Lance Lambert of GreenBroz: 5 Things a Business Should Do to Create a Wow Customer Experience
An Interview With Orlando Zayas
Make it personal. Nobody wants to be a number. Providing personal service and getting right back to customers when they contact you is key. Talk with your customers and find out what their needs are. What are they missing to help their business grow? If you can ask those kinds of questions and then build what they need, you will have engagement and retention.
As part of our series about the five things a business should do to create a Wow! customer experience, I had the pleasure of interviewing Lance Lambert, VP, Marketing and Business Development, GreenBroz Inc.
Lance Lambert has spent years cultivating brands and telling stories, primarily in the mainstream digital media and marketing space prior to making the jump to the cannabis industry. Lance joined the Denver Post team in 2013, just as they were launching their cannabis industry-specific news site, The Cannabist. It was a natural fit for him to focus on digital media operations for the niche site. He has since stayed firmly in the cannabis industry lane and went on to head up media at WeedMaps, taking their content global before being tapped to run business development on the herbal side at Boveda, focusing on international growth and diversification. Subsequently he worked with Green flower Media to expand and strengthen their position as the worldwide authority in cannabis education. Lance brings his varied knowledge and passion-first attitude to GreenBroz, where he will be growing the company’s footprint with an eye toward moving into emerging markets around the globe. As a cancer survivor, and having grown up in Northern California, he has seen firsthand the benefits of cannabis, and how it can be an integral part of a healthy lifestyle. Having spent the last few years speaking at expos and conventions around the world, he enjoys connecting with others who are interested in the many different facets of the industry.
Thank you so much for joining us! Our readers would love to “get to know you” a bit better. Can you tell us a bit about your ‘backstory’ and how you got started?
I grew up in a family of automotive enthusiasts. My dad worked at General Motors, and my grandfather owned gas stations and raced cars. We had some fun rides, and the love for classic cars was handed down to the younger generation. My love of cars and outgoing personality came together in my first marketing job with Autotrader.com. At the time legacy media was still king. Billboards, TV, and newspapers were the ways cars were marketed. Autotrader.com was the disruptor. It was pretty early on in the dot-com era. We built a platform with the user experience in mind, creating an early version of today’s modern online marketplace business model. At first it was a zero revenue model, where we would allow dealers to post cars at no cost, and access was free to the consumer as well. We shifted to monetizing the model as time went on, and it started to look like an early version of the digital marketing platforms we have today. Getting in on the ground floor of the dot-com era has given me an appreciation for where we are today, having seen it unfold really since the very beginning.
This early experience allowed me to segue into the mainstream marketing and media space where I worked for E.W. Scripps, the nation’s fourth-largest local TV broadcaster. They created the wildly popular HGTV and also owned multiple newspapers, local TV channels, as well as the DIY and Food Networks. From there I went on to join Carfax, helping create a household name, influencing a model focusing on increasing brand recognition.
I joined the Denver Post team in late 2013, as they were launching their cannabis industry-specific news site. This was my first foray into the legal cannabis industry. The realization soon set in that this would be nothing like automotive, real estate, or retail marketing. The legal cannabis industry was immature and constantly evolving. It was exciting, a little like the wild west, marketing-wise. In order to navigate the challenging, ever-changing landscape of regulations I learned to be more creative, nimble, and learned how to pivot quickly. From there I headed up media at Weedmaps, the largest tech company in the space. I went on to run business development on the herbal (cannabis-industry) side of Boveda, focusing on international growth and diversification. After 3 years we were able to increase revenue associated with the herbal side by 110%. From there I went on to Greenflower Media briefly amidst COVID before landing at GreenBroz Inc., where I’m focusing on expanding the brand’s footprint domestically and internationally.
Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lessons or ‘take aways’ you learned from that?
Back in my Autotrader days when we made the shift from free ads to paid placements it didn’t go over very well with the dealers. They weren’t that interested in paying for something they were accustomed to getting for free. It was a hard sell. We had to reverse engineer the value, and show them we were a lead generation engine. In hindsight building value to justify expense would have been more ideal. We should have focused on the proof of concept on the front end.
None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story?
In the early days we didn’t have retention models for digital media sales, we were just starting to get into geo-targeting and behavioral targeting. Aggregating info on what end users do and don’t do was still new. We didn’t have a handle on the true R.O.I., and we had really no data on what happens after a sale. I built an early retention model for digital marketing and approached John Dzaran, Scripps Digital Sales Director. It was essentially a pro forma on how to retain customers. He understood what I was doing, saw the value in it and helped promote me from top salesman to Digital Retention Manager. He changed the trajectory of my entire career.
He let me start my own specialized team giving me the freedom to run with it. We began thinking about aligning advertisers expectations on what success looks like. We aggregated data to give us information on how to best serve the customer and meet expectations in tangible ways. This proved such a success that I was tasked with applying it across the company.
Thank you for that. Let’s now pivot to the main focus of our interview. This might be intuitive, but I think it’s helpful to specifically articulate it. In your words, can you share a few reasons why great customer service and a great customer experience is essential for success in business?
Great customer service is the epitome of customer retention. This is essential because it builds the bar, or ‘brand audience revenue’. You have to establish your brand, have solid representation of purpose, and this in turn allows you to build your audience. Serving your customer’s needs with an ‘above and beyond’ mindset will carry you past the acquisition conversation and into the sweet spot of customer retention. This is the goal for any business hoping to withstand the test of time. When you retain customers in the long term they are more likely to generate referrals, which can lead to growth momentum. Also note; revenues are always greater in retention sales.
We have all had times either in a store, or online, when we’ve had a very poor experience as a customer or user. If the importance of a good customer experience is so intuitive, and apparent, where is the disconnect? How is it that so many companies do not make this a priority?
Most often the disconnect comes down to the experiential side of the sale. First and foremost you need to have a product that serves a need, lives up to the hype and you need to deliver it in a way that the customer is excited about. In the cannabis retail space we have Berner of Cookies who started with one proprietary cultivar, and the rest is history. It’s the same thing with GreenBroz Inc. We started out with one machine, then quickly realized that our customers have all kinds of other needs, like bucking, sorting, and packaging. Instead of focusing on a few machines, we decided to become more of a solutions company. We have grown our offerings, as the legal cannabis and hemp industries have grown. Growing with the customer is a winning formula for any company. You need to understand your customer and you also need to understand their future needs and wants. This keeps them engaged and true loyalists.
Do you think that more competition helps force companies to improve the customer experience they offer? Are there other external pressures that can force a company to improve the customer experience?
Competition is absolutely healthy and also essential. It pushes businesses to improve services and offerings. External pressures? Yes, it’s called the internet. In the early days all we had was the Better Business Bureau, Nowadays reviews are just a quick click away and this is a real incentive for companies to do better. Every customer has a voice now. We’ve got Facebook, Yelp, google, and so on. This is by far the biggest external influence forcing companies to put customers first.
Can you share with us a story from your experience about a customer who was “Wowed” by the experience you provided?
We worked with Chris Baca at The Clinic in Colorado to bring a cannabis post-harvest trimming solution to their operation. Originally we set them up with automated trimming machines which were not only efficient, but also offered the added benefit of an end product that was comparable in quality to hand-trimmed. We wowed them by taking it a step further and addressing their sorting needs as well. They have since become a strategic partner to GreenBroz.
Did that Wow! experience have any long term ripple effects? Can you share the story?
Absolutely, it did. Out of that initial experience working with The Clinic, came the most rewarding and long term relationship we’ve had with a client. Over the last few years we have been able to use their facility for R & D, and it has become a remote showroom for us where we can now demo our offerings so other producers can get a better idea of how we can help them scale up their processing. Having a relationship like this is invaluable. We have been able to test new machines in a real-world environment, which helps us to make changes on prototypes and ensures that once we bring a machine to market it is dialed in and ready to go.
Ok, here is the main question of our discussion. Based on your experience and success, what are the five most important things a business leader should know in order to create a Wow! Customer Experience. Please share a story or an example for each.
- Go above and beyond
Deliver early, deliver more, and solve more than one problem if at all possible. A good example is our GreenBroz 215 Dry Trimmer for processing cannabis. By way of footprint and throughput it’s a powerhouse, giving the customer huge increases in efficiency in a small space. It’s one unit, no vacuums or additional components… just an exceptionally quiet motor, which solves the problem of facility workers being able to communicate easily. We entered into a strategic partnership with Brother Gearmotor, a leader in this space, allowing us to give our customers exceptional quality and this additional benefit. Just that one upgrade has provided a big value-add by creating a safer working environment.
2. Make it personal
Nobody wants to be a number. Providing personal service and getting right back to customers when they contact you is key. Talk with your customers and find out what their needs are. What are they missing to help their business grow? If you can ask those kinds of questions and then build what they need, you will have engagement and retention.
The value of a personal touch cannot be overestimated. At GreenBroz we always include a card with the box our equipment comes in that is signed by every team member that worked on that particular piece of equipment. We are proud that all our products are made in America by passionate employees.
At Boveda we created a three-tiered customer appreciation program including distributors, wholesalers, and re-sellers. Depending on the tier we would send out either swag accompanied by a welcome letter, an invitation for a welcome call with our CEO, or for the highest international distribution tier we would host the company head at a U.S. cannabis conference such as the Emerald Cup or MJBizCon.
3. Create a connection
If you have interest by association and an emotional connection that’s the best case scenario. I’m personally passionate about educating on the many medical benefits of cannabis. Being a cancer survivor myself this is close to my heart. I grew up in Northern California and have been involved with the cannabis industry for a long time. Marketing for GreenBroz has been great because they are industry-born, in that they have deep roots in the industry and understand all the business tiers, the struggles legal businesses have had to go through, and the culture surrounding this so often misunderstood plant. When our founder and CEO, Cullen Raichart was testing his very first machine he brought it up to Northern California and had growers test it in real-world situations and then asked for feedback so he could build the best possible product. He also provided help to the community when the devastating fires struck in California and producers lost everything. It was the right thing to do, as the company has a strong connection to the community. As I always say; those that grow know.
4. Optimize the customer’s journey
At GreenBroz we focus on being consultative sellers, not hard sellers. We are in it for the long haul. Our hope is to create a long term relationship with our customers and to help facilitate their growth plans for the future. We provide traditional consulting-type services, but we also want to provide as much education and good information as possible. We provide educational newsletters, webinars, videos, blogs, IG Live events, and detailed “how to” info on our website. This approach enhances the customer experience, and provides real value.
We also align ourselves with industry-leading experts such as Kevin Jodrey and Ed Rosenthal, so we can offer advice from trusted professionals to our customers. Making educational videos available on our website helps customers learn how to use the equipment optimally, and shows how others are using our equipment to scale up.
5. Keep it simple
“Keep it simple stupid ” is a common marketing saying that’s been around for a long time because it still holds true. Business owners and managers are busy. If you can keep every part of the process efficient, simple, and as painless as possible you will create customer loyalty and a ‘win win’ for both the client and your company. Having a streamlined process around purchasing, servicing, and technical assistance is the way to a customer’s heart. At GreenBroz we don’t use chat bots, or similar automated customer relationship solutions. We put a lot of time and effort into engaging with customers one-on-one directly, and we make sure that they get connected with the right person who is best equipped to address their request in a timely manner. Putting time and effort into streamlining your customer communications protocols early on will yield big gains in the future.
Are there a few things that can be done so that when a customer or client has a Wow! experience, they inspire others to reach out to you as well?
Leveling up the customer experience is a real value-add as far as referrals go. If you stay at an amazing hotel that went above-and-beyond to ensure you had an unforgettable stay, you are more likely to talk it up to all your friends. The same holds true for any purchasing decisions you make for your business. The basics you need to create an enjoyable customer environment are attentive, friendly, and efficient customer service. Once you have that in place it helps to offer extras. We give GreenBroz Bucks, or other surprises to customers as a thank you to those who have voluntarily provided a testimonial. We also give swag to our customers, which creates additional brand visibility. Lucky Flower Farm in Oklahoma gave a particularly enthusiastic testimonial after we did a video facility tour with them, so we decided to surprise them with a free sorting table. They were so impressed with our products and services that they bought all new equipment for their 30,000 square foot facility that is still in the build-out phase.
My particular expertise is in retail, so I’d like to ask a question about that. Amazon is going to exert pressure on all of retail for the foreseeable future. New Direct-To-Consumer companies based in China are emerging that offer prices that are much cheaper than US and European brands. What would you advise retail companies and eCommerce companies, for them to be successful in the face of such strong competition?
The thing that will make you stand out as a differentiator by way of Amazon is your brand association, customer experience, and customer service. The travel industry provides a good example of how companies can incentivize customers and encourage brand loyalty. You can book a hotel on Orbitz, Travelocity, etc. or you can join Marriott or Hilton’s customer loyalty programs that come with real perks such as discounts, free stays, concierge service, waiving of resort fees, free breakfast, etc. Creating an exceptional customer experience and eliminating the middleman is the ideal situation. This customer retention model is becoming more common.
You are a person of great influence. If you could start a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. :-)
I would start a movement around peer-to-peer education in the cannabis space. There are many, myself included, who fully embrace cannabis and understand the many benefits. Sadly, there are so many who do not understand the true benefits. I see stories online frequently about how cannabis may lower your IQ, or invoke laziness. If we could stop with big industry throwing money at politicians via lobbyists and for example, move all this money over to the other end of the spectrum where education and access could be guaranteed for all cancer patients, this would truly make a huge impact for so many people worldwide.
This was very inspiring. Thank you so much for joining us!
About The Interviewer: Orlando Zayas is the CEO of Katapult, an award-winning omnichannel payment platform. Zayas is known for his revenue growth strategies and visionary leadership in the eCommerce and retail space. His future-forward expertise has led companies such as GE Capital, Safe-Guard Products International, and DRB Capital. Zayas is also highly committed to providing educational opportunities to underprivileged communities through his philanthropic endeavors. Zayas’ business insights are regularly featured in publications such as Forbes, Entrepreneur Magazine, Retail Insights, and more.
