Summary:
Welcome to another great episode of Startup Junkies!
On this episode, hosts Caleb Talley and Jeff Amerine sit down with Rick West and Henry Ho, co-founders of Field Agent, where Rick serves as the CEO and Henry is the Chief Strategy Officer. Field Agent is a tech company built for winning at retail by connecting brands to shoppers across the country. This enables companies to capture in-store information, gather rich consumer insights, and drive product trials completely on demand. Throughout the show, Rick and Henry discuss the solutions Field Agent provides, how to improve interactions with customers, and how to create business ventures that are scalable and repeatable.
Show Notes:
(0:57) Introduction to Rick and Henry
(1:41) Field Agent’s Backstory
(9:33) About Field Agent
(14:18) Raising Outside Venture Capital
(18:56) What’s Next for Field Agent
(26:03) Interacting with Customers
(27:56) The Future Utilization of AI
(35:16) Scalability and Repeatability
(39:13) Northwest Arkansas’s Collaborative Ecosystem
(46:27) Advice to Younger Self
(49:57) Closing Question
Links:
Quotes:
“We built this platform along with a crowdsourcing engine to help our clients understand store conditions like pricing product, distribution, merchandising, etc…We also created it so we would be able to gain everyday shopper insights into their shopping experience.” – Henry Ho, (10:19)
“We’ve created an opportunity or a marketplace for people to be able to come in and see items and actually purchase as opposed to talking to a bunch of different sales people from different companies to try and make something work.” – Rick West, (19:24)
“We think we have the secret sauce to have a services mentality, a sales led growth mentality, and taking the best of that and then productizing it to make it scalable and repeatable.” – Rick West, (35:37)
“I think one of the joys I have as an entrepreneur is not only are we pouring into business entrepreneurs, there’s a whole bunch of social entrepreneurs in Northwest Arkansas that are doing incredible things.” – Henry Ho, (44:51)
Consumer Insights with Field Agent
On this episode, hosts Caleb Talley and Jeff Amerine sit down with Rick West and Henry Ho, co-founders of Field Agent, where Rick serves as the CEO and Henry is the Chief Strategy Officer. Field Agent is a tech company built for winning at retail by connecting brands to shoppers across the country. This enables companies to capture in-store information, gather rich consumer insights, and drive product trials completely on demand. Throughout the show, Rick and Henry discuss the solutions Field Agent provides, how to improve interactions with customers, and how to create business ventures that are scalable and repeatable.
Providing Innovative Retail Solutions
Field Agent’s goal is to offer retail solutions for the mobile age, meaning it harnesses the smartphones of shoppers to help brands, retailers, restaurants, and agencies spot, fix, learn, and grow. As a result, Field Agent launched a business-to-business marketplace called Plum Marketplace where customers can shop, purchase, and launch its most popular retail solutions in a matter of minutes. Currently, Plum Marketplace has around fifty retail solutions available.
“We’ve created an opportunity or a marketplace for people to be able to come in and see items and actually purchase as opposed to talking to a bunch of different sales people from different companies to try and make something work.” – Rick West, (19:24)
Additionally, if customers need a retail solution tailored to their specific challenges, they can collaborate with Field Agent to customize a project that fits their exact needs. To date, over two million shoppers have downloaded the Field Agent app, in which they provide location-specific photos, videos, and information to help retailers get a big picture view of what’s happening in real time. Retailers can then apply filters to narrow down and analyze the data further.
Learning from Shopper Experiences
Field Agent’s three big areas of expertise are shopper insights, on-site visibility, and drive trial. These concepts are powered by the mindset of who better to comment on the customer experience than the customer. Field Agent’s shopper insight solutions allow retailers to be in-the-moment with customers while employing mystery shops, concept testing, and shelf evaluation.
Moreover, Field Agent’s on-site visibility solutions assist retailers in understanding how shoppers are interacting with their products. This system conducts display audits, price checks, and on-shelf availability. Lastly, its drive trial solutions allow retailers to collect customer feedback by conducting digital demos, receiving ratings and reviews, and providing buy-and-try options.
“We built this platform along with a crowdsourcing engine to help our clients understand store conditions like pricing product, distribution, merchandising, etc…We also created it so we would be able to gain everyday shopper insights into their shopping experience.” – Henry Ho, (10:19)
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