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2025-09-15 22:06:00| Fast Company

In a world overloaded with noise from competitor campaigns and industry hype, its easy for brands to get distracted by chasing the next shiny thing. But what if the real game changer isnt out there in the market? What if its quietly waiting in plain sightin your customers? The truth is, when customers buy products, they place trust in that brand. Winning that trust is more than a marketing stunt or a flashy campaign. Its a relentless, unapologetic obsession with understanding who the customers are, what they truly need, and how to earn their loyalty every single day. This is the only strategy proven to build lasting growth and relevance. At AT&T, weve learned that customer obsession is the North Star guiding every decision, every innovation, every interaction. This commitment has reshaped how we think, operate, and grownot overnight, but over years of listening and learning. Customer obsession and trust drives sales Why does customer obsession work? McKinsey found that companies excelling in customer experience achieved more than double the revenue growth of those that continually miss the mark. It also fosters trust, and consumers spend more at companies they trust. A 2024 PwC survey found that 46% of consumers purchased more from companies they trust, and 28% said they paid a premium. Customer obsession drives retention, deepens relevance, and ignites advocacy, the kind of loyalty that no campaign can buy. Being customer-obsessed requires durable insights and full company alignmentfrom legal to finance, field technicians to operations. It means balancing the cold, thin data, the metrics and KPIs, with thick data, the rich, contextual insights that reveal the human story behind the numbers. Put simply, its mixing IQ with emotional intelligence to truly understand your customers. Obsessing over customers also means owning your mistakes quickly, and proactively making them right before being asked. That transparency and accountability builds customer trust. As we all know, no company is perfect. The difference is in how a brand responds when it falls short of customers expectations. A long-term mindset Ill be honest: This is a multi-year journey, not a quick fix. It demands patience, resilience, and a long-term mindset. Some organizations resist, fearing customer-centric investments will cut into bottom lines. Others mistakenly believe theyre already there. Customer obsession isnt a choice between people and profitit’s what creates the momentum that sustains both. Heres an example of what it can look like in practice. This year, we launched the AT&T Guaranteea first-of-its-kind promise to deliver the connectivity our customers depend on, the deals they want, and the prompt service they deserve. If we dont get it right, we proactively fix it. Not with apologies, but with action. The AT&T Guarantee is a reflection of the culture were building, one where frontline teams are empowered, executives are accountable, and customer trust is earned every day. This didnt happen overnight. We took the time to understand our customers needs and then invested millions of dollars to build and fine-tune the capabilities to make this possible. Since launching it, weve seen measurable improvements in satisfaction and loyalty. Its proof that obsessing over customers isnt just the right thing to do, its also good for business. A sustainable advantage My challenge to leaders is this: Listen carefully to your customers and go deep into the why questions. Be willing to disrupt your own status quo to meet their evolving needs. Obsession means culture change. It means aligning your entire organization around your customers, and holding yourself accountable when they say you dont get it right. When everything changes at lightning speed, customer obsession is the only sustainable advantage. Because your customers arent just buyers; theyre your partners, your advocates, and ultimately, your future. Kellyn Smith Kenny is chief marketing and growth officer at AT&T.


Category: E-Commerce

 

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2025-09-15 20:30:00| Fast Company

A growing number of car owners are finding themselves underwater on their auto loans, according to new data from the auto shopping website Edmunds.com. In short, that means what they owe is larger than what the cars are actually worth. Edmunds reported that underwater trade-ins are at their highest record since the first quarter of 2021, during the pandemic, when 31.9% of new-car trade-ins were upside down. The latest data from Edmunds for the second quarter of 2025 revealed that more than 1 in 4 new vehicle trade-ins are underwater. Simply put, that means 26.6% of trade-ins for new cars had negative equity, up from 26.1% in Q1 2025 and 23.9% in Q2 2024. The most recent data showed many Americans with upside-down car loans owed, on average, $6,754 in Q2 2025up from $6,255 for the same period last year, but still slightly lower than for the first three months of this year, when it was $6,880. “Consumers being underwater on their car loans isn’t a new trend, but the stakes are higher than ever in today’s financial landscape,” Ivan Drury, director of insights for Edmunds, said in a statement. Drury added that “affordability pressuresfrom elevated vehicle prices to higher interest ratesare compounding the negative effects of decisions like trading in too early or rolling debt into a new loan. “And as buyers take on new loans with much higher interest rates than those from just a few years ago, even potential tax deductions can’t meaningfully offset the thousands more they’ll pay in interest,” he said. That tax deduction, which is tucked away in President Donald Trumps massive 940-page tax bill that was signed into law July 4, allows many people, for the first time, to deduct interest on their vehicle loans; and it is available whether or not taxpayers itemize deductions. However, the vehicles must be new and assembled in the U.S., and the loans issued no sooner than this year. For more consumer information on underwater car loans, Edmunds offers advice in this guide. Shoppers can also use Edmunds’s appraisal tool to determine their car’s current value.


Category: E-Commerce

 

2025-09-15 20:10:00| Fast Company

Fast-food chains are losing their breakfast customers to an unlikely source: gas stations and convenience stores. Turns out, more and more Americans are getting their morning start by heading to the pump, or their local 7-Eleven, as consumershit with skyrocketing prices, inflation, and an overall higher cost of livingare tightening their spending and eating out less. New data from market research firm Circana found visits to “food-forward convenience stores” increased a whopping 9% for the quarter ending in July, while fast-food restaurants like McDonalds saw a 1% increase in in-store morning traffic for that same period, as reported by CNBC. “Food-forward convenience stores” include Pennsylvania-based Wawa, whose coffee bars and pre-made breakfast sandwich are a major draw in the MidAtlantic region, and Caseys General Store in the Midwest; both of whom are expanding their food offerings, per CNBC. [Photo: Jeffrey Greenberg/Education Images/Universal Images Group via Getty Images] At the same time, 7-Eleven’s Japanese parent company Seven & i Holdings is betting big on Japanese-style convenience storesknown for their fresh prepared food including their popular egg sandwicheswith a five-year, $13 billion campaign to add 1,000 Japanese-style in-store restaurants in the U.S. with quicker service, and fresher food, according to The New York Times. Whether its hot food or cold food or any kind of food, we have to lean into how we improve the quality and the experience,” Seven & i Holdings CEO Stephen Dacustold the Times. “Thats what Japan does extraordinarily well. Dacustold, a former Walmart executive, who started as CEO of 7-Eleven’s parent company just three months ago, is leading the charge. In the Midwest, Kwik Trip has also been “upping its game for years with fresh food options” on top of the hot dogs and breakfast sandwiches, according to Catherine Roberts, senior business editor at The Minnesota Star Tribune.


Category: E-Commerce

 

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