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My intent is to Educate, Celebrate and Elevate the Consumer Relations function in CPG (Consumer Product Goods) companies, especially for Brand Specialist and Analysts roles and responsibilities... !
Welcome to the My Curious Colleague podcast with your host, me, Denise Venneri. We'll be talking all things consumer relations with a focus on consumer product goods organizations and the brand specialist and analyst roles and responsibilities. So if you like CPGs, like I like CPGs, marketing, insights, and caring deeply for your consumers, well, take a listen. Hello, my curious colleagues. In this week's episode, I'm curious about creating FAQs that boost your agents' confidence and your consumers' experience.
Denise Venneri:Now most people are familiar with FAQs or frequently asked questions on their favorite websites that they may visit. Now, while there's some overlap, today, we're gonna be focusing in and chatting about the FAQs created for internal use by your agents in your contact center. I found that marketers are familiar with the concept of the FAQ, but surprised that they often struggle with exactly what to include for their contact center. And if your goal in the contact center is to partner and guide the marketer in creating their best FAQs, well, I've got some tips for you. These are some overarching FAQ tips to consider before you really even begin to put pen to paper.
Denise Venneri:So this is a low lift. Take a look around. Does anybody have a similar FAQ that you can share with the marketer? And I'm thinking about something that may be, of course, similar in nature. Is it a new product?
Denise Venneri:Is it a reformulated product? Is it a sweepstakes? And share that with your marketer to leverage and get inspired by. Same thing can be said for sharing public relations and sales targeted FAQs. Ask your marketer to share some of these with you and make sure they have their hands and their eyes on these so they can also learn and get some inspiration.
Denise Venneri:The tip here essentially is to borrow with pride. But, again, our goal is to guide the marketer to pivot the document now for a different audience, which is your contact center agents and ultimately your consumers. So they will have to kind of think a tad differently there. Keeping the end in mind is is very important. I mean, you wanna empower your agents to feel confident when interacting with your consumers to help provide that great consumer experience.
Denise Venneri:And you want to be deeply anticipatory, reflecting your knowledge of your consumer when you go to write the FAQs. Another tip is to be sure to reflect the voice. Write the FAQs to be consumer facing now and in the brand's voice or tone. And as you know, this is especially important for any FAQs that are modified for social media. This is one I know that I've sometimes struggled with and that is really to understand the level of transparency you can you can go into with these FAQs.
Denise Venneri:Now there's gonna be some things that are proprietary and confidential, but where you can strive for being as transparent as business prudent. So a sub point here would be, if you can, utilize what I'll call a sub bullet for an FAQ, an if pressed statement, you've seen them, for those appropriate situations to go into more detail. After all this, be sure to limit the info. Keep your answers brief and move to including links to articles of relevant deeper information, if that's the best way to go. Keep your agents in mind.
Denise Venneri:Create easy KB search. Create easy KB searches. And what I mean by that is be sure to name the FAQ doc with the date and clear description for agents to search easily in your KB or also known as knowledge base. Another little trick is to include the link to the FAQs in the individual product pages in KB versus, say, just a master location. And, of course, there's gonna be times when you're gonna need to gain appropriate approvals.
Denise Venneri:So I encourage the brand to partner with legal and communications teams to approve the FAQs when and where appropriate. And the last tip here is an easy one. Relax. Keep in mind that this is a living document and can be edited once the new brand is in market, and your understanding of the consumer FAQs needs are more defined. Let's get into the specifics.
Denise Venneri:As I mentioned in a previous episode, there's about 10 types of initiatives in a brand's marketing plan. That contact center should have that line of sight too, and many of them suggest a creation of an FAQ. I'll link that episode in the show notes for you. But for now, let's focus in on, you know, scenarios 1, 2, and 3, and they are new brands, new sub brands, excuse me, and even for line extensions. So, again, we're gonna be thinking about new brands or new sub brands and even line extensions.
Denise Venneri:So I I I need to say right now that I have more of an understanding of CPGs, consumer product goods, and in particular, food and beverages. So be sure to use this as a guide and modify for your specific types of products. Alright. Here goes. Step number 1.
Denise Venneri:Hold the product in your hands or be viewing the packaging flat digitally. Grab your marketing plan pitch deck. The brand in you may be pretty familiar with the details of the launch. However, I want you to try to view the launch a bit differently. This time, close your eyes, if it's safe to do so, and envision you are a brand new consumer looking at the product for the very first time.
Denise Venneri:In other words, try to put yourself in the shoes of your consumer. This episode is sponsored by the launch of my very first website at www.mycuriouscolleague.com. There, you'll find links to episodes of all my podcasts, YouTube videos, downloadables, and links to the podcast accolades. Yes. Accolades and rankings.
Denise Venneri:There's even a store feature for future products. Right now, my official sticker with the hashtag CPGCX on it is available for free. So go on now to order a sticker and show your pride in our function and show your support of My Little Podcast. Okay. If it's safe, it's now time to open your eyes.
Denise Venneri:We're gonna go into the first question, and it's easy. What's the product name and the product description. So, specifically, what's your brand name? What's the new sub brand? And describe the product briefly.
Denise Venneri:Be sure to include if it's regular, low sodium or low sugar, low fat or fat free, and other subgroupings such as those. And be sure to include the various varieties under this new sub brand and their corresponding UPC codes. Also, what is the product's positioning? Briefly share that and also include an image of front of pack. Next question is start ship.
Denise Venneri:When will these products start shipping? Here's a pro tip. Ask if an early start ship is potentially planned, and note that. Why? So you can have these FAQs completed and trained by the earliest start ship date, so your agents will be at the ready.
Denise Venneri:Availability is next. This has gotten more complicated over the past, you know, 15 years. Is it a national launch? Is it regional? Is it retailer specific now and then maybe later national?
Denise Venneri:Is it Amazon only? Is it DTC or direct to consumer only? Or is it some other? Next is the type of product and timing. This one sometimes trips people up.
Denise Venneri:They don't realize why and how this might be important. Now it it's actually a little bit more relevant when you talk about line extensions, not necessarily new sub lines, but you never know. So what you wanna ask yourself is, is this an everyday item? Is it seasonal? Is it limited time only or LTO?
Denise Venneri:And then depending on that answer, you gotta dig into the timing. So for seasonal or limited time only, you're gonna ask, what are the months and the year associated with this timing? So you're looking for that range that this product will be on shelf, Or is it a promotional product as part of a sweepstakes contest? Again, you're looking for dates. And why that's important, of course, is you wanna hold consumers' hands when they're looking for the product during specific times of the year.
Denise Venneri:Now I mentioned images and the product images, the front, the back, the sides, they're all so important. So maybe though not so much you have to have it in the FAQ unless it's really, really highly relevant. But perhaps it's in an appendix or part of a PowerPoint training for the agents from the brand. But at least, like I had mentioned, have one image of the front of pack. Now think about the the packaging.
Denise Venneri:You're, you know, you're holding the product. There is this new material for the packaging and or the lid, or how to get into the product. Because if a consumer cannot get into the product, they cannot use the product or consume the product. And, you know, you're out of luck then. So you really wanna make sure you can help them understand the packaging and how to get into it.
Denise Venneri:Preparation. Is there any new prep behavior to use this product or consume the product? Is it clear for consumers? Where may a consumer get confused? Feel free to go into some sort of central internal break room and brainstorm with a couple of trusted friends, and perhaps you can steal from from that session.
Denise Venneri:Now the ingredients label. You might wanna compare it to a similar product for the brand. You know, take a look at your package there. Is there an ingredient new to the brand or new to the subline that you may want to have a definition or glossary item for? Or can you anticipate consumers' questions about maybe the placement of an ingredient?
Denise Venneri:You know, used to be towards the end, and now it's towards the top. Why is that? What are the benefits? We're getting close to the end of this list. Nutrition label.
Denise Venneri:Now some products require full nutrition statement, some don't, but if there's anything there that may confuse a consumer that needs explaining. So did did some value go up or down or drop off? You may wanna be at the ready to explain that in layman's term. Now look at the front there, at the burst, I call it, and that usually says something like, now with, you know, 20% more mushrooms, something like that. You know, what does that mean to consumer?
Denise Venneri:In this case, alright. That kind is easy to understand, But what can you anticipate or expect from them if a burst may be a little bit more confusing? And then I've got here to round out the list is what I'm calling table stakes. So every FAQ should have something like this, and they are: what is the SRP or the suggested retail price? This supports your reimbursement program.
Denise Venneri:Make sure you understand that. And things might be line priced. That's fine too, but you wanna understand what it is and confirm. What is the shelf life before opening and after opening, if relevant? What is the storage timing before opening and after opening?
Denise Venneri:And, what are the free of's, you know, is it gluten, allergens, you know, is it kosher? Things like that. And then also, which becoming more and more important, of course, is the recycling instructions. Are they standard as noted on the label or is there something else? Is there something special?
Denise Venneri:Make sure the directions are clear. If they're not, you may need an FAQ. And then on the romance language, you may see some ingredient sourcing information, which is great. I love that providence and things like that, but be ready with the layman's understanding to share and or links created to deepen the knowledge. Now I realize this is a little bit more than just a top line of my thoughts on this topic.
Denise Venneri:If you have a responsibility to partner with the brand to create contact center internal FAQs and want to share on a future episode, do reach out to me on LinkedIn. Thank you so much for your time. If you've learned even a kernel of an idea or was inspired by this episode, please consider rating and reviewing the podcast on Apple Podcasts. Be sure to share out the hashtag CPGCX because CPGCX really and truly rocks. You have been listening to the My Curious Colleague podcast with Denise Vineri.
Denise Venneri:Thank you for your time.