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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. Today's bonus episode is a SOCAP takeover of sorts to share a sneak peek of SOCAP's data and analytics workshop that's coming up.
Denise Venneri:Now SOCAP is that acronym you hear me talk about all the time. It's the industry group known as the Society of Consumer Affairs Professionals. And to sneak peek today is my colleague, Abe Atshan. He is currently the president of the Northeast Regional Chapter of SOCAP. So hi, and welcome to the podcast, Abe.
Abe Atshan:Hey, Denise. Thank you for having me. Mama, look. I made it. Yeah.
Abe Atshan:But I just I do wanna point something out, so please excuse the raspiness in my voice. It turns out that if you go to a Jets game in the rain and stay until the end to watch them lose in the final seconds, that there's a really high chance that you'll get sick. So I'm feeling a lot better, but my voice is still recovering. But just wanted to highlight that.
Denise Venneri:Oh my goodness. I thank you for the background. I think you sound pretty good. And, I really appreciate you, like, pushing yourself to to make this recording. I I do.
Denise Venneri:I do. Alright. Let's begin with you know, I mentioned that you're on the well, you were elected the president of the chapter for, for the northeast region. How do you get to that point in your career? How did you get to that point in your career?
Abe Atshan:That's a that's a good question. Actually, it's a long it's a pretty, pretty long answer. But, so I've been a member of SOCAP for, say, about 9 years now. And I tell this story a lot, but I'll share it with you, because I I haven't told you the story. But when I first began with ACC Premier, a lot of you might know Beth Ziff.
Abe Atshan:She's our EVP of, customer experience. She invited me to a SOCAP event at the Consumer Reports building in Yonkers, New York. So she said she thought I would fit right into the society. So, I said, okay. Thanks.
Abe Atshan:Thanks for inviting me out. I'll try it out. So I arrived at the consumer, reports building, and as soon as I walked in, I saw Lisa Oswald of Travelzoo. So what a great first impression, because she was very welcoming. And I remember thinking to myself, I thought I had nice hair.
Abe Atshan:Now she has nice hair. So then we went on
Denise Venneri:a tour hair. Never really
Abe Atshan:had a
Denise Venneri:a hair out of place on that girl. Yes. I think she's super savvy and smart. Yeah.
Abe Atshan:Yes. She is. She's one of a kind. So then we went on a tour of the consumer reports building, and, you know, we're learning how to test treadmills, which I thought was fascinating. And then I began networking with, you know, so many great people representing so many great brands.
Abe Atshan:So I thought to myself, so you're telling me I get to go to these events, learn amazing industry knowledge, and network with like minded professionals, in the customer service space. So, I've been proud to be part of the community, ever since, and I've been loyal ever since. So, I always volunteered. It's kinda like to to further answer your questions. I've always volunteered to help with the northeast region, and I feel like when you show the characteristics of a leader that eventually you lead.
Abe Atshan:So I made my way up the rankings over the years, and here I am as the, president of the northeast region. So I've learned a lot from presidents before me, like Michelle Shane and Nicole Nutil. But, I've always been the type of individual that praises act the position you want, not the position you're in, and the growth will come. So here I am.
Denise Venneri:Oh, you're dropping a couple of great nuggets already. Love that. Love that. Hey. I'm a long time member too.
Denise Venneri:I think I've got you beat.
Abe Atshan:I like that.
Denise Venneri:Yeah. So I'm a SOCAT member for gosh. I'll just say I'll go with 15 plus years. Wow. And, mhmm.
Denise Venneri:And, I've attended many of, you know, the names have changed, but, many of the data, reporting workshops, in the past. I think I was even on one of the committees 1 year, to help out.
Abe Atshan:Amazing.
Denise Venneri:Yeah. And always got a, you know, minimum a takeaway or 3 that I could consider going back and doing at the office or just implement the next day. It's like that kind of stuff. Yeah. So, before I go on and on about that, let's let's just start right now.
Denise Venneri:Get everybody organized, get your calendars out. When and where is the workshop, and are there any fees to attend?
Abe Atshan:Yes. All all good questions. So the workshop will be taking place on Thursday, November 7th. That's next month. It'll be a one day event from 8 AM to 4 PM.
Abe Atshan:It'll be taking place at Wiley headquarters in beautiful Hoboken, New Jersey right along the Hudson River. You think New York is beautiful. Well, the most beautiful view of New
Denise Venneri:York Mhmm.
Abe Atshan:Is from the Riverside in New Jersey
Denise Venneri:Okay.
Abe Atshan:Especially in Hoboken. So the Wylie building, is very beautiful with unobstructed views of Manhattan, which we'll be able to experience at the event. And then the cost is 4.95 a person, and it it will be in person, just like it was pre COVID. So we're bringing it back in person. But one special thing that we're doing with pricing is we're offering a discount when you bring colleagues.
Abe Atshan:So if you bring one colleague, it's 50 dollars off of both of you. But if you bring 2 or more colleagues, then it's a $100 off of each of you. So I think there's some great cost savings with coming, as a group and, you know, gaining all that great knowledge that we'll be sharing at the event.
Denise Venneri:Nice. I like those choices on the on the fee side very much. Very much. You had mentioned you're bringing it back in person after COVID, and I'm hearing you're looking to kinda modernize the session a bit this year. I'm wondering how how will it be different?
Denise Venneri:You know? Like, will the format be different or the topics or the types of speakers you're bringing in or, you know, all of the above?
Abe Atshan:Yeah. Actually, all of the above. So I'm excited to to share a lot, you know, a lot of the sessions, that will be taking place. So, as you mentioned and I mentioned, it'll be in person, so we'll be able to see one another in person, network together, collaborate. And I already mentioned, you know, New York, New Jersey being, a great location, especially in the month of November.
Abe Atshan:Nothing says holiday season like New York, New Jersey in November. So, our sponsors are amazing, so I'll start with that. So a special thanks to our our title sponsor, Qualtrics. They'll be presenting and doing a fireside chat with Nathan Bobay of Delta Faucet about Delta CX maturity journey, so I'm very excited for that session. Another special thanks to our silver sponsor, IA Solutions.
Abe Atshan:They'll be leading a session named ensuring a seamless multichannel customer journey. So for anyone who's eager to take your customer experience to the next level, Ian and the IA solutions team will explore how journey mapping leads to improved customer satisfaction, retention, and sales. And then I have more to share, but I do I'm very excited about this one. So we'll have a session by the famous Bob Weiss, for those of you who know Bob Weiss, the VP of customer service and operations at Wiley. He'll be sharing how Wiley customer service identified trends, and data to leverage AI and how that led to their massive partnership with Salesforce.
Abe Atshan:So if you know Bob, you know you're in for a treat. So
Denise Venneri:But I know that someone I trust very well, I trust you, and Nicole works in that organization.
Abe Atshan:Correct.
Denise Venneri:So it's all gotta be good, and and they're graciously
Abe Atshan:I'll be sure to introduce you to him.
Denise Venneri:Please do.
Abe Atshan:Please do. Yes. I will.
Denise Venneri:Did you wanna go into talking deeply about the more deeply about the fireside chat?
Abe Atshan:Yes.
Denise Venneri:Okay. Yes. And that's with Nathan, Bobae Bobae. Bobae from Yep. Delta.
Denise Venneri:Yep. Interesting topic. Okay. What do you what do you envision me there?
Abe Atshan:Yeah. I'm excited for that one. So, alongside Nathan from Delta, it'll be Keleche and Yanwoo, who is the XM scientist from Qualtrics. So Qualtrics and Nathan will be discussing how they're seeing contact center changes, and, you know, helping companies like Delta enhance their service strategies with advanced conversational analytics, which is a huge topic right now. So instead of just relying, like, on survey questions, you know, they're focused on understanding all customer interactions, whether it's a website issue, a phone call, or a chat.
Abe Atshan:So since these experiences are kinda all linked in customers' minds, having all the data in one place helps brands like Delta make their contact centers more profitable, save costs, and manage changes and reduce risks. So, they'll be going and taking a in-depth dive into those topics.
Denise Venneri:Sounds thorough to say the least.
Abe Atshan:So I I'll tell you one more thing. Qualtrics also has an afternoon session Okay. And they'll be they'll be presenting, cases and customer examples of how to listen, understand, and act on companies' quantitative and Mhmm. Pun intended, qualitative data in any omnichannel environment. So, it'll be interesting to see all the data and the cases and examples they share.
Denise Venneri:Yeah. I'm hearing, like, scientists. I'm hearing quantitative. This is all music to my ears. So you had mentioned AI.
Denise Venneri:Of course, we'd be remiss if we didn't go back to that and and dig a little bit more. How's that one shaping up?
Abe Atshan:Yeah. Right? The wild, wild west of AI. So we'll we'll we'll definitely be discussing AI in a few of our sessions, with a big focus on analytics and reporting, agent assist, and conversational AI. So I don't wanna give too much away because you have to be there in person to to to get to to get all the the information, but those are 3 major AI topics that we'll be discussing.
Denise Venneri:I'm jumping into an ad right now. This episode is sponsored by SOCAP, the Society of Consumer Affairs Professionals. As the leading CX Association, SOCAP is at the forefront of customer experience, trends, and innovation. Discover how SOCAP empowers its members to stay ahead in the evolving CX landscape, join the community where members come for the knowledge, stay for the network at socap.org. That's socap, s ocap.org.
Denise Venneri:Alright. We were chatting a little bit about AI, and now let's talk about your company. I understand that your very own company, ACC Premier, is graciously going to be covering a topic, on benchmark benchmarking a part of me. Correct.
Abe Atshan:Yeah. Of course. So our very own, Allison Buckley, will be leading a session on CPG benchmarking named I have the name of the session. Benchmarking brilliance, harnessing tech for process improvement. So for those of you that know Allison, a lot of SoulCappers do, you know that in a previous life, she worked, at the Cake Boss in Hoboken, New Jersey.
Abe Atshan:So Allison will be, in her old stomping ground, but instead of cooking up cakes and desserts, she'll be cooking up data and analytics focused on benchmarking in the CPG space. So I'm very excited for her session because she's gonna tell a great story, and we look forward to it.
Denise Venneri:Now you touched on for the rest of the the sessions. You you had mentioned a little bit about Qualtrics and talking about listening and understanding, various things. Is there anything else that you wanna sneak peek about the remainder of any sessions?
Abe Atshan:Yeah. Of course. I mean, just a little bit more. The remaining sessions will be brand led, focusing on, you know, the topics that we've discussed, but also customer journey mapping, data analytics, and the importance of data driven decision making, predictive analytics, and sentiment analysis and the voice of the consumer. So I think, that'll that'll kind of, cover almost, not everything, but a lot of great data and analytics to share with everyone in attendance.
Denise Venneri:Well, sadly, a, we are at the end of our sneak peek here. Just wanted to just let you know how appreciative I am, and and thank you so much for your time this Friday evening.
Abe Atshan:Listen. I appreciate you, and thank you for having me, and providing the sneak peek to all your viewers and all the SoCappers. So, you know, we wanna make sure that everyone that attends the event, especially you, you'll be there, that everyone's gonna be swimming in data and analytics, at the end of the workshop. So special topics, special sponsors, special speakers, special venue. It's gonna be extra special.
Abe Atshan:So if you haven't registered yet, register now because space is limited. Wiley is only giving us a certain amount of space, so we wanna make sure everybody's comfortable. So registration is filling up, so please make sure you register now, and I'll see you there.
Denise Venneri: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.
Denise Venneri:You have been listening to the My Curious Hollywood podcast, w Denise Venneri.