–Edwards Will Head up Both the Market Insights and Sales Teams Providing Market Research, Data Analysis and Strategic Consulting to the World’s Leading Multi-Unit Enterprises
–Expanded Team Combines the Analytical Bench Strength of Mindshare with Strategic Consulting from Empathica
–Strategic Market Insights Team Brings Together 23 Team Members including Chadly Hortin, SVP, Marketing Insights; and Sandra Tamburino, Senior Director, Marketing Insights
SALT LAKE CITY (October 22, 2013) – Mindshare Technologies, the largest provider in Voice of the Customer (VoC) solutions, today announced the appointment of Dr. Gary Edwards, Ph.D., former chief customer officer for Empathica, to the position of chief customer officer (CCO) for the newly combined company. In this position, Dr. Edwards will leverage his 25 years of research, consulting and sales background to lead both the Market Insights and sales teams, which will provide market research, data analysis and strategic consulting for the world’s leading multi-unit enterprises. These teams bring together the analytical bench strength Mindshare is known for with the market research and strategic consulting capabilities from Empathica.
Dr. Edwards will also serve as the customer advocate on the senior management team—supporting Mindshare’s “customer first” philosophy. As such, he will play a critical role by influencing client strategy and customer relations across all departments, including sales, marketing insights, marketing, finance, product development and client services.
“Gary’s extensive experience with market research and strategic consulting is an essential part of our vision for providing the most comprehensive VoC solutions available,” said Lonnie Mayne, president of Mindshare. “His unique ability to help companies strategically leverage customer data to better understand what drives differentiation for their brand and use this knowledge to drive customer loyalty is unparalleled. We are excited to expand the team under his leadership.”
Dr. Edwards served a key leadership role during program development, implementation and follow-up with clients for the past nine years while at Empathica. For over 15 years prior, he led worldwide and domestic research projects in customer and employee research. Dr. Edwards’ prior experience includes serving as a Senior Vice President at Maritz: Thompson Lightstone and as an account executive in the then newly formed Financial Services Research Group. Prior to Maritz, he served as the General Manager of Gallup Canada. His research career began as an epidemiologist for the Culture, Community and Health Studies division of the Clarke Institute. Dr. Edwards has a Ph.D. specializing in Social Research Methods from Wilfrid Laurier University. The marketing insights team will include 23 team members located in both the Salt Lake City and Canadian Headquarters. The team will include Chadly Hortin, SVP, marketing insights and Sandra Tamburino, senior director, marketing insights. The team specializes in data mining, business intelligence, quantitative analysis, text analytics, multivariate statistical analyses, measurement and data visualization.
Hortin has more than 20 years of senior-level executive experience in technology design, consumer behavior analysis, product development, and market creation. Hortin and his team are known for assisting companies in applying technology at the point of customer interaction to enhance the quality of each customer experience. He has implemented and supported solutions with many Fortune 500 companies, and taught courses and provided corporate training for hundreds of organizations. Tamburino has more than 15 years of experience in designing, executing and analyzing both employee and customer measurement programs. Tamburino and her team apply both descriptive and advanced statistical techniques to determine how disparate business facts about Product & Service Quality, Leadership, Competitiveness, Employee Readiness and Brand Affinity are interrelated and link to business performance.
“Most companies have a lot of data about their customers, but what they are challenged with is truly gleaning understanding from the data in a way that allows them to make strategic business decisions to improve customer experience, which in turn translates into better business performance,” said Dr. Edwards. “Our Marketing Insights team is expertly skilled in applying the science of customer behavior to business in a way that is actionable. I look forward to serving our clients in this new role, and expanding upon our ability to provide them with a deeper understanding of how to leverage the voice of the customer.”
About Marketing Insights
The Marketing Insights team helps businesses understand the “drivers of the drivers” for customer loyalty. The team offers a number of services to clients, including:
- Executive Value Mapping – Interviews with key stakeholders to align goals/objectives for the program.
- Customer Journey Mapping – Uncovering what constitutes the “perfect” customer experience.
- Program Design and Roadmapping
- Advanced Multivariate and Econometric Analyses
- Structural Equation Modeling/Path Analyses – Discovering the “drivers of the drivers” of customer loyalty.
- Linkage Analysis and ROI Modeling – Statistical modeling of customer survey results to both employee engagement and to unit level sales outcomes.