When managing all areas of customer interaction, customer and brand experience can remain constant. You maintain control of almost all aspects of this interaction, and as such, you control the way you are perceived by your customers.

However, many brands work with third-party retailers who are outside of their ecosystem, meaning the level of control over brand and customer interaction can be limited; in a world where the delivery of a brand promise is ever-more critical, this session will explore the critical questions of how you can maintain a degree of control here, whilst still allowing partners to manage their own business processes. We will discuss:

• How can you find the right ongoing balance with third-party partnerships – trusting a cultural fit vs. the need for tight controls
• What tools are available for you to keep a check on how the partnership is progressing, and what action would you potentially take when things are not perfect?
• How can data help with the assessment of partnership success, beyond pure sales figures, and who do you share this with (internally and externally)?

Third-party relationships, as discussed above, need constant management and checking to ensure third parties can deliver the customer and brand experience you need. However, alongside managing these on an ongoing basis, a fundamental question is around how to set them up in the first place. Specifically, whilst the importance of commercial aspects of such a relationship are obvious, ensuring these are created with a user-focused mindset offers the best potential chance for success. Giving the same focus to the partner journey as you do to the customer journey is vital.

In this expert think-tank, Shilpi Sinha of The Lego Group will lead a conversation discussing the critical aspects of how to create the tools needed for a third party to promote / sell your products, ensuring customer and brand experience remain constant, whoever your customer interacts with.