The local convenience store - the cornerstone of rural America, once a one-stop shop for everything from farming and pet supplies to household goods and homemade apple pies. Fast forward to today where those same stores are providing network connectivity, technology infrastructure, and operating efficiency to bustling farming communities. With integrated omnichannel and personalized shopping experiences, retail continues to be a vibrant hub of community connection
In the latest episode of "The Restless Ones," Jonathan sits with Rob Mills, EVP, Chief Technology, Digital Commerce, and Strategy Officer of Tractor Supply Company. Rob's approach to technology is a practical one, as is his approach to leadership. How can technology enable Tractor Supply to meet customer needs and expectations? How can Tractor Supply create a smooth experience both in stores and behind the scenes? And how can the company contribute to those rural communities that it serves?
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:03):
Hey, everyone, Welcome to the Restless Ones. I'm Jonathan Strickland.
As always, my focus is on exploring the intersection of
technology and business by having conversations with the most forward
thinking leaders. Throughout my career, I've covered everything from massive
parallel processing to advanced robotics, but what truly inspires me
(00:24):
are the stories of innovation and transformation. Today, our guest
is Rob Mills, executive vice president, chief Technology, Digital Commerce,
and Strategy Officer of Tractor Supply Company. Tractor Supply is
a retail chain of stores that caters primarily to rural
and farming communities. Rob's approach to technology is a practical one,
(00:48):
as is his approach to leadership. How can technology enable
Tractor Supply to meet customer needs and expectations, How can
Tractor Supply create a smooth experience both in stores and
behind the scenes, and how can the company contribute to
those rural communities that it serves. But before we get
into all of that, I first wanted to learn more
(01:11):
about Rob's background. Rob, I want to welcome you to
the Restless Ones. I'm really excited to have this conversation today.
Speaker 2 (01:22):
Good morning, Jonathan, I'm very excited to be here, Thank
you very much.
Speaker 1 (01:26):
I always like to get to know my guests before
we start diving into all the leadership decisions, technology decisions,
things of that nature. And when we were looking at
your background, I saw that you have a Bachelor of
Arts and a Masters of Arts. And when I think
of things like Masters of Arts, I don't necessarily think of, oh,
this is going to be a person who's the head
of technology for a massive company.
Speaker 2 (01:49):
Yeah. So I've always had a passion for technology, and
when you look at my background, both from an academic
as well as just my career, I've always tried to
the line between business and tech. The focus of my
degree was really around mobility and mobility solutions and more
of the user interface and really making sure that we're
(02:13):
designing for the complexities that kind of go into a
mobile interaction. So one of the reasons I focus on
an M because I wanted that arts to kind of
the UX design, but also very much supporting it on
the tech side. For me, it's so much more than
just being a techie. It's always wanting to be about
how we're solving business problems with technologies and bringing solutions
(02:38):
to the business that makes us more efficient, drive new businesses,
new insights, and my schooling my background really focused on
both of these areas. It's about the experiences that we've
landed over the years that got me to my role
today and working for some of major companies that invested
in their team members and their employees and just really
(03:00):
had being the opportunity to work with some great mentors
along my career.
Speaker 1 (03:04):
Yeah, we're going to be touching on so much of
what you just talked about, and obviously the entire premise
of the show is to talk about leaders who are
at that intersection of business and technology. And I love
that answer. Also props to you because that's incredible foresight
to be looking into specifically mobility and mobile solutions.
Speaker 2 (03:24):
Well, and I'll rewrite into my early days in retail,
focusing on at the time I was sitting in our
CIO office talking about how mobile and geo fencing was
going to be a game changer to drive a level
of personalization and leveraging content to really influencing how consumer
shops not just in the store, but using the mobile
(03:45):
device anywhere. From pricing to drive a level of personalization
around promotions or even specifications around products.
Speaker 1 (03:53):
Can you kind of walk us through some of the
big transformational changes you've seen in tech throughout your career.
Speaker 2 (03:59):
Boy, there are so many from when you think about
the Internet to automation to mobile technologies that we've already
talked about and the use and really showing an appreciation
of the value of data and the integrity of data.
But let's go back to mobile, because I absolutely believe
fundamentally mobile was at the crux of a lot of things,
(04:23):
especially around the consumer shopping experience. It's a combination of
kind of the devices, the availability of information, the Internet
speed so it's readily available, and how do we integrate
this from a business perspective. And so when I think
about just the access to information on demand is dramatically
(04:47):
change how we live our life on a daily basis.
And it just continues to rapidly change with new technologies
being introduced, which I'm really excited about.
Speaker 1 (04:58):
Yeah, and to your point, the ineration of technologies like
five G and advanced Wi Fi, where we're getting these
incredible throughput and extreme low latency. It's opened up so
many different opportunities across multiple industries. Obviously, we love to
talk about that here on the show. So it sounds
like that's sort of one of the foundational elements for
(05:19):
your strategy, is this access to untethered, high speed Internet
connectivity and that that in turn can power multiple implementations
of technology.
Speaker 2 (05:31):
Yeah, you know, when you think about trector supply mission
and to really focusing on that end to end customer
experience from an omni channel perspective, the advances and wireless
and broadbag technologies has been a huge enabler for us
and what this has done, It's opened up customer access
to our digital channels, especially in rural America. It's allowed
(05:52):
us the ability to move data much more efficiently between
our stores, our cloud, our data centers to to be
able to make more of those real time insights and decisions.
I think back five years ago, it was far more
difficult to move data through these connections, and when we
think about where we're at today, it is very robust,
(06:13):
especially when you think about images, video, deep product content,
and even customer data to really drive a level of
personalization when you're in this store. The advancement of connectivity,
especially in rural America, has been significant over the past
couple of years.
Speaker 1 (06:31):
One thing that really struck me as I was researching
tractor supply, is how the philosophy around this connectivity extends
beyond how does it benefit the business or even how
does it benefit the customer? Because I was reading up
on incidents where you had community dependent upon tractor supply
for that connectivity, especially during the pandemic where you had
(06:54):
students who were dependent upon being able to connect into
tractor supplies systems. To me, that speaks of a phenomenal
business approach to community that goes beyond serving the customer
and is looking at a broader picture. And I just
wanted to say that really impressed me.
Speaker 2 (07:12):
Yeah. So in general at Trector Supply, our core focus
is our team members, and we fundamentally believe do right
by the team member the community, good stuff will occur
for our business. A great example was through COVID when
a lot of schools were going remote. You know, some
of these communities just didn't have infrastructure of high speed bandwidth,
(07:34):
and we were able to move fairly quick and leverage
our infrastructure so people could come in to do their homework, assignments,
or get product information. Once again, if they needed something
to handle on their property or with their animals and
then in addition to that, we actually donated and gave
our team members devices for their children at home to
(07:56):
do their schoolwork. So we thought much more broad not
just about the core infrastructure and how we brought that
to the community, but also for our team members to
make their stress levels at home hopefully a little easier
through the pandemic. I'll feed onto that though, is our
omni channel strategy is really built about our team members
and our customer experience, and one of our key strategy
(08:19):
is to connect that customer and that team member digitally,
bridging kind of what you would see a lot of
retailers from a traditional separation between online and in store.
Our goals to bridge that, and we want to drive
ease and efficiency for both and really think about removing
the frictions on all sides of the transactions. We also
(08:39):
know our customers really depend on products to take care
of their pets, their large animals, their property, and this
means that they need to understand when products are available,
so when they make the commitment to go to a store,
they want to have the knowledgeable team members that can
help them answer questions that sometimes could be technical at nature.
(09:00):
Big picture, this is what gets me so excited about
tech is this is where technology was really able to
facilitate kind of that online and in store experience by
making it easier for our customers to pick up goods
in store, transact with the customers anywhere where they want,
and then more importantly, ensuring that our team members had
(09:22):
the rich product knowledge and training that they needed to
enable kind of meeting that customer need. So it all
ties back to our mission, our purpose, our values, and
technology as the enabler for that.
Speaker 1 (09:34):
Well, Rob, I have to say that was probably one
of the best explanations I've heard for the omnichannel strategy.
Speaker 2 (09:40):
Yeah, and I'll just add when you look at Tractors Supply,
one of the things that makes us very unique is
you know, consider us as a one stop shop for
that real customer. And so when you walk in our store,
you have anywhere from insulated outerwear to everyday t shirts,
to pet food for your companion or household animal to
that farm dog to large animal, down to items to
(10:05):
repair items on your property like fencing, etc. And then
going all the way around being able to service your
land through writers, other type of three point equipment, etc.
So it's this one stop shop. And this is where
bringing technology both to the customer but also to the
(10:25):
team members to allow them rapid information to product content
and knowledge is so critical.
Speaker 1 (10:32):
I'm curious also, I remember reading up about this concept
of connectivity playing a role in fostering customer loyalty at
Tractor Supply. Can you talk a little more about how
that plays a part.
Speaker 2 (10:44):
Yeah, So we've talked quite a bit about some of
the technology changes and things that we've implemented over the years.
On demand information is another example. It's about setting the
expectations for all of us that we could get answers
quickly and easily, and that's what the joy of the
Internet has brought us. If you consistently provide the answers
(11:04):
and responsiveness that you expect, the customers build trust. And
that's something our customers have told us over and over.
They're loyal to us. They come to us as a
knowledgeable retailer that ultimately helps influence what products they either
feed to their animals or products they need to service
(11:25):
or care for their land, and ultimately that builds loyalty.
We think of ourselves very much as a relationship retailer
and not necessarily a transactional retailer.
Speaker 1 (11:35):
I love that idea of being able to tap into
that connectivity to immediately while I'm in the store, look
at perhaps a video showing someone installing or repairing something,
so that I can have an idea of what I'm
in for before I move forward with a purchase. I
grew up in rural Georgia. There are a lot of
(11:56):
places in rural Georgia where connectivity is not something that
you encounter unless you happen to be at a place
that is acting almost like a nexus point. That's again
a transformative experience. It is the sort of thing that
builds customer loyalty because a lot of the things that
people in cities, you know, I live in the city now,
A lot of the things that we take for granted
aren't necessarily as easily accessible when you start getting into
(12:19):
some of those rural communities.
Speaker 2 (12:21):
Absolutely, and some of these purchases are big tickets. There's
a level of complexity, and that's what Tractor supplies about.
It's about being a dependable supplier to our customers that
offer that knowledge and legendary service. And that comes with
not just how we're greeting and interacting and caring for
the customer, but the expertise and the knowledge about the
(12:44):
products and the services that the customers need.
Speaker 1 (12:55):
Let's talk a bit about the actual infrastructure. So we're
looking at these stores, what are the sort of things
that you're actually installing to make this technology work within
those locations?
Speaker 2 (13:07):
Great call out. So first thing, we have some great
partners that have really come together with us to help
to improve just the bandwidth, an availability of speed or
why five access as you can imagine, connectivity to our
stores can be challenging, especially in some of the locations
we are but by using or partnering with these major
(13:28):
service providers, they're able to bring us new capabilities, new
technologies like five G or well looking to six G
as well, and then combining kind of the five G
technology with sd WAN technology out there. And now we're
really thinking about edge computing and what data that we
want to have local or right at the edge from
(13:50):
a cloud perspective, and think about the potential possibilities that
could even be for as we go in the future
with Genai, thinking about on demand training, product information that
will just increase the knowledge of our team members through
additional training, as well as just how we could share
even more content rich with our customers. You know, I
(14:12):
will just say one more last thing related to this.
Since a lot of our stores are both indoors and outdoors,
we don't focus just on the wireless connectivity within our stores,
but our outside the walls of the four stores, but
going outside to our parking lots, our side lots, our
front lots, our garden centers, our big scenarios that we
want to solve for when you think about infrastructure and connectivity.
(14:35):
And a great example that we deployed last year a
mobile app or integrated a capability in our mobile app
where you could do actually propane refills where a team
member of course would refill the pro pain take, but
the transaction would all be completed on a mobile device.
So it saves productivity with the team member and time
with the customer, but also at the same time leveraging
(14:59):
that network inside and outside of the store to really
drive efficiency to the customer experience.
Speaker 1 (15:05):
And I imagine that significantly reduced the amount of time
that it takes to refill a pro Paine tank.
Speaker 2 (15:12):
Yeah, I mean, we've taken that transaction time historically seven
to fifteen minutes down to a minute, less than a minute,
a couple of minutes, depending on demand. Now they can
interact and complete their transaction on a mobile device, which
has been a huge win. They can even notify us
when they're there through geofencing to say hey, I'm pulling
(15:33):
in to actually get their propane tank refilled, and a
team member will meet them at the propane station.
Speaker 1 (15:39):
Fantastic. Yeah, anything that clears away those pain points, I
am completely in favor of. Well. And you mentioned also
that Tractor Supply is already kind of looking ahead and
considering what the impact of six G might be further
down the road. Are there things on your checklist that
perhaps are things that in a few years time you're
(16:01):
going to expect to be commonplace throughout the tractor supply locations.
Speaker 2 (16:06):
Absolutely so. One of the things that we pride ourselves
on at Tractor Supplies. We're always testing and learning new
products for the customer, but we take that philosophy to
our technologies as well. In fact, we have a program
here within the tech area that we call the Hatchery,
and it's about how do we catch and form new
points of view related to new emerging technologies. We're putting
(16:29):
a lot of focus on six G technology, and where
we're looking to use this is in a couple of areas.
One more around computer vision, so being able to proactively
identify and detect when a customer needs some type of assistance,
so we're making that shopping experience easier. And then lastly,
how do you take some of this real time data
(16:51):
that we have a lot of access to around Neighbors
Club to really drive a level of personalized experiences in
the store. And to do that, that's going to require
pushing a lot of data down to the store as
well as bringing a lot of real time data up
to the cloud or to our data center. And this
is where we're leveraging six G to test, looking at
(17:12):
that capacity and that speed to say in how do
we change and improve the customer experience and a team
member experience by being able to deliver more richness, especially
when you think about IoT and some of the new
technologies that are e merging within our four walls of
our store.
Speaker 1 (17:30):
I've talked to a lot of engineers on this show,
and it sounds very much like the engineering perspective of
making sure that you're making choices that ultimately drive a
positive outcome and not just chasing after technology for the
sake of incorporating it and for the sake of saying, oh,
we also have this that doesn't do you any good
(17:52):
unless it drives business outcomes. And so I love hearing
that as well.
Speaker 2 (17:57):
Yeah, when we think about trector Supply, we call it
internally as well externally Life out Here strategy. It is
really focusing about how data delivers true business value and
technologies an enabler for this organization to think differently. And
I could say as much as we put a lot
of focus on technology, emerging technologies, et cetera, every use case,
(18:22):
every discussion that we have, it always starts with what
is the outcome that we're looking to improve or what
are we expecting this, either technology or enhancements to the
data to do for our customers and our team members.
Speaker 1 (18:36):
Excellent. You mentioned also Internet of Things Briefly, I'm curious
if Tractor Supply has any Internet of Things implementations in
their strategy or if there's plans for that in the future,
and if so, how would that manifest.
Speaker 2 (18:50):
Yeah, so IoT is something that we have tested along
the way, not so much integrating it fully into products,
but working with our partner from a product perspective where
it makes sense, but more from an internal perspective as
well as an efficiency looking at new ways to test
capabilities drive a level of innovations. And when I think about,
(19:12):
for example, our distribution centers or mixing centers, We're currently
building out a new DC in Arkansas and this will
be a facility that's going to be leveraging more robotic automation.
For think around the fulfillments of small parcel packages with
e commerce, looking at technology around computer vision and then
(19:35):
integrating it where it makes sense with IoT devices, and
so we don't take a single thread approach. We kind
of look at once again going back to what's the
outcomes that we're looking at, and then leveraging it anywhere
from IoT to infrastructure, innovation to user experience and the
digital connectivity to pull together a more holistic experience.
Speaker 1 (20:01):
I had a couple of questions I wanted to ask
Rob before I could let them go. What is the
best piece of advice you have ever received?
Speaker 2 (20:13):
Listen, Listen, listen, And I take this to heart as
a leader, I truly feel that you're far better off
serving and listening and learning versus just putting a directive
out there. Understand the business, understand the pain points, understand
the thought processes. Educate yourself on new technologies and capabilities,
(20:35):
but spend equal time to learn about your team and
those around you and how they're embracing these technologies or
the challenges that they're facing with these technologies. This knowledge,
in my opinion, just allows you to help them drive
and embrace change and more importantly, drive the empowerment to
move the business forward. So it's very simple. Listen, listen, listen.
Speaker 1 (20:58):
I love it. That's advice I wish I had followed
years and years ago. I think I've only relatively recently
started taking to heart. All right, rob, what keeps you up.
Speaker 2 (21:08):
At night when I think about it from a work
perspective or three components? One are we developing our team
members and growing that team? The second thing is how
are we protecting our data, both our customers and our
team members, the critical assets that is so precious to
our business? So are we doing all the right things?
(21:29):
How are we one step ahead thinking about the bad
things that could occur and being proactive? And then lastly,
are we driving the business value to the organization. It
is absolutely critical that we just don't introduce technology to
introduce technology, but we're introducing it to improve that experience,
(21:49):
drive business value, and have a broader impact on the organization.
So those are the three buckets that I think about
pretty regularly.
Speaker 1 (21:57):
I could see how that could keep you up at night.
There are significant things to think about. And finally, our show,
of course, is called The Restless Ones. I am curious, Rob,
what is your definition of a restless one?
Speaker 2 (22:10):
Yeah? I think about this as well, and for me,
it's someone who just never stops learning. They have a
relentless appetite to just grow themselves and people around them.
They never just accept how something was done in the
past is how it has to be done in the future.
And so it's always about listen, continuous learning, and then
(22:33):
really simply how can we just improve upon our work
and take it to the next level. That is the
benefit of the speed of the technology is changing that
we're able to make rapid changes and just continuously kind
of up the game. So to me, it's very simple, learn, learn,
and listen.
Speaker 1 (22:51):
Listen, Rob, this has been a phenomenal conversation. Thank you
so much for joining us on The Restless Ones.
Speaker 2 (22:59):
Well, thank you. It is a pleasure, and I appreciate
the support and also being a champion to lead technology
into the next generation and to think differently about it
as a business leader.
Speaker 1 (23:15):
Thanks again to Rob Mills of Tractor Supply Company. It's
easy for a lot of us to lean on stereotypical
ideas regarding rural communities and technology. Much of the time,
we might assume the two don't even intersect. But that's
an outdated mode of thinking, and Rob really underscored that today.
I always enjoy speaking with leaders in the retail space.
(23:36):
It's easy for me to understand tech strategies from a
consumer perspective, but even with that advantage, the things Rob
shared surprised me. Using high speed connectivity with low latency
to provide meaningful experiences for team members and customers is
a game changer. It smooths out potential points of frustration
before they could even form, and serving as a connection
(23:58):
point for communities is that's an inspiring thing. Make sure
to look over our back catalog of episodes for more
the Restless Ones, and stay tuned for future episodes where
we speak with the leaders at the intersection of business
and technology. Until next time, I'm Jonathan Strickland,
Hey, everyone, Welcome to the Restless Ones. I'm Jonathan Strickland.
As always, my focus is on exploring the intersection of
technology and business by having conversations with the most forward
thinking leaders. Throughout my career, I've covered everything from massive
parallel processing to advanced robotics, but what truly inspires me
(00:24):
are the stories of innovation and transformation. Today, our guest
is Rob Mills, executive vice president, chief Technology, Digital Commerce,
and Strategy Officer of Tractor Supply Company. Tractor Supply is
a retail chain of stores that caters primarily to rural
and farming communities. Rob's approach to technology is a practical one,
(00:48):
as is his approach to leadership. How can technology enable
Tractor Supply to meet customer needs and expectations, How can
Tractor Supply create a smooth experience both in stores and
behind the scenes, and how can the company contribute to
those rural communities that it serves. But before we get
into all of that, I first wanted to learn more
(01:11):
about Rob's background. Rob, I want to welcome you to
the Restless Ones. I'm really excited to have this conversation today.
Speaker 2 (01:22):
Good morning, Jonathan, I'm very excited to be here, Thank
you very much.
Speaker 1 (01:26):
I always like to get to know my guests before
we start diving into all the leadership decisions, technology decisions,
things of that nature. And when we were looking at
your background, I saw that you have a Bachelor of
Arts and a Masters of Arts. And when I think
of things like Masters of Arts, I don't necessarily think of, oh,
this is going to be a person who's the head
of technology for a massive company.
Speaker 2 (01:49):
Yeah. So I've always had a passion for technology, and
when you look at my background, both from an academic
as well as just my career, I've always tried to
the line between business and tech. The focus of my
degree was really around mobility and mobility solutions and more
of the user interface and really making sure that we're
(02:13):
designing for the complexities that kind of go into a
mobile interaction. So one of the reasons I focus on
an M because I wanted that arts to kind of
the UX design, but also very much supporting it on
the tech side. For me, it's so much more than
just being a techie. It's always wanting to be about
how we're solving business problems with technologies and bringing solutions
(02:38):
to the business that makes us more efficient, drive new businesses,
new insights, and my schooling my background really focused on
both of these areas. It's about the experiences that we've
landed over the years that got me to my role
today and working for some of major companies that invested
in their team members and their employees and just really
(03:00):
had being the opportunity to work with some great mentors
along my career.
Speaker 1 (03:04):
Yeah, we're going to be touching on so much of
what you just talked about, and obviously the entire premise
of the show is to talk about leaders who are
at that intersection of business and technology. And I love
that answer. Also props to you because that's incredible foresight
to be looking into specifically mobility and mobile solutions.
Speaker 2 (03:24):
Well, and I'll rewrite into my early days in retail,
focusing on at the time I was sitting in our
CIO office talking about how mobile and geo fencing was
going to be a game changer to drive a level
of personalization and leveraging content to really influencing how consumer
shops not just in the store, but using the mobile
(03:45):
device anywhere. From pricing to drive a level of personalization
around promotions or even specifications around products.
Speaker 1 (03:53):
Can you kind of walk us through some of the
big transformational changes you've seen in tech throughout your career.
Speaker 2 (03:59):
Boy, there are so many from when you think about
the Internet to automation to mobile technologies that we've already
talked about and the use and really showing an appreciation
of the value of data and the integrity of data.
But let's go back to mobile, because I absolutely believe
fundamentally mobile was at the crux of a lot of things,
(04:23):
especially around the consumer shopping experience. It's a combination of
kind of the devices, the availability of information, the Internet
speed so it's readily available, and how do we integrate
this from a business perspective. And so when I think
about just the access to information on demand is dramatically
(04:47):
change how we live our life on a daily basis.
And it just continues to rapidly change with new technologies
being introduced, which I'm really excited about.
Speaker 1 (04:58):
Yeah, and to your point, the ineration of technologies like
five G and advanced Wi Fi, where we're getting these
incredible throughput and extreme low latency. It's opened up so
many different opportunities across multiple industries. Obviously, we love to
talk about that here on the show. So it sounds
like that's sort of one of the foundational elements for
(05:19):
your strategy, is this access to untethered, high speed Internet
connectivity and that that in turn can power multiple implementations
of technology.
Speaker 2 (05:31):
Yeah, you know, when you think about trector supply mission
and to really focusing on that end to end customer
experience from an omni channel perspective, the advances and wireless
and broadbag technologies has been a huge enabler for us
and what this has done, It's opened up customer access
to our digital channels, especially in rural America. It's allowed
(05:52):
us the ability to move data much more efficiently between
our stores, our cloud, our data centers to to be
able to make more of those real time insights and decisions.
I think back five years ago, it was far more
difficult to move data through these connections, and when we
think about where we're at today, it is very robust,
(06:13):
especially when you think about images, video, deep product content,
and even customer data to really drive a level of
personalization when you're in this store. The advancement of connectivity,
especially in rural America, has been significant over the past
couple of years.
Speaker 1 (06:31):
One thing that really struck me as I was researching
tractor supply, is how the philosophy around this connectivity extends
beyond how does it benefit the business or even how
does it benefit the customer? Because I was reading up
on incidents where you had community dependent upon tractor supply
for that connectivity, especially during the pandemic where you had
(06:54):
students who were dependent upon being able to connect into
tractor supplies systems. To me, that speaks of a phenomenal
business approach to community that goes beyond serving the customer
and is looking at a broader picture. And I just
wanted to say that really impressed me.
Speaker 2 (07:12):
Yeah. So in general at Trector Supply, our core focus
is our team members, and we fundamentally believe do right
by the team member the community, good stuff will occur
for our business. A great example was through COVID when
a lot of schools were going remote. You know, some
of these communities just didn't have infrastructure of high speed bandwidth,
(07:34):
and we were able to move fairly quick and leverage
our infrastructure so people could come in to do their homework, assignments,
or get product information. Once again, if they needed something
to handle on their property or with their animals and
then in addition to that, we actually donated and gave
our team members devices for their children at home to
(07:56):
do their schoolwork. So we thought much more broad not
just about the core infrastructure and how we brought that
to the community, but also for our team members to
make their stress levels at home hopefully a little easier
through the pandemic. I'll feed onto that though, is our
omni channel strategy is really built about our team members
and our customer experience, and one of our key strategy
(08:19):
is to connect that customer and that team member digitally,
bridging kind of what you would see a lot of
retailers from a traditional separation between online and in store.
Our goals to bridge that, and we want to drive
ease and efficiency for both and really think about removing
the frictions on all sides of the transactions. We also
(08:39):
know our customers really depend on products to take care
of their pets, their large animals, their property, and this
means that they need to understand when products are available,
so when they make the commitment to go to a store,
they want to have the knowledgeable team members that can
help them answer questions that sometimes could be technical at nature.
(09:00):
Big picture, this is what gets me so excited about
tech is this is where technology was really able to
facilitate kind of that online and in store experience by
making it easier for our customers to pick up goods
in store, transact with the customers anywhere where they want,
and then more importantly, ensuring that our team members had
(09:22):
the rich product knowledge and training that they needed to
enable kind of meeting that customer need. So it all
ties back to our mission, our purpose, our values, and
technology as the enabler for that.
Speaker 1 (09:34):
Well, Rob, I have to say that was probably one
of the best explanations I've heard for the omnichannel strategy.
Speaker 2 (09:40):
Yeah, and I'll just add when you look at Tractors Supply,
one of the things that makes us very unique is
you know, consider us as a one stop shop for
that real customer. And so when you walk in our store,
you have anywhere from insulated outerwear to everyday t shirts,
to pet food for your companion or household animal to
that farm dog to large animal, down to items to
(10:05):
repair items on your property like fencing, etc. And then
going all the way around being able to service your
land through writers, other type of three point equipment, etc.
So it's this one stop shop. And this is where
bringing technology both to the customer but also to the
(10:25):
team members to allow them rapid information to product content
and knowledge is so critical.
Speaker 1 (10:32):
I'm curious also, I remember reading up about this concept
of connectivity playing a role in fostering customer loyalty at
Tractor Supply. Can you talk a little more about how
that plays a part.
Speaker 2 (10:44):
Yeah, So we've talked quite a bit about some of
the technology changes and things that we've implemented over the years.
On demand information is another example. It's about setting the
expectations for all of us that we could get answers
quickly and easily, and that's what the joy of the
Internet has brought us. If you consistently provide the answers
(11:04):
and responsiveness that you expect, the customers build trust. And
that's something our customers have told us over and over.
They're loyal to us. They come to us as a
knowledgeable retailer that ultimately helps influence what products they either
feed to their animals or products they need to service
(11:25):
or care for their land, and ultimately that builds loyalty.
We think of ourselves very much as a relationship retailer
and not necessarily a transactional retailer.
Speaker 1 (11:35):
I love that idea of being able to tap into
that connectivity to immediately while I'm in the store, look
at perhaps a video showing someone installing or repairing something,
so that I can have an idea of what I'm
in for before I move forward with a purchase. I
grew up in rural Georgia. There are a lot of
(11:56):
places in rural Georgia where connectivity is not something that
you encounter unless you happen to be at a place
that is acting almost like a nexus point. That's again
a transformative experience. It is the sort of thing that
builds customer loyalty because a lot of the things that
people in cities, you know, I live in the city now,
A lot of the things that we take for granted
aren't necessarily as easily accessible when you start getting into
(12:19):
some of those rural communities.
Speaker 2 (12:21):
Absolutely, and some of these purchases are big tickets. There's
a level of complexity, and that's what Tractor supplies about.
It's about being a dependable supplier to our customers that
offer that knowledge and legendary service. And that comes with
not just how we're greeting and interacting and caring for
the customer, but the expertise and the knowledge about the
(12:44):
products and the services that the customers need.
Speaker 1 (12:55):
Let's talk a bit about the actual infrastructure. So we're
looking at these stores, what are the sort of things
that you're actually installing to make this technology work within
those locations?
Speaker 2 (13:07):
Great call out. So first thing, we have some great
partners that have really come together with us to help
to improve just the bandwidth, an availability of speed or
why five access as you can imagine, connectivity to our
stores can be challenging, especially in some of the locations
we are but by using or partnering with these major
(13:28):
service providers, they're able to bring us new capabilities, new
technologies like five G or well looking to six G
as well, and then combining kind of the five G
technology with sd WAN technology out there. And now we're
really thinking about edge computing and what data that we
want to have local or right at the edge from
(13:50):
a cloud perspective, and think about the potential possibilities that
could even be for as we go in the future
with Genai, thinking about on demand training, product information that
will just increase the knowledge of our team members through
additional training, as well as just how we could share
even more content rich with our customers. You know, I
(14:12):
will just say one more last thing related to this.
Since a lot of our stores are both indoors and outdoors,
we don't focus just on the wireless connectivity within our stores,
but our outside the walls of the four stores, but
going outside to our parking lots, our side lots, our
front lots, our garden centers, our big scenarios that we
want to solve for when you think about infrastructure and connectivity.
(14:35):
And a great example that we deployed last year a
mobile app or integrated a capability in our mobile app
where you could do actually propane refills where a team
member of course would refill the pro pain take, but
the transaction would all be completed on a mobile device.
So it saves productivity with the team member and time
with the customer, but also at the same time leveraging
(14:59):
that network inside and outside of the store to really
drive efficiency to the customer experience.
Speaker 1 (15:05):
And I imagine that significantly reduced the amount of time
that it takes to refill a pro Paine tank.
Speaker 2 (15:12):
Yeah, I mean, we've taken that transaction time historically seven
to fifteen minutes down to a minute, less than a minute,
a couple of minutes, depending on demand. Now they can
interact and complete their transaction on a mobile device, which
has been a huge win. They can even notify us
when they're there through geofencing to say hey, I'm pulling
(15:33):
in to actually get their propane tank refilled, and a
team member will meet them at the propane station.
Speaker 1 (15:39):
Fantastic. Yeah, anything that clears away those pain points, I
am completely in favor of. Well. And you mentioned also
that Tractor Supply is already kind of looking ahead and
considering what the impact of six G might be further
down the road. Are there things on your checklist that
perhaps are things that in a few years time you're
(16:01):
going to expect to be commonplace throughout the tractor supply locations.
Speaker 2 (16:06):
Absolutely so. One of the things that we pride ourselves
on at Tractor Supplies. We're always testing and learning new
products for the customer, but we take that philosophy to
our technologies as well. In fact, we have a program
here within the tech area that we call the Hatchery,
and it's about how do we catch and form new
points of view related to new emerging technologies. We're putting
(16:29):
a lot of focus on six G technology, and where
we're looking to use this is in a couple of areas.
One more around computer vision, so being able to proactively
identify and detect when a customer needs some type of assistance,
so we're making that shopping experience easier. And then lastly,
how do you take some of this real time data
(16:51):
that we have a lot of access to around Neighbors
Club to really drive a level of personalized experiences in
the store. And to do that, that's going to require
pushing a lot of data down to the store as
well as bringing a lot of real time data up
to the cloud or to our data center. And this
is where we're leveraging six G to test, looking at
(17:12):
that capacity and that speed to say in how do
we change and improve the customer experience and a team
member experience by being able to deliver more richness, especially
when you think about IoT and some of the new
technologies that are e merging within our four walls of
our store.
Speaker 1 (17:30):
I've talked to a lot of engineers on this show,
and it sounds very much like the engineering perspective of
making sure that you're making choices that ultimately drive a
positive outcome and not just chasing after technology for the
sake of incorporating it and for the sake of saying, oh,
we also have this that doesn't do you any good
(17:52):
unless it drives business outcomes. And so I love hearing
that as well.
Speaker 2 (17:57):
Yeah, when we think about trector Supply, we call it
internally as well externally Life out Here strategy. It is
really focusing about how data delivers true business value and
technologies an enabler for this organization to think differently. And
I could say as much as we put a lot
of focus on technology, emerging technologies, et cetera, every use case,
(18:22):
every discussion that we have, it always starts with what
is the outcome that we're looking to improve or what
are we expecting this, either technology or enhancements to the
data to do for our customers and our team members.
Speaker 1 (18:36):
Excellent. You mentioned also Internet of Things Briefly, I'm curious
if Tractor Supply has any Internet of Things implementations in
their strategy or if there's plans for that in the future,
and if so, how would that manifest.
Speaker 2 (18:50):
Yeah, so IoT is something that we have tested along
the way, not so much integrating it fully into products,
but working with our partner from a product perspective where
it makes sense, but more from an internal perspective as
well as an efficiency looking at new ways to test
capabilities drive a level of innovations. And when I think about,
(19:12):
for example, our distribution centers or mixing centers, We're currently
building out a new DC in Arkansas and this will
be a facility that's going to be leveraging more robotic automation.
For think around the fulfillments of small parcel packages with
e commerce, looking at technology around computer vision and then
(19:35):
integrating it where it makes sense with IoT devices, and
so we don't take a single thread approach. We kind
of look at once again going back to what's the
outcomes that we're looking at, and then leveraging it anywhere
from IoT to infrastructure, innovation to user experience and the
digital connectivity to pull together a more holistic experience.
Speaker 1 (20:01):
I had a couple of questions I wanted to ask
Rob before I could let them go. What is the
best piece of advice you have ever received?
Speaker 2 (20:13):
Listen, Listen, listen, And I take this to heart as
a leader, I truly feel that you're far better off
serving and listening and learning versus just putting a directive
out there. Understand the business, understand the pain points, understand
the thought processes. Educate yourself on new technologies and capabilities,
(20:35):
but spend equal time to learn about your team and
those around you and how they're embracing these technologies or
the challenges that they're facing with these technologies. This knowledge,
in my opinion, just allows you to help them drive
and embrace change and more importantly, drive the empowerment to
move the business forward. So it's very simple. Listen, listen, listen.
Speaker 1 (20:58):
I love it. That's advice I wish I had followed
years and years ago. I think I've only relatively recently
started taking to heart. All right, rob, what keeps you up.
Speaker 2 (21:08):
At night when I think about it from a work
perspective or three components? One are we developing our team
members and growing that team? The second thing is how
are we protecting our data, both our customers and our
team members, the critical assets that is so precious to
our business? So are we doing all the right things?
(21:29):
How are we one step ahead thinking about the bad
things that could occur and being proactive? And then lastly,
are we driving the business value to the organization. It
is absolutely critical that we just don't introduce technology to
introduce technology, but we're introducing it to improve that experience,
(21:49):
drive business value, and have a broader impact on the organization.
So those are the three buckets that I think about
pretty regularly.
Speaker 1 (21:57):
I could see how that could keep you up at night.
There are significant things to think about. And finally, our show,
of course, is called The Restless Ones. I am curious, Rob,
what is your definition of a restless one?
Speaker 2 (22:10):
Yeah? I think about this as well, and for me,
it's someone who just never stops learning. They have a
relentless appetite to just grow themselves and people around them.
They never just accept how something was done in the
past is how it has to be done in the future.
And so it's always about listen, continuous learning, and then
(22:33):
really simply how can we just improve upon our work
and take it to the next level. That is the
benefit of the speed of the technology is changing that
we're able to make rapid changes and just continuously kind
of up the game. So to me, it's very simple, learn, learn,
and listen.
Speaker 1 (22:51):
Listen, Rob, this has been a phenomenal conversation. Thank you
so much for joining us on The Restless Ones.
Speaker 2 (22:59):
Well, thank you. It is a pleasure, and I appreciate
the support and also being a champion to lead technology
into the next generation and to think differently about it
as a business leader.
Speaker 1 (23:15):
Thanks again to Rob Mills of Tractor Supply Company. It's
easy for a lot of us to lean on stereotypical
ideas regarding rural communities and technology. Much of the time,
we might assume the two don't even intersect. But that's
an outdated mode of thinking, and Rob really underscored that today.
I always enjoy speaking with leaders in the retail space.
(23:36):
It's easy for me to understand tech strategies from a
consumer perspective, but even with that advantage, the things Rob
shared surprised me. Using high speed connectivity with low latency
to provide meaningful experiences for team members and customers is
a game changer. It smooths out potential points of frustration
before they could even form, and serving as a connection
(23:58):
point for communities is that's an inspiring thing. Make sure
to look over our back catalog of episodes for more
the Restless Ones, and stay tuned for future episodes where
we speak with the leaders at the intersection of business
and technology. Until next time, I'm Jonathan Strickland,
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