The Consumer Packaged Goods (CPG) industry faces frightening headwinds — from supply chain disruptions and inflation to the rise of private-label brands and changing consumer preferences.
These haunts put serious pressure on brand loyalty and customer lifetime value (CLV), leading valuable accounts to switch to competitors.
That’s why CPG companies like Heineken, Coca-Cola, and AB InBev have transformed their B2B customer experiences (CX) with real-time “always-on” feedback to break the curse of customer churn and gain a competitive edge.
Brands are seeing a significant improvement in service levels within Modern and Traditional Trade after investing in tools to reach every outlet.
Don’t be scared — you can do the same!
But first, let’s check out the four areas you’re missing in CPG without leaving a door open for customer feedback 24/7.
Four Areas CPG Companies Miss Without Real-Time “Always-on” Feedback
Emerging Direct-store Delivery (DSD) Product or Service Issues
Without a pulse on customer sentiment, CPG brands may be slow to identify and address product quality problems, late delivery times, or packaging issues that are frustrating to B2B partners.
Real-time customer feedback allows for rapid issue identification and quick action to resolve it, especially helpful for those that operate within a DSD model — a distribution model where a supplier or manufacturer ships products directly to a retail store, instead of sending them to a distribution center.
🧙The Solution Spell: By starting a Net Promoter Score (NPS) program using CustomerGauge, you access a completely personalized dashboard to monitor the health of your most valuable accounts.
Once you’ve gathered feedback, you can view your biggest drivers of detractors and promoters to see which areas of business should be prioritized.
Subpar Customer Experiences
With more product lines than ever before, the most successful CPG companies understand that the new competitive edge lies in great customer experiences.
The rest of the businesses in this industry that don’t have a system for immediate customer feedback are blind to pain points in the customer journey.
Without receiving regular feedback from customers daily, issues within the supply chain go unnoticed until they manifest in churn or negative reviews.
🧙The Solution Spell: Surveying customers through NPS 4x a year (our best practice!) ensures that you maintain great business relationships and keep your best customers longer. It’s not just a single point of contact who should be receiving your surveys — you want to receive feedback from the head office to outlets in an “always-on” fashion to anticipate customer needs.
👉 Read our full guide on Why B2B Customer Experience Programs Fail
Ineffective Promotions
Without real-time data on how customers are responding to marketing campaigns, pricing promotions, or loyalty initiatives, CPG brands risk wasting time and resources on tactics that fail to resonate.
Timely customer feedback enables rapid optimization.
🧙The Solution Spell: With CustomerGauge, Artificial Intelligence (AI) isn’t just a buzzword. With GaugieAI, our close-the-loop assistant, frontline teams can quickly view where there is a detractor in need of a response while on the road and follow up without ever having to think of a prompt — yes, Gaugie takes care of it for you.
Plus, you can quickly deliver prioritized action plans to your team to enable better service and improved operations to scale business faster.
Competitive Blindspots
In the fast-paced CPG landscape, competitors can quickly outmaneuver brands that lack a finger on the pulse of customer sentiment.
Unmasking how customers view rival products, services, and messaging requires an always-on channel for customer input.
By proactively capturing real-time customer feedback, CPG companies can stay ahead of emerging issues, changing preferences, and competitive threats.
This agility is essential for driving loyalty, maintaining relevance, and delivering winning customer experiences!
🧙The Solution Spell: While it is Halloween, we provide a customer crystal ball all year around. With our revenue simulator, you can set targets based on hard data that puts CX and revenue into center focus. Imagine if you could determine how 1 NPS point impacts your bottom line? It’s as close to magic as you can get.
Additionally, to maintain a competitive edge you need a window into how your competitors are doing.
With CustomerGauge, you can benchmark results in real-time to better understand market trends and operational performance through the world’s largest CPG B2B experience benchmark data set.
By staying vigilant and "unmasking" the hidden drivers of customer churn, you can banish those ghouls and goblins for good. Your CPG brand will be boiling with loyal customers in no time, ready to weather any industry "curse" that comes your way.
Interested in seeing how you can unmask customer blindspots through an NPS program with CustomerGauge? Reach out today for a live demo!
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