S6 E5: Enhancing CX by leveraging technology & diversity initiatives with Kendra Scott's Sr. Director of Customer Care & DEIB, Lyndsay Baylor

S6 E5 PODCAST

Mariah Parsons, Host of Retention Chronicles & Head of Marketing at Malomo, and Lindsay Baylor, Senior Director of Customer Care & DEIB at Kendra Scott, discussed the importance of leveraging technology and diversity initiatives to improve customer service at Kendra Scott. They emphasized the value of creating an online experience that is easy for new customers to adapt to, and the need for a comprehensive view of the customer journey. Mariah Parsons and Lyndsay Baylor also discussed the importance of integrating customer data from various sources to create personalized experiences, and the challenges of connecting data from online and in-store interactions. Finally, Mariah Parsons and Lyndsay Baylor discussed the importance of diversity, equity, and inclusion in the fashion and jewelry industries, and the need for brands to be intentional and authentic in their approach to diversity and inclusion.

Episode Timestamps:

  • 0:05 Adapting to pandemic-era customer needs at Kendra Scott, prioritizing omnichannel experiences

  • 8:48 Tying customer data across multiple channels for improved brand experience

  • 13:44 Using technology to improve customer service

  • 19:39 Implementing chatbot technology and improving customer experience

  • 26:19 Personalizing customer experiences through social media engagement

  • 30:35 Diversity, inclusion, and representation in marketing and customer service

  • 35:25 Internal and external perspectives on diversity, equity, and inclusion in the jewelry industry

  • 39:53 Customer inclusivity and diversity in product development


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TRANSCRIPT

This transcript was completed by an automated system, please forgive any grammatical errors.

SUMMARY KEYWORDS

kendra scott, customers, customer, experience, brand, people, great, team, opportunity, internally, love, shopping, data, challenge, started, evolve, learning, hear, share, sense

SPEAKERS

Mariah Parsons, Lyndsay Baylor

Mariah Parsons 00:05

Greetings and welcome to retention Chronicles, the podcast with learnings from expert e commerce brands and partners. I'm your host, Ryan Parsons. If you're here, you're either on a quest for ecommerce enlightenment, or you accidentally clicked the wrong link. Either way, I am thrilled you stumbled into our corner of the internet. And I hope you'll stick around. We've got pearls of wisdom for everyone, whether you're running a multimillion dollar business, or simply just starting out on your entrepreneurial journey. Before we unleash the brilliance of today's guest, let's give a shout out to our podcast sponsor Malomo. Malomo is so much more than just another Shopify app, their post purchase experience wizards making beautiful and branded order tracking smoother than a jazz solo. So our amazing founders, like our guests can keep their customers happy and up to date while they track their orders. So hit that subscribe button, like it'll increase your LTV overnight, and go listen to her other episodes. Echo malomo.com That's gomalomo.com. Get ready for insights chuckles and perhaps a profound realization or two with this newest episode of retention. Hello, everyone, and welcome back to retention Chronicles. Super excited to have you all here with our guest, Lyndsey Baylor Lyndsey, thank you so much for joining me today. So background for our listeners we met at Rice or retail innovation conference and expo, which is based in Chicago. And it just happened was it last month I can Yeah, last month in May recording in July. And it was the first time both of us had gone. So it was a lot of fun. Lindsay was a panelist. So we'll get into that a little bit. But before we do so, Lindsay, I'd love for you to say hello to our listeners and give a quick introduction of yourself.

Lyndsay Baylor 01:57

Hi, it's great to see you Mariah, thank you so much for the opportunity to be here. My name is Lyndsay Baylor, and the Senior Director of Customer Care in de IB at Kendra Scott. So my background started in ecommerce operations and apparel and customer service and all these elements. And I've been with Kendra Scott for over four years now, overseeing our customer care division, any way that our customer wants to engage and interact with us, that's essentially what me and my team are working through. And hi, I've had the fortunate pleasure in the past year of working on our diversity, diversity and inclusion area, brand new within Kendra Scott in which we're continuing to evolve and develop in that. So that's really been an exciting journey in the past year, for sure

Mariah Parsons 02:44

I love it, we're gonna dive into both. There's so much to go into. And I want to know what the transition is like with being at Kendra Scott for four years, I don't think there's many of our listeners who won't know the brand of Kendra Scott. But as anyone who is an operator in this space will know a lot of things can change in four years, especially, you know, personally with your own role and your responsibilities. And then also on a company level of just seeing how different things ebb and flow. We all know we had COVID e commerce boom. And now we're getting back to more things in the retail space and a little bit, you know, quote unquote, normalcy in that round. So I would love to hear just a bit more about how the transition was through your four years at Kendra Scott. And then I think that'll be a really great platform to talk about, you know, currently what your what your responsibilities are. Yeah,

Lyndsay Baylor 03:38

if you're doing the math correctly, I started in the middle of COVID That was a really easy

Mariah Parsons 03:45

time to onboard. Right, which

Lyndsay Baylor 03:47

is, which is the ideal time to switch jobs. And so, you know, starting in July of 2020, you know, thinking feels like forever ago, but it's all you know, stuck in our brain but being with Kendra Scott and learning how agile and adaptive they were to the ever changing climate and the environment, really every one was just trying to figure out how do we shop in a pandemic world or hopefully post pandemic at that time, right. And so, that was really the challenge of me coming in and trying to get to the nitty gritty of what our customers need to do in order to communicate with us and making sure that we're available for them. You know, Kendra Scott is known for having this beautiful in store experience. Obviously, we're able to shop online but coming in with a company that was really trying to adapt to, you know, buying online and shipping from store, you know, or not being able to shop in the store having limited capacity. You know, my team really had to adapt to that and understand like, Okay, how do we answer those Questions? How do we make ourselves available, people couldn't go to the store. So they're calling customer care. And it was overwhelming before I got there. So really prioritizing, like, what is our common means of communication that our customers are reaching out about? What is it that they have questions about? And how do we quickly get them those answers. And then just in the evolution of 2020, to 2024, so much has evolved not only in the world, and within the retail, industry, and fashion industry, but within Kendra Scott, now we're taking that experience to the next level, you know, we've been able to offer them that connection. But now there's so many different ways that our customers want to connect with us, right? They want an elevated experience at every touch, you know, of the journey. And so, you know, we really had to challenge ourselves to say like, Okay, we can't just market a phone number, you know, they want to chat with us, they want to text us, they want to reach out on social media, you know, either in the comments or the DM. So, really learning our various types of customers, how they want to engage with us. And what they're saying, over the past four years has been the core of the journey for sure.

Mariah Parsons 06:10

That's wonderful. So would you say that when you're trying to evolve during the madness, of starting a new job? And also a mist of global pandemic? Was there? Would you say that, like all of your customers were coming to shop online during the pandemic? And then how has that shifted? In terms of your customer breakdown right now? Like, do you think a lot of the customers who were shopping online were, was it like 5050, split of new versus returning customers? Was it? A was it now? Do you think that it's, you know, everyone who is shopping online? is, you know, new or returning? Do you have any idea of like, what the customer split is where people are shopping? Because I always think it's super interesting to hear.

Lyndsay Baylor 07:02

Yeah, I mean, I think we certainly learn that customers that were primarily shopping in our stores, were trying to learn how to shop online, you know, or get into our stores during that time. There certainly was and has always been this element of a large percentage of customers, or a decent percentage, I should say that our new customers, you know, because we have, you know, this discount birthday discount that is just well known, you know, through either word of mouth, and really getting those first time customers who are trying to understand, okay, what is that experience, you know, how do I get that and now I can't used to be something that we really focus on the stores, but now we need to create this online experience that's easy for them to adapt to. And I think over time, we've certainly learned that our customers likes to do it both ways, you know, especially the ease of buy online pick up in store, you know, shopping online, being able to actually go inside the store, looking at the product, you know, and then having also that social media experience as well, too. So, you know, we we do see a lot of online only customers but we're, it's a lot of returning customers gets a lot of customers who shop in always, and then also learning the element of the customer who's not just shopping online and in store, you know, he or she or they are shopping on Instagram, or Facebook, you know, or Tik Tok, you know, things like that. So, you know, there's a huge amount of our returning customers who are learning new ways to engage with us, but having those other aspects has certainly opened up, you know, a new set of customers for

Mariah Parsons 08:48

sure. Yep. Yeah. Okay. Totally makes sense. And I want to dive into the data piece of it because I for our previous guests that have been on this podcast, who have both a retail and a online arm, they it's always a battle right of like, you get more customer data from from online, but for especially Kendra Kendra Scott, where you're so based in that, that in store experience and kind of have that. Yeah, for lack of word like in locking key, right? Like, there's always things that you want to do to improve but you it's a proven experience, right? Yeah, um, what's your, I guess your team's take or break down on the customer data that you're getting from your Omni channel experience? And can you break it down for us in terms of like, you know, you're seeing that customers want to engage on multiple fronts and shop multiple ways and then it's not, you know, last click attribution is not a last stop attribution maybe but it's it's a whole storyline that you're seeing someone's looking at social word of mouth and then they're coming to the website, but then they're waiting until their birthday to shop in person, right? Like there's all these little different pieces of it. information that are important to the customer profile?

Lyndsay Baylor 10:03

Yeah, absolutely. I think, you know, it's interesting when you, you mentioned that because there's an element, and we have a really remarkable internal team, where, you know, there's a lot of data that basically calls out what that journey is, whether it's through, you know, advertising, and then that converting into a transaction on social media, you know, having collaborations and special events, you know, we're certainly seeing that there are customers where we can connect the data between the retail transactions and our econ transactions and how they are purchasing, you know, and what, you know, that kind of normal, how they're normally interacting with the brand, you know, and is it a certain time of year, you know, is she just shopping for her birthday, and then we don't hear from her again, you know, there's certainly that type of data that is really great for us to stay connected to, and we have a lot of great internal partners, you know, my peers, who are pulling that and educating us on that as well, too. For the customer care side, we have that visibility as well, because I really instilled within my team to listen to the customer and understand, you know, when we are interacting and connecting with the customer, they're reaching out about a question, we have the capability to see that journey ourselves, not just from a reporting aspect, but we can connect her social media, their social media, engagement with us, positive or negative, how many times they reached out what kind of questions What's her, you know, their local store is we have all of that visibility in, which helps us really bridge that relationship with the customer when we're interacting with them. So it's certainly great to see that our customers know exactly where we are, and all the different places, and they're utilizing all of those outlets. And it helps us build not only a better experience for the future, you know, when we're all working together on like, new collaborations, and, you know, new products, but also helps us train our specialists who are, you know, the customer facing on how this person has interacted with the brand, and we can really be intelligent about that.

Mariah Parsons 12:17

Yeah, that makes sense. No, it does, that makes so much sense. So, I, what I'm hearing is, and this is definitely where I own the, the round, in which a lot of the times I'm talking to smaller teams who don't have this wealth of information and resources, who can be able, who are able to tie back to whatever start, yeah, that a customer interacting with your team, and your brand, and be able to trace along and say, you know, this is, okay, five years ago, when they first interacted with us, and this is where they are today. And we can use that information to be able to tailor experience in this a specialist and let them know that okay, this is the pattern that we're seeing. So I actually think what I'm realizing through this conversation is that the, obviously there's a lot to, there's a there's a lot of, I don't want to say issues, there's a lot of new topics or challenges that come up when you're killing a brand, right? But when you have, it's like something always comes with another thing, you have the letter of data that you can then analyze and look to your peers to, you know, look at the data and say, Where am I seeing this person? What what even, like break it down by location of who is going to what store? And where does it make sense at all? Um, so I think it's a very valuable lesson to our, to our listeners here, to keep in mind of having the access to data, even though it's a huge database, right? Yeah, definitely overwhelming in that sense. It there's a lot to be said about having an inform your customer care team. And I would love to dive into I guess more of the technical aspects of like any technology that you're using that is helping you, you know, when someone inbounds to your support team, what are you know, how are you pulling all that different data? Is it from multiple platforms? Is it from one platform, all of that because I think anything that is technical, even if a brand is, you know, aspiring to be of a certain size, and they're not quite there yet. It's always interesting to just hear how someone who is an operator in the day to day is using technology to make you know, their their lives and their customers lives better?

Lyndsay Baylor 14:38

Yeah, absolutely. Um, you know, I think the opportunity is to find something that puts it all together, right, because there's so many platforms and things that my team works in. I'm really, really fortunate to have a very knowledgeable team, a team that some you know a lot of my teammates are specialists come from retail, you know, so they understand how their store experiences, there are so many people who have been here longer than I have. So their wealth and depth of knowledge of the product history is like super valuable, and have seen the evolution of technology, but then servicing our customers, I think, you know, it's, it's been fascinating to see how things have advanced over the past couple of years. But I think there's such an opportunity to always make it better, you know, to make it more efficient for our specialists to better service our customer, I think we are in a place of just surviving, you know, when we first started because we read the pandemic, so it's like, how many ways can we take, you know, as many calls as possible? Now we have data that can actually learn that, yeah. So as you know, what are our key times, you know, you know, through the week, hours of the day, and then implementing chat in the past year has been incredible, you know, you know, unfortunately, when I started, there was no chat feature at all, which was, you know, a little mind blowing to me, and being able to successfully add chat features for our customers has been able to help us understand how are they searching our website, you know, what were they looking at before, you know, maybe they're confused, or maybe, you know, there's some opportunities and making this a little bit more clear, or, you know, seeing where everyone is automatically driving to, and now my specialists have that visibility, which is fantastic, because it just makes the ease of everything, go from just answering a question to like, making it a whole full experience for the customer. And then also, like, upselling, or, you know, creating, you know, opportunities there, you know, whereas before, it was just kind of like I'm clicking here answering the phone here and putting it down, you know, so it's, it's been great to be able to see what our customers are seeing and, and study, you know, who they are and what they love and how they operate with the brand. And it certainly elevates our customer service. You know, there's always opportunities to get better for sure.

Mariah Parsons 17:13

Yep. Yeah. I love what you said about the, you know, it is kind of one of those things with a chat that you are like, Oh, how are we not here yet? And this is something that I see a lot. And I know we've we were talking about order tracking before hopping on this call of just like, as a consumer, because I work in this industry. Yes. Whenever I'm shopping online, I'm like, oh, so interesting. I'm like, I now my expectations are so much higher, because I know all the different technologies that are out there. Yeah. So but even before being in this industry, of expecting a good ecommerce customer experience, and I think what you said about having a chat bot and just being able to tell a more well rounded story around, okay, this person has come to our website website, because they need this, but because we can help them so efficiently, and you're freeing up some of your support, you know, queues or support tickets, because you're able to kind of proactively be on the front end of things. You might have that experience upsell, or you might be seeing, like, oh, multiple customers are coming to us for this specific question. Let's like put this in an email, or let's put this somewhere where it's like, oh, they don't have to pro they don't have to inbound to us because we're proactively messaging them about it. Yes. So I would love to dive into that a little bit, because we see it all the time, with, you know, Order Notification, specifically more around like, obviously, where's my order, and those types of tickets, which I know you're very familiar with. And so I think, like I've heard from either firsthand, or secondhand from our team of some of the worry around, adding new technology or adding something that's new is that it might create more problems than it solves. Or it might, you know, our team might not be able to handle this kind of support, because we already have all these other channels or, you know, XYZ reasons not to do it. But countering that point, there's also a lot of other reasons that you might not be thinking about that might help your team, like you just explained that you can potentially cross or upsell from a support chat widget that you wouldn't expect at the face value. So I'd love to go in into that a little bit more of how you were actually thinking about, okay, right decision to put this chat bot into our into our tactic. And then, I guess it sounds you know, it sounds from your panel, and then also this conversation that did eradicate a lot of the worries that your team was had at the time. So I'd love to hear just more about like, what the actual experience was implementing that and then onboarding your team, was it better or worse neutral than you anticipated? anticipated it being?

Lyndsay Baylor 20:03

Yeah, I mean, D all of the above, you know, I think you first of all, adapting to change, you know, is is, is a journey, you know, for for your team. So, and I think some of them have had, you know, not a positive experience when it comes to chat, you know, whether it's experiencing it within other brands or, you know, preconceived notions. So there was a little bit of tests and learn, you know, in, there's also like, the adapting of understanding what customers are doing by channel, right. So like, when someone's calling versus emailing versus social media versus chat, and even breaking it down to social media platforms, you know, that the way that people communicate what they're looking for, even if there's not a reactive need, and it's just like, engagement, you know, in general, it varies from channel to channel, you know, I think the onboarding of it was pretty smooth. You know, in a lot of that, it's just having a great, you know, vendor and partner, and really understanding what we've all experienced and our needs, I think the opportunity, you know, certainly lied in, we created the spot, really thinking that we knew what our customers were looking for, and then being able to kind of test and learn that, okay, people are not choosing this option, they're choosing this option, and why are they choosing this option, and then being able to say, you know, like, let's get into testing this AI space, you know, people liked the options, but they really want to type, you know, they don't want to feel like they don't aren't in control, you know, and so that certainly challenged the team to certainly think differently when it came to our customers. Also, making the bot better, you know, very quickly was great. And then being able to pull that data to understand like, okay, you know, what, maybe this is the opportunity, and for the next launch of the next collaboration, we can get ahead of clearly communicating to our customers on this aspect, or making it easier for our customers to be able to learn this bit of information, you know, so there's so many various elements have takeaways, you know, when you implement something like that, and like you mentioned before, you know, it can only improve the experience in the future. And now, there are things that have occurred that were like, okay, for holiday 2024. You know, we, we experimented with doorbusters, you know, last year, and it was fantastic, you know, and now we have so many great takeaways, and making sure that the communication is clear, you know, if we do decide to do GA Buster, you know, how do we set that up for the customer? How does my team get prepared for that? So I don't think we would have learned some of those elements, if we didn't have the chat, you know, in some of those other takeaways and really learning from our customers in that sense.

Mariah Parsons 23:09

Yeah, I love that, to kind of round out this conversation, and then we'll move more into like CX insights and Customer Care, and everything that your wealth of knowledge will supply there. Where do you look to when you're kind of you know, you have this problem that you want to solve? And, you know, you want to implement some technology to help you solve it? Who are you kind of looking at? Or where are you looking? Is it partners that you're already working with? Is it other leaders in the space? Is it your peers that are, you know, you mentioned that they had been in retail before? How are you kind of hearing about these new solutions to the things that you're trying to solve?

Lyndsay Baylor 23:50

I think, you know, it's, it's always best to make sure that you're learning what's out there, right? You know, because this environment is not black and white, and it's ever evolving. And so really challenging yourselves to be it, you know, the rights convention, and networking and understanding from your peers, you know, outside of your brand is super important. But really listening to our customers is what helps us evolve and grow. And I mean, I know I kind of mentioned that before. It's so easy to get stuck in like, this is the way that we've always done things, you know, but, you know, our customers, our boss, Kyndra always says that, you know, we truly use that as a mantra, especially within customer service. So, sometimes they provide great feedback, or we're putting two and two together that, you know, people don't want to experience, you know, shopping for single studs in this way. You know, like, how do we make it you know, here's some feedback and I think really challenging myself, my team to share feedback, even if it's just one or two customers that day. You know, you'd have to kind of think about, like, not everyone's super vocal, you know, and sharing their thoughts, you know, with a brand. And well, you know, sometimes you're kind of like, it's kind of interesting that someone would ask, you know, say that to us and send us an email and say, you know, you should do this, or, you know, I was so confused when I was shopping this way, you know, I didn't realize it was a single stud, even though we're seeing in that way, you know, challenge us to kind of put our hat on, you know, outside of the brand and pull, you know, another key stakeholder in and really unpack some processes. So, we have so many ideas, and so many wishes. And even when we say it out loud, it's such a great environment for collaboration internally, because we could have an idea, and then working with the EECOM team, or web merch or something like that, you know, we're kind of dialoguing and then creating, you know, a smoother experience. So, I'm truly grateful that, you know, we have valuable relationships internally, where they actually listen to Customer Care, and value our feedback, you know, and we can share that even, you know, down to design, you know, in marketing. So, you know, sharing that feedback internally is, is this kind of how we can make improvements. Hopefully that makes sense.

Mariah Parsons 26:19

Yes, yes, I heard you said, our Chief Customer Officer, she always, you know, when we're seeing customer reviews, and all that all that come through, it is always either, so it's like two extremes of an experience, right, someone who had a really tough time, really, really frustrating time, or someone who had an excellent time. And so it's hard to kind of put yourself in the eyes of someone who like just had very like neutral, good time. Not usually the insight that you're getting into the customer experience, because people often will vocalize it. Yes,

Lyndsay Baylor 26:56

they'll vocalize an outlier. Or outstanding. Exactly. Yes.

Mariah Parsons 27:00

Yeah. So it totally makes sense. And I think that, I also relate to that, as a consumer, where I, if I usually get an email, from someone of like, I would love to know your experience. Unless I truly, truly had like a great time or an awful time, I'm not going to respond, right. So I get it from a customer standpoint. But that's why I think it's so valuable, if you can put in like that little extra effort, and then you'll like, you'll hopefully automatically see that a lot of people are coming. And to be more into the scale of I had a great experience, or I appreciated this or you know, this follow up email. Right, really, really admired or really respected that you asked for my opinion to get exactly,

Lyndsay Baylor 27:46

oh, a little someone responded, right. Because, you know, we're still consumers, you know, we've interacted with the brands and to your point, you know, being on the side of it, and knowing what happens when people respond or clicked three stars or four stars and things like that, um, you know, sure I've taken the time, you know, takes a lot for me to complain about, you know, experience, whether I'm shopping or ordering something online. So, you know, I think I always challenge myself to see how other brands are doing it. And, you know, there's been times where, you know, hasn't been negative, and I'm just like sharing feedback, of course, in a very constructive way. And no one responds to you, you know, it, like lights a fire, you know, you get this auto response. And then it just challenges me even more, to make sure that we are really personalizing and customizing every interaction, you know, that we have with our customer, whether it's responding to a comment on Instagram, or via DM, or via email, like we are not a copy paste team, you know, really sit down and listen to what the customer is saying. And you get so much positive interaction, you know, when that happens, because you can tell that there's someone you know, behind that thought there, you know, there's a human there that actually really cares.

Mariah Parsons 29:07

Here, let's dig into that a little bit. So you're in terms of like commenting back on people on social media, does that fall under the responsibility of your view? Okay. I always find it so fun to ask, like, is it marketing or customer success, customer care, customer experience? Because of those reasons, where it's like, yeah, different, you know, it it like it becomes

Lyndsay Baylor 29:32

blurry, right? You know, I mean, we work very well, part of the marketing team. We work super closely with our fantastic innovative content and marketing team. But yeah, that's us replying to comments with, you know, emojis and engaging

Mariah Parsons 29:46

with people and putting your marketing hat on.

Lyndsay Baylor 29:50

Exactly, which, you know, kind of goes back to what we were talking about with like implementing chat and how does that feel with your specialists right? Having to happen that started right when I started as well too, you know, telling the team like, Hey, y'all, we're gonna take on social media, and you gotta put your, you know, Sunshine hat on, you know, especially during deployment, you know, because there's a lot of areas where 1000, bears opinions, you know, and very visible, right, we are a representation of the brand at all times, you know, so it needs to always be consistent, you know, customers are boss, you know, shining through everything that we do, like, truly, then that's how it is internally. So learning how to communicate, again, via channel has certainly been a journey for myself and for my team.

Mariah Parsons 30:43

Yeah, I think that segues really nicely into talking about your role with D IB. And like, how you want to represent Kendra Scott, and both, right, the external branding, but also internally, making sure that you're all on the same page that you're all communicating well, and that you're proud to represent a brand that is able to represent and serve so many different types of customers, because we have, right the like, ideal customer profile, or like this is this person. But the reality is, that's just like a simple way, that's a way to simplify the customer so that you can actually try and attempt to to, like sell well, right? Like, there's never one customer who's the same. Yeah, so I would love to take probably like the last 10 or so minutes of our conversation to really dive into that, because we haven't had someone who is both sitting on both teams out of brand. And especially such a big brand. So I'd love to know, like how your experience is swinging into both, and how you're looking at surveying Kendra Scott? Well, serving yourself well, serving your team well, and serving your customers. Well, at the end of the day. Yeah,

Lyndsay Baylor 31:53

absolutely. I mean, having the opportunity to think about diversity and inclusion and belonging, inequity, for Kendra Scott has just been remarkable and amazing. And similar to what you're saying, you know, one of the things I quickly learned at Kendra Scott is we don't have one type of customer, they are from all over, you know, various ages, you know, some people are buying intentionally for, you know, gift giving, you know, there's someone who's trying to treat themselves, you know, even going into engagement, you know, and really having the opportunity from a customer care, sigh. That was something working with our CMO, Michelle Peterson, and saying, like, we're seeing these different types of customers, you know, we're hearing from them all day, every day, half of them are giving suggestions, half of them are saying, oh my god, I love this, thank you so much for extended sizing or, you know, making more sizes, you know, and rains and things like that, or necklace extenders. So being able to advocate for the brand, you know, and what our customers are looking for who are already our customers, right? We're able to kind of amplify, you know, some of those customers in various ways speaking to them in a really authentic way that they could connect to I think, sometimes, you know, and I'm still learning, you know, in this space, but sometimes it's not a plug and play type of philosophy, you know, you can't just check a box, you know, has to be very authentic to what is the culture, you know, of various types of people? What does it mean? Are we speaking to them through our marketing, through our images in a way that feels authentic, and that I can connect to, you know, even as a black woman, you know, so it's really been amazing to really dissect and dive into what our customers are seeing, but also, you know, looking at other brands, you know, and seeing where the opportunities lie, and sometimes it's just about challenging yourself to say like, okay, maybe we never embarked upon, you know, showing a model in that way, you know, or, you know, hearing that there's so many women who are looking for a larger size rings, you know, or wanting to style, you know, some of our items and in particular way, you know, we think about, you know, some of our contents and icons, you know, that we have done a fabulous job, you know, that represents all different, you know, spiritualities and things like that. So, let's open and challenge ourselves more that there are some other spiritualities and things like that, that we can respectfully include, and, you know, being very intentional about how we roll that out and allocate them to the stores and things like that. So, you know, I'm super proud of what we've been able to accomplish, you know, externally but also internally as well, too, it's just like having the conversation, you know, I always tell us, we have a council that we initiated about three and a half years ago. And being able to have our employees have a voice, even louder than they did before to kind of share, you know, their experiences, encourages others, you know, from all backgrounds and cultures and things like that. So internally, it's been really great to see. And I think we have to continue to focus on that internally, in order for us to continuously share how D is evolving authentically, externally. So that's what we've been really focusing on. And it's, it's really, really been great for the brand to continue to embrace that,

Mariah Parsons 35:46

Wow, I love that there's so much to dive in there, ya know, I'm like, I have to go through it in my mind to be like, I have to hit on this, this, this this. So thank you for Yeah, sharing and giving such a comprehensive overview kind of externally. And internally. One of the things that I know, through my experience, I worked with a nonprofit, where I was the director of Dei, and it's focused in entrepreneurship. And so it is very inherent, as are very central to being an entrepreneur, that you're talking to a lot of different people, you're getting a lot of different opinions. And we can focus in, obviously, in your industry of something that is, so like dei is so inherent to, obviously your persona, your identity. And that's why it can be something that is difficult to talk about, because you're sharing a lot about yourself and your experiences. And when I think about overlaying that in the jewelry industry, of just taking pride in the jewelry that you're wearing, and it's something that I mean, I'm a very jewelry centric person, I wear a lot of rings. Yeah. And like I take pride in how I you know, like, customize each outfit with the jewelry, right? So. But when you look at like a layer deeper than that, it is you're trying to express yourself in ways that are signaling to other people like this is what I take pride in. This is my personality, this is where I'm different from other people, this is where I like to stand out. And so it makes a lot of sense, externally that like as a consumer, I want jewelry that will, you know, obviously make me feel good about my, my, my situation, my skin, I love everything, because it is something that is so inherent in like your style and your persona. And then internally, I relate to everything you're saying, because our founder at Malomo. He's a black entrepreneur. And so like, he is so so so brilliant in his leadership style, because he brings everyone in, and he makes it a very psychologically safe environment to share and bring in new ideas, whether it's your first day at Malomo, or even if you're not, you're not at Malomo. Right, like he is taking everyone's opinions, or whether it's you've been there for you've been at the company for five years, since day one. And so I love to hear when other companies are echoing those types of sentiments, and that we're in a society right now that is able to recognize, okay, little things that, you know, quote, unquote, seem so little to us that maybe we wouldn't have thought about if an employee or if a customer hadn't brought it to us that like a ring a different ring size. Yeah. And then they can shop and they can get the rain that they've been dying to watch like that they've been wanting to have or, you know, a necklace accent or something that is something we would call quote unquote, small where it's like, oh, that we can do that. That's an easy fix, right? Like to someone else, it makes their world because they've been you don't know how long they've been looking at that item and been saying, you know, I want that. So I love to hear the the kind of overlays of external and internal tip and how you're able to serve in that role. And one of the other things I wanted to ask you about was more the, I guess the insert the customer insights that you're gaining on the customer care team, and how if that if at all, if that's filtering into the DI B conversations that you're having internally of, you know, we're seeing that beyond like, I guess I'll call it product development, or the customer care team, of just being able to have, you know, from your day to day experience seeing like, okay, these customers are really pushing for this. And you can kind of have that. I'll call it objective data to support something like di D that's so that can be so subjective. I wonder does that help to have kind of like both of them coupled together?

Lyndsay Baylor 39:53

Absolutely. Um, to start with your first question, you know, one of the things that I truly admire We're here is, you know, philanthropy is the core of what we do, you know, and giving back and working alongside our incredible philanthropy team and really feeling, you know, the giving back and the care, you know, not only for our employees, but our customers and everything that we do. Seeing that firsthand from when I first started, it was kind of, like, hard to believe, you know, right, yeah, truly consistent, you know, in, in my experience, and it's really embedded in everything that we do. And I think that helps us evolve into this sense of belonging. Right. And one of the things that we've been doing in the past few months is really dissecting, like, what does that mean, you know, and it's something that, you know, you kind of alluded to, as well as, like, seeing yourself and feeling comfortable, you know, internally, whether you're an employee, whether you're a customer, and that's the opportunity in how does that evolve externally, you know, whether it's through our marketing, or through our product is, you know, are we seeing ourselves and everything it is that we do, you know, and, you know, there, that's not a slippery slope, but you know, can be a runaway train, you know, ideas, you know, and still has to be authentic to like, who we are, you know, as a brands, and, you know, and creating products and things like that, but it's certainly challenged the way that, you know, we all think internally sharing information, it's, we're creating a space where people can share their ideas, you know, even including myself, you know, or, you know, having a large population of, you know, Latina, Hispanic, you know, individuals within our brand and having over 90% women, you know, we have so many opportunities there to ensure that we're always thinking about that belonging aspect, internally, which has certainly challenged our way of thinking externally as well, too. So it's, you know, it's, it's, it's something that can feel uncomfortable. You know, I think when people say d I, you know, why people sometimes get uncomfortable a little bit, but

Mariah Parsons 42:14

it's bristle a little I think it's Yeah, yeah.

Lyndsay Baylor 42:18

It's just about, you know, creating that sense of belonging, and really challenging. You know, where are the opportunities that we can think of, and making sure that's authentic? And what we do consistently, in that way? And then our second question, yes,

Mariah Parsons 42:34

yeah. So mainly is like, how do you like see them coupling in terms of like, being able to have perhaps more data on the customers? Yeah, might have things to then I don't want to say bolster, but I guess bolster might be the best word there of like, okay, we're getting this subjective input, how do we back it up with the data? Because, right, like business, businesses business, and so you have to be like, Okay, here's the data to then back it up. And I can see with your, your responsibilities that they would obviously play well together. Yeah, absolutely. I

Lyndsay Baylor 43:08

mean, listen, the data is there, you know, and I'm really, you know, proud of our team and being able to compile data, because when we do see, like, product suggestions, or just general feedback, whether it's with, you know, a launch or, you know, people are always suggesting things, which I think is so very cool that people, you know, have the courage to do that. And I love that they feel comfortable in sharing that, that all comes our way, you know, and whether it's one or two ideas, you know, when we celebrate Black History Month, or Hispanic Heritage Month, or even Pride Month, you know, being able to capture some, and even throughout the year, it doesn't have to be specific to a cultural observance. But we are certainly pulling that together. And then really using that as, like a roundtable internally to say like, Okay, we've had 500 Customers mentioned, this particular area, you know, this is something that we could really do, and having a fantastic, you know, design and march team that will execute on that, you know, it's been really great to see, but we certainly have the data, you know, and really being able to, I mean, listen, you can glide over anyone recommending something, you know, but we want to hear from our customers, and they are very vocal, especially on social media. You know, I don't know if you're keeping up but we recently launched like the sports pendants. And the response to that has just been really incredible, but it certainly like makes you think about like, Okay, well, let's challenge our way of thinking beyond, you know, any kind of pendant you know, and so the feedback from our customers is something that we compile and we certainly share that on a consistent basis. Whether it's with marketing design, EECOM, helping a position and merchandise on the website. You know, so it's been really great to collaborate on those opportunities for sure.

Mariah Parsons 45:04

Yeah, I love hearing that. And I also just think I'll add this in before we wrap up, even though I don't want to, but I always have to the, I guess the new wave of energy that things like this can bring in right of being able to kind of have a roundtable and look and say, like, Oh, my God, we had a huge, successful launch with this one thing, where else can we take it? And I think that's what's it's definitely intimidating, because there's a lot to do. There's a lot you could try and tackle with that. But I think the smartest teams can kind of like, what's like pebble stones, rocks, stones, and Leap, leap stones, I don't know, like a pond, like different, but different one step at a time, be able to say like, okay, these sports pendants did well, like, what's something that is the next step forward? What's the next after that right, and just like, start to chip away at all these exciting launches, and collabs and ideas that are just more inclusive, when you look at like the based on consumer, and I, it'll never cease to fascinate me just to hear about, you know, the directions that certain brands are going and innovating. And I think that's something that makes this industry as a whole. Yeah, so, so awesome to be in and just be a part of, even if it's for a little bit of time. Because it is just it's fast pace. But, man, is it fun?

Lyndsay Baylor 46:27

Yeah, it's fast pace, it's fine. Yeah. And one of the things I wanted to mention is like, it also is from the D i aspects, great to really challenge ourselves on not just saying like, Okay, we're gonna create a new item, but like thinking about our current brand, you know, an assortment like customization, you know, is a really fantastic aspects of Kendra Scott. And being able to share the opportunities, you know, how you can customize something that represents you, right, and so, you know, especially thinking about Mother's Day, you know, different languages, you know, our symbols or things like that, that could represent something more than what you would characteristically or generally think about, you know, and so, our marketing team, and, you know, our creative teams have been phenomenal in supporting that, amplifying that and really listening, you know, to our internal suggestions. So it's been fantastic to see, oh,

Mariah Parsons 47:24

I can't wait to watch from the sidelines. The you know, what you all will be rolling out and then obviously, to continue to stay in touch. But this has been so so, so amazing. Thank you so much for making the time, Lindsay. It's always my pleasure to get to meet people like you in person and then obviously follow up virtually. So I really appreciate you taking the time with your double edged sword of being able to tackle everything customer retention, customer experience, and then di v. So thank you so much for taking the time. Thank

Lyndsay Baylor 47:54

you for having me. This has been great. It's been amazing to talk to you again. So Oh, good. Awesome.

Mariah Parsons 48:00

I'm glad to hear it. We'll talk soon.

Lyndsay Baylor 48:02

Okay, thanks.