To say that Eli Weiss has taken an untraditional path to where he is today would be an understatement. Currently, Eli is the Director of Customer Experience at OLIPOP, but his roots are in a traditional orthodox Jewish household, his education does not include a college degree, and his first job in the industry came as a result of him doing a powerpoint presentation to the folks at an emerging luggage brand about why they were failing. Yeah, not what you’d expect. But Eli’s whole career is about going above and beyond expectations — consumer expectations. From that luggage brand to NUGGS Vegan Chicken Nuggets, and now with OLIPOP, Eli has become a master of building out the ultimate customer experience, and he took us behind the scenes on this episode of Up Next in Commerce. Plus, he told us about the job board he set up to help people like him — with skills but untraditional backgrounds — so that more awesome folks can work their magic in the CPG space. This was seriously one of my favorite interviews, so I hope you enjoy it!

Main Takeaways:

• The Road Less Traveled: Oftentimes, those with untraditional backgrounds or different levels of educational and career experiences get overlooked for jobs they are more than qualified for. Companies need to be willing to look outside the box and invest in people who can prove they have the skills needed to do a job, even if their past experiences don’t line up with who you normally would hire.
• Promises Kept: It seems simple, but one of the biggest things companies overlook when it comes to customer experience is whether or not they are delivering on the promises they make. Take a look at your ad copy, your website, your social channels and product pages and determine if what you are selling to customers is what they actually get.
• More Than a Customer, A Friend: When brands interact with customers, most of the time the entire interaction is focused on a sale. But the best kind of customer experience comes when a brand treats a customer like a human being, and when addressing them, the brand thinks, ‘what would my friend want or need in this situation?’ Even if someone is canceling a subscription, find out the backstory on why they are cancelling their subscription, maybe there is a deeper reasonthan what you expect and there is something you can do to reach out not to sell, but to show you care.

For an in-depth look at this episode, check out the full transcript below.  Quotes have been edited for clarity and length.

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For a full transcript of this interview, click here.