Bryson Smith, MBA ★

Experience

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  1-800 Flowers.com

  Oct 2007 - Dec 2007

  Customer Service Representative

  As a customer service representative, patience, communication, and diligence was essential. We helped resolve issues between customers and florists who delivered our products. We also helped customers place orders. It was a fast paced, high stress environment. You had to work quickly and efficiently to be successful.

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  E-Z TV and Appliance

  Jun 2008 - Oct 2008

  Warehouse Assistant

  I learned to unload heavy and valuable merchandise from trucks and uncrate the merchandise, and at times arrange them on show room floor. Keeping an organized and clean warehouse was an essential part of the job. I also assisted on deliveries to customers and installation of appliances. Customer service, attention to detail, and teamwork were critical.

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  Opinionology

  Sept 2011 - Apr 2012

  Interviewing Agent

  Our job was to make telephone calls using an auto-dialing system and conduct surveys with the public. The surveys ranged from political, to market research, to customer satisfaction. To avoid biasing survey results, instructions had to be followed and scripts read exactly. To get someone to agree, you had to build good rapport within seconds. I worked quickly and excelled, usually finding myself as one of the top agents on my project every day.

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  Soapbox Creative Agency

  Apr 2012 - Apr 2013

  I manage the research department of Soapbox Creative Agency. I supervise, lead, and train several employees. I also write, design and distribute surveys and other forms of research to help the creative teams narrow their strategy to be the most beneficial to our clients. I also meet with, and present research results to clients. This requires I have a strong grasp of research methods, and syndicated research. As part of the Account Planning team, we develop research studies for Soapbox Creative Agency clients. We work with Account Executives and other departments closely, providing critical public opinion research to help craft the best and most successful advertising campaigns we can on behalf of our clients.

  • Department Head of Account Planning

    Sept 2012 - Apr 2013

  • Account Planner

    Apr 2012 - Sept 2012
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  Public Broadcasting Service

  Apr 2013 - Sept 2013

  Research Intern

  I assist the research team in creating reports using Microsoft Excel and other programs. I sort and help analyze data from different sources including Nielsen, Nielsen Npower, MRI, and other industry specific tools.I contributed to the Research department annual book created for company wide distribution as a showcase of PBS success for the season.Additionally I worked writing surveys and other primary research to be sent out to the PBS Viewers Like You research panel in order to obtain viewer feedback on a variety of topics. Show less

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  KLAS

  Apr 2014 - Dec 2017

  My role as Customer Insights and Analysis Manager was two-fold: part business intelligence and part customer experience/research. I developed new metrics to be used across the organization to better understand the customer journey and make progress towards key company initiatives. The implementation of these metrics required immense cross-team collaboration with various departments. Final approval consisted of presenting the metrics, their value, use-cases and examples to the executive team. I was able to conduct primary research with customers through phone calls, focus groups and online surveys. Most notably I was able to simultaneously conduct two research studies collecting over 400 responses combined, centered around customer value and perception of the KLAS brand. I cleaned, analyzed and charted the data sets. Those insights were then combined with other forms of data to create an hour and a half long presentation that was presented to the KLAS executive team with the aim of providing a holistic picture of the KLAS brand and state of the customer. Show less I was responsible for external brand communication and conversion efforts. This meant overseeing content, messaging and strategy for the external website. I implemented a lead generation strategy by directing the design of, and writing the content for, an external landing page about our Best in KLAS report (our most well known and in-demand report). The landing page was extremely successful and helped generate a 73% increase in downloads of the same report from the previous year. I eventually filled other roles on the team simultaneously performing multiple functions. I was heavily involved in our email marketing efforts. This consisted of determining the right audience for a variety of emails and reports we publish. I helped manage a vast database of contacts, in addition to writing all the copy for the email sends. I used customer behavior centered segmentation techniques to determine the right audience for our emails. This approach typically saw click-through rates that were 5+% higher than industry standards. As part of a small team, I also helped in supporting roles with our events. This included helping with our Best in KLAS Awards and our booth at HIMSS; one of the largest HIT conferences in the world. I led up our in-booth lead collection efforts and was able to collect over 300 new leads. Show less I helped produce and publish dozens of industry reports using tools like R, Excel, Adobe InDesign and the Microsoft Office suite. These reports account for large portions of company revenue with each selling for tens of thousands of dollars. Accuracy and attention to detail was critical to success and ensuring an on-time publication.I became proficient in data display and analysis techniques by creating charts were used to analyze the data and support the report text. To do this I had to become proficient in Excel and R to pull, clean, anlyze data.I consistently met often short and demanding project timelines while working on several cross-departmental teams and projects concurrently. This was achieved through consistent and thorough communication and application of personal time management techniques. Show less

  • Customer Insights & Marketing Manager

    Jan 2017 - Dec 2017

  • Product Marketing Specialist

    Jan 2016 - Dec 2016

  • Report Development Specialist

    May 2014 - Dec 2015

  • Researcher

    Apr 2014 - May 2014
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  General Mills

  Jun 2019 - Aug 2019

  Consumer Insights - MBA Intern

  Designed and executed ethnography research with 18 consumers, then led and facilitated research application session for brand marketing team to put research insights into action. Led team through brainstorming of 100+ ideas across 4P’s, then through processes designed to filter down, resulting in 6 impactful ideas with timelines set for execution.Organized an innovation sprint tasked with generating a multi-million-dollar idea by coordinating with a broad cross-functional team. Was critical in recruiting 45 consumers for 2 separate research studies during the sprint for testing ideas.Designed a consumer empathy and learning space to bring research insights from ethnography studies to life for the team; space was extremely well received by senior leadership, resulting in plans to roll out similar spaces across other brands. Show less

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  Discovery to Product

  Aug 2019 - May 2020

  Market Research Project Assistant
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  Vortex Optics

  Feb 2020 - Jul 2020

  Market Research Insights Consultant
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  General Mills

  Jul 2020 - now

  Led $300,000 research project consumer journey path-to-purchase and persona-based frameworks for the key B2B segments in Lodging and K12, by leveraging cross-functional collaboration to gain stakeholder alignment, managing agency research vendors and projects, and delivering actionable insights to senior leadership.Built a customer scoring model that transformed sales reps ability to target and call on the highest priority customers, by leveraging new and underutilized data sources from marketing automation software, resulting in increased efficiency across the sales force and being nominated for a company award.Piloted new ways of working on for the segment’s digital strategy task force, by adapting agile frameworks used by internal product innovation teams to pioneer new web-based experiences and resources for commercial pizza operators, designed to collect operator contact information to feed new marketing automation software. Show less Developed differential learning plans for a new Old El Paso brand, leveraging digital experimentation and repurposed consumer data to establish a sustainable research panel, enabling ongoing free insights and saving tens of thousands of dollars, earning recognition from senior leadership.Saved $10,000 and weeks of research time for a Progresso project projected to generate $15MM in year-one revenue, by using a data-driven approach to present a bold strategic recommendation to R&D and Brand leadership on product formulation, resulting in the ability to maintain the launch timeline.Led organizational transformation efforts to optimize an in-house consumer research panel by identifying and executing its migration from an external survey vendor to an internal platform, reducing costs by $65,000 annually and saving 20–30 hours per month, enabling the team to focus on higher-impact initiatives. Show less

  • Consumer Insights Associate Manager, Pet, Blue Buffalo - Category Insights & Analytics

    Nov 2023 - now

  • Consumer Insights Associate Manager, North American Foodservice (B2B) - Digital Commerce

    Jul 2022 - Nov 2023

  • Consumer Insights Associate, | Annie's Homegrown, Old El Paso, Progresso, Helper

    Jul 2020 - Jul 2022