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Does the sentiment toward a new product launch (which could be observed through Instagram likes) foreshadow the future sales of that product? If we find evidence that the positive sentiment toward a new product's content (from its launch until the present) correlates with the product's current total sales quantity, it suggests that the amount of positive sentiment toward a product over time can drive sales. Or, if we find evidence that the first few weeks of positive sentiment toward a new product's content correlates with the product's current total sales quantity, it suggests that social media can predict whether a new product will be successful.

While eateries like Red Lobster and Rubio’s are going bankrupt, a fast food chain with New York origins has sat in a relatively stable position for a couple of years now: Shake Shack. Last week, I analyzed how a brand’s Instagram engagement could potentially correlate with their stock price. This time around, I decided to look at how sentiment observed on social media could influence the growth of sales on a quarterly basis by doing a quick experiment on Shake Shack.

This week, we had the pleasure of speaking with Secily Selert, the Head of Customer Success at Shogun, an e-commerce experience platform that powers storefronts for over 20,000 brands. Our conversation delved into Secily's unique background spanning journalism, PR, and customer success, her rapid ascent into CS leadership roles, and her philosophy on leveraging churn data to drive proactive retention strategies. Here are the key takeaways from our discussion:

This week, we had the pleasure of speaking with Colin Crowley, the Vice President of Customer Support at Maven Clinic, a leading virtual clinic for women's and family health. Our conversation delved into Colin's extensive background in CX leadership, the evolving convergence of B2B and B2C customer engagement strategies, and the critical importance of establishing strong feedback loops between customer-facing teams and the rest of the organization. Here are the key takeaways from our discussion:

Over the past decade, Amazon has been the crystal clear frontrunner in the e-commerce industry. But just a year ago, the Chinese company Temu launched and has since nearly matched Amazon in number of users, slowly but surely eating away at Amazon’s market share in the US. The question is, how did a practically brand-new company with a not-so-new concept win over millions of customers in just one year? And will they be able to keep these customers around long term?

We recently spoke with Simone Silva, an expert in customer experience and quality with an impressive 16-year tenure at Whirlpool. We learned a lot about how Simone thinks about the customer experience, and in particular we delved into the critical role data plays in understanding and improving it. Simone shared many valuable insights and practical examples from her experience, highlighting the importance of a multi-layered approach to data analysis and the potential for unstructured data to uncover hidden opportunities. Here are some of the highlights from our discussion:

Ever since the pandemic hit, consumers have turned even more so toward prioritizing convenience and price. Even for industries like home furnishing, which has historically drawn the majority of its sales from brick and mortar purchases, people feel more comfortable than ever picking out furniture or decor online, rather than in person. Wayfair saw this window of opportunity and took it. But running a fully online brand for furniture has proven to be harder than expected.

Recently we had a conversation with Pegah Valeh, who leads the customer experience and analytics program at Meta's Reality Labs division. Reality Labs is on the cutting edge, covering virtual reality, augmented reality, mixed reality and Meta's vision for the metaverse, including Horizon World. It was fascinating to learn about her team's data-driven approach to understanding the customer experience. Here's what we discussed:

You may remember that just a few years ago, Under Armour was considered one of the biggest sportswear brands in the world, valued at over $5 billion and equivalent to frontrunners like Nike and Adidas. Now, the company is facing exceptionally weak sales, a valuation sliced in half since its peak, paired with a single-digit stock price that’s been on the decline for the past decade. But why?

This week, we sat down with Jordan Hooker, the founder of Tavolo Consulting, a firm specializing in helping early to mid-stage startups build world-class customer support programs. Our conversation delved into the key pillars of an effective support operation, the importance of data-driven decision making, and how to future-proof your customer experience as you scale. Here are the key takeaways from our discussion:

Sephora shattered glass ceilings by surpassing a record of $10 billion in sales in 2023. And it’s no surprise when we think about just how well Sephora has been building out their omnichannel experience over the years. When it comes to customer experience, there’s no doubt that Sephora is a clear leader in the industry. Sephora doesn’t just meet customer expectations — they go above and beyond to connect with their customers and make every touchpoint personable in a unique, exciting way.