How Room & Board Uses Technology to Keep Customer Experiences Personal

Recorded at Cisco Live, this episode features Mark Rodrigue, Senior Network Engineer at Room & Board. This furniture retailer has built its reputation around design expertise, long-term customer relationships, and personalized service. While many retailers focus on transactions, Room & Board takes a different approach, helping customers make decisions about products they may live with for years or even decades.

During our conversation, Mark explains how technology is helping the company meet customers wherever they are. Whether someone visits a showroom, works with a designer remotely, or schedules a virtual consultation from home, the goal remains the same: deliver a consistent experience that feels personal, thoughtful, and easy.

We discuss how customer expectations have changed in recent years and why retailers must support both physical and digital experiences without compromising quality. Mark shares how Room & Board expanded from thinking about dozens of retail locations to supporting a workforce that can effectively serve customers from almost anywhere.

The conversation also explores the realities of running modern IT operations with a lean team. Mark explains how a small group of engineers supports networking, wireless connectivity, security, collaboration tools, and business operations across the company. We discuss the value of visibility, the role of automation, and why reducing operational complexity allows teams to spend more time supporting business outcomes rather than managing infrastructure.

Looking ahead, we examine the growing role of AI in IT operations. Rather than viewing AI as a replacement for skilled professionals, Mark sees agentic technologies as digital coworkers that can help teams find information, handle routine tasks, and accelerate troubleshooting. The result is more time spent focusing on customers, employees, and strategic priorities.

What stood out throughout this discussion was a simple philosophy: the best technology is often the technology nobody notices. When systems work as intended, customers can focus on designing their homes, employees can focus on helping them, and technology quietly does its job in the background.

As customer expectations continue to evolve, how can organizations leverage technology to deliver better experiences without losing the human connection customers value most?