I’M CHANGING WHAT’S POSSIBLE BY…

Trying new things.

CHRIS MERRILL

Chief Marketing Officer – Home & Auto

ATLANTA, GA

STARTING HIS CAREER  
As the Chief Marketing Officer for our home & auto financial products, it’s exciting to think of how much I’ve grown and accomplished at Synchrony over the last 15 years. Starting off in finance but having a desire to move into marketing—that was such an exciting part of my career journey here. When I expressed an interest in another function, my business leaders listened to me and offered me a shot, and I took that shot and succeeded!

GROWING HIS CAREER 
Spinning off from our former parent company and becoming our own company has been great to see. But being a new company, nobody knew who Synchrony was. We were constantly driving brand awareness and getting people to know us more and more. It’s awesome now to hear a customer say, “Oh, this is Synchrony? I want to open an account with them!” It’s exciting to see that growth!

Where my team and I come into play is driving customer growth and figuring out that customer experience. What digital banking experiences are out there? What kind of overall banking experience do customers want? How do we deliver and exceed their expectations so that we can create that longer-term stickiness with our customers? You can’t talk about customer experience or how we’re going to reach or advertise to our customers in today’s world without talking about the technology behind it all. Technology and marketing are becoming so intertwined that when we think of growth and innovation, we think of marketing being in stride with technology.

FAVORITE SYNCHRONY VALUE 
Bold. What’s awesome about Synchrony is our ability to try new things. How do we grow accounts? How do we compete with our competitors? We do a lot of testing and learning and seeing what works. And if you’ve proven yourself and want to try something new or different, they’ll give you a shot. That’s not something you see at every company but gets me excited to work every day.

FINDING WORK/LIFE BALANCE  
The nice thing about Synchrony is we really try and talk about and stay current on matters of work-life balance. Bottom line is if you’re not happy in your personal life, it’s going to show professionally. So, how do we make sure we have that nice equilibrium in terms of a work life balance? For me, I took full advantage of the paternity leave for fathers. When I’m not working, I’m not working. I’m at home playing with the kids and having that balance so when I do start work, I’m revitalized, ready to go, and fully focused.

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