Rizing Evolution – The Future Proofed Enterprise Podcast
Episode 12 Transcript: Future-Proofed Retail – Are You Buying It?
(Editors note: this transcript was machine generated then lightly edited. You can read a summary, watch the original episode on LinkedIn or see the list of all podcast episodes.)
Narrator
Welcome to a fresh perspective on business technology. This is Rizing Evolution – the future proofed enterprise presented by Rizing, a Wipro company. You’ll hear from business and technology innovators who know how to use the latest technologies and business strategies to transform industries and importantly, how these technologies and strategies can be shaped to your business needs in your way and help your organization move in exciting new directions. Now here’s your host and moderator, Bonnie Graham.
Bonnie Graham
Honey bee in the house fading the music. Welcome, welcome, welcome. We are coming to you livestream panelists. I want you to wave hello to LinkedIn please. We’re on the Rizing LLC channel and wave hello to Facebook. I’ve got a couple of pages and wave hello to YouTube as well. This is Rizing Evolution. The future-proofed enterprise and we have a topic that’s near and dear to everybody out there, I don’t know anybody. Right, Robin? Right, Randy, right there. I know. Anybody who doesn’t do retail, we buy things in person online, omnichannel, whatever it means to you. We’re all out there somewhere. But what’s going on in the industry and I’ll just give you a couple of items of breaking news that are not in the show prep Sherry, but I had to tell this Macy’s, Macy’s announced they’re closing 150 stores. They’re going to be downsizing. They’re going to be closing 100 stores in the next few years. They’ll have only to 350 and they’re going to be promoting their Bloomingdale’s and blue Mercury brands because they feel luxury has outperformed the Macy’s brand. Ohh everybody say Oh my Oh my, Oh my, and they’re going to be opening 30 smaller stores in the next two years and they say smaller stores outside of. Malls, fewer employees, less inventory. Oh my, Oh my, oh, my. And at the same time, another news maker hit the news today. Wendy’s is going to start Uber surge pricing in 2025. So Robin, if you want a burger on your way home or whatever you got, I’m just picking on you. Cause we both have red hair. So I’m sorry. You will have to put up with if you’re there at rush hour, wherever you are at noon, rush hour, lunch rush. More drivetime rush hour on the way home, you might pay more and the label, the big digital board will tell you what the pricing is, so those are two of the retail notifications now we’re talking about changes in technology because that’s what we do here in Rizing Evolution. And Robin and Randy don’t know that Sherry has been familiar with us for a while. I go to ChatGTP and ask it to help me write a monologue, an intro for the show. Oh, Robin, I have a little verse about you. And one about you, Randy. And one about you Sherry. I know Robin’s excited. So let me read this. And when I call your name, just wave hello. Here we are. So welcome, esteemed audience to Rizing evolutions grand stage with host Bonnie Dee and her scarlet mic poised to engage as I am today. They dive into AI machine learning’s bright cheer in retail ERP’s, future transformation draws near. As thought leaders, Robin Barrett, Wilson wave hello, Randy Evans and Sherri Anne Meyer unite exploring the retail landscape insights take flight. Here we go. Optimizing operations first hand experiences they will share on future proofed retail. Is it buyer beware? Robin Barrett Wilson fashion industries insider so keen. Now, as Director of Customer Engagement, she is seen Robin welcome. Randy Evans, retail leader with decades of lore in SAP Americas retail, he sees innovation in store. That was a pun. Randy, Sherry Ann Meyer tech influencer who’s paid her dues, managed a store for women’s clothes and also sold fashionable shoes. There you go. I wrote that one. Robin, what do you think?
Robin Barrett Wilson
I loved it. I think it’s great. I think it’s great.
Bonnie Graham
Thank you. Thank you.
Robin Barrett Wilson
What tell you, though, Bonnie, I don’t know if you saw Women’s Wear Daily said more stores were opened in the past two years than ever before. I know Macy’s is closing, but others are opening stores, which is pretty fabulous in my opinion. I happen to love stores.
Bonnie Graham
I think your opinion is the opinion of all of us is we want to see commerce, we want to have places to go and buy. And even though one of the retail gurus says people are buying more because they think they can, it’s because we want to. We want to. Retail is very emotional. I find OK, so let’s go around the panel. Robin, I just gave a half a sentence about you, although it was in verse and I’m glad you enjoyed it. Robin, I’m putting you on speaker view. Would you please do us the honor of introducing yourself? Take about your three minutes. Condense everything you’ve ever done in your entire professional life and retail Robin into three minutes and just Robin Barrett Wilson, welcome. Go ahead.
Robin Barrett Wilson
Thank you, Bonnie. Appreciate it. Great to be here. So I’ve been in the industry since I graduated college, right, went to school for fashion. I ran stores for Victoria’s Secret. I was a buyer for Macy’s and I also worked for VF Corporation and I was a rep for them and I had the JCPenney account that was the 1st ten years of my career. I did a lot of technology for about 18 years, always working with fashion and retailers. Then in 2015, I opened my own women’s clothing brand. I did that for four years. I had a few stores in an online business and I produced a line of clothing and I have a wholesale business. In 2019 didn’t quite work out the way I hoped, but that’s OK. It was a PhD in retail and I went to SAP as the fashion industry advisor, working very closely with Randy and I recently stepped into the role here at Rizing in September of last year and I work with fashion customers to ensure that they get everything they can out of their implementation of their technology.
Bonnie Graham
Thank you very much, Robin. You certainly know your way around retail styles and everything as the changes come as Fashion Week comes and goes, it’s interesting to see how this industry keeps up with the whims with the whiles, with the supply chain, issues with the fashion statements, with who wants to wear what, and do we all really want to look like the models on the? Anyway, well, maybe I used to, but not anymore.
Sherry Meyer
They tell us we have to look. Like that they do look like.
Bonnie Graham
That’s true. It’s very, very much dictating the trends. They want us to buy and it’s like, hey, I do radio four times a week and it’s always a black dress. And sometimes I change the color of the rose. And this is my uniform. And Robin understands cause she’s got a beautiful black dress on too. Randy is wearing black today. Sherry, what’s wrong anyway? Sherry, we love your beige. We love your beige. Randy Evans, it’s time for you to introduce yourself. Randy and I go way back. And Robin, I was at SAP for nine years. I started SAP Game Changers radio there and turned it into 48 series over the years and we did have a show on retail. For about a year I did a read, so I probably crossed paths with you, maybe sort of kind of. So thank you, Randy Evans, let’s catch up. Tell everybody what you’ve been up to and why you’re here. Randy, welcome.
Randy Evans
So Randy Evans, thank you, Bonnie. It’s good to be back. My role at SAP is the title is Industry Advisor, Food, Retail. So I focus on all of all food actually, food, drugs and convenience. The three commodities, food, alcohol and drugs. I got the best job in the industry. I’ve been with SAP for 17 years. Before that I worked in the grocery business. I worked for a grocer in South Texas called HEB was there for 10 years and before that I was with American stores, which is the parent of jewel in Chicago, Acme Philadelphia, and the former Lucky stores in California. One of my claims to fame is the first 25 years of my career I was in the meat department, so I am a meat guy. I’m proof that a meat guy can spell SAP if they spot me the S and the A. So I like to tell people my role is I’m the translator. I speak Japanese and I speak grocery so I can sit in a room and listen to a business executive tell me what they’re doing and understand it and then translate that into what our solutions would do to facilitate that work. So it’s a great, it’s a great job. Love it.
Bonnie Graham
Wonderful. Good to love your job. And Randy, have you seen talking about food retail? Have you seen a lot of changes in your industry in the food industry?
Randy Evans
It’s been spectacular on the COVID now the COVID nation that hit a lot of industries was a boom for food retailers. People found that they had to eat, they couldn’t go to Wendy’s because Wendy’s was closed, and so they had to go to the grocery store. So it’s been a been a wild ride. And I guess the industry fact that it’s there was lots of speculation at the time that that the online or the digital food. Shopping would hit 35-45% of the volume, and while for a period of time during COVID kind of hinted at that since the lockdown ended and we’re back to normal. People are back in the store, so it’s not nearly as volumous as was anticipated, but the shopper, whether they’re in store or online, is now digital. And that’s a key distinction. It’s not necessarily a store or not store conversation. It’s how they are shopping and that’s digital.
Bonnie Graham
Randy, I want you to come and talk to the lion on here. I’m living in a kind of a peninsula or an island in Tellico in Tennessee, near Knoxville, and we have a local store. It’s the only one on this island. You have to go across the bridge past Tellico Dam to get to Lenoir City, where every shopping center and everybody’s there. So I went to the store manager. I’ve befriended her. And I said, why can’t I order online and just pick up at the door? Why can’t I do that? She said we’ve been talking about it for a long time and we don’t have this space to pack and store the groceries for you to pick them up, she said. I’m working with a lunch area for the employees thinking of turning it into a pickup area where you could order online and then just pull up your car and do that. And I can’t believe in this day and age that this store and Instacart won’t even go there. It’s very strange. There’s no way you either go there in person. However, this is a store, Randy, where if it’s teeming pouring rain, I mean torrential, and you can’t even get out to the parking lot. They will loan you a huge golf course style umbrella and they will let you walk to your car and back your car up to a protected area next to the main door. Robin and the manager and her staff will come out and you flip the trunk of your car and the staff will come out and they will put your groceries in the car for you. Take back the umbrella and you can drive home. That happened too. Is that something, Robin? That’s full service customer service. Absolutely unbelievable. So I’m willing to forgive them for not having online ordering and it’s like, I actually like the story. Thank you Randy very much and I appreciate your multiple views of retail. We do have Sherry Anne Meyer, you’re here so often now. Sherry, I ran the frequent guestOmeter it’s an ometer. Robin, it’s a meter, but it’s an ometer. And I ran it. And Sherry was on last week, and she was on two weeks before and three weeks before.
Sherry Meyer
Hello.
Bonnie Graham
So I’ve estimated that there are 13.9732 people in the world who don’t remember you, Sherry. And that’s a Tusk Tusk on them. Really. Their loss.
Sherry Meyer
I like to pop in.
Bonnie Graham
I know you do. So why don’t you refresh their memory and tell them who you are. And let’s talk a little bit about your early retail experience at a contemporary women’s clothing store with shoes. I want to know about the shoes Sherry reintroduced yourself. And welcome back. Go ahead.
Sherry Meyer
Hey, everybody. I’m Sherri Anne Meyer and my job is with Rizing as a Head of Corporate Communications. And I was an HR tech leader. And before I came here but my very one of my very first jobs was working in retail at a place called Pants Place Plus. It was a division of Canadian furs if any of you remember that. And it was very contemporary women’s style clothing at the time. And I just always wanted to work in a store like that, it was great fun. I loved it. I loved doing those styles. I loved coaching the sales associates, putting models live models out in front of the store. Or I really did love it until the hours got miserable and then I moved into HR and then further on to was drafted to implement SAP in 1998 to 1989 and the rest is history. But my family are also essential workers as we call them during the COVID experience. So I have that experience too with two of my daughters work in Laila, which is a retail can if you’re on the East Coast, you know it’s a convenience store and gas station and another one works in and my boyfriend works in a grocery stores, so they were all working all through COVID.
Bonnie Graham
So much for the retail keeping on going and keeping the economy going and people getting what we need. Except did anybody know that during the during the height of the pandemic or the depth of the pandemic I should say when we couldn’t get toilet paper we couldn’t get paper towels? We couldn’t get paper goods. We also couldn’t get yeast for baking bread.
Sherry Meyer
That’s true, yes.
Bonnie Graham
And I remember cause I wanted to bake some kala and I needed a couple packets of yeast and I found out I think it was $100 for three packets, probably like a black market buy on Amazon, if you could even find it. I didn’t. I wasn’t aware of that. Nobody was talking about it. But bread bakers were having a problem getting the raw materials that made the bubbles.
Sherry Meyer
I mean, everybody was baking bread. My daughter started making sourdough bread during that time too, and I was doing it too, but I failed miserably. I’m best behind a keyboard, I think.
Bonnie Graham
I’ll send you my father’s recipe. It’s not it’s fail proof and it’s lovely. You can braid it any way you want. So thank you all for the intros. Now we’re going to go to the part of the show where my guests have graciously sent me a fictional quote from a character in a movie or TV show or a song lyric that has nothing to do with retail ERP and AI or machine learning. And they’re going to relate it to the topic. So Robin Barrett, Wilson, in your own words, here’s the quote you sent me. Let me give a little background. The quote is from Catherine Parker, played by the lovely Sigourney Weaver. The movie Working Girl, 1988 American romantic comedy drama film and Robin when they classify a movie as a comedy drama it gets hyphenated, but if they classify it as anything to do with sci-fi or adventure, there are no hyphens. I’ve always been amazed by that. I don’t understand it. Working girl, directed by the Wonderful Mike Nichols and it stars Harrison Ford, Sigourney Weaver, Melanie Griffith, Alec Baldwin, Joan Cusack, Phillip Bosco, Jack Grenier, Zach Grenier. And Nora Dunn, is there a better cast than that? An ambitious secretary from Staten Island, and that’s supposed to have some kind of clout that she’s from? I’m a New Yorker, and oh, my God, she’s from. That now and over she takes over her boss’s role because her boss goes skiing and breaks her leg and the secretary who attends business light school has great ideas. She pitches an idea and the boss takes credit. So Melanie Griffith says I’m gonna wear your clothes. I’m gonna cut my hair, and I’m gonna go ahead with the idea anyway. Working Girl, fabulous movie. And here we go. The quote Robin has picked is “You don’t get anywhere in this world by waiting for what you want to come to you, you make it happen.” I love that Robin. What does that have to do with our topic retail – the future?
Robin Barrett Wilson
Yeah. You know, I think what it really has to do with is, you know, don’t wait around, right? It’s you got to take some risks and especially when you know the topic of AI, I think there have been lots of retailers who have been sitting on the sidelines kind of watching and waiting to see what are the big ones going to do. You know, what’s Walmart going to do? What’s Nike going to do? And they are doing things right. But for me it’s don’t want to wait and watch, right. So go ahead and jump in. Jump in maybe small and start to test it out, but don’t wait, because if you do you’re going to miss the wave. So that’s really what I thought about when I pick that. I will also tell you that no matter what date is, what time, if that movie is on television, I stop everything to watch it. It is my all time favorite and she yeah, she is the classic mean boss.
Sherry Meyer
Mine too.
Robin Barrett Wilson
Right. We’ve all had one. So yeah, when you said that, you know you were looking for a quote. I’m like, I know.
Bonnie Graham
Ohh.
Robin Barrett Wilson
It will be. I’m going to so. I think it’s really good. It does relate to the whole subject of don’t wait, jump right in. Let’s give it a shot. Let’s try it out. You can be cautious about the risk, but you should take a risk. Don’t wait around Robin. Who makes it happen? I make it happen.
Bonnie Graham
That’s right. There you go. There you go. Is that the one where Melanie Griffith is vacuuming? She’s in the. Remember that scene. We won’t go into.
Robin Barrett Wilson
Yes, it is. Yeah. Yeah. It’s drinking the whiskey at the big event. Yeah.
Bonnie Graham
Randy might remember that scene, too, by the way. Robin, are you finding laggards in retail today about experimenting, or shall we say, dipping their toe in the water of AI machine learning? Are there companies that are saying, Oh no, we couldn’t possibly. Ohh that’s way too. Oh no. Are there? Are they all you’re recommending? Grab the bull by the horns and go ahead with it. Are there?
Robin Barrett Wilson
There are lions, there are lighters. I think it’s pretty typical that we always do find laggards, but you know, they are those who are winning are grabbing the bull by the horns and they’re they are embracing and they are trying to figure out what does the business plan look like? How do insert this into the customer experience? How do insert this into the supply chain? How do I make jobs better and easier? You know, how do I refine process? These you know and we all know that anybody who’s implementing SAP has AI machine learning embedded. So you know by focusing on those business processes to really streamline what’s going on day in and day out, your employees then can focus on the things that give them the big ROI they’re not focusing on these mundane tasks, things that that, you know just should happen automatically and get through the process, they’re able to really shift their work and focus on things that can going to bring it, bring the organization the biggest bang for the buck.
Bonnie Graham
Thank you. Good overview. Appreciate that. I had to ask about the movie too. I remember it well. Let’s go to Randy Evans. Randy, you’ve picked a quote from Brain Damage from English rock band Pink Floyd’s 1973 album The Dark Side of the Moon. The song Brain Damage was sung by Roger Waters with harmonies by David Gilmour. Sang it on tour. It was in memory, basically of the Pink Floyd frontman Syd Barrett, who had a problem with mental instability, and he went downhill over the years and there were lines in the song that referred to his decline. So here’s the quote Randy has picked and I can’t wait to hear how you’re related to rehab, Randy. This is going to be interesting. The lunatic is in the hall. The paper holds their folding faces to the floor in every day. The paperboy brings more talk about the dark side. Ohh my Randy, I’ll let you get away with this. So tell us what the hell this. I’m sorry, what the heck this. Means to our topic.
Randy Evans
So first of all, I am the biggest, most avid Pink Floyd fan in the world. And when you anybody asked me for a quote, I have a plethora of things to choose from. I chose this one because. I, Robin and I have done a lot of work together over the past. I don’t know. Five years, Robin, four years and the last year and a half.
Robin Barrett Wilson
Yeah, yeah, exactly. Yes.
Randy Evans
Has been an onslaught of AL. Call it borderline lunacy. I have been to many conferences, NRF.
Robin Barrett Wilson
That’s true.
Randy Evans
FMI midwinter. Maria supply. I mean, you named the conference and at those conferences, I sit in the audience and listen to somebody telling everybody that they need to embrace AI machine learning. And I come back and talk to business leaders. And I can just hear the conversation before I get there and the conversation is I was at this conference and we need to get some AI. And they come to us and go. What do you know, what is your opinion? And I try not to say SAP, but I’ll say at this time what is SAP’s view of AI and we smile knowingly and say. Funny you ask. Our solutions have had AI embedded in them for 20 years. We pride ourselves in bringing automation to business processes, allowing technology to facilitate business processes in ways that would allow Robin just mentioned it the user to focus on the things that are bringing value to the company. And not on the things that that they shouldn’t be thinking about. I had a business leader when I was at HEB that would say that at HEB we think too much about breathing. And we need to stop thinking about breathing and start thinking about ways for us to do things that are going to make an impact on our business and that quote basically says this is not new. If you guys remember back about five or seven or ten years ago the big data conversation was brought in, and in fact I mentioned it and some of the things we talked about. We had a CEO of one of our companies come back to the folks and say we need some big data. And because somebody told them at a conference that that they needed some big data. So my message is this is not new. Artificial intelligence is spectacular, but it’s not an easy button and you’ve got to make sense out of it. It’s gotta bring business value. So if you’re not taking that context, then you’re laying on the side of, well, maybe this is too strong, but I’ll say it anyway because we’re supposed to be controversial here. You’re on your border. You’re a borderline lunatic. If you haven’t figured that.
Bonnie Graham
Nice tie in to the song lyric, Randy. That’s perfectly fine. Fine. Thank you. Very interesting. Yes. Use cases. What is it going to do for the business? Why should we? Why shouldn’t we? How will we? When will we? Could we should we and wow, we wish we’d done it sooner. Right. That’s what probably is going to happen with a lot of companies. Thank you very much, Randy. Interesting quote, Sherry Anne. Oh, my goodness. Sherry Anne sent a quote from Finch, played by Tom Hanks. I had trouble. I read the whole synopsis of the movie. I’m confused and Jeff is played by Caleb Landry Jones and Goodyear is a dog played by Seamus Finch is a 2021 post-apocalyptic survival film, an aging man named Finch is a survivor and now nearly uninhabitable Earth. That means no shopping, Robin who builds and teaches a robot to take care of his dog when he dies. 15 years have passed since a massive solar flare destroyed the ozone layer, turning earth into a largely uninhabitable wasteland. Ravaged by extreme weather, scorched by the sun’s ultraviolet rays. I won’t even give you the numbers of the of the temperature. Finch lives alone with his dog Goodyear, and a helper robot named Dewey in an underground Saint Louis or Saint Louis lab once owned by the company he worked for, he ventures out, wearing a protective suit to search for supplies, and he’s dying from an ailment we don’t know what it is. He’s creating a more advanced humanoid robot companion to take care of his dog. Once he’s gone and he’s feeding volumes of encyclopedia knowledge, including a manual for training and caring for dogs, and they named the robot Jeff. So here’s the line Cherry has picked. Finch says. Hey, hey, hey, what’s going on with all this fuss? And Jeff the robot says I have to do a robot voice. Sherry do. I have to should I try?
Sherry Meyer
Like to I think you could.
Bonnie Graham
OK, I thought our communications might improve if I learn to talk dog. I have made a comparative analysis. I believe I have isolated several robot phonetic units. However, it seems to have misunderstood everything. I have said. What is the matter with it, Finch? I hope that was good and Finch says it’s not an it, it’s a him. There’s no such thing as dog talk. Ohh my you made me do it. I’ve never done computer voices.
Sherry Meyer
That was good. That was good.
Bonnie Graham
Thank you. Thank you. So, go ahead, unravel this for us, please.
Sherry Meyer
Well, I if you ever get a chance to watch the movie, it’s on Apple TV. I do love the movie at the second time through was better. First of all, I think it’s really interesting that Finch is the humans name and Jeff is the robots name. But what to me it’s like you can’t ignore the fundamentals like he built this thing. He built this robot and he had to teach it. Every single thing, including like it’s a dog and it is not an it you know every nuance of language and human capability. He was teaching this dog and what’s really interesting is that by the end of the movie The Robot and he are friends, he builds such a human relationship with this robot, so I won’t tell you any more, cause I don’t want to spoil the whole thing, but data has to be very accurate. What you’re putting into it. We’ve talked a lot about this in the last couple of shows, Bonnie, garbage in, garbage out. And yeah, Finch had all the time in the world. To train that robot, he was the only man left.
Bonnie Graham
Said there’s nothing. There is no such thing as dog talk. So what we’re talking about today is such a thing as AI retail talk. Ah, I had to say something profound. I had to say something profound. Robin is the host. They expect me to do that. So thank you all for the quotes. Very, very interesting, very provocative. All three of you. We’re going to go to the round table now. You’ve each sent me four discussion statements. I’m picking one from each of you. We’re going to spark a round table here. So, Robin, I have. The one I picked for you into the chat for you privately. I’m going to read it. It’s short and sweet. Robin’s going to unpack it for about three minutes, and again, I’m not clocking you. It’s just approximate and then I’m going to go to Randy. Randy. Agree or disagree with Robin when she does the unpacking? And then Sherry agree or disagree with either Robin or Randy, that’s up to you, Randy. Then I’ll pick one of your statements. I’ll put it in the chat for you. You’ll unpack it and then Sherry. Sitting next to you, Robin will be third on that one. Then we’ll do one for Sherry. That’s how it works. So here we go.
Sherry Meyer
Too many instructions, Bonnie.
Bonnie Graham
I know, I know. I just want. Well, we didn’t have a prep call for Robin and Randy, so I wanted to know what they got themselves into. And so far, they’re seem to be enjoying it. So here we go. Robin said the following. One is the accuracy of AI algorithms in predicting customer preferences and trends. Although AI can analyze vast amounts of data, it struggles to capture the nuances of individual tastes. Oh yes, Robin, unpack please.
Robin Barrett Wilson
Yeah. I think that it’s really jumping off of what, sorry, Anne just said right it and the quote. We can have lots of data. We can analyze all this data, but if we really don’t understand what the customer really wants and really have a good understanding of what their likes and dislikes are and how do they want to be spoken to, what does personalization mean for the individual? You know, all of those things will be lost. Because we’ll continue to have hundreds of emails in our inbox and we’ll continue to delete them because we won’t open to them because they won’t be relative, right? It won’t be relevant and we won’t have a commitment to the brand. So you know, brands still have to take a step back. They still have to think about what’s their three legged stool? What do they mean to their customer? What are they trying to deliver to the customer? What kind of value are they delivering? What kind of designs are they delivering? I mean we can pick any kind of part of the vertical, right, whether? We’re talking about food, whether we’re talking about fashion, whatever it is we’re talking about, DIY. Who’s the customer? What do they want? How do they want to be spoken to and what does it mean to have a personalized experience? And if you don’t have that personalized experience, it will get lost and you’ll lose that customer. And I think that’s something that COVID showed us. You know, if it wasn’t on the shelf. I mean, I can go right to even toilet paper Charmin is my favorite. It wasn’t on the shelf. I tried another brand. Ohh lo and behold, I like that brand. I stayed with it right, because now it was reliable. Now it was something that I could be sure that was there for me. So I continue. To go towards it. You know, so. Customers are definitely moving in and out of what brand they want to be loyal to, and so you know, again, garbage in, garbage out. We’ve talked about that already. We’ve stepped on it a little bit. I think that if brands really want to capture that customer, keep that customer be true to the customer, they have to be sure that they’re personalizing. There is customer trust that that customer has a lot of connection with the brand understands how’s my data being used when? When is it being used? How are they using it? Is it safe? Is it secure? And then are you personalizing your offers and your communications to me? And that’s really what it means. That’s really what I’m when I think about. Adopting technology, we cannot lose the whole the whole point that customers are humans and we have to think about what they really want.
Bonnie Graham
We want to be known, we want our values.
Robin Barrett Wilson
To you know, known. Seen heard. Valued. Exactly, yeah.
Bonnie Graham
Yes, exactly, Randy, let’s jump in here. Anything you want to say to?
Randy Evans
So. Yeah, I agree 100% with what Robin had to say. I’ll ask your question if you compare an exceptional customer experience that you had in store whatever with an exceptional experience you had with a chat bot.
Robin Barrett Wilson
Yeah, probably doesn’t.
Bonnie Graham
Oh, don’t get us started. Yes, Randy.
Robin Barrett Wilson
You’re right, Randy, there’s no doubt about it. It’s very true.
Randy Evans
So. I think companies have a tendency to say I’ll sit there on the side of accounting. And they go to the chatbot and they go wow, there’s no, there’s no personal, there’s no healthcare, there’s no vacation time. They, like, calculate all the value in the context of an accounting view of business and not in a view of a personalized experience. Not that you should. You should always try to eliminate administrative tasks from the content that people have, but never ever at the experience of the customers relationship with you and we can go, we can infuse chat bots and everything that we do cause that chat bots are the epitome of AI. And we’re going to lose the customer because it is a terrible experience.
Bonnie Graham
Yep, I don’t think anybody’s disagreeing with that. Sherry, join us with comment on Robin and or Randy, go ahead.
Sherry Meyer
Uh, well, both very interesting commentary and I agree the data is everything. But I think what we’re seeing is in fact my own behavior would dictate that I don’t respond as much to AI recommendations and I’m not sure why that is personally for me, but I know for others. It’s really they feel like it’s an intrusion of their privacy. Like maybe Alexa was listening to me. There’s a lot of talk about that now. So how much is my data protected is very, very, very concerning to a lot of people today. And also that, you know, to your point, Robin, sometimes it’s just not really personalized what is personalized thing. And here’s another thing, especially when I’m looking at fashion I probably don’t want you to suggest things for me. I want to see something new, so I’m not sure that suggestions via I based on what I’ve done in the past are always worthwhile. It does work for me, however, for my grocery shopping.
Bonnie Graham
There you go, Robin. You started this good, good opening statement. Robin, anything you want to say, back to your co-panelists.
Robin Barrett Wilson
Interesting, yeah. Yeah. You know, I think I think we’re all on the same page with this. I you know I will say and I think both of both of my panelists co-panelists will agree. There are times when a check box does make sense.
Sherry Meyer
Yes.
Robin Barrett Wilson
There are times when AI does make a lot of sense. I think, as Randy just pointed out, when it goes too far is when the experience starts to drop off. So you know, I don’t think the three of us are sitting here saying don’t adopt AI and don’t adopt chat bots. We’re not saying that what we’re saying is there’s got to be a mechanism in there where that chat bot understands, once you get to the second question or the third question now need a human right now? Something needs to kick off that that human being steps in so that that experience now becomes elevated because there are times where, you know a chat box is OK with me. I’ll ask one or two questions and off I go. And I’ve gotten my answer. But can it identify when it’s time for that human being to step in? When does it then become a time where, OK, I’ve got to get personalized? I have to talk to Robin with another person to get to the answer that she needs and that that’s really what I’m advocating for is. Let’s use the technology in in a thoughtful way so that it enhances what’s happening with the customer experience and doesn’t hinder it.
Sherry Meyer
Yeah, I think, Robin, if you build like the upfront use the best data you can and insights you can from qualitative research build that into the chat. But up front, the faster you can get the answer for the person, the faster you can identify that I’m going to lose this person if I don’t get a human on the line right now. That’s the key, right?
Robin Barrett Wilson
Absolutely 100.
Bonnie Graham
How many times have any of you either of you, any of you asked a chatbot on a on a website? Are you a human? Is there a human there? Cause I do that on a regular basis. Are you human? Now I’m Bob. I’m your chat man. I’m all I yes. I’m Mary happy to talk to you. Let me know what I can do for you. I’m curious because sometimes it’s almost good enough to be a human, but I want the human if it’s not so, I would ask the question anyway. And that was a great starter. Let’s go around the table, Randy. I picked statement #3 for you. Let’s get the word ERP in there. You say in the new world of retail foundational technologies like ERP must deliver concepts like AI and machine learning as a part of what they do without any user interaction. Randy, can you pick this apart for us? Please unpack.
Randy Evans
Yeah. So that’s the concept here is if you think about foundational technologies, master data costing, retail pricing, we’re and I’m taking this from a retail context because there’s different, you know needs in other industries. But from a retail perspective, there’s this list of things that you have to have to run your business. It’s foundational. In order to deliver that in a pristine precise, I’ll say perfect way, there are concepts that allowing a technology AI/ML to do that work for you. There’s incredible benefit. Because those technologies aren’t going to compromise. The concept of data integrity. Sherry mentioned data right? The basically AI/ML. They’re all algorithms, right? They’re math problems. They’re a string of written code that executes. And their inputs are always data elements, whether it’s a, a number or a context, but they’re all things that have to be perfect for that algorithm to generate the right answer. And if you hand a piece of paper to a clerk or another clerk, and you ask them to fill it out with the master data needed to build an item in a retail system they would get 80% of it right, 90% of it, right. And there would be 10% of it that there would be potential errors. But because it’s a human, they’re going to put those errors into the system. And when those errors get into the system, the algorithm is then immediately wrong. Now, maybe not 100% wrong or 80% wrong or whatever, but there’s some element of it being wrong, and once that element is wrong then it just exacerbates itself and the next thing you know, you have an invalid or a less than great experience. Either predict if or whatever you but you got bad master data, so asking machine learning and artificial intelligence to manage administrative tasks like the input and management of master data in an ERP system, that’s a yes. We need to do that. Because they’re not going to compromise those algorithms do what they’re told. They don’t have that. They do what they’re told. That’s what they do. But what it also does is it says I’m going to lift my people up from administrative work, let the technology do the work, and then I’m going to ask them to work on the value side of the equation. I’m going to ask them to find additional value in the context of what I’m trying to accomplish, what does an ERP system do? It tracks inventory, it tracks master data, it facilitates the rest of the business processes. I want my people focusing on those. Things and not thinking about things like master data, right? So the way it works, it can’t be a button. I’m not going to go press my AI button and get something and I know ChatGPT, Bonnie you mentioned at the beginning. You had it right stuff. Here’s the problem with ChatGTP. It’ll make crap up for. It won’t tell you the truth and you won’t know it’s not telling you the truth because it’s wading through eons and eons of data. Inaccurate data on the Internet. So the point really is make the ask the technology. You know, like the old Robert F Kennedy or John F Kennedy statement. That’s not what you, you know, I’ve been screwed up. But you know what I’m talking about. Ask the technology to do for you what it should. And let your people do what they should and don’t confuse the two.
Bonnie Graham
Thank you. Interesting Sherry commentary, go ahead.
Sherry Meyer
I think lots of comments, but the comment about you know moving on to value added jobs is something we hear a lot and something I think most employees are probably a little suspicious. But if you look back to an old, old example, the automated teller machines, we thought there weren’t going to be tellers, but what it did was there are more and more branches of banks open now, and those tellers I don’t even think we should call them tellers anymore because they’re selling services and more products for the banks. They’re not just giving out cash, so that is one example. We’re definitely that the job changed over time and we still have that position. The question in my mind always is did the pay raise for those tellers since they’re doing higher value-added work? That would be an interesting study.
Bonnie Graham
Something to be studied? Yes. Robin, join us. OK, Randy. Yeah.
Randy Evans
Well the I’m the way I thought a lot about this because I work in the grocery industry, which is notorious for trying to eliminate labor at the expense of customer service. Right. And the way you know the way to look at that that, that value-added job is there becomes a value-added expectation. Right. Instead of, we’re going to pay you 10 bucks an hour to go key items into the new system. We’re going to pay you $15.00 an hour and the dollars per hour is not the point. It’s the relative nature of that work and with an expectation that the content you produce is much more valuable. With me and I correlate real benefits to it.
Sherry Meyer
Right.
Bonnie Graham
Thank you, Robin. Robin, join us. What?
Robin Barrett Wilson
Yeah, so, so, you know, fashion has a little bit of a different twist, right? So when you think about fashion, it’s about the brand, right? So you identify with the brand. So you know if you want to be what the brand emulates. So a chat bot has a really hard time representing a brand.
Bonnie Graham
Do you think?
Robin Barrett Wilson
Right. I mean, how do you walk into the store? And hey, I’m gonna interact with a hologram. Well, how does that represent my brand? So, you know, I think fashion has to be really careful. They have to be very, very careful because as those of us who identify with the brand we love a brand, we represent that brand our employees represent the brand. When you go into a store and you work with a sales associate in a store, that person you probably want to dress like them. You want to wear the same outfits you want to represent and brown. But they look good in it. That’s true. If they look good, you can also get a few ideas of what not to wear. Right? So, but I think, you know, it’s really hard for AI to take the place of what does a brand really mean.
Sherry Meyer
If they look good in it, if they look good in it.
Robin Barrett Wilson
And so, you know, I also think just like grocery and the food business, fashion does try to figure out how to eliminate roles and try to save money. And how can they run a store with the fewest amount of people, all those types of things. And so. You know, again, you still have the same you have the same challenge. And you know, I continue to go back to COVID, but it really did set the stage when everybody, you know, the big resignation, right. So brands were really scrambling. How do I get somebody in the store who’s going to represent who we are to it and really do a great job with it. So, you know, I think it’s important for brands to think about who they are and how they represent themselves. And what does that mean. For them, and when they’re in front of the customer.
Bonnie Graham
Thank you. I’ve always wondered about the trickle down from the mission statement of the company, the branding down to that checker, that clerk, that door greeter, that floor person who’s doing inventory. How polite are they to customers? How well informed are they? How willing to help? And it’s always interesting to me to see that they didn’t. Many of them just don’t get that they represent the brand. They’re the face. They’re the hands. They’re the voice of the brand. And nobody told them that. Wow, I have to do this job. I wish I was doing something else. I wish I wasn’t here. And that gets expressed to the customer. And that’s not good. That’s a lesson that I think never got taught.
Randy, I’m not going to come back to you to unwrap this because we spent a lot of time on and I’ve got about seven minutes left and I want to cover one statement from Sherry. So forgive me for that, but I think we had a good conversation. Sherry wants to talk a little more about employee retention and she says it’s not all about the technology. One of her favorite reminders, automation and retail help store associates place more emphasis on building relationships with the customers. And those relationships are obviously critical for loyalty. However, we have to answer the employees. Obvious question. Wii FM what’s in it for me? The challenge is to provide a workplace that gives something back to the employees, develops the employees to increase retention. Sherry two minutes go for us.
Sherry Meyer
God, it’s just exactly what we were just talking about, right? And I think some places do this really, really well, and I hate to go back to my Wawa example, but they do it really, really well. And even there they not all employees, they’re getting paid 15 bucks an hour. They don’t all really care about being nice to a customer when the customer is being mean to them. That’s a really hard equation. Whoever’s seeing you’re seeing on the storefront is really making impression to you is the store it’s going to make a difference whether you go back into that outlet again or not. It does for me and that is the most valuable thing you can have is a motivated employee who not only knows your brand but cares about your brand. So how do you make people care? You have to give them a career path. Turnover in retail, we all worked in retail, it’s 75% and especially for women with children, I mean, I don’t. We juggle daycare all the time for my daughter’s children because it’s a 24 hour operation. So if you don’t, there’s no daycares open 24 hour. So it retail is really, really challenging for women especially. And yet that’s where a lot of women work. So that’s one thing. But if you can give them something to hold on to, to develop instead of making this just a stepping stone, develop their careers, help them have some career guidance. I think then it you can have some really worthwhile and committed employees.
Bonnie Graham
Thank you. Committed employees. Robin, you’re sitting next to Sherry right now. Go ahead.
Robin Barrett Wilson
Totally agree. Then you know that’s why I certainly stayed in retail as long as I did and worked my way up. You know, it was all about, you know, how do I get to be a buyer? You know, how do I get to the next step in my career? And, you know, I had. I worked for brands that really supported that and show. Give me the path to success, so I agree 110%. I think that’s exactly what brands need to think about, especially since there is an uptick on opening stores and how are people, you know, how are companies representing the brands? How do they find the right people to be in the stores and then how do they take them to the next step so that they’re committed to those brands, lessen that turnover and then you have a better customer experience. Which of course then leads to more. So it’s interesting how it all connects and it all comes together.
Bonnie Graham
And it makes your employees, your evangelists, your advocates, your brand representatives. You’re outspoken. Yes, this is a good company to work for, cause that matters to a lot of people. Randy, join us for two minutes. What do you think?
Randy Evans
So I had an incredible experience in the last two weeks I. I bought a new iPhone, let’s put it that way. Actually I bought two of them. I bought my wife one. I bought myself one my wife transitioned from an Android device back to the iPhone and I just needless to say, I got in trouble with my passcode.
Robin Barrett Wilson
Oops.
Randy Evans
And I can give you the I don’t have time to tell you what happened, but I had to go to Apple.
Sherry Meyer
We can all relate.
Robin Barrett Wilson
We can all relate absolutely.
Randy Evans
Sure. To get it fixed and I was threading it because you know the lines the appointments. And I did have to sit in on the uncomfortable little cube and wait longer than I really wanted to. But when I got my Apple store rep, this guy knew every single stupid thing that I did wrong and within 10 minutes I was up and running. My phone was working. My wife’s phone was working. It was spectacular.
Sherry Meyer
Where’s the lake? They don’t get all the genius bar for nothing. That’s right. That’s right.
Randy Evans
So yeah, not just him, though. I started to, you know, obviously you know, I’m on the lookout for good stuff. He had every tool he needed. He had his Mac. He had a point of sale device.
He didn’t need to check inventory. He didn’t need, they don’t do any. I mean, it was just. And I then I started watching all the other reps. They had two people that were running inventory, right. That there’s no inventory out there. It’s just a representative inventory. It was, it was incredible. And I walked out the door.
And well. I just got a lesson. First of all, don’t screw up your device when you set it up, but secondly. When you put the customer first? In every single thing that you do, we call it customer adaptive retail at SAP, if you always do that and everything that you do, whether it’s inventory management, you know you’ve mentioned Bonnie, I think it was you mentioned that you know, counting inventory don’t count inventory. Make the technology count the inventory. You don’t need a person to do that, but you do need a person to convince me that I’ll never.
My next device will be an Apple device because they did an incredible and that’s not available like that. That experience it’s pretty rare. I don’t. You don’t run into that everywhere. That was spectacular.
Bonnie Graham
We have one minute left, one minute left. Sherry, wrap up for us.
Sherry Meyer
We have the right combinations.
Bonnie Graham
Me. Go ahead.
Sherry Meyer
I’m sorry, the right combination of Apple of technology and people and that’s what’s important getting that.
Bonnie Graham
Right. And Randy, your experience in an Apple Store is not unusual and it’s not rare, and that’s why they’re one of the most beloved, cherished and respected brands in the world. And that’s why we love it down from the black turtleneck to the white packaging, everything. So.
Randy Evans
Spectacular.
Bonnie Graham
As I want to make an impact on you, I want to make things better in your life and I’m here for you. Yes, yes, yes. And I’ve had Mac geniuses on the phone helping me unravel some hacking on my Mac two years ago. And the woman was up. Genius. She was 27. She had more knowledge than everybody I’ve ever met in the world. And she was assigned to me to help with the difficult problem. And it was two hours on the phone.
Robin Barrett Wilson
Yeah, right.
Bonnie Graham
And she cracked all the codes that were cracking up my Mac. So I want to thank you. I want to play the outro in a second, but Robin Barrett Wilson, it has been a real pleasure getting to know you. Thank you for your wisdom. The red hair. Like what can I say is? Just.
Robin Barrett Wilson
Thank you, Bonnie. Great to be here. Thank you.
Bonnie Graham
Randy Evans. Wonderful to reconnect with you. It’s been years and Sherry Anne, come back anytime. Do a wonderful job. And thank you to Aaron, our engineer. And I’m going to play the outro. Let’s see if I get this to work. So listen up. Here we go. Ah. Come on, come on, come on, come on. Is it playing? No, it’s not playing. I know why. I know. What? Wait, let me start it again. I’m going to start it again.
Narrator
A Wipro Company, Wise enables you to create your business.
Robin Barrett Wilson
There we go.
Narrator
Thanks again for tuning in to Rizing Evolution, the future proofed enterprise with the Rizing, a Wipro company Rizing enables you to create your business, journey your way with SAP technology to keep the conversation going, tweet your questions and comments to Twitter, hashtag RIZ.
Bonnie Graham
Don’t go away. We got to take pictures.
Narrator
That’s Rizing with Z. Please join us again on Tuesdays on the business channel. We wish you a positively evolving week.
Bonnie Graham
It worked. Thank you. LinkedIn, Facebook. Erin, are we out?