Creating deeper, more intimate relationships with customers is an ongoing goal for marketers everywhere. For Restoration Hardware CEO Gary Friedman, cultivating more intimate, personalized customer relationships is a top strategic focus.
“We’ve got a pretty large and I think very logical strategy for how we think about the customer long-term, and have an integrated, not only view of the customer, but really a much more intimate relationship with our customers going forward,” Friedman said during the company’s Sept. 10 second-quarter earnings conference call, according to Seeking Alpha. “We’re working across all channels of it now, and there are aspects of systems that go to that. There are aspects of the supply chain and delivery that go to that and things we’re doing on the supply chain and delivery side of the business. There are aspects of the service level in the stores, and design services and so on and so forth. That’s a very holistic strategy they we’re pursuing on multiple fronts. And when we’re ready, we’ll lay that out in a meaningful way to you.”
Friedman believes some people underestimate how well the company executes.
“And I think what – compared to other people in our sector, I know it looks like we’re going so much faster, and it’s true and we are,” he explained. “And we’re doing so much more, and it’s true and we are. But we’re a different organization. We have different people. And we have different methodologies and processes. We’re adding a restaurant and a wine bar in Chicago. It’s so little compared to everything else that we’re doing that is so important, but a café and a wine bar and a store, creating a different kind of experience, it’s like a little test. I wouldn’t focus too much on it. We got the best partner in Chicago; the best restaurant operator is our partner. We test, and prove, and scale new businesses here on a regular basis every season and every year since we’ve been a public company. We hit our numbers every year and every quarter. We do what we tell you we’re going to do. We’re not perfect, but we’re pretty good.”
But, at the same time, Friedman added: “The world is changing before us and we had to reach the customer, whether it’s through stores, whether it’s through print, whether it’s through digital, whether it’s through social. There’s so many ways to address marketing spend today. And I’d say that the hardest job in America today, and in any company, is probably going to be the Chief Marketing Officer. It’s probably why we don’t have one.”