113. Curious About... My "5 Musings" on Consumer Relations Past and Look Ahead w/Denise Venneri, Host & Creator | My Curious Colleague

I'm thrilled to share the latest episode (#113) of the @My Curious Colleague podcast…. Join me for my (5) “Musings” where I look back and reflect forward on consumer engagement..!

• The Importance of a Seat at the Table: Why consumer focus is now non-negotiable for brands.
• The Rise of New Channels: Exploring the impact of ratings and reviews as the new frontier in consumer engagement.
• Trends Tracking: Being aware of the macro and micro trends that could affect your operations in the contact center.
• Evolving Reporting Structures: How the reporting landscape has shifted towards a more consumer-centric model.
• Consumer Insights: What the future may look like ie more holistic.

Tune in for thoughts IMHO may give you something to chew on as you plan your approach to consumer care in 2025! 🌟

in the news...! I'm honored that My Curious Colleague podcast has been featured in FeedSpot Top 70 CPG Podcasts (#16). Check it out:  Top 70 CPG Podcasts   Thank YOU!

#mycuriouscolleague #podcast #consumerengagement #cx #cpg #cpgcx

Episode Transcript

Denise Venneri (00:00):
Welcome to the My Curious Colleague podcast
with me, Denise Venneri. I am a20+ year practitioner in the
consumer engagement space havingworked for 2 large CPG
organizations. My intent here isreally to share best practices
practices with particular focusaround the specialist and
analyst roles and to give backto this great community because

(00:24):
CPG CX rocks.
Hello, my curious colleagues. Today, I'm
curious about what my musingsmight be on the consumer care
industry now that I've beendoing this, as you know, for 20

(00:45):
plus years as a "worker bee".And, also, as you know, I'm
pretty much focused on andaround the consumer. I may have
, you know, a thought or two inthis regard, I'm hoping. So here
are 5 of my musings as I reflectback and look forward.

(01:07):
The first one is that proverbialseat at the table. Right? You
know, today, given theenvironment and shifts in
consumer behavior, brands cannotafford Not to be Consumer
focused and provide CXprofessionals a seat at that
proverbial table. But in thepast, it really kind of went the

(01:29):
way, in my observations, of theCEO, whether they could afford
to be consumer focused orperhaps they were brought in to
tackle something else.
The second thing is what I'llcall sexy new channels, and some
of you may remember when socialmedia monitoring came to be and,

(01:49):
ultimately, social media, youknow, responding consumers known
as social media care. Andleadership glommed onto this
channel, rightfully so, becauseof the ability for a comment,
that's one comment, to go viraland have a little more heft
than, say, incoming consumercare comments from more

(02:10):
traditional channels. Today, Ibelieve it's the ratings and
review channel. That's the sexynew shiny channel. And standing
up this channel is really theone to watch and the one to
focus on.
3rd musing is trends tracking.Yes. That's so cool to see

(02:30):
trends and understand wherethey're going, but some of us
may think, oh, well, you know,that doesn't impact the contact
center organization if, forexample, consumers are
interested in healthy trends ornot. But hey. Hey.
Wait up. Just a minute therebecause understanding micro and
macro trends, such as thoseheadwinds and tailwinds,

(02:53):
inflation, supply chainconstraints, and price
fluctuations, all of these, youknow, I guess, things going on
and around the contact centercould have an impact to your
operations and to your consumer.So take that example I was
mentioning. The the trend to eathealthier might have an impact

(03:13):
on labeling, and, hence, youneed to arm your consumer care
team with that sort of languageto hold consumers' hands when
they have questions about it. Soyou just can't sit around with
your head down, you know,keeping your nose clean.
As they say, you've got to lookup and around you because this

(03:34):
contributes also to your end toend understanding of what's
going on in your organization.The 4th musing is called
reporting structure. Yeah. I Iknow this is even something you
might have considered. You know,Denise, there's really not much
here, but but even something assimple as reporting structure

(03:56):
for the consumer care team hasevolved.
Perhaps you reported in the pastto the legal team, or maybe it
was the customer service centerfor retail organizations due to
some perceived synergies in thework and perhaps some of the
telephony systems are maybereported to the quality

(04:17):
organization, which definitelymakes sense. But, you know, I've
seen groups recently in the pastmaybe 5 years move closer to
things like reporting throughmarketing insights, the
marketing team or the CMO, andor other burgeoning digital type

(04:38):
teams. And it felt like thisapproach made, sense because you
were, you know, following themoney. That's that's typically
where some of the budget sat.But now today, it seems like the
reporting shifts facilitate moreabout following the consumer, a
much more nobler path.

(05:00):
And my 5th and final musing isaround consumer feedback or
insights. You know, at 1 point20 years ago, a colleague maybe
not 20 years, 10 years, we'llsay, a colleague mentioned to me
that they were giving permissionto access consumer affairs data
to internal clients, includingmarketing. And I remember my jaw

(05:20):
just dropped. Fast forwardtoday, the landscape software,
access to the software, andwhich channels are supported
have morphed into, like, youknow, a wild spider's web, you
know, versus definite silos backin the day. So channels like

(05:41):
social media, of course, wementioned that, about owning
monitoring and listening toolsalong with reporting
capabilities for social media.
Maybe perhaps your Community.Management team or consumer
managers also have access tothese tools in the reporting
area and, of course, maybe ashared responsibility in

(06:03):
responding. And now it's thatratings and reviews. I have seen
channel specific insights fromthe software. You know I was
gonna come back to ratings andreviews.
And, of course, CRM softwarelike Salesforce has its own
reporting pieces. And thenthere's a tool like Power BI,

(06:23):
which really is more selfserving reporting capabilities
that folks and experts on yourteam can set up for you to
access data versus, say, goingto an off the shelf type of
software for reporting. And ifinternal clients can easily
access this data, it begs thequestion then, who is the owner

(06:47):
of these insights at the end ofthe day? You know, largely
stemming from consumer affairs,it's been consumer affairs.
Right?
But what about marketing? Is it,you know, more of a quality
organization ownership orsomething more along the lines

(07:08):
of the Insights Group owns it?Or or let me offer up just the
future have more of a holisticapproach. I love that word. I've
used it for years, and, it'salways served me well, the the
concept of blending, theintegration of the tools, and,
ultimately, the insights andgroups that own.

(07:31):
You wanna be on the ground floorof any governance as it pertains
to the sort of integration ofpeople and software and
responsibilities, and AIcapabilities will surely
contribute to the insight spaceand increasing the breadth and
depth of understanding consumerinsights. So make sure that as a

(07:55):
consumer affairs team, like Isaid, you're there in on the
ground floor sort of buildingthis out and offering your
perspective as a subject matterexpert. And thank you so much
again for your time. I reallyappreciate it.

(08:16):
You have been listening to the My Curious
Colleague podcast withDenise Venneri. Thank you for
your time.