In times like these, it's vital for businesses to be close to their customers — not in the physical sense, but in touch with what they want and how they feel. Perhaps most importantly, it is how businesses can deliver the goods and services their customers need.

There is a real desire to buy local, Mastercard research shows, which is great news for small businesses. The challenge, says Donald Chesnut, Mastercard’s chief experience officer, is “trying to respond to how to get more products online and how to accept more payments. There's just a change in supply chains and mechanisms of delivery that the bigger companies and certainly ourselves need to address."

Chesnut chats about how to help businesses better respond to the pandemic on the latest episode of the Mastercard podcast, “What’s Next In,” which informally explores big ideas and trends in the world of payments technology and beyond. Hosted by Arthur Baker, each episode explores such dynamic issues as workplace diversity, financial inclusion, smart cities, cybersecurity and artificial intelligence with Mastercard senior executives.  

In this episode, Chesnut also reveals how his background in dramatic literature has helped him throughout his career and digs into his CX philosophy, "The experience of the product is bigger than the product itself."