CIO Interview: Chris Greenwood, CIO, Mamas & Papas

Chris Greenwood, CIO, Mamas & Papas, explains his top priorities for 2018, including a focus on the customer experience

Chris Greenwood, CIO at premium nursery retailer Mamas & Paps has described his priorities for 2018 to Computing.

Greenwood was ranked at number 34 in Computing's latest IT Leaders 100 list.

His main focus is the customer experience, both online and in-store.

"Over past couple of months we've been increasing our like-for-like performance," explained Greenwood. "It hasn't been a complete surprise because we've put so much investment into what we're doing both online, in-store, in the digital arena, and also a real push on marketing.

"We've done really well but we're not complacent. We've got a hell of a lot to do going forward. We've been looking at what's been working, what's not been working, and we're going to make a push on those kinds of things.

"We've been looking at customer behaviour, trying to improve the in-store service. We've got ourselves to a pretty good place already. You can place an order online, pick it up in-store within half an hour in most cases. We've built a lot of systems in the background that enable us to create a seamless omni-channel experience for the customer. That's enabled us to really get under the skin of what the customer wants.

"When a customer visits us for the first time. They've got this big thirst for knowledge prior to buying anything. We think with our new website we've recently launched, we're able to give them that knowledge and also suggest all the products that might be relevant to them at any time. So there's a big push on making sure that we completely nail that."

Watch the video for more.