Jess Gaedeke (00:00)
Welcome to Dig Inspiration, a quick recap where we dig deeper into the story behind the story. In each bite-sized episode, I'll revisit key moments from our incredible guests, highlighting the most inspiring parts of the stories they share. And today we're dropping a quick reflection on some of the most memorable parts of my talk with Ronda Slaven She's VP Market Insights and Competitive Intelligence at Synchrony. And first,

I really thought that the whole focus of her story was truly inspiring. Talking about the thought leadership that she's done now for 13 years on the customer journey for bigger ticket purchases. So we're thinking things like furniture, jewelry, those types of things that take a lot more consideration. Journeys are not linear. And especially when there's been so much change in the past decade, this journey for big ticket purchases is more like a loop, right? Where consumers are adding in

searching on social media and sort of fact finding, seeking confidence and validation that their purchase is the right thing in that instance. And so I just think it's really interesting to think about how a study like that needs to continue to adapt to some of the modern influences and just how much more valuable that study becomes because of it. And so I love a customer journey. It's some of my favorite work that we do here at DIG. And so that part really spoke to me.

And speaking of valuable, know, one of the things I loved about what Ronda shared is because I'm a commercial professional, I really love it when people place an emphasis on the role of research for adding value to their customers. And so in this story, Ronda talked about the thought leadership that Synchrony is providing. It's helping her sales team, you know, with new business development. It's helping them expand client relationships. And so when you can offer insights that are really craved,

The people that are using those insights, they feel at a loss without it. Your insights are a piece of the puzzle. There's nothing better than that. And that really contributes directly to the revenue for the business because the customers are trusting, in this case, Synchrony to be the leaders in the space, to bring new thinking. And so the idea of that report really translating into revenue is pretty powerful.

And then the piece that Ronda shared that's super important for everyone to hear about is, you know, there are some really serious concerns about data quality out there in the industry. And I really love that Ronda acknowledged that there's lots of reasons for how we got here and also kind of that we should share some accountability that the clients have driven some of that, right? They've pushed over time for longer surveys, more taxing ⁓ for less expense. And so it's sort of

created a little bit of this demand for something that might not be serving the best interests of data quality. And so together as an industry, we really need to right the ship and collectively solve the problem. Great shout out to the Insights Association for their part in helping with this important issue. But I just really love seeing Ronda help take a stand against something that we need to solve collectively.

Well, that's your DIG inspiration recap for the week. We would love to hear your takeaways and thoughts on the conversation. So please visit the link in the description and leave us a comment.