STARWOOD RETAIL PARTNERS

PUTTING THE HEARTBEAT BACK INTO THE LOCAL MALL

Challenge: Develop a guest experience strategy for 30 malls

Deliverable: Customer Experience Strategy and Tactics

Concept: "I love it here"

Starwood Retail Properties purchased 30 malls across the US and needed a customer experience strategy that would unify the properties and build equity for this new brand.

We started by co-creating with shoppers asking them to dream about their ideal future mall. We quickly learned there’s a lot of love for the local mall. Shoppers were bullish about its future. However, none of them felt at home in the mall.

So we set out to create an inclusive guest experience strategy that would meet the needs of all shoppers and make the mall an easier, more comfortable and authentically engaging destination.

One key strategy and tactic we helped to develop and roll out is called Live 360. It's a new way of thinking about how the community uses the mall's space. Live 360 engages culturally interesting people in the community empowering them to bring their talents to the local mall and share them with the community. This program was prototyped and tested and is not rolling out to all 30 properties. Our team has helped to create the infrastructure and training materials for the program as well as the implementation of the training and development of action plans for each property.

Other projects we have worked on include, strategic roadmap planning, company vision and mission development, property guest experience guidelines and standards, sponsorship pop-up design and local store design initiatives.

“The Riley Group brings enthusiasm, passion and forward thinking to the Starwood brand. I’ve been working with Carl Riley specifically for over two years now and he is dedicated, community-minded and eternally upbeat. The Riley Group is a team of strategic and creative thinkers and project managers who adapt to change quickly and constantly strive to move the needle.”

— Chelsie Petereit, CMD, Vice President of Marketing, Starwood Retail Partners