Take a not-so-random walk with me and my colleagues Brendan Miller and Jennifer Wise as we go deep into the case study of The Home Depot. The company ranked at the top of our recent The Forrester Retail Wave™: US Mobile Web, Q4 2017 evaluation. Beyond reporting the scores, we also went in search of some behind-the-scenes color. We did this with the help of Prat Vemana, VP of online at The Home Depot. The result is a brief for Forrester clients (here), including a wonderful podcast-style audio recording that we invite everyone, client or not, to stream or download.

As we say in the audio, simply checking the boxes doesn’t do it. Most mobile web experiences check the basic boxes. But the winners — The Home Depot included — went the extra step of rethinking how those features are experienced as a customer. A couple of smart things you will hear from Prat:

  • The focus on the customer starts at the top. Right from the founder continuing to the present-day CEO, The Home Depot has an ethic of helping the customer get right to the specific product they want. Prat’s team carries that into all the digital channels, mobile especially so.
  • You have to translate the customer’s intentions into actionable experiences. Prat shares how they follow customers in the store, interview them at home, and follow up with them after the purchase. By listening carefully, they can tweak the digital experience to improve the overall customer journey.
  • The way forward is to test, measure, and iterate. You’ll hear several examples of Prat’s team making changes, learning quickly from the success (or not) of that change, and then quickly changing the experience based on the the measurable feedback received.

We hope you enjoy this new format for getting more insight from a leader and that you share it on Twitter or LinkedIn. Consider this episode one; we have a list of additional winners in our rankings that we want to profile in the coming months. See you then.