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Miami Herald
19-07-2025
- Business
- Miami Herald
T-Mobile fixes major smartphone pain point for subscribers
Upgrading your smartphone has traditionally been something that should be easy, but often isn't. It wasn't that long ago when you had to fumble with those tiny SIM cards, not knowing exactly how they should go in. Those could easily be lost or damaged, and of course, your phone did not work without them. Related: Struggling mall anchor makes generous offer to win back customers In a perfect world, your new phone would arrive, and you would be able to download all the information from your old phone in a matter of minutes. Your phone number would come with you, and everything would be ready to go in less than half an hour. It's supposed to work that way, but it often doesn't. Sometimes that means a call to customer service, and those calls can be massively frustrating. If you call AT&T or Verizon, getting an actual human being on the phone can be a virtual miracle. Nobody wants to press buttons and be directed to the website when they have an actual problem. That, however, has become way too common as companies have tried to save money on customer service by using artificial intelligence (AI). Don't miss the move: Subscribe to TheStreet's free daily newsletter Any person who has lived through an AI customer service experience fully understands why humans and robots so often go to war in movies. T-Mobile (TMUS) seems to understand that upgrading your phone is a key part of your relationship with the carrier. Because of that, the company has decided to make some real investments in fixing that pain point. While T-Mobile has had some customer interaction issues over the past few years, the company has been built around changing industry norms. It found its audience based on the idea of being different than Verizon and AT&T in customer-friendly ways. T-Mobile's CFO Peter Osvaldik spoke about his company's efforts to make upgrading easier at JPMorgan's 53rd Annual Global Technology, Media and Communications Conference. "And so upgrades was the first journey. For those that are T-Mobile customers that have lived through upgrade experiences years ago, next time you upgrade, I definitely suggest you try this slick new experience. It's really, really great, makes it much more smooth, and it allows the ability as we deploy more and more features to personalize it," he shared. Osvaldik made it clear that T-Mobile does not see problems in the same way as its rivals. "And so the view – and this is the difference is a lot of companies approach digitalization, AI, automation with how do I take costs out of the system? How do I deflect more calls? I don't want to deal with customers, I want the AI to deal with customers," he shared. More Retail: Costco quietly plans to offer a convenient service for customersT-Mobile pulls the plug on generous offer, angering customersAT&T makes generous offer to older customers T-Mobile does not believe in shuffling off customer service to AI bots. "For us, much like the ethos of this company has always been, how do you put customer centricity at the forefront, make their experiences better. And when you do that, of course, cost will naturally come out of the system," he added. The CFO made it clear that if more problems get solved over the phone, then T-Mobile needs fewer retail locations, which saves money. Osvaldik explained that T-Mobile works to put the customer and their needs first. That includes understanding what they want and delivering it proactively. "When you think about things that are important to customers around this product space is, am I getting the speed and reliability that's necessary for me? Our product – if you just look at Q4 to Q4, third-party reports recently released, speeds have increased by 50% Q4 versus Q4. So in a year, we've increased speeds by 50%," he shared. Offering a better product has helped T-Mobile grow its brand and retain existing customers. "We continue to win customer satisfaction recognition from multiple, multiple third parties. So it's a product that's resonating, it's durable and that's what's continuing to drive the growth and the lower churn and the higher ARPU (average revenue per user)," he added. Related: Iconic convenience store closing down all locations The CFO also wants to win over the whole family, because that's good for T-Mobile. "Bundling is a way to drive churn down. Bundling is a way to drive discounts as a result. You think about family plans in the U.S., there is a reason that the second line, third line, fourth line, fifth line is a lot cheaper than the first one, and that is you bundle things together, you get reduced churn and you get higher value on the account basis, similarly when you bundle an iPad or a watch together with your mobile phone," he shared. The Arena Media Brands, LLC THESTREET is a registered trademark of TheStreet, Inc.
Yahoo
28-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Instacart names chief business officer as next CEO
This story was originally published on Grocery Dive. To receive daily news and insights, subscribe to our free daily Grocery Dive newsletter. Instacart announced Wednesday that Chief Business Officer Chris Rogers will become CEO, effective Aug. 15. He will replace Fidji Simo, who is stepping down from the top position to become CEO of OpenAI Applications but will remain chair of Instacart's board. Rogers will step into the top role after nearly six years with the grocery technology company, including around three years in his current role. Instacart positioned Rogers as a leader with decades of experience spanning consumer goods, technology, retail and media, noting that he has focused on 'driving growth at the intersection of brands, retailers, and technology' in his current role. In announcing Simo's upcoming departure from the CEO position, Instacart had said it would choose an existing member of the company's management team. Instacart's choice of Rogers as its next leader signals the company is continuing its strategy of bridging retailers, consumers and advertisers with technology-driven solutions. Rogers has seen Instacart's evolution both before and after Simo's arrival in 2021. He joined Instacart as vice president of global retail in 2019 after 11 years at Apple, where he served in a variety of roles, including head of consumer retail, head of carrier channel and managing director of Apple Canada. Prior to Apple, Rogers worked at Procter & Gamble as an account executive for several clients such as Loblaws, Sobeys and A&P, according to his LinkedIn profile. As chief business officer, Rogers has overseen the company's commercial operations, including retailer relationships and expansions, ad sales, mergers and acquisitions, Instacart Business and Instacart Health. Rogers currently sits on the board of data and analytics firm Spins and is a board member of the Ad Council, a nonprofit that helps launch public service campaigns addressing social issues. Rogers's ascension to the top role follows Instacart's work to establish itself as a leader in grocery technology and e-commerce 'Over the last four years, we've transformed Instacart into a growing, profitable, leading technology platform that's helping reshape the grocery industry,' Simo said in the announcement. 'We're building a generational company at the intersection of technology and food, and Chris is the right leader for our next chapter.' Simo 'really set up a foundation' for the company to continue achieving double-digit growth and building its e-grocery market leadership, CFO Emily Reuter said during the J.P. Morgan Global Technology, Media and Communications Conference earlier this month. 'The priorities remain the same, which is that we continue to be incredibly excited about the overall market opportunity, and really, our goal as the category leader … is to continue to drive online penetration,' she said at the conference. Recommended Reading Instacart CEO's exit won't shift company strategy, top exec says
Miami Herald
28-05-2025
- Business
- Miami Herald
Instacart names chief business officer as next CEO
Dive Brief: Instacart announced Wednesday that Chief Business Officer Chris Rogers will become CEO, effective Aug. 15. He will replace Fidji Simo, who is stepping down from the top position to become CEO of OpenAI Applications but will remain chair of Instacart's will step into the top role after nearly six years with the grocery technology company, including around three years in his current role. Instacart positioned Rogers as a leader with decades of experience spanning consumer goods, technology, retail and media, noting that he has focused on "driving growth at the intersection of brands, retailers, and technology" in his current role. Dive Insight: In announcing Simo's upcoming departure from the CEO position, Instacart had said it would choose an existing member of the company's management team. Instacart's choice of Rogers as its next leader signals the company is continuing its strategy of bridging retailers, consumers and advertisers with technology-driven solutions. Rogers has seen Instacart's evolution both before and after Simo's arrival in 2021. He joined Instacart as vice president of global retail in 2019 after 11 years at Apple, where he served in a variety of roles, including head of consumer retail, head of carrier channel and managing director of Apple Canada. Prior to Apple, Rogers worked at Procter & Gamble as an account executive for several clients such as Loblaws, Sobeys and A&P, according to his LinkedIn profile. As chief business officer, Rogers has overseen the company's commercial operations, including retailer relationships and expansions, ad sales, mergers and acquisitions, Instacart Business and Instacart Health. Rogers currently sits on the board of data and analytics firm Spins and is a board member of the Ad Council, a nonprofit that helps launch public service campaigns addressing social issues. Rogers's ascension to the top role follows Instacart's work to establish itself as a leader in grocery technology and e-commerce "Over the last four years, we've transformed Instacart into a growing, profitable, leading technology platform that's helping reshape the grocery industry," Simo said in the announcement. "We're building a generational company at the intersection of technology and food, and Chris is the right leader for our next chapter." Simo "really set up a foundation" for the company to continue achieving double-digit growth and building its e-grocery market leadership, CFO Emily Reuter said during the J.P. Morgan Global Technology, Media and Communications Conference earlier this month. "The priorities remain the same, which is that we continue to be incredibly excited about the overall market opportunity, and really, our goal as the category leader … is to continue to drive online penetration," she said at the conference. Copyright 2025 Industry Dive. All rights reserved.
Miami Herald
21-05-2025
- Business
- Miami Herald
Instacart CEO's exit won't shift company strategy, top exec says
As Instacart faces the departure of its CEO, Fidji Simo, the grocery technology company is poised to stay the course its high-profile top executive helped lay out, its CFO said at a recent conference. Simo, who is leaving after four years at Instacart to become CEO of OpenAI Applications, "really set up a foundation" for the company to continue achieving the double-digit growth across key financial metrics it has recorded for the last several consecutive quarters, CFO Emily Reuter said during the J.P. Morgan Global Technology, Media and Communications Conference earlier this month. Instacart has said it will replace Simo with an internal candidate. While it's easy to imagine that a new CEO could shift Instacart's priorities, Reuter said that likely won't be the case. "The priorities remain the same, which is that we continue to be incredibly excited about the overall market opportunity, and really, our goal as the category leader … is to continue to drive online penetration," she said. Amid the changing macro-environment, consumers' use of online grocery shopping services hasn't wavered due to the combination of essential goods and convenience that e-commerce provides, Reuter noted. Instacart executives have long told investors that there is ample room to increase market share and penetration of grocery e-commerce. Doing that, though, requires not only continuing the business strategy that Instacart has already laid out for itself, but also refining several areas of the business, Reuter said. "There's not one big unlock. It's a lot of different things that work together to ultimately continue to drive order frequency [and] user growth to ultimately get to various solid and consistent GTV growth that we've had for many quarters in a row now," Reuter said. Reuter's comments firmly plant Instacart as a provider of grocery technology and e-commerce - a position that took Instacart several years to cement amid industry skepticism about the company's ambitions. Growing the user base by attracting new users and bringing people back who tried but then left Instacart is an untapped opportunity, Reuter said. For existing users, Instacart sees potential in incentivizing particular shopping behaviors, she said, without providing specifics. Instacart continues to work on improving order quality, Reuter said, noting that the company's number of fulfilled orders without errors has increased 15% over the last three years. This has helped boost the company's ability to retain customers. Expanding the variety of use cases, which Instacart has done through its Uber Eats partnership, is another vital area, she said. Instacart has found that listing restaurants brings people back to Instacart throughout the week, and they spend more incremental dollars on groceries, she added. As a result, Instacart sees "a lot of runway" with its restaurant partnership, Reuter said, without specifying future plans. Instacart's decision to lower its minimum order basket size to $10 for Instacart+ members, meanwhile, is driving increased order frequency, incremental GTV and increased adoption of Instacart+, Reuter said. "We certainly don't want to put people in a position where a fee means that I'm going to think about [not placing a small order] or think about going to another platform," she said. Instacart's scale and density of its orders as well as its improved operational capabilities allow the company to layer on smaller baskets more effectively than if it had tried to do so a few years ago, Reuter said. "It's these platform benefits from getting better at what we do in the core business, adding additional use cases, finding opportunities to drive affordability that together result in … really strong growth," Reuter said. Copyright 2025 Industry Dive. All rights reserved.
Yahoo
21-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Intel CFO: Division responsible for Ohio plant remains on track; layoffs have dual purpose
NEW ALBANY, Ohio (WCMH) — Intel's chief financial officer clarified updates for the division behind Ohio's Intel plant this month, including impending layoffs. Dave Zinsner, executive vice president and CFO of Intel, spoke at a Global Technology, Media and Communications Conference on May 13. In his discussion, he addressed changes under new CEO Lip-Bu Tan and the future of Intel Foundry, the division responsible for the $28 billion Ohio One plant. See previous coverage of Intel's Ohio plant in the video player above. $250M facility opens down the road from Intel in New Albany, creating 225 jobs 'While it's not to where we were driving, when you look back, it's actually a fair amount of progress that we have made,' Zinsner said. Once the face of American semiconductor manufacturing, Intel announced its New Albany project in 2022, preparing to build two chip factories across 1,000 acres in Licking County in the largest private investment in Ohio history. Those plants were originally scheduled to be up and running this year, but financial turmoil contributed to a delay into the early 2030s. When Tan stepped into the role of CEO in March, it was unclear where he would take Ohio One and rumors of a buyout persisted. Ohio's plant is still far from central to Tan's public plans, but Zinsner said he is committed to the Foundry business. Despite initial concerns that Tan could abandon the Ohio plant or Intel Foundry entirely, Zinsner said Tan isn't thinking about massive changes. Instead, Tan is focused on streamlining internal operations and addressing customer needs. 'We have lost talent at the company and we do need to rebuild that and the great thing about Lip-Bu is that he's a magnet for talent,' Zinsner said. Zinsner said he believes Tan's biggest concern is a lack of execution, he said he will 'flatten' the organization, which he has already done at the executive level. Tan has far more engineers and leaders reporting directly to him, and he hopes decision-making will be easier with less bureaucracy. Teen on the mend after tree falls into house during storm Part of this streamlining process involves significant layoffs, with Bloomberg reporting 20% cuts across the board and Tan confirming a mass firing will happen by the end of July. Although layoffs help with finances, Zinsner said cuts had less to do with cost reductions and more to do with restructuring and becoming more nimble. 'What he (Tan) wants is the lowest level of the organization to be closer to him so that he's hearing the good, the bad, the ugly of what's going on,' Zinsner said. Zinsner, who served as co-interim CEO before Tan was selected, said the Foundry business behind Ohio's plant was in good shape. He said he was 'highly confident' that Foundry will break even in 2027, positive news for Ohio's expensive plant. Zinsner said many of the problems Intel Foundry faces stem from the makeup of the company. As a Foundry business, Intel wants to develop and manufacture semiconductors for external companies, many of whom compete directly with Intel's other half, Intel Products. Zinsner said that can make it difficult to earn trust as a Foundry. Investigation alleges Kroger overcharges customers on for sale items 'What we have to do is make sure they feel confident that IP is getting protected, but maybe more important that supply is getting protected, that we aren't going to disadvantage their products in terms of supply,' Zinsner said. Tan has a plan for that, too. Zinsner said Tan spends much of his time meeting with customers to hear what they need and earn trust. He recalled Tan had 22 meetings on a weekend once, trying to gather insight from customers. Zinsner did not address the Ohio plant directly, and he also did not address any other developing manufacturing hubs. Construction continues at the Ohio One plant. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
