Leaders in Customer Loyalty, Powered by Loyalty360
Leaders in Customer Loyalty, Powered by Loyalty360
Executive Spotlight: Ryan Draude, Giant Foods
In this Executive Spotlight, Loyalty360 CEO Mark Johnson speaks with Ryan Draude, Head of Loyalty Offer Management and Shopper Marketing at Giant Food. Draude shares his forward-thinking perspectives on building loyalty in a highly competitive and increasingly value-driven grocery market. With experience spanning financial services, hospitality, and retail, Draude brings a rich, cross-vertical understanding to loyalty program leadership. He discusses how Giant Food is differentiating through service excellence, deep customer engagement, proactive fraud prevention, and a sharp focus on creating meaningful connections beyond transactions. Draude also offers personal reflections on leadership, mentorship, and paying it forward, highlighting the human side of loyalty strategy in today's dynamic environment. Read the excerpt below and listen to the entire interview on the Leaders in Customer Loyalty podcast.
Good afternoon, good morning. This is Mark Johnson from Loyalty360. I hope everyone's happy, safe and well. I wanted to welcome you back to our new interview series, the Loyalty360 Executive Spotlight Series, which is part of our Leaders in Customer Loyalty Series. In this series, we feature conversations with some of the most influential minds driving success within the most esteemed customer loyalty programs in the market, all of whom are members of Loyalty360. Today, we have the pleasure of speaking with Ryan Drade. He's the head of loyalty at Giant Food. He's one of the smartest in the business and I consider him a great friend. Ryan, how are you today? Thank you for taking time to join us.
Speaker 2:Mr Johnson, always a pleasure, good to see you again Doing well.
Speaker 1:It's great to speak with you as well. Always great to connect with you because you're always on the cutting edge of loyalty and or fraud. You're always doing some cool things.
Speaker 2:I prefer to be on one than the other, but yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's good. First off, for those who may not be familiar, can you give us a little background on your focus at Giant Food, and maybe a little bit more Giant Food as well? That'd be great to know too.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, not a problem, and thanks again for having me on here. It's always a pleasure to connect. So I head up loyalty offer management and shopper marketing at Giant Food. For folks that may not be familiar, giant Food is a regional full-service grocery store located in the Mid-Atlantic. We have 164 stores spread out between Maryland, northern Virginia, delaware and DC and we're the market leader in our area for grocery sales. So we are the number one grocery provider in what's called the Mid-Atlantic or the DMV area May not be familiar with Giant, but probably familiar with some of our other sister brands, like Food, lion and Stop and Shop and Hannaford's up in Maine.
Speaker 2:But we're part of the larger Ahold Delhaize business. Ahold Delhaize is a Dutch multinational retail and holding company. They have 16 total global grocery brands, mostly in Europe, but they're actually in Indonesia as well. As I mentioned. We have our other partners up and down the eastern seaboard and when you bring all of us together in one pot, aholdelhe is actually the third largest pure play grocery retailer in the United States. So if you look at my role, you know I just like to keep it simple, mark, and just avoid a lot of the unnecessary corporate word salad. My role is driving long-term relationships with the customers and through the idea that if we can push incremental sales, if we can retain sales over time by linking it back to a reward program and a loyalty strategy and in the process try to establish something above and beyond a transactional relationship with our customers, then we're doing it right. I think those are the three foundational pillars of whether I keep my job or not Growing sales, retaining sales and trying to build a connection in a very competitive grocery environment.
Speaker 1:Excellent. It's a very unique time to be in customer loyalty, grocery especially. Yes, yes, yes, yes, grocery especially. Our expectations are evolving fairly rapidly. Yeah, and I have a great deal of respect for what you do at Giant Food, but when you look at these evolving needs, how are you working to meet the evolving needs and expectations of today's customers?
Speaker 2:I got to be honest. I've worked in loyalty for quite some time in hospitality, different retail, drugstores, financial services, grocery Definitely the most competitive industry I've worked within from a loyalty point of view, the amount of competitors involved, coupled with a customer base that's very comfortable shopping around. They're not the most monogamous of shopping. It's more promiscuous, I like to say, and that gets a lot of chuckles. But I say it in the sense that within grocery, people shop across a variety of grocery chains on average, you think of like the typical airline or the hotel program. Once they get someone locked down, those people are like a United person or a Marriott person. You know for life. It's really more monogamous, you know, so to speak. But grocery can be very difficult for someone to just have one main provider. Think about, you know, driving to work and going home and stopping by someplace that's convenient on the way home, you know, or not having a certain category in the store and needing to go somewhere else. It's just it's spread out across so many different locations. And what we found is that after COVID broke and went away, we went from basically being able to do nothing wrong to sometimes I feel like we can't do anything right. When COVID happened, everyone is at home, no one went to the office. You're afraid to go to anywhere but one grocery store, and so in that regard it was like a one-stop shop and we and many other grocers did very well in that situation. But so they weren't spreading the love around.
Speaker 2:But now that post-COVID has come about, people back out in the world, they're going to restaurants, they're back in the workplace, they're not afraid of shopping around. And then you couple that with the current economic condition, the value focus that is just bigger than ever before. Folks are really thinking about their basket in total, and it often means making multiple stops to be able to do what they want to do. And so any good loyalty program takes a step back and they say, well, what's so special about us? And it goes back to kind of an MBA approach where they say you're either the low-cost provider or you do something special, and we're not the low-cost provider. So we have to figure out how do we stay special and do something above and beyond, because in this world there's a lot of the loyalty sea of sameness, so to speak, and a lot of the benefits that have come to be. So we tried to do something different, mark and effective. About two years ago, when the value focus really started beginning, we flipped the loyalty model and started to look at how do we get people with a minimum amount of spend involved in engaging with rewards.
Speaker 2:You think of, typically, most programs. They're for the power users, they're for the elites, the platinums, the diamonds, they get all the good stuff. But we said, hey, if people are shopping around, how do we give them maybe just something you know very easily, so that when they're shopping each week they know if I go to Giant, I'm going to get something for free? And in our case, we linked a program allowing the redemption of a minimum of points, like 5, 10, 15 points, to things like milk and eggs and produce, where they know if they came to us they would get something for free each week. Produce where they know if they came to us they would get something for free each week. And that program became very successful and is a model of what, a lot of what we're trying to do now, which is value, you know, really focused on value and ensuring that every customer can get something from the program.
Speaker 1:Absolutely, and then your program does a great job of doing that right. It's won numerous awards, uh, very focused on, you know, understanding the customer. But that whole value equation is very important and, as you mentioned, it's, uh, one of the top topics we hear right now from from our, our community, right, and it can mean different things if you can value in the program, customers having value in the program but also does the, the brand itself find value in the program? And and I think you've done a great job, not only making the program relevant and actionable and interesting to the customers, but you've also done a great job of socializing the program internally to be, you know, it's a champion for everything that Giant Food wants to do for the customers. But those internally see value and they understand the importance and impact of the program and you've done a lot to champion that.
Speaker 2:Well, I appreciate that. Thank you very much.
Speaker 1:Absolutely so. When you look at customer experience, you know, in your opinion, what is the single biggest factor that influences a great customer experience.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you know and you know it may surprise you, mark, because it may fall outside of you know what a loyalty program manager should say, but I'll tell you what I've seen and what I think the reality truly is. It's service. At the end of the day, it's phenomenal service that is given to customers and that can be expressed by that interaction personally in the store, if there is a physical presence. It can be expressed by that interaction personally in the store. If there is a physical presence, it can be a very short experience online, minimal glitches, uh. It's a very short wait on the phone to connect with a customer service rep and a very quality experience. But I found, more than points anything else, that the greatest value that we can give to the customers is respecting their time, uh, but also treating them like human beings and being incredibly good to them.
Speaker 2:Now, that being said, I don't think that we're consistently good at it, and I think that, for a company, trying to figure out what is our identity, service is something that I think a lot of companies are afraid to take on, because it's easier to throw money at things like points and rewards and even discounting a product by 10 cents a week. It takes a long time to build a service culture. Look at Chick-fil-A, look at USAA companies that said you know what? We're going to be the best at treating our customers like gold. And I think that if you have that type of model, customers will get through higher prices, they'll get through out of stocks, they'll get through a range of products or a range of problems because they love how they're treated and, admittedly, I'm really chasing that to see how can we put that type of framework within Giant as a differentiator and, like I said, it's not easy, it takes a long time, but that, to me, is the single biggest factor is treating people well.
Speaker 1:Now I think you're absolutely right and the employee is part of that right. Make sure the employee is happy, the employees bought in and also the brand itself. And I think one of the biggest challenges that we're kind of going away from that but service you have to be able to say I'm sorry, right If something messed up. If something's wrong, the brand's going to say you know, I'm sorry, we'll make it right, versus ah, it wasn't us, it was you right. So, and I think that another thing you do very well and you're building that into your programming processes is being accountable for what you guys do, and it's always great to hear you know how you approach that as well.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and Mark, just on that front real quick.
Speaker 2:You know, for other loyalty managers there's a way that they can link to the program.
Speaker 2:I think one of the greatest things I do every week is I get our customer service logs and I go through and I look at the issues of you know where the frustrations are that people are having, and I take a handful of them and I call them back, you know, or write them an email and say let's talk.
Speaker 2:You know, let's get on the phone. I'd love to hear what happened. But the first thing I say is I'm sorry and you own it and you're willing to admit we can be better and we need to be better to keep your business. And the response to that is phenomenal because people they just want to be heard and the fact that you're willing to connect, that you want to own the issue, that you want to make it better. I think from a loyalty perspective, any good loyalty director, manager, vice president, should be talking to their customers on a weekly basis. You don't want to be disconnected in the ivory tower. You need to know what's going on in the trenches and I would say I think it's a great opportunity to really understand and connect.
Speaker 1:Absolutely Speaking of ivory towers. The next question what's one passion that you enjoy outside of work, something you thoroughly enjoy doing? I know the answer, but yeah, you do.
Speaker 2:We've been talking for a long time now. Yeah, it is teaching, mark. You know I really love my ability to be an adjunct professor. When you've let me speak at the Loyalty360 events, one of the things I always do is my PSA at the start of my presentation to tell everyone, you know, pay it forward. There's so much incredible experience in the audience.
Speaker 2:Go back to the campus, you know. Share your war stories with the next generation, because it's really important that they can link theory with practice. You know, so to speak, and you know so many corporate professionals, you know, have learned so much. They see what really happens in the field. So many corporate professionals, you know, have learned so much. They see what really happens in the field, but they don't give that back to. You know the next generation, you know who really need to understand about. You know what really happens and you know to talk about things like courage and leadership and failure. You know stress. We owe it to them to equip them with. You know what they need to succeed in the future world.
Speaker 2:I talk about my dad a lot and he's definitely my hero. He was a three-time combat veteran in Vietnam and then also in Desert Storm. But one of his disappointments before Vietnam was all the prior veterans from World War II and Korea, these guys that faced hard combat. They didn't go back to the academies and to the young soldiers and prepare them by and large for going into combat. You know all the things. They could have told them to say it's okay to be scared, you know these things are going to happen, don't worry, you can do it.
Speaker 2:And when my dad rose to become a brigadier general in the Marine Corps, one of his primary obligations was to tell young troops you know what to expect and to make sure they're ready to face the challenge. And so I'm not trying to equate my experience in the corporate world to anything he or other veterans have done, but I think we can do similar to prepare that next generation to say hey, let us tell you what you're in for, let us prepare you to lead. You know to let people go, how you treat people well and how you can invest in their futures. And teaching has given me a tremendous opportunity to not only teach loyalty strategy but to really invest in what I feel are the future leaders as well. Excellent.
Speaker 1:And how do you get involved in teaching? How did that come to be?
Speaker 2:Yeah, you know, I think one of the best things that you can do is go back to the school where you came from if you have that opportunity. For me, I went to Georgetown for my MBA. It was a wonderful opportunity, but after I left, there was like this voice inside my head, mark, um, that was telling me give back. You know, it really was a magical experience while you were there. And so, you know, I had my education, I had my career at that point, but I realized how fortunate I was to have several professors that really helped me see what my path could be. Um, I didn't know what I wanted to be when I went to get my MBA. I just knew it was something that I should do. But I came out really focused on analytical marketing and saying this is what I want, and so I'm so grateful for the professors that pointed me in that direction. So, in my case, I kept in good contact with those folks at Georgetown and I reached out.
Speaker 2:You know, and that's probably the hardest part is just reaching out to begin with and saying, hey, I'd love to come in and do some guest lecturing.
Speaker 2:You know, there's some stuff that I'm, you know, well-versed on in my career at this point and, trust me, marketing professors love when you can come in and talk about something. It gives them the chance to take the time off to have someone who's active in the field talk to them about a relevant topic, and so to have those subject matter experts is usually well received and it gives you the chance to really say, hey, do I like this? Does it feel good? Do I like preparing for it, the Q&A that goes along with it, and after doing that a few times, I was hooked and at that point I built a curriculum, a syllabus for loyalty strategy, brought it back to Georgetown, they made me try a class out, hour and a half class in front of professors, and I took them through my deck and my point of view and they said, all right, you're on, and that was back in 2019. And we've been doing it ever since and it's just a wonderful opportunity to correct and stay current in what we do.
Speaker 1:Okay, excellent, Great. Yeah. Your passion for that is obviously something to be very proud of. You do a great job on that. Thank you Well, next question Can you tell us a little bit about your family and how your family kind of drives your passion in work and in other areas?
Speaker 2:Yeah, you could definitely call me the odd man out, mark. My entire family served in either the Marine Corps or the Navy. My entire family served in either the Marine Corps or the Navy. My father, as I said, was a general. My mom was a Marine officer earlier in her career, my older sister was that first wave of female combat aviators flying the F-18 back in the 90s, you know, and all the stuff that she had to deal with to break it, break on through. And then my brother, my older brother, was a naval intelligence officer.
Speaker 2:So me, you know people, what they always say is well, what, what happened to you, you know? And uh, I tell them why I couldn't even get a commission in the salvation army, you know. But, uh, that gets a few chuckles, but, um, the idea was I didn't feel that calling that they did. Uh, they knew, they knew they wanted to serve, they knew they wanted to go into the, to the military, and I just didn't have that, you know, in my life and I didn't want to take it away from someone who wanted it more than anything, because my last name was the same one as that of a general. It wouldn't have been fair. So there's some. Sometimes I look back and say, yeah, you know, should I have done so or not? You know, and that's something I dwell on at times there, but it just wasn't. It wasn't my path.
Speaker 2:And I think a lot of folks get worried about what is my path. And so many folks want to have this calling when they're young, when they're going to college, even when they're coming out to say I know what I want to do, and they beat themselves up so much when they don't know what it is. But guess what? I was that guy too. You know that guy who tried different jobs. I tried a little bit of this, a little bit of that, and I learned what I liked, what I didn't like, until that time where I went back and got my MBA. Like I said, I was 30 years old at the time, so I was out in the working world for a good eight, nine years before I figured out what I wanted to do when I grow up. So it's one of the things I just want to remind folks is it's good to try things, it's good to figure out what you like and, more importantly, what you don't like, but don't beat yourself up, you know, because it does come to you as you keep trying.
Speaker 1:Excellent. What was your first job after college?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I worked at a nightclub all during college, you know. So that helped out to give me some money coming out of school. But then, after I graduated from my undergrad actually I moved to San Diego for the better part of a year. I surfed, I painted, did modern art and I drank wine. My parents were so disappointed in me. I got to be honest. They're like you got this education and you're out there screwing around. Then the money ran out and I realized I had to get serious. So, um, I came back to the east coast and I worked for a big national telecom selling prepaid phone cards. I mark, I don't know you old enough to remember pre prepaid phone cards yes, I do remember them a little bit.
Speaker 2:Yes, but you know, before your cell phone could call anywhere in the world, you had to go down to the store and buy this card and scratch off the pin and and it costs like a buck 50 a minute. You know to call anywhere in the world, but I was selling those to different like convenience stores and bodegas and you know different spots. But that was my first real kind of grown up job after college. Okay, excellent.
Speaker 1:For those who may not know, you have a pretty diverse history in customer loyalty right Different verticals. Can you talk about working in the different verticals and how it's been helpful or potentially challenging regarding kind of how you look at customer loyalty?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I've been somewhat of a restless soul, I'll say Building programs serving customers across a variety of industries. My background I work at Capital One and Sallie Mae so I did loyalty and financial services. I did Choice Hotels so I did the whole hospitality thing. I was briefly at Rite Aid and led their loyalty program there, and then in this grocery world here with Giant and also was on the other side of the table doing consulting with Amex, united Airlines, marriott. So I've seen a lot of different verticals.
Speaker 2:I usually I make the moves because I like the challenge and I always feel like it's the right time to move on once you build something significant and then you feel there's something else.
Speaker 2:You know that is a greater challenge. I was never that guy that was willing to, I think, you know, be at a company for 20, 30, 40 years and I respect those folks tremendously. But I always wanted to challenge myself with something new, you know, and just you kind of learn a new model, you know, start with the, with the manual and try to work it through. And so in that regard, you know, making the move each time was always a challenge but always gave me a chance to see loyalty from a different lens, you know, in terms of how the customers, the technology, the competitive environment. So in that regard, I've enjoyed the challenges. As I mentioned when we first talked, grocery has definitely been the biggest challenge I've seen. It is such a complex, competitive world so they are keeping me very busy here, but I really do love the challenges that we have in this market as well.
Speaker 1:Absolutely, and I think that your diverse background from Choice and others is giving you a kind of a unique perspective and being able to solve some problems. Yeah, and one of the areas that you've done amazing work in and it's always great to hear you talk about is fraud, program fraud, gaming, how you look at it right, and I think a lot of that history is kind of based on some things you may have seen in the travel industry. A lot of that history is kind of based on some things you may have seen in the travel industry. How did you become so focused on fraud and employee gaming?
Speaker 2:And you know what drives you there. Yeah, I think the reality that any loyalty manager needs to very quickly accept is that wherever there is value, there's an opportunity for it to be stolen. There is value, there's an opportunity for it to be stolen, and that attracts some of the smartest, most motivated criminals that you're ever going to run across. And one of the other things you need to realize is that they're smarter than you. They're 100% dedicated to ripping you off, while at best, with the teams that you have, maybe 5% of your time is spent looking at fraud In addition to all the other things you need to do. These people are hell bent on emptying your bank account and they win a lot.
Speaker 2:So, without getting into too many details, what I found in both hotels and in grocery was, if you pay very close attention to the data and you are very curious, you will find things that take a kind of a second opinion or a double take to say how can people spending so little redeem so much? You know, why are these points leaving accounts? Why are there so many redemptions in parts of the world that don't make sense, you know, and a lot of folks might just say, eh, it's not making that much of a financial difference. I'm just going to look at something else. But you know the ones that reallyicate working against us and another brand to take literally hundreds of thousands and then millions of dollars in value, and they were staying beneath the surface, but they finally made some mistakes in terms of showing some data patterns that we caught and we didn't let go.
Speaker 2:And it took us months on end to be able to go back and forth and figure out ways to actually beat it, and even bringing in third parties, they couldn't figure it out half the time. So you know, my main aspect here is that it's a reality. They're smart, they're going to beat you a lot of the time, but stay curious. We sit on an ocean of data and if you really want to go down that path, you should to protect your program. But you know, the further you go down, you will find things that are concerning that make you realize that there's often bigger problems to be looked at.
Speaker 1:That's interesting. That's great. Yeah, when you look at your career success, what are a couple things you're most proud of?
Speaker 2:Yeah, a couple things I'd say from an achievement point of view. I was lucky. I worked for Sally May at a point in time actually, when I came out of Georgetown and I was in direct marketing and what I found very quickly was listening to customers and this whole idea of shutting up and listening that I like to talk about. I would go to the contact centers, I would just listen, listen, listen, listen, because anyone that holds a student loan automatically hates you as a lender. That's just the reality of the situation. So there was a lot of animosity towards Sally Mae, but I was trying to understand. You know, why are these people so upset? And what I figured out very quickly by listening was they signed a lot of papers for four years, them or their parents and then that bill comes six months later and says surprise, you owe us $1,500 a month. And they look at that and say I had no idea what the hell I was getting into and what a disservice and tragedy it is to start life on that path. And so I was.
Speaker 2:At the same time, I was getting a mortgage on a home and I was saying, well, if I borrow X, that's fine, but really what's the monthly payment that I need to worry about and does my income work against it? And I had this eureka moment where I was like, well, what if we did the same thing in student lending, where we said, okay, let's estimate four years of lending and what your mom and dad might put in, or the scholarships, et cetera, and what's left to be done from a loan point of view, we'll put that in and estimate the monthly payment for your entire education. Specific to the schools, you're looking at real costs and so that way, if someone was looking at George Mason, george Washington, washington and Georgetown, they could see three very different price points what they're studying and maybe say is this the right move? You know, am I equipped to take this on with what I'm studying and what I feel I'm going to do? And it pushes that information forward. So I was able to get a patent for creating that algorithm and that whole process.
Speaker 2:But what I'm really proud of is the fact that we helped people. We saw them materially change and motivate behavior, and that's really where I think I got the loyalty bug mark. You know, was building that relationship with folks over time. You know, building that long-term relationship. I would say, above and beyond that achievement. The greatest thing at this point in my career is seeing the younger folks that I've invested in, tutored, mentored, led, now becoming directors, you know, and higher level folks in an organization and seeing their growth, you know, and how good it felt to build the loyalty foundation with them and then seeing them take their own skills, you know and abilities and just build these beautiful careers. And it's wonderful to see them grow over time as well.
Speaker 1:Excellent when you look back. If you could go back in time and maybe change one thing about your life, what would that be and why?
Speaker 2:I wish I had started traveling a lot earlier. You know, I waited till, you know, into my 20s, even into my 30s, you know, and I realized what a joy it is to see the world and the fact that the memories stay with you forever. You know, stuff is great and it's nice to have fun stuff, but stuff comes and goes. But the idea of being able to think back to a time in Barcelona 10 years ago where being in Oslo and seeing the sunshine off the water, just stuff like that it stays with you and it makes you appreciate the world and the people and the culture, and five years later, who cares about the world and the people and the culture? And, uh, you know, five years later, who cares about the money that you spent on the trip. It's just those memories they were able to create, you know, and the appreciation that goes with it.
Speaker 1:so it would definitely be to have started international travel much, much earlier in my life okay, uh, and we've talked about this a couple of times as well if you could bring one great change to your workplace, you know what would that be?
Speaker 2:You know, I wish leaders were more invested with their employees. You know, my dad again, you know, has a saying you can pretend to care but you can't pretend to be there. And it's all predicated on this idea that showing up and actually being there with someone means more than you could ever imagine, you know, and the idea that you know, as a director or manager or vice president, walking the aisles and walking up to someone and saying what are you working on? You know, tell me about what you're doing, or I really appreciate everything that you've been able to do. And, just honestly, you know, listening it may take 30 seconds of your life, but that person on the way home and they're facing that test that I like to think of the way home, you think, you know, for the past eight hours, did anyone care about what I did today? Did I make a difference?
Speaker 2:That person is able to go home and tell their wife or their you know, their family hey, you know, the vice president came by today, you know, and told me what a wonderful job I'm doing. I was really curious about, you know, about what I'm working on and how important that investment is, and so it's the value of time Mark and the value of investing in people, and I know it's not easy for some really good leaders who are introverted and often just don't have the time, but to me that has always been. I think the greatest motivator is people realizing that someone else cares, and especially someone within leadership that realizes that they're there.
Speaker 1:Excellent. That's a great point. For sure, when you look at reading, I know you read a good deal. Is there a book that you like to recommend to your colleagues or to your team at?
Speaker 2:Giant Food. It's my dad. He wrote a book, a business book, but it's not the type of business book you typically read. It's called the Four F's of Leadership Lessons from the Battlefield to the Boardroom. And so my dad, General Droughty, he wrote a book talking about being the ideal leader.
Speaker 2:You know, in what you need to do around being human and this idea that you deal with the four F's fear, failure, fatigue and feelings and how you need to own these, you know, and the fact that we're all human at the end of the day. And so, you know, folks hear that and they're like oh my God, you know that doesn't sound like a business book. You're supposed to strive to be perfect, you're supposed to be all these great virtues, but instead, you know, my dad is saying you're human and whether you're in combat or you're in the boardroom, you're going to get scared, you're going to doubt yourself, you're going to work too hard to get tired and not manage your body. You're going to get your feelings hurt by someone who doesn't agree with you. Are you going to assault or are you going to get through it? And then failure, god, we all fail.
Speaker 2:I've failed so many times in my career. But what do you take from it and how do you move on. And so you know, I love the framework, because it's just such a different way to admit we're human and there these are things that we need to embrace, but we can put them to our advantage as we continue the growth that we have as leaders, you know again, whether whether in the military or in the business world, and I just think it's a fantastic read in that regard.
Speaker 1:Excellent, yeah, I just wrote it down, grabbed a piece of paper.
Speaker 2:I'm going to give you a copy. I'm going to have him sign one for you and give you a copy there, mark.
Speaker 1:I'm a voracious reader so I would love to read that Last question I think we have today. You know we like to have words of wisdom. For those who are new to the field right Aside from you and a few others customer loyalty isn't really taught in universities and obviously what you teach at Georgetown is very, very important. But you look at the industry it's kind of challenging for those who do very well because it's a blend of creative and strategy and in-depth thinking and it melts so many different pieces right. You know, what are a couple of pieces of advice that you would give to someone who's new, newly kind of starting, in the industry? What would you give to them?
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, no, it's a really smart thing to do. My best advice and I think I mentioned it before is it's very simple Shut up and listen. Listen to your customers, listen to your peers, listen to your leaders, but especially, especially customers, to make decisions that ultimately impacted those folks. And the greatest success like what I mentioned about the patent with Sallie Mae was when I put the customer needs first. And a lot of us have the best of intentions, but we often don't listen to customers and you say, well, how easy is it to do that? You have the data.
Speaker 2:The loyalty program is one of the best sources of data to understand what people do.
Speaker 2:And then you go to your business intelligence partners to find out what they think. And if you know what they do and what they think, you have such an advantage to really understand what's going on and, most importantly, what's not working, to then figure out what do you do with it. You know, but you know also things like going to the customer service logs, calling customers, having real conversations with them. You know and I guess that's a challenge I would have for a lot of my loyalty brethren is when's the last time you actually spoke to customers consistently? You know, like on a regular basis, to find out what ticks and what's not working. You know, and is that something that you regularly do? And I guarantee you it is something that you will not regret if you go down that path and, at the very least, you will make their day that you invested in them and spent the time to put them first and actually, like I said, just shut up and listen to what they have to share with you.
Speaker 1:Absolutely Well. Thank you very much for that very poignant, impactful insight. It's always great to talk with you because I know you're a treasure trove of insight and I consider you a good friend. And it's a great conversation. Thank you, and now we have the fun quickfire questions.
Speaker 2:Oh my gosh Okay.
Speaker 1:The third time you've done this. These are all new questions, right, so we have to keep coming up with you.
Speaker 2:What are the rules again? It's got to be like one word or I can't think of too much right.
Speaker 1:Yeah. First question how would you describe your work life Too?
Speaker 2:Yeah, first question how would you describe your?
Speaker 1:work life Too much. If you have a day, a week off from work, what are you doing? Traveling, excellent. This is a little dated now, but what was, or what is, your New Year's resolution?
Speaker 2:You know it was definitely to lose weight and I'm losing that battle.
Speaker 1:So if you could live in any country or city, uh, where would you live?
Speaker 2:oh my god, you know. First it was barcelona. I decided it's one of the most magical cities in the world. But uh, my wife and I went to venice um no, I'm sorry. Florence, florence, yeah, and it was just awesome. So I think I'm changing my opinion to Florence.
Speaker 1:I think I'd go with Florence. I could go see David all the time. I guess that would be fun.
Speaker 2:There you go, there you go. That's one of the benefits.
Speaker 1:If you could go back to school, what would you?
Speaker 2:study. Wow, you know philosophy. I've done enough of the analytics stuff. I need to go on the other side of the coin. I'll let you have that one. Is there a facet of the job that you would like to know more about?
Speaker 2:maybe be more involved with my role. Oh my gosh. You know, I think one of the benefits of interacting with you in the loyalty community Mark is trying to see loyalty from different lenses. Mark is trying to see loyalty from different lenses and I think that's where the benefit comes in. You know, looking at folks that have, you know, more experience with technology, partnerships, the whole AI aspect, and you know how we embrace it. So you know, there are things that where I feel I'm very well grounded, but then there are areas where I know that that's not the case. And again, I think there's a loyalty 360 comes in, because I'm able to connect with those folks and, you know, really try to understand if there are things that I need to start broadening my horizons on as well.
Speaker 1:Okay, and then is there a facet of the job that you do now that you would like to do maybe less or not be as involved with.
Speaker 2:Probably the operations aspect of it. You know I love to dream up the ideas, you know, and figure it out, but sometimes it's nice to have other people go make it happen.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think the biggest challenge with operations is you end up developing what you think is great processes for everyone who need them, and they don't follow them anyway. So I'm like yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:no, you'd be very frustrated, Absolutely.
Speaker 1:All this detailed out and we put all this time in developing these processes and then we don't follow them. Yeah, true, very true, yeah. So what motivates you when tackling challenges at Giant?
Speaker 2:I think this idea of setting a goal and achieving it, you know the idea that you have in your head X is going to happen and are you able to really make that occur? You know, I love the ideas, the competitive, seeing it over the goal line, you know, and actually seeing something through is always what keeps us exciting.
Speaker 1:Excellent, and what do you draw inspiration from? You know what lights your fire?
Speaker 2:Oh, my family. You know I mean it's this idea that you want to make them proud. You know you want to. You know be a good role model and you know, show them the path and do your best to invest in them.
Speaker 1:Excellent. And what is your favorite sport or hobby?
Speaker 2:Oh, I love international soccer. My background I'm a half Sicilian, so I follow a crappy little team called Palermo. They're always awful. And then the Italian national team, but it's usually more frustrating than anything else and I think what is your?
Speaker 1:who's your favorite athlete of all time?
Speaker 2:All time. Oh boy, don Mattingly, first baseman New York Yankees, had a great mustache, great left-handed hitter. I named my first dog after him, but I used to be a big baseball guy and he was just an awesome player. So yeah, I'm dating myself again, but the dog is also fantastic as well.
Speaker 1:Well, Ryan, thank you very much for taking the time to join us today on this Executive Spotlight. This is one of the coolest ones I've done so far. It's always great speaking with you, and thanks for everything you do for the industry.
Speaker 2:Yeah, likewise, mark. You guys are a godsend to what we're doing and hopefully look forward to seeing you soon as well. Thank you for helping all of us out in the loyalty community. I appreciate it.
Speaker 1:Absolutely, and thank you everyone for taking the time to listen. Make sure you join us back every Saturday for our next edition of our Executive Spotlight. Until then, have a wonderful day. Thanks everyone, take care.