This episode features an interview with Tom Mazzaferro, Chief Data Officer at Western Union. In this episode, Tom talks about letting data from the customer experience inform next gen product development, tips to retain talent, and transforming a globally known, 170-year-old household name like Western Union to be more customer-centric.
This episode features an interview with Tom Mazzaferro, Chief Data Officer at Western Union. In this episode, Tom talks about letting data from the customer experience inform next gen product development, tips to retain talent, and transforming a globally known, 170-year-old household name like Western Union to be more customer-centric.
Quotes
“Data really is the lifeblood of any company. Without having high quality, seamless data, you’re going to have customer experience problems. So it’s really about using the data to empower your organization, company, services and products. Data is the way to drive a company forward. "
Time Stamps
*[0:03] Intro
*[1:27] Interview begins
*[4:53] Ensuring data security at scale
*[5:57] From banking to CDO
*[8:15] Advice for the future CDO
*[9:15] The evolution of the CDO
*[10:45] What’s up next for Western Union
*[13:44] How to get customers hooked on your product
*[16:44] CDO: More than just data governance
*[19:05] Difficult decisions
*[25:18] Cultivating a positive team culture
*[28:31] Using data to develop products
*[35:00] Quick decisions
Links
Connect with Lauren on LinkedIn
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Lauren Vaccarello: Not many people can say they work for a 170-year-old company. Even fewer can say their organization is global with hundreds of thousands of locations. There’s almost one on every corner. And each one is collecting data.
I can only imagine being the one in charge of data governance at that scale. Today we’re talking to that person. He’s Chief Data Officer at Western Union, and he does much more than just data governance. Tom Mazzaferro says the role of CDO is evolving, and Western Union is evolving with it.
Everyone knows Western Union for their international money transfer service. But Tom is helping inform a major transformation of the company by harnessing data. They’re working to offer more services and products across platforms. Even at a legacy company like Western Union, Tom sees potential to serve customers even better.
Today we’re talking with Tom about tips to retain talent, letting data from the customer experience inform next gen product development, and transforming a globally known, 170-year-old household name like Western Union to be more customer-centric.
So without further ado, let’s get into it. Welcome to Truth Be Known.
Hi, everybody. Welcome to another episode of Truth Be Known. We have an awesome guest today. We have Thomas Mazzaferro. He's the Chief Data Officer at Western Union. Tom, welcome to the show.
Tom Mazzaferro: Thanks for having me.
Lauren Vaccarello: No, it's really great to have you. You've got a super interesting background. Can you tell everyone a little bit about yourself? A little bit about Western Union. I think everyone probably knows Western Union.
Tom Mazzaferro: Sure happy to. So, I started in banking. So I, my first opportunity was that the, at Chase. So I spent about a decade at Chase in rolls across operations, technology, security lending finance, credit risk, and then and then also data. After that, or so I started to make a change and I went and became the head of data and analytics at HSPC. At HSPC, I actually had three different roles. I then moved into my second role, which was the Head of Stress Testing and Solvency. So with all of our different portfolios, all of our different assets, and actually then coordinated with all of our different regulators across 64 different countries to run our stress test. So many of you know about the CCAR test in the U.S. Well, we have to do 32 of those different tests, CCAR's just one in the U.S. And then as a third role, I then moved to be the CDO of the U.S. Bank, which was then had about a year and a half there. And then I moved on to then be the CDO here at Western Union. And to your point, Western Union is a very interesting company. I think it's one of the really, truly only global companies. We operate in 200 countries around the world. We have about 150 million customers that we service every single year. And on top of that we actually helped them with their family and their livelihoods. So we allow them to send money around the world, to their family and friends and allow them to, you know, send that as we like to call it love, right, money, right, to to their family or friends to help them live and to excel in each of the different countries in things that they want to do.
Lauren Vaccarello: That's amazing. And I'd say, I can't think of a single person who hasn't seen a Western Union, and sent money, received money. I can't think of a single person or family that hasn't been touched in one way, shape or form by Western union. So you are right. There probably aren't very many more companies, maybe Coca-Cola, that's more global than Western Union.
Tom Mazzaferro: Yeah, for sure. The really interesting piece is exactly to your point. In many countries, we are actually on every corner where you look. And to your point, not many companies have that opportunity. So we have over 550,000 locations around the world. And if you compare that to a bank, for example, right. They have between five and 6,000. So to put it into scale, you know, our reach and the things that we do really is at a global level, which is amazing.
Lauren Vaccarello: No that's amazing and completely insane thinking about the scale of that. And I think about your role as CDO and the amount of data that must be going through hundreds of thousands of locations across every country, nearly every country on the planet, that are just happening all the time. And, you know, then things get, people get really upset about are money and that not working the way we expected.
Tom Mazzaferro: Yeah. If that, that is definitely a piece of the puzzle. We want to make sure we solve for our customers, right. Obviously it's their money, we're just helping them facilitate the movement from one country to another country. Right. But but obviously everyone wants to make sure that money is always safe and secure. And something that we do pride ourselves in. That you know, everything that we do, we want to make sure that the money that, that is their hard-earned money, right, is being sent and sent with care and it's, and is being safe and secure with us. And then being given then to to your friend or family, or loved one wherever they may be around the world.
Lauren Vaccarello: I definitely want to dig into all of the things that are happening in your day-to-day at Western Union, but I think it's so interesting, the path that you've taken going from starting in the banking sector and being at JP Morgan, going to HSBC and having this just non-traditional is that, I don't know if there's any traditional ways to get to a Chief Data Officer, but I'd love to hear about why the transition into data, and then how did you, who first went to you and said, "Tom, you know what? I think you should take this job."?
Tom Mazzaferro: So, so, that's really interesting when you're in the business and you're in operations and you're, you're helping to drive those operational functions, right. To support any product or any customer for that matter. You really start to understand the value and the importance of data. And what I found in my career is that data really is the lifeblood of any company. Right. So without having data and data that's high quality and that's able to you know, be set in a seamless way. You're going to have customer experience problems, wherever you look. So it's really about how do you make data empower your organization? Empower your company, empower your services and your products? And that's what really interested in me. Is you know, w whether it was in banking credit risk financials, operations, whatever it may be. I quickly found out that wow, you know, data is really what makes things work. Or not work. So why don't I go and make sure it works holistically? Right. So that's what really helped me, you know, you know, think through my career choices and my opportunity, is that was a great a great way to really drive and help to move a company forward by making sure that data works for them and not against them. And the really important piece to your point is I have a whole bunch of experience across other business functions, operations, finance risk, and so forth, which actually it helps me understand better what the business teams are asking for. Because I was in their shoes before. So I know what they need. So I think w it taught me walk through what their requirements are or what they're looking for. I'm one of the people that can help connect the dots between the technology teams and the business, and just say, here's what they really want and why they want this and how we actually use data to enable it holistically.
Lauren Vaccarello: That's amazing. And how, what advice do you have for someone in a similar role as you, or even a different role? I love what you said about data is the lifeblood. This is how you're going to have a great customer experience and have this customer 360. I, the way you describe it and having the business insight and the technical insight is so unique. What advice do you have for other people who want to get there? Who want to have data to be the thing that powers a business forward versus the thing that holds us all back?
Tom Mazzaferro: Yeah. So, so the really important piece that I can say is, never stop learning. That's the first thing. The amount of change in pace in the industry holistically. right, has just accelerated and evolved so much for the past decade. Even in the past five years, actually. Right. And it continues to accelerate. And the reason why that's so important is. You need to constantly be learning and understanding how the trends and how the world is evolving, because you need to then evolve your strategy, evolve your approach. Right? So I think that's the number one thing you have to always keep learning and keep understanding how do these new trends apply to your business, and how do you then take those trends and apply them to your business. Then move things forward holistically. That is the overall key in my mind.
Lauren Vaccarello: Okay. And then at Western Union, I can only imagine you have more data sources than I could possibly think of. What kind of data are you working with? What are you doing on a day-to-day basis? How are you taking all of this to really empower the rest of the business?
Tom Mazzaferro: Yeah. So it's really interesting as I mentioned before the overall industry for federal services and payments have evolved quite a bit, but even the CDO role has evolved quite a bit in the last five years. So, you know, in the past, there's always been kind of two different camps, right around the CDO role. One is the camp of governance. Data governance. Second camp is then data governance and then engineering, right. To basically allow you to enable and to build capabilities, right. And and services, right, for the company. We actually here have actually thought about a third bucket, right? It's both governance, engineering, but also product development. The reason why that's actually evolved in that way is that what we're seeing is that customers, since data is so important for customer experience, you need data to be an active part or leading in some cases, the next gen product development of your company. So what we actually have done is actually started to build a data product organization and started to actually now go and build and engineer new products for the customer through the CDO organization. Where every product we build is actually then data-enabled through insights, machine learning and AI. So we think about customer experience from the start rather than at a later point in time.
Lauren Vaccarello: I feel like this is this utopian world where it's, I know what's going on with the customer. I know what they care about. I know what they don't care about. And by the way, If you make this thing, we can make the customer happier. We can sell them a new product. It sounds like that's this sort of world that you're able to build right now.
Tom Mazzaferro: That's exactly right. And it's been an evolution. And it seems to be an evolution within our company, because it's a different way to think through the customer experience and the product and the life cycle, because in the past, right, they didn't have all those insights and those analytical capabilities at their fingertips. Now that we do, you can build a product for what you're hearing from the customer on feedback and through their experiences. But on top of that is once they start engaging with the product, you also have that insight at your fingertips where you can then make a change or a tweak very quickly and continue to improve on that experience holistically. Right? It really is the ability to move in an agile way. And being able to leverage data to really help to transform and evolve the business in a very fast and transformational way.
Lauren Vaccarello: That's amazing. How are there things you can tell us about how you've been able to use data to transform the business and dig deeper into those things?
Tom Mazzaferro: Sure. So, so I'll give you a simple example, right? So we've actually just announced recently at our earnings announcement that we're actually looking to start launching new products for our customer, right. That includes a now a digital bank and a, an, a banking experience for our customer. Right. In the past, we basically been very transactional, right? And our customers now are moving to more of a customer relationship with our customer. And what's really important there is then that requires multiple touch points, multiple interactions, actually many cases actually you're having a conversation with the customer, right through Omni channel chat and so forth. Being able to provide our next best offer or what they're looking for in a timely fashion. That's a really big transformational shift for our company. Where in the past, we basically have, barely offered one product being money transfer. And it's been very transactional. Right. Now, we're offering multiple products and we're having that customer engage with us on multiple products and services and being that more of that consumer ecosystem going forward. That is really how we're trying to transform the company and to better service our customers going forward.
Lauren Vaccarello: Awesome. And there are so many interesting things in there because, and remind me how old is Western Union?
Tom Mazzaferro: Oh, we're actually celebrating a 170th year, this this year. So it's been for sure, a very long standing company. And on top of that, you know, a brand that is is known worldwide.
Lauren Vaccarello: Absolutely. So you are the Chief Data Officer at a 170-year-old company. And I, data has not been at the center of this company for 170 years. There was not, there, there wasn't data, 170 years outside of probably paper receipts that somebody was making. Sure. And it's really interesting to listen to you talk about this and to listen to you talk about how you were transforming 170 year old business, coming up with new products and doing this based on, well, this is what people want, and this is what people need.
Tom Mazzaferro: Yeah it's actually been a very fun journey internally. So, you know, being able to help the the organization understand that this is an evolution, right. And it really is transforming how we today service and provide products to our customer. And based upon our research, they've been asking for this and they're giving us permission to sell it to them. So all we, so they're already, the demands there. They're asking for it. We just need to give it to them. So, so I think, you know, the really important piece here is that when you see other large institutions like the Amazons or the Apples...
Lauren Vaccarello: Mhm.
Tom Mazzaferro: What's the basis of their overall success? It's making a product that is convenient, simple, and easy to use. We're going to start applying those same principles now to basically launch new products and services to our customers. You make it simple and convenient and easy to use, you're gonna get customer adoption. That's been shown over the last decade and it shows that if you can help improve and make their lives easier, they're going to come to you. And that really is the foundational pieces of how data is now focusing on that customer experience going forward.
Lauren Vaccarello: Now a hundred percent. And you were using this data that you have, and so much rich data per to provide these insights to in so many ways, change the future of one of the oldest businesses out there and build this really bright future that also makes people happy. And you said love instead of money earlier, too.
Tom Mazzaferro: Send love. Absolutely. It is what it is, right. That's exactly what it is. People, know, some, in some cases, right, this money is helping to feed their family, having their bills, pay their rent, pay their, you know, help send their child to school. I mean, if that's not love, I don't know what is.
Lauren Vaccarello: Oh, you're completely. Right. And now if there's ways to have, you know, products that are actually going to make this easier for people to help send a child, help send their kid to school, or feed their family back home is an incredible thing. And I love that you're using all of this data and all of the insights you have to really build this great experience.
Tom Mazzaferro: Yeah, it's a, it's just a start. We have a lot more to go or a lot more to come, but w what we've come from the last year to now has already been a pretty large transformation itself. But from my standpoint, it's just a start. We have so much more that we can do and offer to them, to our customers and to the world to really help improve their experiences. Right. And their interactions holistically.
Lauren Vaccarello: I know you talked about another area of the role of the CDO at around data governance. And I think about Western Union and it's not just, it's not just data. It is it's money, it's livelihood, that's going back and forth. And I could imagine how important data governance is in those situations. Then also making sure you have accurate accuracy and visibility into what you're doing, becomes even more important there than probably in a lot of other industries.
Tom Mazzaferro: Yeah. So, so obviously we provide federal services, right? And that for us today, money transfers, sending money from a person or a business to another person or business. Then what's really important about that to your point is we need to make sure your money is secure and safe. And as part of that, we need to make sure that our data is obviously secure, safe, and clean. Because, cause that is our, our the overall foundation and base of the actual movement of money across borders, from entity to entity and person to person. So it is really important, right. To make sure that we treat our data as an asset. And we think through, how do we need to make sure that we are taking this asset, that's this information, this data that is the lifeblood of our company and making sure that it's being cared for and treated right and improved holistically, right? As we go forward in our overall journey.
Lauren Vaccarello: Absolutely. And if you don't have the, that degree of trust in your data, that this is good and accurate, you can't run your business without that.
Tom Mazzaferro: You're absolutely right. And it becomes a this is where data would become a hindrance rather than an, a enabler. So it's actually at the core of all the things we do around data.
Lauren Vaccarello: Going back to data governance, I find data governance. Super interesting. I don't know if everyone else does, but I find it really interesting because it is the, it's the thing if we get wrong, if we get, if you get data governance wrong, if you get a, if you've untrusted data, that is the thing that is going to hurt your company the most. It's worse, it's almost worse than a slowdown is bad data.
Tom Mazzaferro: Yeah. So, so to your point, making sure that it's accurate and clean is really important. And, you know, once you lose that trust and the data that you're getting and what it's telling you, it's very hard to earn that back. And that's for obviously all of our internal stakeholders, as well as our external stakeholders. Which is why having that information and having the data that is properly governed and without oversight and with the right controls truly is a foundation that, that not just Western Union, but any company, can't, can't, can't live without.
Lauren Vaccarello: So I can imagine you have to make a ton of decisions in your role at at Western Union and the decisions you make legitimately impact millions of lives. No pressure at all on that, by the way. So what's what's the most difficult decision you've had to make in your current role?
Tom Mazzaferro: Wow. What a what a good question. You know, the the most important piece actually isn't around the processes or the flows it's actually around the people side, from my standpoint. Is being on to make sure you have the right team, the right talent, the right motivation, and the people that trust each other, right. It's having a highly optimal, highly efficient, highly proficient team that that can work together and part together. Because it's impossible for one person to do everything. We all know that, right. You're only as strong as your weakest link, right. And the team really is what drives holistically, right, transformation, change, monetization itself. So from my standpoint, you know, the toughest call that I have to make every day or is basically is how do I make sure that I'm enabling my team, helping my team, upskilling them, training them and making sure that they are in the best spot to work in an optimal way and be efficient and provide the best support and ca and customer experience for our customers holistically.
Lauren Vaccarello: And then outside of Western Union what's the hardest decision you've had to make during your career?
Tom Mazzaferro: Oh, my goodness. So, so all I have to say was probably goes back to my to my Chase days. So we had to make some pretty tough decisions when we were actually doing the Washington Mutual and Chase merger and and integration. So, the slogan we had back there was "1 + 1 = 0.9." So, so how do you truly find efficiencies right through an acquisition? And a really, it really pushes, you know, a lot of people, but to think out of the box and really try to determine by bringing these two mass entities together, how do we actually operate more efficiently, more, more efficiently as one? So that me was by far the hardest.
Lauren Vaccarello: Okay. And how did you approach that? How did you approach finding "1 + 1 = 0.9"?
Tom Mazzaferro: So, so as part of that equation, the first thing I had to look at is waste. All right. What is waste in both organizations? And let's remove that. Then the next one is okay, you know, where's the overlap? Right. And, of the overlap, which processes are better? All right. Those are the easy choices, right? The hard ones become, okay, now, you know which processes are better. Is the process optimal? If it's not optimal then you got to go make it optimal. And that's how you get to the 0.9. All right. So, so it was really, it was basically those three different mental processes. That you get to a place where you can drive that efficiency at that type of level.
Lauren Vaccarello: And it's interesting. What I'm hearing from you talking about that in some ways is like to your role that now it's, you've just been doing transformation in different forms and areas it sounds like for your entire career, whether it's transforming processes there or transforming the role of data and customer experience at Western Union.
Tom Mazzaferro: Yeah. It just, and to your point, in different domains. Right. But what's really interesting is that is that if you're not transforming and modernizing at this point in the industry or in your career and what's happening holistically, you're actually falling behind your your competitors, right. And, you know, the interesting quote that I was recall from my past bosses and leaders was this is the slowest pace you will have in your career. And I always tell my team and they're like, what do you mean? But then when you fast forward a year and you asked the question and like, I just remember back a year ago, having this discussion, and you were like, I can't go any faster. Look at what you're doing now. Like, yeah, I was so slow a year ago. And just it's all about perception and where you stand today and how you continue to evolve your thinking, but how you can always continue to accelerate and find efficiencies and move faster holistically. Right. As a, as an overall team. The, the quote, the, I always tell my team is actually two things. One is that if you come work for my team, you'll learn more in a year than you will anywhere else in five years. And the second quote, right? Is that you need to be, you need to become comfortable being uncomfortable and that's really run the acceleration pace to change and always looking to evolve and transform.
Lauren Vaccarello: That is amazing. Can I steal that quote from you? Of course. Not trademarked yet.
Okay. Okay. I, I'm like, do I give you credit for this? If I'm like, what Tom told me is like, you're lucky we're going so slow right now. And it's such a great point of the rate of change that's happening, right? How it also makes the industry that we work in so interesting and exciting because everything is changing and you have to grow and transform and evolve, and you don't seem like the kind of guy that sits there and goes, let me just sit and hang out for a little bit. Status quo seems to be working.
Tom Mazzaferro: Yeah, we are definitely not a status quo organization here, you know? I always challenge my teams and I'll tell you what, you know, it's always challenging yourself. How can you define ways to do more and to do things better in, and you know, the I'm sure the the ask that all of us get from our executives are: How you, how do you do more with less? And it's, and it's really the same construct. How do you continue to basically move faster and transform with what you have today?
Lauren Vaccarello: It is, and it sounds like you'd mentioned the people part earlier. And it's rethinking and its process and it's technology that let us do more and often do more with less, you know. I run marketing for a lot of my career. We are often asked to do more with less. It's what we do. But a big piece of that is, and it sounds like just from talking to you and I could easily see this, is inspiring the team and giving them a vision, and this is how we're going to transform a business. This is how we're going to grow impact. Those types of rallying cries and get people excited and willing to do more in seeing a future they didn't know was possible.
Tom Mazzaferro: You're absolutely right. And this is about leadership, right. Is, is how do you make sure that you're always motivating your teams, but how do you also make sure the teams are operating in a way that's efficient? And know, people are always like, well, how do you make sure you're always getting a hundred percent from the team? I think that's the wrong approach, actually, trying to go if they go a hundred percent all the time, you're going to burn your team out over time.
Lauren Vaccarello: Mhm.
Tom Mazzaferro: It's how do you, to your point, motivate them right to really drive that, that transformation and the modernization and that improvement in speed right in a different way than they actually are interacting today. And as part of that, it's also being able to have them, have the ability to go on vacation, to reset, to allow them to spend time with their family, right. And, you know, at, to tell my team, you must take vacation, over the next month, you look burned out, you look exhausted, you know, you've had a tough month, like go take time off with your family. Find a week, find two weeks, go do it. Because I know that if we don't do that and they don't get the chance to rest, relax and recharge, then I'm actually going to have, you know, a lot of attrition on my hands. But on top of that, the team will become basic than a non-optimal from an ability to actually go and transform and move forward quickly.
Lauren Vaccarello: You're completely right. And it's the holistic approach to people versus the how do I get the most out of you right now?
Tom Mazzaferro: For sure, right. And that really is the long game, right. And that's how you retain the talent. Right. Otherwise the talent is going to go somewhere else.
Lauren Vaccarello: I think that's like, I can speak for myself and for my team and for myself personally, it's been harder to take that time off in the last, you know, year and a half, because where do we go?
Tom Mazzaferro: Yeah, COVID really has put a a wrench in many people's vacation plans, right, holiday plans. But he, but even if you do a staycation. Or if you go take your, your family to a day trip, you know, but it doesn't have to be, you know, a historical vacation holiday spot somewhere exotic, right. It can be somewhere, you know, close to home. But just having that break from work though, and being able to really let your mind just reset and recharge is really important.
Lauren Vaccarello: It is. Otherwise we are not. We're not going to be able to solve the right problems. We're not going to see things the right way. And I agree with you. It is our responsibility as leaders to remind our employees and remind our teams and often our colleagues of that, because every fire is really important. I can't leave. I have to finish this. It's I cannot take this time off and we can always take time off.
Tom Mazzaferro: For sure, for sure. I think, you know, to your point, being able to have that overall management, right, that basically allows you, enables you to do that is also really important. And we're actually very lucky here at Western Union where we have that type of support as well from the top down.
Lauren Vaccarello: No that's really awesome. So what, well, as you think about your role as CDO and this world is changing rapidly, data is growing at an exponential rate. What do you see the biggest changes in the next, call it five years?
Tom Mazzaferro: I really do see this shift where the role of a CDO doing just governance. It's just going away. It's going away pretty quickly, actually. Governance is part of every CDO's role, but it's not the only thing that should be part of it, right. So if you think companies wouldn't see that now. On the second hand, I also see that that the executive team and the business team is starting to see the true value of data. Especially as things move to more of a digital type of engagement model with your customers. And that actually tells you about your customer experience, it actually enables you holistically on the customer experience, right. So, so that is really where it becomes quite important, right. Sorry. So, so over the next five years, really, basically two things. I think one of which is the CDO as a actual role in addition will take even a higher, a larger step forward in the success and the transformation of the company to come. Especially as things move even more to a digital standpoint, going forward, right. And on top of that, as the business teams and the executive teams really start to understand how data really was a key part, right, in the customer experience, the journey and how the product actually is being sold, I really see this data product concept, right, of being able to enable these products and services that the company sells to its customers insight-enabled, right. Machine learning-enabled, and so forth so that, so we actually can provide that personalized customer experience going forward.
Lauren Vaccarello: Yeah, that's awesome. So, do you have any advice for a first time CDO?
Tom Mazzaferro: Hang on. It's gonna be a wild ride. But in all reality, I think it's, you know, always continue to learn and definitely get put them in a few of your peers, right? In other companies that can help and also be a sounding board as well for your ideas.
Lauren Vaccarello: I have learned so much from you during this podcast about really just interesting, innovative ways that CDOs could and should be using data. And how it, to your point, it's not about governance. I mean, yes, governance is extremely important, but there's so many more things that it's empowering the business. I. Don't normally do this, but I want to ask you a bunch of advice questions for other CDOs, because if I was a CDO, I would be sitting here going, Tom, just tell me the answer. Why do I have to go figure it out? I think Tom knows the answer. So when you first said, I think we can use data to help come up with ideas for new products, how did you, how did you do that internally? Who did you talk to? How did you start to build this out and start to build this idea out?
Tom Mazzaferro: Yeah. You know, really, as part of that, I actually talked to my manager, the the overall president of all our products and our platform, and really, you know, opened up the idea with her. And, you know, I've mentioned before, I'm very lucky where I have the executive support, right, to really be able to think through and expand and to try these new ideas, right. And be able to fail fast and be able to modify and to tweak the approach and continue to go forward. So with that, we actually made quite a bit of progress and, you know, as you started to go through and we saw things starting to really take hold and actually celebrate the things that we're doing, it really basically was, this makes a lot of sense. Let's go faster. So that's really how it took off. But, you know, as part of that, you really do need the overall support from the executive team, or at least a portion of the executive team to really make sure that you can have that air cover to really try something new and then really put something to market.
Lauren Vaccarello: And if I'm trying to figure out how to use data for customer 360 to get better insights, where do I start?
Tom Mazzaferro: So I think we started as what are you going to use to really be able to view that customer holistically, right. So, we actually went on the path of using a tool called tamer, actually, you know, is a great platform for us to enable the ability to see our customer 360. And then being able to then teach the model have the model learn holistically and improve to really be able to grasp that that, that host would be the customer, but also we can plug that in to operational systems. So the systems become then aware of a customer and all their integrations and touch points and their, and what their experience was right through the channel. Which is very important. Because whether you're in the call center or whether you're in operations, customer care experience, or if you're at a retail location, or if you're on the digital channel, the customer it's itself, the individual doesn't forget. They know what their experience has been, no matter what channel they were working with you on, right. So, but the problem is that in many companies, those channels are not connected, so we can not actually, you know, be able to direct that customer with that knowledge. With with the customers with 360, you actually can have that knowledge and then be able to then plug that into our operational systems going forward as well.
Lauren Vaccarello: And if I'm having issues with, if I'm having issues with my data and I need to fix my data governance again, like where do I start? What should I do? Just tell me how you did it. So I can just go copy this.
Tom Mazzaferro: So, so I think step one is really talking to the actual business teams. Cause what's your issue right here is the painpoints. And in many cases, the pain points are actually data quality problems. And that to me is really where you can start. Because then you are also solving a business problem. And then by doing that, and you see improved that the actual business team or the executives issue, they then become your biggest fan. Have you then help me help you then move things forward as well.
Lauren Vaccarello: So you preemptively answered my next question, which was going to be, how do I build a better relationship with the business?
Tom Mazzaferro: Solve their problems. It's that simple.
Lauren Vaccarello: not, you know, it's not rocket science. And when you say it, it's like, and again, talk to people, figure out what their problems are, but that's awesome. I feel like I'm now suddenly getting a bunch of free Tom consulting, so I probably should let you go. But we do like to end all of these with a bunch of quick decision questions. So they are just that. Question to answer quickly. Don't overthink it. You ready?
Tom Mazzaferro: Yep. Sure.
Lauren Vaccarello: What is one talent or skill that's not on your resume?
Tom Mazzaferro: I used to be a national swimmer in college.
Lauren Vaccarello: Oh, that's awesome. Okay, cool. Is there a stroke that you were good at? I should know this.
Tom Mazzaferro: Freestyle and then and then backstroke. Another interesting fact is I also am a certified diver as well.
Lauren Vaccarello: Wow. All right. So you're the guy that we want to be in the water with.
Tom Mazzaferro: In the water, I'm I'm your guy.
Lauren Vaccarello: Awesome. If you weren't working in data, what would you be doing?
Tom Mazzaferro: I, I love financial services. So I'd be somewhere in the in the in the banking side, whether it be selling to clients or doing some type of of risk management or financial management.
Lauren Vaccarello: Okay. What is your favorite book? TV show? Something that you've been bingeing lately?
Tom Mazzaferro: Lately, oh my goodness. So, I'm a big fan on Netflix. I love Netflix. So, I like all the Netflix homegrown shows. Right. Then they, they produce themselves. I'm a sucker for those what I've been bingeing lately? I feel like it's been so busy at work. I haven't, to be honest with you, I've been watching so much, but but I am definitely a big fan of Netflix.
Lauren Vaccarello: They I read something thing about this where Netflix uses data to help figure out what types of shows to make. And they look at what are the shows people are watching and engaged in and spending more time in and based on the data that they find, that's what helps them decide. Maybe we should make this type of TV series.
Tom Mazzaferro: Very interesting for sure. They do a good job. They got me hooked.
Lauren Vaccarello: Same. A part of me thinks I've watched everything on Netflix because they'll come out with a show and I will go through the entire series.
Tom Mazzaferro: I know how you feel.
Lauren Vaccarello: Partially I was like, is there something new that I've missed? Okay. Last question. What would be your top piece of advice for yourself 10 years ago.
Tom Mazzaferro: Oh, wow. I think on that one, it really is being able to really think about talent and how do you enable talent to really transform a company? You know that kind of hit me about three or four years ago. When I was at HSBC. And then I, you know, you start basically, you know, we meet someone, you put them into your memory bank and you're like, oh, this person would be good for this role, right. And then five years later you have that role, and you're like, oh, I'm gonna give them a call. Okay. Right. You know, I think that's, that to me is really important and it really helps to drive, you know, a high efficiently, high, efficient, highly efficient teams, right. You want to bring on right to your department. So that to me, I think is the number one. Is being able to really, you know, have an eye for talent.
Lauren Vaccarello: I could not agree with you more on that. This has been absolutely awesome. I hope all of our listeners got as much out of this as I did. Thank you so much.
Tom Mazzaferro: Thank you so much. Great seeing you.
Lauren Vaccarello: You too.