Julie Roehm is an award-winning marketer who has served in executive positions for brands like Ford Motors, DaimlerChrysler, and SAP. A versatile marketing professional and renowned leader, Roehm has held many titles during her 25+ year career, including CMO, Chief Experience Officer, and Chief Storyteller.
One of the reasons for Julie Roehm’s success is her fervent belief that the customer experience must be the driving force behind every business decision from operations to marketing to IT. Roehm was a major proponent of streamlining digital solutions for customers at a time when many businesses were lagging behind the advance of technology. Today, she’s at the forefront of developing omnichannel strategies to help customers access products and services more easily and on their own terms.
Recently, Julie Roehm reflected on optimizing customer experiences at some of the biggest global firms. She also spoke about how her history has helped her to better understand customer needs and what she thinks brands should be doing now to keep customers happy.
A Customer-Centric Start
Julie Roehm’s first degree was not in business but in engineering. Engineering and management are the most important components of a company, but rarely do you find both points of view in the same mind. Roehm attributes her obsession with the customer experience to her education as an engineer.
“Everything I do is led from a customer lens and then it falls from there, that’s probably the engineer in me,” she says. Engineers don’t get bogged down with operations, balance sheets, and cutting costs. They live in the practical applications of a product—the direct customer experience.
Julie Roehm’s engineering background prepared her for her first major business movements after receiving her MBA. The fact that she majored in Environmental Engineering has only helped her lead companies in an ESG focused world. She was given two daunting tasks at two major automotive companies.
A Marketing Marvel in the Automotive Industry
Julie Roehm was put in charge of launching the new Ford Focus brand in the US for Ford Motor Company. Just a few years later, she was made manager of the dying Dodge brand at DaimlerChrysler. She launched the Focus brand and revitalized Dodge with incredible success, earning her the title of “Marketer of the Year” by Brandweek as well as a place in the Automotive Hall of Fame.
The crucible of target research and customer experience management that was required to accomplish these tasks helped Roehm develop the transformational thinking that would define her career.
Later, Julie Roehm would go on to serve as CXO and CMO of a body shop brand with 600 locations.
Soon after taking on the role, she did not hesitate to disrupt the industry by digitizing the auto repair process. “Collision shops are one of the few industries that I can think of that the digital evolution revolution completely passed by,” she says. “The team and I went in and built a whole customer experience journey. We found all the pain points and built a much more customer-friendly experience. We were able to change the fortunes of that company dramatically by improving conversion of auto claims to repair orders. Each point of conversion was worth about $10 million in EBITDA. We moved that needle by 8-10 points in 18 months.”
New Roles, New Successes
Julie Roehm has taken multiple executive positions created specifically for her customer-centric skillset.
She was hired by the CEO of the global software firm SAP to serve in the newly-created role of Chief Storyteller. Roehm had a knack for identifying customers’ needs and understanding how a product’s practical benefits drove consumers to act. “I was trying to capture the customer’s story and redefine how we spoke about SAP,” she recalls.
Storytelling is critically important to defining the customer experience in marketing efforts. Roehm’s work for SAP helped to improve the brand’s image and increase sales. “We created several digital tools that helped change the way we went to market and talked to our potential customers.”
In her most recent role, she served as Chief Experience and Marketing Officer of Party City, a major retailer with 850+ locations.
In this position, Roehm was challenged by the pandemic and responded by implementing an omnichannel strategy. “The shutdown of in-person services taught us the importance [of omnichannel communication] and its staying power,” she says. Roehm’s transformation eliminated barriers between in-person and digital experiences, allowing customers to access products via COVID-friendly channels. This resulted in an 80% increase in digital sales.
Breaking Down Barriers between Management and Customers
When asked about the challenges of maintaining a customer-centric approach, Roehm mentioned the nebulous nature of customer experiences.
She recognizes that the customer experience is constantly evolving, especially as technology continues to advance rapidly. As a result, transformation, innovation, and disruption must always be on the table.
“If you’re going to evolve, then that’s where innovation comes in,” she says. “Not only by brainstorming new ideas but by staring at the customer experience and figuring out what would make that experience even better.”
Roehm also mentions that in many cases, businesses lose sight of the customer experience altogether. “Sometimes there’s a mistake made where the customer isn’t really thought of at all,” she says. “Losing sight of the customer experience is human nature when you’re facing a big problem and you have a lot of decisions to make.”
Most executives don’t often deal with customers. It’s easy to forget about how big-picture decisions such as restructuring internal operations or optimizing a supply chain will impact end users. “But you’ve got to think about what the customer experience will be. You’ve got to come at it from multiple angles,” Roehm says. “The customer advocate side could go and talk to a handful of customers and find out, instead of assuming, what they really want and how they’ll respond.”
What’s Next: “The Future is Omnichannel”
When Julie Roehm entered the business world, digital transformation was everything. Now, it’s omnichannel. “Omnichannel is the new digital,” she says. Omnichannel strategies break down barriers between different mediums, allowing customers to have a seamless experience across devices, in-person locations, and digital spaces like social media.
“By connecting individual customer touchpoints across a variety of channels, brands can improve customer satisfaction, brand loyalty, and ultimately, increase revenue and sales,” says Roehm.
This creates significant challenges for companies because adopting an omnichannel strategy isn’t as easy as building a website or adding a social media team. Business leaders need to understand the customer journey fluently in order to identify pain points and innovate wisely. Because of this, omnichannel strategies can take many forms, and strategies can look vastly different between companies and brands.
A Transformational Career
Julie Roehm was educated as an engineer and MBA in an age of digital transformation. Her unique career trajectory and her upbringing have taught her that success in a digital age requires bold moves, fast thinking, and constant innovation. She understands that customer expectations evolve rapidly, and her career has been built on helping businesses provide customer experiences that exceed those expectations.
After nearly 30 years in business, Julie Roehm is far from finished with her personal and professional transformation. Her next role is on the horizon, and the business community will certainly keep its eyes and ears open awaiting her next innovation.
In the meantime, check out Julie Roehm’s podcast The Conversational, where she speaks about transformational thinking with some of the world’s top business executives, artists, and authors.