What DTC CPG Brands Need To Know About Meeting Today’s Customer Service Demands

While COVID-19 has forced traditional retailers to shift to e-commerce or risk becoming obsolete, the shift to a direct-to-consumer (DTC) mindset includes other unexpected categories, including consumer packaged goods (CPG). With fewer stores available to sell through and less customers visiting stores, we are seeing a rapid uptick in CPG companies turning to DTC models to distribute their products and create meaningful customer connections. 

Just recently, CPG giants like PepsiCo, Kraft, Heinz and Nestle have established DTC channels to get their brands directly in the hands of consumers. Within 30 days, PepsiCo built a new, end-to-end system, Snacks.com, to allow consumers to directly order from 100 of their favorite Frito-Lay products. Last month, Heinz created its first-ever DTC business line, bundling shelf-stable items like beans, spaghetti, condiments and soup for home deliveries in the United Kingdom. 

While CPG brands have been migrating to DTC over the past couple of years, if there was ever a time to make the jump, it’s now. Data from Shopkick found that sales from e-commerce channels contributed to 90% of the CPG sector’s overall growth in 2017, while remaining just a fraction of the market’s total value of $771 billion. And with the pandemic causing a seismic shift in how and where CPG companies plan to sell their products, opportunities are ripe for the picking. 

The Benefits of DTC for CPG

Embracing a DTC mindset means that CPG brands can connect with customers not only at the point of sale, but also through continued online interaction, content delivery and, importantly, exceptional customer service. Collecting first-party customer data is another key DTC benefit, helping brands not only understand consumer behavior and preferences, but providing additional insights into things like product assortments and packaging. Through e-commerce and the data that comes with it, brands can increasingly own the customer relationship and strengthen customer loyalty through repeat purchases and increased lifetime value. 

Customer Service Is a Critical Link

For CPG brands using DTC for the first time, learning how to best manage the customer service relationship is mission critical. With more and more customers demanding personalized experiences and relationships with brands that fit into their life, understanding how to nurture the customer experience can be a real tipping point. In addition, the DTC environment makes cross-channel customer communication even more important, giving CPG brands no choice but to improve their customer service literacy. Whether communicating via phone, email, chat or social media, brands and their customer service agents must be able to nimbly answer any and all customer queries, regardless of channel. 

Here are our top four tips to help CPG brands rethink how they’re meeting customer needs and how the right customer service strategies and tools can make all the difference: 

1. Provide critical support for agents working from home. With a majority of customer service agents working remotely, it becomes even more essential to provide them with the tools and resources they need to deliver a stellar customer experience. According to a recent survey of customer service professionals, we learned that 64% of agents report a need for greater efficiencies, yet only half felt they have the resources they need to solve customer problems. Yes, working from home comes with its own set of challenges, but having the right technology in place can help agents manage their workflow and respond to customer queries as efficiently and effectively as possible. Furthermore, technology that can intelligently surface relevant information from a knowledge base will help agents deliver  consistent and high-value service. 
2. Help agents personalize their conversations. When customer service agents are able to tailor their interactions to the individual customer’s wants and needs, the chances of building a longer-term relationship is exponentially greater. And with nearly three-quarters of consumers saying that they will only engage with personalized messaging, the stakes become even higher. To the extent that brands can provide customer service representatives with an easy-to-access, centralized record of customer information and brand interactions, creating the personalized connections customers are seeking will be that much easier.
3. Focus on enhancing owned media channels. From brand websites and social media to email marketing and mobile marketing, owned media channels are more important than ever for brands to survive and thrive. Now is the time to review and optimize traffic and engagement across owned channels to create multiple customer communication touchpoints. For example, augmenting social media presence provides customers another way to connect with your brand and vice versa. Poor customer service on social media can wreak havoc on customer service satisfaction, with 56% of consumers saying they will unfollow a brand if they’re not happy with their interaction on social channels.
4. Create seamless customer service through omnichannel support. Nowadays, customer service agents must be able to address customer queries and issues on any channel a customer wants to use. Brands that are truly omnichannel allow customers to connect with them via website, social media, email, phone or chat and prepare customer agents to move seamlessly from one channel to the other. If a customer initially contacts a brand via email and follows up by phone, an agent should be able to address any part of the discussion without asking the customer to repeat or clarify any information. To do so, many brands are embracing technology that can automate their business processes. Many brands are finding that platforms that incorporate machine learning and artificial intelligence are able to accelerate customer service resolution, making it easier for both the agent and the customer.

The global pandemic has forever changed the way that brands across different industries think about connecting customers to their products and nurturing customer relationships moving forward. In the CPG industry right now, any growth strategy that fails to include a DTC component will be unable to tap into the power of e-commerce, a major market driver. But the real CPG winners will be those that invest not only in DTC, but in the customer service infrastructure required to satisfy even the finickiest of customers.