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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 Finniere. 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
Denise Venneri:listen. Hello, my curious colleagues. In this week's episode, I'm curious about coupon reimbursement in the CPG contact center, or some of you may refer to this as service recovery.
Denise Venneri:That's right. Coupon reimbursement. We're getting into the weeds here, especially for specialists and brand liaisons and leaders of maybe small smaller contact centers, this might be an activity and responsibility that falls within your purview. So I'm digging in, as I mentioned. So just to take you back, I remember having conversations with folks, debates more or less, about whether or not FSIs or freestanding inserts in the Sunday newspapers you know what I'm talking about.
Denise Venneri:The amount now is just very, very light. But we used to debate whether or not that made sense to put those funds in there because, like, wasn't that just rewarding those consumers who are very brand loyal and would buy anyway? Well, you know, some things have changed, and you could still debate that. However, today, what we're doing is we're not gonna talk about that scenario, but rather we're talking about coupon reimbursement for consumers who contact the contact center, as I mentioned, who are dissatisfied. So these are folks that are coming in to you.
Denise Venneri:In this case, I would say my my POV is that this is not debatable and really a critical piece for caring deeply for your consumers. So, for example, if a consumer is dissatisfied with the product experience, this is a primo opportunity to, of course, care deeply, as I mentioned, for the consumer and to offer coupon reimbursement. Why? Some of you have a vibe on that, and here are my thoughts. A coupon reimbursement process makes the, that phrase makes a consumer whole.
Denise Venneri:I like that. It extends goodwill. It keeps the consumer in the franchise, especially if you need to cross sell, say, the consumer. At least you're keeping them in the franchise, and it opens up this possibility with the consumer for consumer advocacy down the road. Now, obviously, coupon reimbursement process and procedures are gonna vary greatly across companies and maybe within even brands.
Denise Venneri:But one thing is key, and that is creating the coupon and forecasting the coupon amount annually is critical to ensure you're at the ready. For for what? For the agents to select and provide the reimbursement to consumers. Sounds simple when you break it down that way. But when you think of it, you know, that that notion of keeping the end in mind, this is it.
Denise Venneri:You want to make sure you have for your agents the right coupon with the right value and offer at the appropriate forecasted amount. Yes. This does require effort, but it's worth it. For this episode, I'm gonna lean into POD coupons or better known as print on demand coupons, both full value coupons and cents off, those two types. These have come into favor, at least in my understanding more recently, they require or they don't require, as much, or they they have a little bit more flexibility, I should say.
Denise Venneri:You may also use for coupon reimbursement, I have I'm saying that in quotes, you might use digital coupons or the ability to actually send product as reimbursement or those preprinted, you know, glossy coupons or even gift cards or or or gift codes. Pro tip. I'm working to have a digital coupon vendor on as a guest in the near future, so we'll dig into digital coupons then. Make sure you you keep on looking to see when that episode's coming up. Now you've heard me say this a lot in in a lot of my earlier episodes, and that is the important role you have of having a line of sight into the marketing plans, all the consumer touch points.
Denise Venneri:I might even actually, I know I have an episode on this, and I'll link that in the show note. I'm gonna say it's like episode 4, because it's such a basic tenet of all we do. So check that out. So let's assume you've got this line of sight. I've got all the marketing touch points for the, the year that you're forecasting these coupons.
Denise Venneri:So tip typically, you might do this, you know, as early as 6 months out before the start of the of the new year or, something close to that because it is it is an arduous process. Step 1, of course, always starts with organization and, you know, let's let's call it an Excel spreadsheet. And one of the things I like to do, or I like to you know, what I hear people doing is that they're putting placeholders in this Excel spreadsheet for things like, oh, you're aware of a new sub brand that's going to be launching. So put a placeholder in for that. Perhaps you're hearing is some discontinuations.
Denise Venneri:Maybe the full year will be just good or part of the year. Put a placeholder or a note for that. And, also, you're gonna have listed in this Excel the current coupons you may have already created the year before. Now it's important. Right?
Denise Venneri:You have the line of sight, but, again, I'm just gonna emphasize, partner with marketers that they they are really your source of truth for everything, and I really do rely on that. And one of the things I do to make it a little bit less painful is I like to, send this spreadsheet, to the brand managers when I, you know, know exactly who's who and make sure that they receive the Excel spreadsheet version of their brand related coupons. This way, they can start looking at it, start, you know, muddling over whether they think everything's correct and appropriate and everything is in there as possible. Now while this is going on, pro tip, I like to have that out and then look then the, you know, the brand looking at it, and I like to start my forecasting. Now as a specialist analyst, I, honestly, I don't get involved personally, you know, in my in my life, in my career.
Denise Venneri:I've not gotten involved in a lot of forecasting, and this is, you know, a place to dip your toe in that order and have a little fun with it. Again, you're gonna be partnering with that brand person because you can't prudent. And by that, I mean, most likely, your forecast will increase from the year before, say, for current, coupon values or coupon descriptions. Now, again, I'm gonna repeat one more time. Marketing plans, you know what's coming down the pike.
Denise Venneri:You have a sense of, you know, how many how many new items. Let's, you know, let's get them reformulated. You also are always kind of aware of what's happening in the macroeconomic conditions. What are the headwinds? What are the tailwinds for these for your brands or these businesses?
Denise Venneri:And, of course, the brand plans. Now I gotta I say all that, but I gotta tell you, in my experience, this is not a science, but it is an art. Now the the important, I think, metric here, is the amount of coupons distributed. That's the other piece that eventually you're gonna lay in on this on this spreadsheet. So what I mean by that is, what are the number of coupons?
Denise Venneri:Let's say you have coupon a. How many coupons a's excuse me. How many coupon a was distributed in the previous year? So as you can tell, I'm not saying the amount redeemed, right, redemption. I'm talking about how many literally left the contact center and went to a consumer.
Denise Venneri:That's really that's our role. That's our care. That is that is where we contribute, I think, to the cycle. Now, obviously, we want them all to be redeemed, but in the real world, that's not gonna happen. But, again, it's the marketers who are gonna have those plans to, you know, pull through the product, pull consumers to the stores, and pull the product off the shelves and into their homes.
Denise Venneri:Not that that's not important, because it is, but that is, in my estimation, a good thing to leave to the brands. But you you you wanna know how many you're distributing because you need to help them forecast, okay. How much money of my budget should I set aside for this coupon channel? And the coupon channel is coupon reimbursement through the content center contract center. Excuse me.
Denise Venneri:Not through FSIs or handed out, from the sales team to people. So the point there is put a column of the amount distributed that you know happened this year, and then you're gonna have a column right next to it with what you feel the forecasted amount is. And, again, you know, this is gonna translate into dollars, but more importantly, it's translating into the goodwill that I talked about that you are putting into consumers' hands through your contact center, and that is that's so valuable. I don't even know what what number to give that, but very, valuable. So, I think that's that's almost it.
Denise Venneri:I think one thing is, again, stay organized, keep note of your forecast. I already said that. Oh, I know. Work with your brand to ensure that we you both understand what account, these coupons are going to be coming from, and make a note of that onto your spreadsheet, as all this will then eventually be shared with the coupon agency. And what they're gonna do is they're gonna create special coupon codes assigned just to these coupons you're creating, so that they can be tracked and attributed back to the content contact center.
Denise Venneri:So that's it. I don't know if that was a high level or a low level, but it was just, I guess, a starter or a quick primer. Nothing really there, probably newfangled, but just, just wanted to put a line in the sand and, get that conversation going. And, again, like I mentioned, I'm gonna try to get a vendor on to talk about digital coupons or, something else under this topic to, dig a little deeper. Thanks for your time.
Narrator: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.
Narrator:You have been listening to the My Curious College podcast with Denise and Tiffany. Thank you for your time.