MY FIRST JOB
My first job was aged 12, working in my aunty’s shop. I was in charge of 2 things; putting precisely 5 pounds of loose potatoes in a plastic bag, secured with a little sticky seal; and putting the supplements in the weekend newspapers for delivery. I’ve managed heavy responsibility from a young age.
My retail career took off from there, from selling high end handbags in a small boutique (noo it doesn’t matter it’s not the same shade as your shoes, people can’t see your shoes & bag at the same time can they?!), to outselling every team member on foaming trainer cleaner while dressed in a Wigan Athletic football kit (the owner Dave was the Chairman of Wigan Athletic in case you were concerned). Dave was a really nice man.
ON TO HOSPITALITY
Then I turned 18, and got myself my first hospitality gig at a bar quick smart! Free drinks, check! Free nightclub entry, check! Live 15 yards up stairs so no bus or having to call my pissed off dad to get home after said nightclub, check!
And I’ve stayed here in one form or another ever since. As a GM, Ops Manager, and latterly as a Marketing Director. I am hospitality & retail to my core.
FOUNDING DATAHAWKS
I founded DataHawks to help fix what seemed to be a never ending onslaught of bad luck – recession, covid, business rates, etc. The goal being to empower marketers with data led insights about their precious customer base, because I know from the giants who came before us, Tesco Clubcard being the giant of them all, that to be a customer business, we have to be a data business.
But our desire to help, led us to compromise too many times. Instead of surfacing & activating really juicy insights, the kind which can literally drive business changing results, we kicked the strategy can down the road a bit further. Because now ‘wasn’t the time’ or the board ‘wanted this to go to the whole base’.
The irony being, that the standard for marketing in many hospitality and retail business is the antithesis of putting the customer first.
THE REASON IT ALL STARTED
I turn 50 in a few weeks. That’s 38 years of hospitality & retail pumping through my veins, because I want to do work which positively impacts people.
And so I’m returning to the reason I started this business. In this era of hustling for covers and sales, in this era of DIS-loyalty – to increase frequency, life-time value and retention (and ultimately loyalty) by using data to build connections with customers, better than ever before.
And I KNOW it works. Because when we nurture customers properly, and deliver the right message, to the right person at the right time, the incremental financial impact of that can be felt by everyone – from CFO to ops.
The market has changed, so your marketing has to. There is no excuse, we have the data, the tools, and people like me and my team to do so.
If we didn’t care, we’d be selling inner tubes or freezer bags. If we want their loyalty, we honestly need to do much much better by our customers, and we need to do it now.
LET’S GO
I’m serious about delivering business changing revenue and unrivalled customer connection to your brand, if you’re serious too, drop me a message today and come join the dozens of hospitality & retail brands already doing it.
