The State of Retail Today: An interview with David Ressinger & Jim Malafronte of Zenza Consulting Artwork

The Clienteling Podcast

Welcome to the Clienteling Podcast! On our show, we'll discuss a broad spectrum of customer engagement, clienteling and retail technology insights, and we’ll provide plenty of examples and case studies directly from some of the most successful customer-focused luminaries in our industry. We'll discuss why in most cases, innovation and transformation is not a technology issue as much as it's a people, process and methodology problem. Clientricity and in particular this podcast, is focused helping retailers think through those challenges and develop a repeatable process to ensure that their stores are delivering on customer expectations and that the organization can fully benefit from those technologies deployed. In this podcast you'll gain a deep understanding of what’s working, what isn’t and where you should consider making your customer-centric technology investments. We are hoping that after spending 20-30 minutes listening to each episode you will leave energized and ready to apply what you’ve learned in your own business. We look forward to bringing you this podcast several times a month and would welcome your thoughts, ideas and comments. If you are passionate about customer centricity, clienteling and retail and would like to be a guest on the show, please send me a personal message at bryan@theclientelingpodcast.com. If you want get more personalized help or if you are interested in advisory services, contact Clientricity at info@clientricity.net

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The Clienteling Podcast

The State of Retail Today: An interview with David Ressinger & Jim Malafronte of Zenza Consulting

August 17, 2020 • Bryan Amaral • Season 1 • Episode 6

In this episode, David Ressinger and Jim Malafronte join the show and are interviewed by Bryan Amaral. David and Jim are founding partners at a new retail consultancy, Zenza Consulting.

David is a Strategy and Operations consultant with over 25 years of experience delivering business value for his clients in areas such as retail and brand strategy, store operations, and technology innovation. David was previously with several boutique consulting firms as well as Andersen Consulting.

Jim has over 30 years of experience with a concentration in workforce management, retail strategy, omnichannel retail, customer engagement, technology, merchandising, analytics and process engineering. Jim was previously with Macys as well as KPMG and Deloitte.

First, the guests explain why they formed the new consultancy and what makes Zenza relevant in today's challenging retail environment.

Next, the duo discussed those issues that are impacting retail operations today. Topics included demand fluctuations and the impact on inventory, spending patterns, traffic, and labor requirements. Jim shared perspectives on workforce management and why existing models and metrics don't make sense in a post-COVID world.

The team discussed the changing complexion of stores, the development of new and smaller store formats, new staffing decisions consistent with the changing roles of stores, new technology investments, and improving customer experiences. They more deeply explored key operational areas such as revisiting the labor model, forcasting challenges, operational execution, utilization, and the importance of doing the right thing for a specific time of day, every day, every week.

Finally, Jim and David shared a few golden nuggets that retailers should be considering as they move forward into the next age of retail.

Enjoy the show!

Resources:

Zenza Consulting Website: zenzaconsulting.com

Zenza Consulting Phone: 1-630-240-2034

David's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/daressinger/

Jim's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jim-malafronte-7015b23/

Bryan’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bryanamaral/

Bryan’s Website: https://www.clientricity.net

Bryan’s Email: bryan@clientelingpodcast.com or bryan@retailtechexec.com

Call Bryan: 404-348-4849

Tags: retail clienteling clientricity zenza consulting