
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This is woven into everything we do now.
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That's fantastic.
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And you know, I reference you guys a lot when I'm out there consulting and working with other clients.
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You guys come up as examples all the time of how to do things well, how to get this done, how to really be successful at this.
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And I always reference the fact that you guys are everything outdoors and everything fun.
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And it's an interesting business you're in because you could almost make the mistake of just saying, okay, we sell so much fun.
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We don't really need to have this.
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customers, right?
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It's the product.
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The product is great.
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People want the product.
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They need the fun.
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And so that should really kind of sell itself.
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But you guys looked at it differently.
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And Andy came back that day and he was super excited and he got you all on board.
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And it really changed the path of your organization because it's such a focus of yours today.
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It is, it is.
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you know, yeah, the product delivers fun, but we're not, we look at it more that we're selling an experience.
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So we want, we want our customers to feel when they walk in our doors or when they talk to somebody on the phone, they're having a great experience.
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We want to be the best part of somebody's day.
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Great.
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I love that.
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Love that.
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So you mentioned that you started this endeavor in 2017.
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That was a long time ago, almost nine years ago now.
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And there was a pandemic jammed in there too, right?
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So for those organizations in retail, that probably wasn't a great time period.
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So you had all those things, right?
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You have the length of time, almost nine years.
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You had a huge interruption of that pandemic.
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Yet here we are today talking about the experience that Alpenhaus delivers.
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And one of the main reasons that I wanted to chat with you about is because I think you, you, your organization has done such an amazing job of maintaining this, maintaining the
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focus, maintaining the conversation, making it part of your culture, making part of your, your fabric as you brought up.
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It's really part of who you are as an organization.
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So
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If you can think back to way back when in 2017 and you had your first couple of workshops and we started to roll some tools out and then you look to today and you go nine years
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later and where you are today, how would you quantify your success?
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What would you chalk it up to where you really put your focus to make sure that you'd be here nine years later still being so successful at your customer experience?
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I will never forget your team, I don't know if it was John or somebody else on your team saying, if you just went up to somebody on your team and said, I want you to provide a
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great customer experience.
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And then you went to somebody else and said, I want you to provide a great customer experience.
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But you give them no direction.
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What are you going to get?
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Because your thoughts on what a great customer experience are going to be different than my thoughts.
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So I know we always equated it to.
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like a sports team, right?
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They're not told, go win the championship.
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They're practicing day in and day out.
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They're training.
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They're working for it every day.
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The success doesn't just happen just by showing up for the World Series.
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It's the same, you look at chefs, can't tell somebody, I can't tell you to go make a gourmet meal, but not give you the ingredients and the recipe.
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So you need...
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You need tools, you need processes, and you need practice.
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And that's what we've done.
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So with your team, we developed the tools.
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We developed our service recovery model, which is heroic.
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developed our non-negotiable hiring standards, which is STARS.
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We developed our always and never's in our service vision and pillars.
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And we continuously train on that.
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Because the other thing is you
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we feel you can't just, it's not a one-time thing.
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We're not just gonna roll out, hey, everybody, here's our always and never's.
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We have to constantly be talking about it.
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So we started with the theme of the week where I send out an email to managers with talking points, with what the topic of conversation is, and then some talking points
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around it.
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And we try to incorporate videos with that.
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So we have videos of our team members showing examples of the topic in action.
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And that helps.
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One quick thing on the videos, because I love your videos, I think it does a couple of great things.
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First off, I imagine your team members want to be a part of that, right?
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They're fun.
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And so I imagine you have no shortage of volunteers that say, hey, I'll be in the next video.
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But one of the things that I really like about your videos is they're almost role play, right?
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They're almost showing what should happen.
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But they typically start with what should not happen, right?
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So.
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This is a lousy experience or this is everyone else.
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This is just the average retailer out there, what it would look like.
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And there's kind of an, that's not us.
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And then it goes into, this is what our Alpenhaus experience looks like.
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And then they actually kind of role play what it should look like.
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So it gives a really great example for those out there in your workforce saying, well, how does this one relate to me?
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Or I don't know if I get this one in my particular role, but then when they see it come to life, then they can internalize it.
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I love those.
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For sure, for sure.
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Like this week, our topic was, are Alpenhaus.
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So we talk about that a lot.
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I mean, we're a very diverse company.
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We don't just sell RVs.
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We're not just a ski shop.
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We do so much.
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And so we talk a lot about how when people hear, oh, you work for Alpenhaus, everybody has something different in mind.
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But they're not thinking, oh, you work for Alpenhaus sales.
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You work for Alpenhaus.
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You work in the office, know, it's Alpen House.
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We are Alpen House.
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So, you know, like our video this week showed, you know, somebody from our marketing team walking through the ski and pool store and a customer coming in and saying, you know, can
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you help me?
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And like you said, the X is when he said, no, that's not my department.
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Right.
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And then the, you know, the what you should do showed him saying, absolutely.
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Let me find somebody that can help you.
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And walking the customer.
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to a specialist.
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Great.
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And you talked about your weekly themes.
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I noticed, because you shared that with us, I've noticed that you kind of categorize it.
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So I know that you are in CX 2025.
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So that's how you branded it for this year.
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So every year you kind of rebrand it, and it's a refocus.
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And now you're going through each week, and you pick a topic for each week.
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I'm curious, how do you keep it fresh?
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You have some people.
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that have been around for all nine of these years and have heard this over and over.
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So how do you keep it fresh so that they're looking at it from maybe a different perspective or they don't feel like they're hearing the same thing over and over?
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Well, mean, the foundation is the same, but there's so many ways to keep it refreshed.
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know, with the videos, we're reshooting them with new scenarios, with new, you know, with different employees.
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So it just kind of creates some engagement and excitement around it.
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But the other thing is there's so many different topics.
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So it's not like, I mean, it might be a year, a year and a half before they're getting the same topic.
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Like we might have one week where the only thing we're talking about is always on stage or.
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negative cues or next week it's going to be Ford.
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So there's no shortage of topics.
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We talk about communication best practices and active listening and things like that.
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So we keep it fresh by just switching it up while also reinforcing the things that we've covered before.
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But we also, we
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We recognize employees when they demonstrate these great customer experience standards that we have.
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We use Viva Engage internally, so there's a lot of shout outs there.
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those peer-to-peer or those managers appear a little bit of both?
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Okay.
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It's definitely both.
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And then, you know, Andy sends out a weekly email to all employees about what's going on in the company.
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And he'll give some shout outs to some great customer stories that he's heard or, you know, and the customer stories can be internal customers, you know, employee to employee
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and how people have helped each other out.
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And then we have our Alpie awards every January where, that's our employees favorite event of the year where.
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We recognize our team for the great things that they've done throughout the year.
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And, you know, it includes the performance awards, you know, like the top salespeople and things like that.
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But we created them as a way to recognize people for demonstrating our core values, our customer experience standards, and employees can nominate each other throughout the year.
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So they do something great and they can...
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go on and nominate them.
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We had somebody, we had an instance where somebody came for propane.
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We sell propane here at our scheme pool store.
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And there were two employees out there with the customer and all of a sudden out of nowhere, just torrential downpour.
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And one of the other employees looked out and saw that, ran out there with a huge golf umbrella to hold it over them while they filled the propane.
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That made it as, you know, it made it on Viva Engage.
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It made it in the team meeting.
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It made it, you know, as an Alpen nomination.
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So we're constantly trying to celebrate those things and that helps reinforce and get people thinking with that mindset of what can I do to help others?
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What can I do to help my teammates?
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What can I do to help our customers?
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And, you know, it all comes back to that, we are Alpenhaus mentality.
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You know, I love the concept of the Alpys and I love that it focuses on all the important aspects of your business, like sales, because that's hugely important.
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We need to recognize our great salespeople, but also service.
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And one of the things that I've seen over the years as a consultant with the DeJulius Group, I love it when an organization begins to focus on service.
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as much as they focus on sales.
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And what I mean by that, we worked with a couple of organizations where when we first started working with them, they would have an annual party, an award ceremony, and you get
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the sales person of the year and they want to trip to Aruba, you get the sales team of the year and they want to trip somewhere, California.
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And then you get to the customer service person of the year and they got a little trophy, right?
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I was like, hey, good job, keep it up.
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But when we started working with them, we see a lot of organizations where they start to see the importance and then
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that customer service person of the year starts to get more more traction.
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And all of a sudden, year or two later, they're equal with the salesperson.
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Because you can make the argument they're just as important, probably responsible for just as much revenue in some cases, as far as retention and some of the other metrics that are
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out there.
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So I love it when organizations see that customer service side of things as important of the other key metrics in their business.
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So let me ask you, Katie, you are a proud graduate of our CXEA program.
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CXEA is held in Cleveland four times a year.
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It's the Customer Experience Executive Academy program.
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We really refer to it as the masters of CX, a master's degree in customer experience, where you have the opportunity to learn our methodology really inside and out so that
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if...
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you're no longer working with us.
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Of course you could always call us and we'd be happy to come out, but you also have the tools now if you wanted to maybe tweak one of the workshops or tweak some of your content,
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you could do it yourself.
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You could put together your own workshop and confidently conduct that and get the results you wanted.
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And I'm curious, how much do you think going through CXEA contributed to the success that you had with the
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the continued implementation that you've had, that focus and how well you've done with that.
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How much do you think that going to CXE on top of just the consultant to help with that process?
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I think it was instrumental.
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I mean, I still, have my four binders and I still reference them all the time.
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And you know, and you were asking how I keep things fresh.
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I do, I go back to those binders.
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I go through, I look at some of the things that your team talked about and try to get new ideas.
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And of course I'm always, you know, reading or listening to the content that you guys put out also.
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But it really helped.
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And it also helped from a presentation standpoint and the questions that were asked, but then also some of the things that your team and also my classmates found really valuable.
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So if I presented something and they're like, wow, that's great, it reinforced the idea that, hey, this is something we should continue doing.
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But it's great resources through that course.
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Yeah.
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And if I remember correctly, when you came through CXCA, you were a little further along in the process with us as far as consulting.
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So you had some workshops already under your belt.
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had some content already rolled out that you were working on reinforcing.
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And I remember in those sessions where you were a part of it a few years back, where you really became kind of the go-to person in that class as far as, what does Katie think?
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Or we have this problem.
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We should go ask Katie.
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And you were almost like a co-professor in some of those sessions with all the great things you had already accomplished.
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It was great.
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And I thought it was a great time for me to go through it because I felt it was helpful to have the tools and then be able to really look at them and see, they effective or what
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else can I do to improve upon them?
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So I thought it was great.
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So I'm gonna throw you a little bit of a curve ball question here.
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Okay.
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And put you on the spot.
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You might have to give this a second or two to think about.
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But of all the things that you did, you went through so many great workshops and created so much great content.
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Obviously, the action statement along with the pillars and the never's and always, the day in the life empathy video, a couple of customer experience cycles, internal communication.
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You have a great internal communication guide that you developed as part of your
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world-class internal culture focus on that workshop.
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and of course, zero risk, right?
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You talked a little bit about some of those guides you have, the playbook on handling difficult conversations and what that looks like.
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So all the things that you have done as part of this process, your focus on the customer experience, just curious, is there one thing that stands out as far as maybe you use the
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most or the thing that really kind of became the foundation of your experience going forward?
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Boy, it's hard.
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I I look over here, have, you know, or you probably can't see it, our internal communication best practices.
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And, you know, the first block on it is have the mentality we are Alpenhaus.
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And so everything comes back to that.
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And I know we've asked the question of our teams time and time again about, you know, what could we do to be better as a team?
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You know, how can we better support each other?
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And one of the things that people always say is internal communication, internal communication.
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So I do think that this grid that we created was great, but then we also, you know, we have the credo cards that we made that have our always and never send one side and on the
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other, has, you know, the core values and our service vision and pillars and, all new employees receive them.
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And we always have them at the ready and we have them framed and in common areas, in employee areas.
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So it is really difficult.
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mean, actually one of the things too is our non-negotiable hiring standards, our STARs.
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So our interview questions are all based on that.
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then our candidates are rated based on that.
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So since you have experience focused interview questions that you're using and you're following your hiring non-negotiable standards, and for those that maybe aren't familiar
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with that, it's really kind of a list, an acronym if you will, of the key points, the must haves that you're looking for in a candidate, right?
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So that we don't let someone slip through the cracks maybe just because they happen to have a great interview, which can happen pretty often.
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They had a great interview, but maybe they're missing one or two of those.
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must-haves as far as what we're looking for in a team member.
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Since you're using those tools, I would imagine that when people join, they're probably pretty excited when you're sharing with them, hey, here's our service vision statement.
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Here's our focus on the experience, because you're finding people that are probably gravitating towards that to begin with, and you're just kind of piling on some more great
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content that they probably are really, interested in.
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We have gotten great feedback from new hires, you know, and even the way we, the way we treat them, you know, so they start and you know, there'll be balloons, there's a welcome
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sign.
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They'll probably get lunch or cake, you know, their first day, you know, we celebrate them joining our team, joining our Alpen House family.
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That's great for so many organizations out there in corporate America.
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The new hire team member experience is an afterthought, right?
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You show up, we give you a, you you sign some paperwork, we give you a manual to leaf through and we'll get to you when we get to you.
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It basically happens in so many organizations.
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And you guys going through world-class leadership focus and going through that workshop really created an onboarding, a new hire process.
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so that the experience is a primary focus, right?
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So they get it from day one, from before day one during the interview process.
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You guys are focused on that experience that you're delivering.
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Yep.
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And it's something that, you know, can always be improved.
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mean, I had a meeting this morning with one of our managers and we were talking about how the new hire experience could be much better and how we need to relook at everything we're
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doing and make some improvements.
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So any of these things, it's not just a set it and forget it or, or set it, reinforce it, but don't tweak it.
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You know, we've, we've changed our always and never, you know, after using them for a couple of years, we made some modifications to things that seemed more.
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more actionable and things that were of more value to us.
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Well, you bring up a good point.
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We always say when we're consulting with a client that nothing is written in stone, right?
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That everything should be reviewed and even potentially changed like you brought up.
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In some cases with the list of never's and always, there might be some things on that always list that we eventually master and maybe it's time to add something different
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because we've created that kind of muscle memory, that habit.
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We're doing it every single time.
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We want to focus on a couple of other things to help improve our experience.
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Or sometimes in something like a
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customer experience cycle playbook, there might be some even small things like terminology that's changed or systems that have changed.
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So it's always worthwhile to go back and take a look and see where we might need to refresh a little bit.
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But a lot of times it's not because there's been changes around us, because we've gotten better, right?
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And so we need kind of a new bar to set, to reach for so that we're not becoming complacent that we're always looking to improve.
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So I had another question for you, Katie.
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We're almost nine years into this.
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And I'm just curious.
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I'm not asking for numbers necessarily, probably more anecdotally.
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What are some of the primary results that you have seen from this initiative over the last nine years?
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What are some of those things that make you proud about the work that you guys have done?
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I would say what makes me proud is how our employees interact with, you know, other team members and with our customers and, their whole thought process around helping others and
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trying to go above and beyond.
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I mean, we had an instance recently, which really speaks to that, where there was a couple from British Columbia that was on their way to go see their grandbaby for the first time.
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And they realized they had a bubble in their class C tire and they looked up, repair facilities and they found us and they walked in without an appointment.
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And so we called the tire place and they had the tires, but they weren't going to be able to get it, get them to us in time for us to be able to get them the couple back on the
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road.
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So one of our service advisors got in her own vehicle and drove to the tire place, got the tires, brought them back.
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and one of our technicians put them on and then they were happily on their way.
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So it's that type of experience that it makes me proud that they're thinking about that.
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Customers getting locked out of their campers off hours and the RV outfitter or salesperson going to the campground on his own time to help them get into their camper.
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you know, employees, team members helping other team members when they see them struggling or helping out at events that aren't in their department.
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So it's just, that's really, that's really what fills my bucket.
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Yeah, that's great.
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You know what?
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As you mentioned that, it made me realize that I made the error I left out of sharing with the audience of where you guys are located.
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Because some people are probably listening to this saying, man, that sounds amazing.
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I want to go there to buy an RV or to buy a pool.
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And so I want to share that.
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And it's probably most relevant to the RV folks out there, because I know firsthand that RV folks travel, right?
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They're not afraid to drive four days to take
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take their rig in for service somewhere if it's the right place to go.
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They'll do it.
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They'll camp along the way.
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They'll camp while they're there for service.
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They'll get in the RV and they'll drive back four days.
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So you guys are in upstate New York, primarily the Albany area.
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But how many locations do you have to date?
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We have four RV locations.
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So we have Amsterdam, New York, which is where the company was founded, and then Saratoga, New York.
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And then we moved one of our locations last summer.
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So now we're in Middletown, New York, which is in Orange County.
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And then we're also in Northern New Jersey and Oak Ridge.
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Great.
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All right.
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That's awesome.
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So for those of you that are hearing this today and saying, would really like to go there and experience this firsthand, there's some options for you.
26:52
And then obviously on the other retail side, you have more locations across upstate New York when it comes to skis and pools and all the other things that we have talked about
27:00
today.
27:01
Yes.
27:01
Yeah.
27:02
We have ski shops in Amsterdam, Clifton Park and Latham.
27:06
And our pool store is in Clifton Park in Amsterdam also.
27:10
And then we have boats and snowmobiles in Amsterdam.
27:13
Wow.
27:14
You really do sell fun.
27:16
is for sure.
27:17
So what's next?
27:21
Right.
27:21
So we're almost into Q4 for 2025.
27:27
So your focus right now is CX 2025.
27:31
Any big plans or big changes when we get into CX 2026?
27:35
Have you started that thought process of what next year is going to look like when it comes to the customer experience?
27:41
I know obviously a lot of it is, as you said,
27:44
You have so much content, a lot of it is just repackaging it and making sure that it's still fresh, but at the basis, it's still kind of the same, right?
27:51
And just repeating that because we all know as adult learners, we really have to hear things over and over and over again to truly internalize it.
27:59
So you're doing that.
28:01
have you given any thought to 2026?
28:03
Do you make any sort of theme changes or do you just kind of keep plugging away and keep rolling along with what's working?
28:10
So we'll talk about that at our strategic planning day.
28:12
So every November, we gather all of our managers at an offsite location.
28:18
And we go through, we review the current year, and then talk about our goals for the following year.
28:25
So for example, one of our strategic initiatives for this current year was for Alpenhaus to be easier to do business with and work for.
28:34
that has been the focus of some of our customer experience topics also.
28:40
So we'll look at, and that's where, that's actually where we are Alpen House was born, was out of our strategic planning day.
28:47
So, you know, we really, talk about it there and then we adapt and set the focus for the following year.
28:55
Awesome.
28:55
I love that.
28:56
So you kind of take stock with what worked, but also look at current challenges, right?
29:00
Because you may have to adapt and maybe it's not the same calendar.
29:04
Maybe you move some things around based on current market trends or issues that we're having with customers, whatever that may be.
29:10
I love that you're kind of reviewing the year that was, taking a look at what worked, what could be better, and then kind of plotting the course ahead from that.
29:19
Yes, and we do shift things around through the year.
29:22
So I'll talk to our leadership team and ask them what's going on in their departments and if there's anything that they really want to cover.
29:29
Because I can set the calendar for the year, but if it's not truly relevant top of mind for what's going on right now, it would be better to have what if this is a period where
29:41
you know, we're having a lot of customer challenges or where we know we're at the busiest and stretched to the, you know, the thinnest or whatever.
29:49
That's the time to review our service recovery model, you know, get everybody in the right mindset so that they're better prepared to handle it.
29:58
So, and then, you know, six components of customer's experience.
30:02
That's another thing that, you know, we'll go through.
30:04
And I like to do that, you know, more towards the fall and winter time, especially come ski season and Christmas shopping and things like that.
30:13
Right.
30:14
Yeah, it's always a good reminder to spend some time looking at the experience through the customer's lens because it is a different look.
30:20
six components and kind of auditing how we're doing with those or negative cues and taking a look back at what negative cues you may have been guilty of in the past and making sure
30:29
they're not creeping back in or taking a look to see if others may have new habits have been developed.
30:35
So such such a great strategy to kind of look at those things and really look at it through that customer's lens.
30:41
Yeah, we always like the negative Q week too, because we do have, you know, we'll have, we asked the team to go through field trips, you know, go check out the other departments,
30:50
see what you can find.
30:50
Because when you see something every day, you know, you become blind to it, right?
30:54
You know, and there are new team members that, you know, they're not as familiar with our standards.
31:00
So they don't think anything about putting up a do not do this type of sign, you know?
31:06
because they did it somewhere else or they saw it somewhere else or they see it as a consumer.
31:10
So they think it's perfectly fine and perfectly normal.
31:12
So Katie, let me close with this question.
31:15
Because as you know, you listen to this podcast, and you see a lot of our blogs and things.
31:21
Our listening audience of this is made up of a couple of different types of listener.
31:26
We have some people like yourself who've been focused on this for some time and are listening for either encouragement or new ideas, maybe just a little inspiration.
31:36
But we also have a lot of people out there
31:38
that maybe have just found us, right?
31:40
Maybe just did a Google search.
31:41
They're trying to focus on their experience.
31:43
Maybe they're a director of a department or maybe an owner of a small business and they're looking at the experience as an opportunity.
31:53
So with you having nine years of this experience, nine years of creating content, rolling that content out, keeping that content alive and doing it all very, very successfully, I
32:05
might add, what advice would you give
32:08
to someone who's listening to this podcast for the first time, or maybe just started to do a Google search on how can I improve my customer experience?
32:16
What would you tell a newbie, because as you know, nine years into it, it's a pretty daunting task when you're first starting, when you're first looking at all these things to
32:25
do.
32:25
So what advice would you give someone who was starting this journey off from the beginning?
32:31
Well, first of all, I would read the books.
32:32
So that's super helpful.
32:34
But one of the things that we realized early on was that we were developing all these great tools and it was a lot.
32:42
mean, it doesn't seem like a big deal, but it's a lot.
32:45
And when everything is new, so that's when these weekly topics really became a thing because the managers said, hey, we need some help.
32:55
We need some support in
32:57
in coaching our team through this.
33:01
instead of just creating all the tools and saying, here you go, take one part of it, focus on that.
33:08
Even the always and never's, when we cover that, I don't just send out the always and never's and say, here, cover this in your meeting.
33:16
We pick one, maybe two if they're kind of related.
33:19
And we only talk about that.
33:22
so that there can be good discussion and it's not an overview.
33:25
There's some meaningful conversation around it.
33:28
So I think the biggest thing is to try not to tackle everything all at once, figure out where your pain points are, start there and just reinforce.
33:39
Yeah, such great advice.
33:42
It makes me think when I'm working with clients, especially if they're newer clients, and we're talking about doing that weekly focus or that weekly huddle and keeping it going,
33:51
one of the pushbacks I hear very often is, we're going to run out of stuff to say.
33:55
But I always kind of like gently remind them that, if you have created an action statement or a service vision and all the things that come with that, and you've done a customer
34:05
experience cycle,
34:07
you've done maybe a zero risk workshop.
34:09
Just there, if you've just done those three, you have content for years, right?
34:15
If you're doing small pieces one at a time, kind of mastering those, building those habits, and then moving on to the next thing.
34:21
As you said, small doses is key.
34:23
And then you layer in some of the other work that you've done, like internal communication tools, leadership guides, and hiring guides.
34:32
Then you really, really have, not only for different audiences, but content for...
34:36
for multiple years and as you do such a great job, refresh it a little bit, repackage it and send it out again because they're gonna have to hear it, look at it in a different
34:45
context and it never goes out of style.
34:49
Yeah, and just to keep reinforcing it.
34:50
You know, like I said before, Andy sends out a weekly email where he reinforces it.
34:55
And in every department meeting, it's asked, you know, are there any core value or customer experience stories, know, top of, top of mind in our one-on-ones with our team
35:03
members?
35:04
How can we improve our customer's experience?
35:06
You know, it has to be, it has to be woven into, you know, your day-to-day, your day-to-day life.
35:12
Yeah, absolutely.
35:14
Katie Osborne is our guest today.
35:16
Katie, thank you so much for joining us.
35:18
Super insightful.
35:20
And it's always so great to hear from someone with your level of success at this initiative.
35:25
Nine years into it and going strong, still having fantastic results, having an employee experience grow out of this that is second to none.
35:35
You've done so much great work.
35:36
I really appreciate your time today.
35:38
Again, for our listeners.
35:40
The next time you are in the capital region of New York state, the greater Albany area, make sure you stop into an Alpen House.
35:46
Check it out firsthand and see what they do because it's an experience like none other in retail, worth the trip from anywhere.
35:53
Katie, thanks so much for joining us.
35:56
Thank you.
35:57
Of course, I was thrilled to have you.
35:59
We'll have you on again if you don't mind because I want to hear what the strategy is for 2026 once you develop that and we'll talk about it some more.
36:07
That would be great.
36:08
Thank you.
36:09
All right, excellent.
36:10
So everyone joining us today, thank you so much for being part of the Experience Revolution podcast.
36:15
We're thrilled to have you today.
36:16
Hopefully you took something out of today's session.
36:18
I'm sure you did, if not a couple of things, and we will see you next time.