In an era where retail continues to evolve at breakneck speed, Office Depot and OfficeMax are setting a new standard for how customer loyalty is earned, nurtured, and scaled. With hybrid work as the new norm and customer expectations growing more complex, Office Depot is meeting the moment with a bold blend of personalized service, smart data use, and culture-driven execution.
At the heart of this transformation is Kevin Moffitt, President of Office Depot's integrated business unit. Moffitt joined Office Depot over 13 years ago, initially focusing on e-commerce and digital strategy. His career spanned financial services, nonprofit, and consulting sectors before settling into retail, where he's spent the last two decades. Today, he oversees both Office Depot’s digital platform and its physical retail operations. Moffitt recently joined Mark Johnson, CEO of Loyalty360, on the Leaders in Customer Loyalty podcast to discuss how the brand is redefining customer engagement, what it means to create emotional loyalty in modern retail, and the strategic priorities driving the future of Office Depot's loyalty programs.
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
As industries face significant challenges, brands
must assess their offerings,customer experience and customer
loyalty programs as well, toensure they're delivering value.
Retail has seen majordisruption, yet some legacy
brands are thriving by adaptingstore formats, rethinking
customer engagement andintroducing unique offerings.
(00:23):
The office supply industry maynot be known for innovation, but
Office Depot and Office Max areleading the charge.
With greeters at the front doorfor personal experience, a
focus on understanding thebusiness customers and experts
readily available in-store,they're setting a new standard.
This stands in stark contrastto other brands where, as we
(00:46):
know, you can throw a bowlingball down the aisle and not hit
anyone.
Today we have Kevin Moffitt,president of Office Depot and
OfficeMax.
He is leading the transformationwithin the organization and
he's joining us again on LeadersCustomer Loyalty series today.
How are you, Kevin?
Nice to have you.
Speaker 2 (01:05):
I'm great Thanks for having me back.
Repeat customer.
Speaker 1 (01:13):
Repeat customer.
It's all about customer loyaltyin the Customer Loyalty Podcast
, so this is great.
For those who may not befamiliar, can you give us a
short introduction to OfficeDepot, office Max?
Speaker 2 (01:20):
Sure, office Depot, office Max, one of the largest
office supplies retailers in theUnited States.
We have a pretty large chain ofstores, as well as
OfficeDepotcom, our digitalplatform, and a whole bunch of
customers who rely on us everyday to help keep their
businesses up and running.
Speaker 1 (01:39):
Absolutely.
You have a very important rolewith the organization, obviously
president of the dual entity.
Can you tell us a little bitmore about your role with the
company and how you got to whereyou are today and maybe even
some roles that kind of led upto your current position?
Speaker 2 (01:57):
Sure, my background is actually in e-commerce and
digital marketing strategy.
I've worked in multipleindustries, from financial
services to nonprofit toconsulting, and then I've been
working in retail for the lastabout 20 years, joined Office
Depot 13 years ago in theire-commerce area, eventually was
(02:19):
asked to move over to our storeteam, and now I have
responsibility for theintegrated Office Depot business
unit that includes oure-commerce and physical store
businesses combined.
Speaker 1 (02:31):
Excellent.
We talked a little bit lasttime about customers, the big
belief that customers arechanging, evolving regarding
their preferences, theirinterests.
When you look at how thecustomers are evolving in the
retail space and theirexpectations as well, how has
Office Depot responded to thatchange, that evolution?
Speaker 2 (02:51):
Yeah, I think one of the most critical trends for us
to navigate over the last fewyears has been the shift in work
styles, right, People workingremotely, people now embracing a
hybrid options whether that'stwo days in the office, three
days in the office, one day inthe office really trying to
(03:14):
create a sense of flexibility toadopt to what works best for
each individual user, and itdoes feel like each business is
also exploring what's going towork best for them.
We've actually seen quite a bitof stability in how customers
are embracing hybrid and remoteworking going forward.
(03:37):
The question at the beginningof the pandemic was well, how
long is this going to last?
And now I think the question isvery different, which is you
know, how can we best optimizefor the future?
Right?
What can we do to help supportour customers and keeping them
efficient and effective whereverthey are, however they're
working?
And you know that's been one ofthe biggest challenges, and for
(03:58):
us it's really meant thinking alot about our furniture, our
workspaces, our technologyproducts, as well as our copy
and print services to supportremote workers who may not have
access to this central corporateheadquarters, where everything
was pretty much taken care offor you, so you had a printer
(04:21):
that was maintained for you.
You had an IT team to supportyour Wi-Fi network.
Now customers are having to domany of those things on their
own, and so really thinkingabout our services business in
particular, and how we'veevolved that to help support
remote and hybrid workers, hasbeen a big, big theme over the
last couple of years.
Speaker 1 (04:40):
Excellent.
So you talked about kind of theevolution.
Obviously, as you mentioned,depending on the job position,
if it's partially remote,completely remote, that's going
to create kind of a disparateset of expectations and needs.
Listening to your customers,understanding kind of what they
have an interest in, but alsobeing able to predict for the
future, is very important.
So you know, how are youlistening to understanding your
(05:02):
customers and how are youplanning for that next gen
future?
Speaker 2 (05:05):
Yeah, our customer feedback is absolutely critical
to us.
So we're extremely fortunatethat the majority of our sales,
the large majority of our sales,come through our loyalty
programs and that gives usaccess to customer information
that is invaluable, right, notonly their order history, but
also their feedback, theirdirect feedback, and we look at
(05:28):
that on a per location basis.
So each store we track our netpromoter score for that store.
We also track our greetingscore, which is customers
telling us whether they werewelcomed into the environment
when they entered the store,welcomed into the environment
when they entered the store.
(05:48):
And you know that greeting isreally important to us because
we are a customer servicefocused retailer.
Many retailers you know theirfocus is on purely on operations
get the product in the back,put it on the shelves, make sure
that it has the right pricetags on it.
You're going to see, if youwalk into one of our stores,
tremendous amount of interaction.
You're going to hear peopletalking, which is not always the
(06:09):
case anymore in more massretail, and we're really proud
of those interactions because wethink that a big part of the
value that we provide ourcustomers is the ability to come
in and talk to someone in theareas that they need help in,
whether that's purchasing aprinter, whether that's creating
a custom sign for an opening.
(06:30):
You know we're opening openhouse or we're just opening a
business for the first time.
You know it could be somethingthat is very complex that we're
creating for them in our copyand print center, which happens
all the time.
Obviously, you need somecommunication in order to do
that, and so I think that realfocus on person to person, human
(06:52):
to human, face to face helps todifferentiate our experience
from just about anybody else.
Speaker 1 (06:58):
Now, I think that's very important too, especially
sometimes you're going to largeretail stores and you can throw
a bowling ball down the aisle,right, and you'll never find
anyone to help you.
And invariably I was with mydaughter this weekend, who goes
to school Bowling Green.
We had to go to a largediscount retailer and wanted
some makeup and cosmetics, right, and they're all behind a lock
and key, but going and findingthat person can be challenging.
(07:19):
And then we went to a homegoods retailer right across the
street and we had to find acouple of screws and nuts and
bolts for her, and the level ofservice there was just
completely dichotomous, right,and that truly drives that
emotive loyalty.
Especially, as you mentioned,the workforce is more complex,
right.
Getting your printers to workand getting technology to work,
even though it's more quoteunquote, easy to use, it can be
(07:40):
very challenging, and beingthere for them is a huge thing.
That drives that emotionalconnection.
Speaker 2 (07:50):
So that's great to hear.
Yeah, and look, we're reallyproud of it, and I understand
every retailer has their ownbusiness model, but for us, if
we're going to support ourcustomers' needs, it's not just
convenience and it's not justprice.
Right, there is a value layeron top of those things that will
encourage a customer tocontinue to come back to us,
versus the nameless, facelessonline alternatives.
(08:11):
Right, you never have aface-to-face interaction with an
online-only retailer, and youknow, while they can provide
products fairly quickly, youknow we also are really proud of
our omni-channel capabilitiesthat allow us to get products to
you even faster than just aboutanybody else.
Right, our in-store pickupprogram continues to be one of
(08:33):
the fastest, if not the fastest,ways to get a product that you
need right away.
And, believe me, when abusiness customer or a parent of
a student who has a schoolproject due the next day, you
can't wait a day or two toreceive your products.
You need them now, and so our20-minute guarantee is something
that we are really, reallyproud of.
Speaker 1 (08:53):
That's awesome.
So you look at the changingcustomers customer loyalty is
very central and the brands whodo a kind of a larger
customer-centric focus of theorganization.
The customer loyalty programand the customer loyalty focus
is very important, but keepingup that with market trends right
, what consumers want?
You talked about how you listenand the program provides ample
(09:14):
feedback in that regard.
How do you keep up technologyor maybe other market trends
around customer loyalty to makethe program so successful?
Speaker 2 (09:22):
Yeah.
So for us, we've really beenfocused in the last couple of
years around our small businesscustomer.
Obviously that's been our coresince we started the business 40
years ago, long before I joinedthe organization proposition to
them that they think willdifferentiate us from other
providers.
We call that program BusinessSelect and we've been very
(09:55):
successful in growing thatprogram over the last year,
really since the last time wespoke, and essentially I think
of that as providing somethingsimilar to an associate discount
type of a program to our smallbusiness customers, who are our
best customers, most profitable,highest sales, highest
(10:16):
frequency, and with this programwe're seeing that their
frequency, their purchasefrequency, is much, much
stronger than our averagecustomer.
So really focusing in on thatspecific customer base and
finding ways that we can servethem better than anybody else
can is a key to our successgoing forward.
Okay.
Speaker 1 (10:36):
And the Office Depot OfficeMax rewards program very
successful.
You've talked a little bit.
Can you tell us about some ofthe recent updates or
enhancements that you've made tothe program since the last time
we spoke?
Speaker 2 (10:47):
Yeah, I mean, that's really one of them is the
business select focus hascertainly been a big priority
for us.
Another piece that we're puttinginto place we're actually
launching in the process rightnow of launching a new loyalty
platform loyalty platformleveraging an external partner
(11:11):
to help standardize and automatethe connections between our
databases, our loyalty rewards,the actual process of generating
the rewards and making thatsimpler, but also encouraging
specific behaviors.
We have a really successfulprogram that we allow customers
to bring in their used inkcartridges, for example, into
our store and to receive rewardsfor those ink cartridges.
Obviously, it's good for theplanet, gives a little bit of
(11:34):
benefit back to the customers,gives them a reason to come into
our stores and interact withour associates, so it's a
win-win-win situation.
But we also give customersrewards for interacting with us.
Giving a review for a product,for example, is one way that we
can do that.
We want to look at other waysthat we can encourage those kind
(11:54):
of engagement activities thataren't purely order driven but
keep a customer connected withus and even advocating for us.
We know that viral marketingword of mouth is critically
important to any brand's successat this point.
So we really want to make surethat we're encouraging our
customers to stay connected withus, hopefully have a great
(12:17):
experience and then tell theirfriends and family about those
experiences as well.
Speaker 1 (12:22):
Absolutely.
There's a big push right nowfor value.
We hear about it often, we havemeetings with brands on a
weekly basis and we talk aboutdifferent topics around customer
loyalty and this whole idea ofvalue value to the program,
value of the brand to thecustomer, value of the customer
to the tiers.
Right, so it's a multifacetedword right now, the dimension of
how it's used.
(12:43):
So when you look at yourloyalty program, you know how
are you ensuring that it remainsvaluable to both the business
customers and the individualshoppers?
Speaker 2 (12:51):
I think one you know there's.
There's so many ways to look atvalue.
As you've said right, value iscertainly a price metric, but
it's also convenience metric andvalue.
Your time has value and we'veheard very clearly from our
business customers especially,that you know I want to make
sure that my time is being usedas effectively as possible.
(13:15):
I want to use my time to getmore customers and get more
sales, versus trying to find theright product for me, and so
having the ability to go in andquickly narrow down, whether
that's through our website orhaving a conversation in store
with an associate, that's anincredibly valuable portion of
(13:35):
the overall program that justabout everything you buy will
qualify for loyalty rewards andin some cases, depending on the
product category, even morerewards than the standard amount
(13:57):
.
But that consistency is alsoimportant.
Customers don't want to try tohave to figure out well, is the
reward going to apply to thisorder, is it going to apply to
this product?
You know they don't want to doa bunch of complicated math and
so just having that simplicityand the consistency where you
know if you shop with us, you'regoing to consistently get that
(14:19):
rewards, it's going to beavailable in your account and
you can use it without any kindof hassle.
I think that's criticallyimportant as well.
Speaker 1 (14:28):
Okay, when you look at the KPIs, what KPIs are you
looking?
Because you just did atransformation in the program
and I actually love learningmore about that.
What was the process like ofeven moving the platform?
Because that's an Augean task,right?
That's a Herculean task.
To get a program, make sureeverything works right.
It doesn't necessarily alwaysgo on time.
The software may not end updoing what you thought it would
be, the consultants may not.
(14:48):
So how did the program move go?
Speaker 2 (14:54):
Yeah, so we're right in the middle of it now.
So it's not live yet.
We're in the production processright now.
But one of the critical aspectsfor us was that we required
this move and I think this isimportant for any technology
platform conversation to beadditive to the customer
experience right.
(15:14):
So we weren't looking to go inand just throw everything out
and start from scratch.
The program has a tremendousnumber of participants who have
expectations that have been setover a long period of time, and
we want continuity.
We want them to know that thisis reliable, essentially for
this to be a non-change for them, with the exception of any new
(15:37):
features and capabilities thatwe want to add on top of the
already existing program.
And that's really what thisplatform allows us to do is more
efficiently connect the dotsbehind the scenes so that we can
power a really great customerexperience that seems completely
seamless to the customerstanding in the aisle talking to
(15:59):
our associate Okay.
Speaker 1 (16:01):
When you look at the move of the platform platform,
what's next for your customerloyalty efforts?
Everyone's talking about AI,from automation to
personalization, you know,bringing on potentially CDPs or
different ways to, you know,content delivery networks.
What's next for you from acustomer loyalty perspective?
Speaker 2 (16:20):
I think for us, it definitely ties in with
personalization, and you knowwe're working not only with our
loyalty platform provider, butalso with our marketing platform
provider and connecting thedots between the two to allow us
to do a far better job ofpersonalizing our outbound
communications, emails and SMS.
(16:42):
We're working right now on amajor project to significantly
increase the amount ofpersonalization capabilities
that we have available to us,and you can imagine we have
incredibly rich data,particularly for our business
customers, on their shoppingpreferences, on their frequency.
So you know what is theirrhythm.
(17:03):
Do they buy ink from us everymonth, every two weeks, every
two months?
Business cards, do they youcards?
Are they on a three monthrepurchase cycle?
So we can start to use thatdata not just to facilitate
their purchase processes thatthey're consistently on, but
also introduce them to newcategories, and that's
(17:24):
absolutely critical as well.
What we know is that ourcustomers and that's absolutely
critical as well what we know isthat our customers, you know
they're creatures of habit.
We are a replenishment-basedbusiness to a large degree and
there's a lot of things that wecan do that not necessarily
every one of our customers isaware of.
So you know, leveragingpersonalization AI to you know
(17:45):
to figure out exactly when isthe right time to introduce some
of these cross-sell messagesinto the conversation.
I think that's a veryinteresting use of the
technology.
Speaker 1 (17:56):
Absolutely.
Last time we spoke, you talkeda little bit about the personal
interactions in SOAR.
You talked about it today justthe greetings right when they
come, and make sure thesegreetings, make sure uh, the
customers are being intended toin a way they want to be tended
to.
Client telling is a big,important piece and, as you said
, you're kind of moving towardspersonalization.
You know, uh, how do you thesepersonal interactions in store?
(18:18):
Uh, how does that evolve?
Uh, can you take some of thedata you mentioned and and use
clienteling to to help, uh, youknow, edify the, the customer in
in, uh, the person, the CSR,whoever is in store to help
personalize?
How are you evolving aroundpersonalization?
Speaker 2 (18:37):
Yeah, there's really two key ways.
So one is that every one of ourassociates is equipped with a
mobile device on their person atall times, right, and so that
gives them amazing access todata that would be the envy of
just about any retail associatejust a few years ago, and I
(18:57):
would say even today.
We are far ahead of the curvein terms of the power that that
tool represents right there inthe hands of the associates so
they can access tremendousinformation about products and
services.
But it also allows us to run anincredibly efficient operation
that then provides the maximumamount of time to the associate
(19:20):
to have those personalinteractions right.
If they're spending all oftheir time trying to figure out
where products are in the store,then they're not going to have
a lot of time left over to havethat.
You know what's the bestprinter for me conversation that
we really want to prioritize.
So increasing the efficiency ofthe associate is critical to
opening up the door to thosemore personalized transactions
(19:43):
that you can have in the aisleand that point of sale that you
can have in in the in the aisleand that and that point of sale.
The other way is that we we havea long heritage now of really
thinking about our storemanagers, our general managers
of our store locations, you know, as the leaders of their small
business and in many cases theirbusiness is not that small
right.
So really thinking about theirbusiness as as their own and
(20:06):
having accountability in thesame way that any small business
owner would for their customerfile, and so our general
managers personally reach out toour top customers in each of
those locations.
They will keep them up to dateon important new promotions or
just ask them if there's any waythat we can serve them, ask
(20:29):
them how their business is going.
You know, just keeping thatpersonal connection alive, even
when they're not in the fourwalls of the stores, is, I think
, a really importantdifferentiator for how we look
at this business.
I mean, you talk aboutclienteling.
To me that is a clientelingmodel, right, and it is
generally, you see it, more in aservices business than in a
(20:51):
retail business.
But we truly believe we are ahybrid of the two and we need to
operate with best practicesfrom both sides, and I think
that's one great example of howwe do just that.
Speaker 1 (21:04):
Last question we have here Actually we have two.
What are two or three thingsyou're most proud of about your
customer loyalty program or,more holistically, your customer
loyalty focus within theorganization?
Speaker 2 (21:13):
Yeah, so you know, recently I am most proud of the
growth of our business selectprogram.
It's been absolutely amazing.
Our store teams have reallyembraced that program and,
frankly, it's helping a lot ofsmall businesses to stay really
efficient in a very challengingeconomic environment that we're
operating in right now.
(21:33):
So I'm really proud of that.
And, from just a largerorganizational perspective, our
culture we call it the 5Cculture here at Office Depot,
with customer in the center inmy mind right, customer being, I
think, the most important ofour five Cs you know our entire
(21:53):
culture is focused on bringingthat customer centricity to life
every single day.
All of our metrics are based ondriving sales supported by
customer engagement.
So again, looking at NPS everyday, looking at greeting scores,
reading all of our customerfeedback and responding to all
(22:14):
of our customer feedback,whether positive or negative, is
really, really important to howwe operate as a business.
Speaker 1 (22:21):
Okay and last question.
We have somewhat self-serving,but what can Loyalty360 do to
help you and your team and thebroader industry with regard to
their customer loyalty efforts?
Are there areas of focus youwould like us if it was more on
or questions you'd like to ask?
Speaker 2 (22:35):
I think the biggest one right now I'm sure is top of
mind, is every company nowcalls themselves an AI company,
inundated with artificialintelligence and advanced uses
of technology that may or maynot be real, right, maybe more
(22:56):
hypothetical or vaporware insome cases than you know.
You could help us, aspractitioners, kind of cut
through the hype and reallyunderstand what are the use
cases that we should be focusedon right now.
What are the key drivers ofclient engagement and who out
there are really using the toolsin a substantial way that you
(23:19):
know can just help us focus onthe things that really will make
a difference.
Speaker 1 (23:25):
Excellent.
And now it's time for thewonderful quick fire questions.
We like to keep these two.
This definitely makes youunique, for sure the one word or
a short phrase response thefirst question what word or
short phrase do you use toinspire others?
Speaker 2 (23:53):
like to say that you know our, our customer.
Treat your customer like youwould, like you would treat a
friend or family member walkinginto the store, and I think that
that really encapsulateseverything.
That is the golden rule of ourmodel of retail.
Speaker 1 (24:03):
Okay, well, what is your least favorite word that
others may use?
Speaker 2 (24:07):
I do not like the word irregardless.
That is a double negative andyou should not use it.
So my old English teacherreally brought that into my
brain many years ago.
Regardless is a word,irregardless is not.
Speaker 1 (24:21):
Excellent, this is an interesting one here.
What is your favorite food?
Speaker 2 (24:25):
I love sushi.
I'm a big sushi connoisseur,and if I had to say something
specific, it would be Marylandcrab cakes as well.
Those two fight for theleaderboard in my mind.
Speaker 1 (24:35):
Okay, what excites you at work?
Speaker 2 (24:39):
Getting to work with an amazing team and an
incredible customer file,touching so many communities
across the country.
Speaker 1 (24:47):
And what do you find tiresome at home or at work?
Speaker 2 (24:51):
Oh gosh tiresome.
I find I get bored reallyeasily, so I constantly need new
challenges.
That's what I.
That's how I would summarize it.
Speaker 1 (25:04):
OK, is there a book that you read that you'd like to
recommend to colleagues?
Speaker 2 (25:14):
Yeah, the one that I just recently recommended to our
team last week, is called A CEO, only Does Three Things, and I
won't spoil it and tell you whatthe three things are.
You'll have to check it out tofind out.
Really, really inspiring book.
Speaker 1 (25:24):
That's great.
I'm a big proponent of thethree thing rule.
Right, what are the three bestthings you can do for the
organization From passion, fromproductivity, from a value-add
perspective?
Other things should go out thewindow, so I've been preaching
that a lot recently.
Three and it's yeah, I lovethat rule.
I'll check that out.
What profession are the oneyou're currently involved in?
Would you maybe like to try?
Speaker 2 (25:45):
Oh my gosh, the list is endless.
I was trained as a documentaryfilmmaker, so we put that in the
list.
Historian, archaeologist,architect Should I keep going on
?
That's good We'll see, we'llsee where life leads.
Speaker 1 (25:59):
Okay, what do you enjoy doing that?
You often don't get the time todo All of those things.
Speaker 2 (26:05):
I really like to travel and I enjoy my time
traveling with family, but itwould always be nice to have a
little more, isn't it?
Speaker 1 (26:13):
Yeah, absolutely, who inspired you to become the
person that you are today?
Speaker 2 (26:18):
My dad.
My dad is a serial entrepreneur.
He has started six differentsmall businesses and really
engaged with the local smalltown that I grew up in and, you
know again, constantly pusheshimself to learn new things and
try new things.
Great role model.
Speaker 1 (26:37):
Excellent and last question how do you want to be
remembered by your friends andfamily?
Speaker 2 (26:42):
Good dad, decent husband, somebody who did cool
stuff, working with cool people.
Speaker 1 (26:48):
Perfect, well, great, well.
Kevin, thank you very much fortaking the time to join us again
on the Leaders of CustomerLoyalty Series.
It was great speaking with youagain.
Just your passion for thecustomer, for the product, for
your in-store associates, youremployees, is great to hear and
we appreciate everything youguys are doing for customer
loyalty and you guys continue toset the bar.
So it was great to hear.
Speaker 2 (27:07):
Really enjoyed the conversation again, so who knows
, maybe we'll keep it going atsome point in the future.
Speaker 1 (27:13):
That's good, perfect.
Well, thank you, everyone else,for taking the time to join us
today in our Leaders in CustomerLoyalty series.
Until next Thursday, have awonderful day.
Speaker 2 (27:20):
Thanks everybody.
As industries face significant challenges, brands
must assess their offerings,customer experience and customer
loyalty programs as well, toensure they're delivering value.
Retail has seen majordisruption, yet some legacy
brands are thriving by adaptingstore formats, rethinking
customer engagement andintroducing unique offerings.
(00:23):
The office supply industry maynot be known for innovation, but
Office Depot and Office Max areleading the charge.
With greeters at the front doorfor personal experience, a
focus on understanding thebusiness customers and experts
readily available in-store,they're setting a new standard.
This stands in stark contrastto other brands where, as we
(00:46):
know, you can throw a bowlingball down the aisle and not hit
anyone.
Today we have Kevin Moffitt,president of Office Depot and
OfficeMax.
He is leading the transformationwithin the organization and
he's joining us again on LeadersCustomer Loyalty series today.
How are you, Kevin?
Nice to have you.
Speaker 2 (01:05):
I'm great Thanks for having me back.
Repeat customer.
Speaker 1 (01:13):
Repeat customer.
It's all about customer loyaltyin the Customer Loyalty Podcast
, so this is great.
For those who may not befamiliar, can you give us a
short introduction to OfficeDepot, office Max?
Speaker 2 (01:20):
Sure, office Depot, office Max, one of the largest
office supplies retailers in theUnited States.
We have a pretty large chain ofstores, as well as
OfficeDepotcom, our digitalplatform, and a whole bunch of
customers who rely on us everyday to help keep their
businesses up and running.
Speaker 1 (01:39):
Absolutely.
You have a very important rolewith the organization, obviously
president of the dual entity.
Can you tell us a little bitmore about your role with the
company and how you got to whereyou are today and maybe even
some roles that kind of led upto your current position?
Speaker 2 (01:57):
Sure, my background is actually in e-commerce and
digital marketing strategy.
I've worked in multipleindustries, from financial
services to nonprofit toconsulting, and then I've been
working in retail for the lastabout 20 years, joined Office
Depot 13 years ago in theire-commerce area, eventually was
(02:19):
asked to move over to our storeteam, and now I have
responsibility for theintegrated Office Depot business
unit that includes oure-commerce and physical store
businesses combined.
Speaker 1 (02:31):
Excellent.
We talked a little bit lasttime about customers, the big
belief that customers arechanging, evolving regarding
their preferences, theirinterests.
When you look at how thecustomers are evolving in the
retail space and theirexpectations as well, how has
Office Depot responded to thatchange, that evolution?
Speaker 2 (02:51):
Yeah, I think one of the most critical trends for us
to navigate over the last fewyears has been the shift in work
styles, right, People workingremotely, people now embracing a
hybrid options whether that'stwo days in the office, three
days in the office, one day inthe office really trying to
(03:14):
create a sense of flexibility toadopt to what works best for
each individual user, and itdoes feel like each business is
also exploring what's going towork best for them.
We've actually seen quite a bitof stability in how customers
are embracing hybrid and remoteworking going forward.
(03:37):
The question at the beginningof the pandemic was well, how
long is this going to last?
And now I think the question isvery different, which is you
know, how can we best optimizefor the future?
Right?
What can we do to help supportour customers and keeping them
efficient and effective whereverthey are, however they're
working?
And you know that's been one ofthe biggest challenges, and for
(03:58):
us it's really meant thinking alot about our furniture, our
workspaces, our technologyproducts, as well as our copy
and print services to supportremote workers who may not have
access to this central corporateheadquarters, where everything
was pretty much taken care offor you, so you had a printer
(04:21):
that was maintained for you.
You had an IT team to supportyour Wi-Fi network.
Now customers are having to domany of those things on their
own, and so really thinkingabout our services business in
particular, and how we'veevolved that to help support
remote and hybrid workers, hasbeen a big, big theme over the
last couple of years.
Speaker 1 (04:40):
Excellent.
So you talked about kind of theevolution.
Obviously, as you mentioned,depending on the job position,
if it's partially remote,completely remote, that's going
to create kind of a disparateset of expectations and needs.
Listening to your customers,understanding kind of what they
have an interest in, but alsobeing able to predict for the
future, is very important.
So you know, how are youlistening to understanding your
(05:02):
customers and how are youplanning for that next gen
future?
Speaker 2 (05:05):
Yeah, our customer feedback is absolutely critical
to us.
So we're extremely fortunatethat the majority of our sales,
the large majority of our sales,come through our loyalty
programs and that gives usaccess to customer information
that is invaluable, right, notonly their order history, but
also their feedback, theirdirect feedback, and we look at
(05:28):
that on a per location basis.
So each store we track our netpromoter score for that store.
We also track our greetingscore, which is customers
telling us whether they werewelcomed into the environment
when they entered the store,welcomed into the environment
when they entered the store.
(05:48):
And you know that greeting isreally important to us because
we are a customer servicefocused retailer.
Many retailers you know theirfocus is on purely on operations
get the product in the back,put it on the shelves, make sure
that it has the right pricetags on it.
You're going to see, if youwalk into one of our stores,
tremendous amount of interaction.
You're going to hear peopletalking, which is not always the
(06:09):
case anymore in more massretail, and we're really proud
of those interactions because wethink that a big part of the
value that we provide ourcustomers is the ability to come
in and talk to someone in theareas that they need help in,
whether that's purchasing aprinter, whether that's creating
a custom sign for an opening.
(06:30):
You know we're opening openhouse or we're just opening a
business for the first time.
You know it could be somethingthat is very complex that we're
creating for them in our copyand print center, which happens
all the time.
Obviously, you need somecommunication in order to do
that, and so I think that realfocus on person to person, human
(06:52):
to human, face to face helps todifferentiate our experience
from just about anybody else.
Speaker 1 (06:58):
Now, I think that's very important too, especially
sometimes you're going to largeretail stores and you can throw
a bowling ball down the aisle,right, and you'll never find
anyone to help you.
And invariably I was with mydaughter this weekend, who goes
to school Bowling Green.
We had to go to a largediscount retailer and wanted
some makeup and cosmetics, right, and they're all behind a lock
and key, but going and findingthat person can be challenging.
(07:19):
And then we went to a homegoods retailer right across the
street and we had to find acouple of screws and nuts and
bolts for her, and the level ofservice there was just
completely dichotomous, right,and that truly drives that
emotive loyalty.
Especially, as you mentioned,the workforce is more complex,
right.
Getting your printers to workand getting technology to work,
even though it's more quoteunquote, easy to use, it can be
(07:40):
very challenging, and beingthere for them is a huge thing.
That drives that emotionalconnection.
Speaker 2 (07:50):
So that's great to hear.
Yeah, and look, we're reallyproud of it, and I understand
every retailer has their ownbusiness model, but for us, if
we're going to support ourcustomers' needs, it's not just
convenience and it's not justprice.
Right, there is a value layeron top of those things that will
encourage a customer tocontinue to come back to us,
versus the nameless, facelessonline alternatives.
(08:11):
Right, you never have aface-to-face interaction with an
online-only retailer, and youknow, while they can provide
products fairly quickly, youknow we also are really proud of
our omni-channel capabilitiesthat allow us to get products to
you even faster than just aboutanybody else.
Right, our in-store pickupprogram continues to be one of
(08:33):
the fastest, if not the fastest,ways to get a product that you
need right away.
And, believe me, when abusiness customer or a parent of
a student who has a schoolproject due the next day, you
can't wait a day or two toreceive your products.
You need them now, and so our20-minute guarantee is something
that we are really, reallyproud of.
Speaker 1 (08:53):
That's awesome.
So you look at the changingcustomers customer loyalty is
very central and the brands whodo a kind of a larger
customer-centric focus of theorganization.
The customer loyalty programand the customer loyalty focus
is very important, but keepingup that with market trends right
, what consumers want?
You talked about how you listenand the program provides ample
(09:14):
feedback in that regard.
How do you keep up technologyor maybe other market trends
around customer loyalty to makethe program so successful?
Speaker 2 (09:22):
Yeah.
So for us, we've really beenfocused in the last couple of
years around our small businesscustomer.
Obviously that's been our coresince we started the business 40
years ago, long before I joinedthe organization proposition to
them that they think willdifferentiate us from other
providers.
We call that program BusinessSelect and we've been very
(09:55):
successful in growing thatprogram over the last year,
really since the last time wespoke, and essentially I think
of that as providing somethingsimilar to an associate discount
type of a program to our smallbusiness customers, who are our
best customers, most profitable,highest sales, highest
(10:16):
frequency, and with this programwe're seeing that their
frequency, their purchasefrequency, is much, much
stronger than our averagecustomer.
So really focusing in on thatspecific customer base and
finding ways that we can servethem better than anybody else
can is a key to our successgoing forward.
Okay.
Speaker 1 (10:36):
And the Office Depot OfficeMax rewards program very
successful.
You've talked a little bit.
Can you tell us about some ofthe recent updates or
enhancements that you've made tothe program since the last time
we spoke?
Speaker 2 (10:47):
Yeah, I mean, that's really one of them is the
business select focus hascertainly been a big priority
for us.
Another piece that we're puttinginto place we're actually
launching in the process rightnow of launching a new loyalty
platform loyalty platformleveraging an external partner
(11:11):
to help standardize and automatethe connections between our
databases, our loyalty rewards,the actual process of generating
the rewards and making thatsimpler, but also encouraging
specific behaviors.
We have a really successfulprogram that we allow customers
to bring in their used inkcartridges, for example, into
our store and to receive rewardsfor those ink cartridges.
Obviously, it's good for theplanet, gives a little bit of
(11:34):
benefit back to the customers,gives them a reason to come into
our stores and interact withour associates, so it's a
win-win-win situation.
But we also give customersrewards for interacting with us.
Giving a review for a product,for example, is one way that we
can do that.
We want to look at other waysthat we can encourage those kind
(11:54):
of engagement activities thataren't purely order driven but
keep a customer connected withus and even advocating for us.
We know that viral marketingword of mouth is critically
important to any brand's successat this point.
So we really want to make surethat we're encouraging our
customers to stay connected withus, hopefully have a great
(12:17):
experience and then tell theirfriends and family about those
experiences as well.
Speaker 1 (12:22):
Absolutely.
There's a big push right nowfor value.
We hear about it often, we havemeetings with brands on a
weekly basis and we talk aboutdifferent topics around customer
loyalty and this whole idea ofvalue value to the program,
value of the brand to thecustomer, value of the customer
to the tiers.
Right, so it's a multifacetedword right now, the dimension of
how it's used.
(12:43):
So when you look at yourloyalty program, you know how
are you ensuring that it remainsvaluable to both the business
customers and the individualshoppers?
Speaker 2 (12:51):
I think one you know there's.
There's so many ways to look atvalue.
As you've said right, value iscertainly a price metric, but
it's also convenience metric andvalue.
Your time has value and we'veheard very clearly from our
business customers especially,that you know I want to make
sure that my time is being usedas effectively as possible.
(13:15):
I want to use my time to getmore customers and get more
sales, versus trying to find theright product for me, and so
having the ability to go in andquickly narrow down, whether
that's through our website orhaving a conversation in store
with an associate, that's anincredibly valuable portion of
(13:35):
the overall program that justabout everything you buy will
qualify for loyalty rewards andin some cases, depending on the
product category, even morerewards than the standard amount
(13:57):
.
But that consistency is alsoimportant.
Customers don't want to try tohave to figure out well, is the
reward going to apply to thisorder, is it going to apply to
this product?
You know they don't want to doa bunch of complicated math and
so just having that simplicityand the consistency where you
know if you shop with us, you'regoing to consistently get that
(14:19):
rewards, it's going to beavailable in your account and
you can use it without any kindof hassle.
I think that's criticallyimportant as well.
Speaker 1 (14:28):
Okay, when you look at the KPIs, what KPIs are you
looking?
Because you just did atransformation in the program
and I actually love learningmore about that.
What was the process like ofeven moving the platform?
Because that's an Augean task,right?
That's a Herculean task.
To get a program, make sureeverything works right.
It doesn't necessarily alwaysgo on time.
The software may not end updoing what you thought it would
be, the consultants may not.
(14:48):
So how did the program move go?
Speaker 2 (14:54):
Yeah, so we're right in the middle of it now.
So it's not live yet.
We're in the production processright now.
But one of the critical aspectsfor us was that we required
this move and I think this isimportant for any technology
platform conversation to beadditive to the customer
experience right.
(15:14):
So we weren't looking to go inand just throw everything out
and start from scratch.
The program has a tremendousnumber of participants who have
expectations that have been setover a long period of time, and
we want continuity.
We want them to know that thisis reliable, essentially for
this to be a non-change for them, with the exception of any new
(15:37):
features and capabilities thatwe want to add on top of the
already existing program.
And that's really what thisplatform allows us to do is more
efficiently connect the dotsbehind the scenes so that we can
power a really great customerexperience that seems completely
seamless to the customerstanding in the aisle talking to
(15:59):
our associate Okay.
Speaker 1 (16:01):
When you look at the move of the platform platform,
what's next for your customerloyalty efforts?
Everyone's talking about AI,from automation to
personalization, you know,bringing on potentially CDPs or
different ways to, you know,content delivery networks.
What's next for you from acustomer loyalty perspective?
Speaker 2 (16:20):
I think for us, it definitely ties in with
personalization, and you knowwe're working not only with our
loyalty platform provider, butalso with our marketing platform
provider and connecting thedots between the two to allow us
to do a far better job ofpersonalizing our outbound
communications, emails and SMS.
(16:42):
We're working right now on amajor project to significantly
increase the amount ofpersonalization capabilities
that we have available to us,and you can imagine we have
incredibly rich data,particularly for our business
customers, on their shoppingpreferences, on their frequency.
So you know what is theirrhythm.
(17:03):
Do they buy ink from us everymonth, every two weeks, every
two months?
Business cards, do they youcards?
Are they on a three monthrepurchase cycle?
So we can start to use thatdata not just to facilitate
their purchase processes thatthey're consistently on, but
also introduce them to newcategories, and that's
(17:24):
absolutely critical as well.
What we know is that ourcustomers and that's absolutely
critical as well what we know isthat our customers, you know
they're creatures of habit.
We are a replenishment-basedbusiness to a large degree and
there's a lot of things that wecan do that not necessarily
every one of our customers isaware of.
So you know, leveragingpersonalization AI to you know
(17:45):
to figure out exactly when isthe right time to introduce some
of these cross-sell messagesinto the conversation.
I think that's a veryinteresting use of the
technology.
Speaker 1 (17:56):
Absolutely.
Last time we spoke, you talkeda little bit about the personal
interactions in SOAR.
You talked about it today justthe greetings right when they
come, and make sure thesegreetings, make sure uh, the
customers are being intended toin a way they want to be tended
to.
Client telling is a big,important piece and, as you said
, you're kind of moving towardspersonalization.
You know, uh, how do you thesepersonal interactions in store?
(18:18):
Uh, how does that evolve?
Uh, can you take some of thedata you mentioned and and use
clienteling to to help, uh, youknow, edify the, the customer in
in, uh, the person, the CSR,whoever is in store to help
personalize?
How are you evolving aroundpersonalization?
Speaker 2 (18:37):
Yeah, there's really two key ways.
So one is that every one of ourassociates is equipped with a
mobile device on their person atall times, right, and so that
gives them amazing access todata that would be the envy of
just about any retail associatejust a few years ago, and I
(18:57):
would say even today.
We are far ahead of the curvein terms of the power that that
tool represents right there inthe hands of the associates so
they can access tremendousinformation about products and
services.
But it also allows us to run anincredibly efficient operation
that then provides the maximumamount of time to the associate
(19:20):
to have those personalinteractions right.
If they're spending all oftheir time trying to figure out
where products are in the store,then they're not going to have
a lot of time left over to havethat.
You know what's the bestprinter for me conversation that
we really want to prioritize.
So increasing the efficiency ofthe associate is critical to
opening up the door to thosemore personalized transactions
(19:43):
that you can have in the aisleand that point of sale that you
can have in in the in the aisleand that and that point of sale.
The other way is that we we havea long heritage now of really
thinking about our storemanagers, our general managers
of our store locations, you know, as the leaders of their small
business and in many cases theirbusiness is not that small
right.
So really thinking about theirbusiness as as their own and
(20:06):
having accountability in thesame way that any small business
owner would for their customerfile, and so our general
managers personally reach out toour top customers in each of
those locations.
They will keep them up to dateon important new promotions or
just ask them if there's any waythat we can serve them, ask
(20:29):
them how their business is going.
You know, just keeping thatpersonal connection alive, even
when they're not in the fourwalls of the stores, is, I think
, a really importantdifferentiator for how we look
at this business.
I mean, you talk aboutclienteling.
To me that is a clientelingmodel, right, and it is
generally, you see it, more in aservices business than in a
(20:51):
retail business.
But we truly believe we are ahybrid of the two and we need to
operate with best practicesfrom both sides, and I think
that's one great example of howwe do just that.
Speaker 1 (21:04):
Last question we have here Actually we have two.
What are two or three thingsyou're most proud of about your
customer loyalty program or,more holistically, your customer
loyalty focus within theorganization?
Speaker 2 (21:13):
Yeah, so you know, recently I am most proud of the
growth of our business selectprogram.
It's been absolutely amazing.
Our store teams have reallyembraced that program and,
frankly, it's helping a lot ofsmall businesses to stay really
efficient in a very challengingeconomic environment that we're
operating in right now.
(21:33):
So I'm really proud of that.
And, from just a largerorganizational perspective, our
culture we call it the 5Cculture here at Office Depot,
with customer in the center inmy mind right, customer being, I
think, the most important ofour five Cs you know our entire
(21:53):
culture is focused on bringingthat customer centricity to life
every single day.
All of our metrics are based ondriving sales supported by
customer engagement.
So again, looking at NPS everyday, looking at greeting scores,
reading all of our customerfeedback and responding to all
(22:14):
of our customer feedback,whether positive or negative, is
really, really important to howwe operate as a business.
Speaker 1 (22:21):
Okay and last question.
We have somewhat self-serving,but what can Loyalty360 do to
help you and your team and thebroader industry with regard to
their customer loyalty efforts?
Are there areas of focus youwould like us if it was more on
or questions you'd like to ask?
Speaker 2 (22:35):
I think the biggest one right now I'm sure is top of
mind, is every company nowcalls themselves an AI company,
inundated with artificialintelligence and advanced uses
of technology that may or maynot be real, right, maybe more
(22:56):
hypothetical or vaporware insome cases than you know.
You could help us, aspractitioners, kind of cut
through the hype and reallyunderstand what are the use
cases that we should be focusedon right now.
What are the key drivers ofclient engagement and who out
there are really using the toolsin a substantial way that you
(23:19):
know can just help us focus onthe things that really will make
a difference.
Speaker 1 (23:25):
Excellent.
And now it's time for thewonderful quick fire questions.
We like to keep these two.
This definitely makes youunique, for sure the one word or
a short phrase response thefirst question what word or
short phrase do you use toinspire others?
Speaker 2 (23:53):
like to say that you know our, our customer.
Treat your customer like youwould, like you would treat a
friend or family member walkinginto the store, and I think that
that really encapsulateseverything.
That is the golden rule of ourmodel of retail.
Speaker 1 (24:03):
Okay, well, what is your least favorite word that
others may use?
Speaker 2 (24:07):
I do not like the word irregardless.
That is a double negative andyou should not use it.
So my old English teacherreally brought that into my
brain many years ago.
Regardless is a word,irregardless is not.
Speaker 1 (24:21):
Excellent, this is an interesting one here.
What is your favorite food?
Speaker 2 (24:25):
I love sushi.
I'm a big sushi connoisseur,and if I had to say something
specific, it would be Marylandcrab cakes as well.
Those two fight for theleaderboard in my mind.
Speaker 1 (24:35):
Okay, what excites you at work?
Speaker 2 (24:39):
Getting to work with an amazing team and an
incredible customer file,touching so many communities
across the country.
Speaker 1 (24:47):
And what do you find tiresome at home or at work?
Speaker 2 (24:51):
Oh gosh tiresome.
I find I get bored reallyeasily, so I constantly need new
challenges.
That's what I.
That's how I would summarize it.
Speaker 1 (25:04):
OK, is there a book that you read that you'd like to
recommend to colleagues?
Speaker 2 (25:14):
Yeah, the one that I just recently recommended to our
team last week, is called A CEO, only Does Three Things, and I
won't spoil it and tell you whatthe three things are.
You'll have to check it out tofind out.
Really, really inspiring book.
Speaker 1 (25:24):
That's great.
I'm a big proponent of thethree thing rule.
Right, what are the three bestthings you can do for the
organization From passion, fromproductivity, from a value-add
perspective?
Other things should go out thewindow, so I've been preaching
that a lot recently.
Three and it's yeah, I lovethat rule.
I'll check that out.
What profession are the oneyou're currently involved in?
Would you maybe like to try?
Speaker 2 (25:45):
Oh my gosh, the list is endless.
I was trained as a documentaryfilmmaker, so we put that in the
list.
Historian, archaeologist,architect Should I keep going on
?
That's good We'll see, we'llsee where life leads.
Speaker 1 (25:59):
Okay, what do you enjoy doing that?
You often don't get the time todo All of those things.
Speaker 2 (26:05):
I really like to travel and I enjoy my time
traveling with family, but itwould always be nice to have a
little more, isn't it?
Speaker 1 (26:13):
Yeah, absolutely, who inspired you to become the
person that you are today?
Speaker 2 (26:18):
My dad.
My dad is a serial entrepreneur.
He has started six differentsmall businesses and really
engaged with the local smalltown that I grew up in and, you
know again, constantly pusheshimself to learn new things and
try new things.
Great role model.
Speaker 1 (26:37):
Excellent and last question how do you want to be
remembered by your friends andfamily?
Speaker 2 (26:42):
Good dad, decent husband, somebody who did cool
stuff, working with cool people.
Speaker 1 (26:48):
Perfect, well, great, well.
Kevin, thank you very much fortaking the time to join us again
on the Leaders of CustomerLoyalty Series.
It was great speaking with youagain.
Just your passion for thecustomer, for the product, for
your in-store associates, youremployees, is great to hear and
we appreciate everything youguys are doing for customer
loyalty and you guys continue toset the bar.
So it was great to hear.
Speaker 2 (27:07):
Really enjoyed the conversation again, so who knows
, maybe we'll keep it going atsome point in the future.
Speaker 1 (27:13):
That's good, perfect.
Well, thank you, everyone else,for taking the time to join us
today in our Leaders in CustomerLoyalty series.
Until next Thursday, have awonderful day.
Speaker 2 (27:20):
Thanks everybody.
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