In the dynamic landscape of the Consumer Packaged Goods (CPG) industry, frontline salespeople are indispensable in driving success and growth.
From engaging directly with customers to finding new business opportunities, those in Business Development Representative (BDR) positions are the backbone of CPG's traditional trade success.
Weekly, BDRs are influencing purchasing decisions, fostering brand loyalty, and ultimately driving revenue.
That’s why companies must invest in their frontline and equip them with the tools they need to foster strong relationships with customers.
And many CPG giants are already ahead of the game.
Brands like Coca-Cola HBC and Heineken are leveraging CustomerGauge’s all-new Frontline Suite to empower frontline teams to excel in customer retention and growth.
In this blog, we’ll break down the importance of real-time feedback and walk through a day in the life of BDR Joe planning his site visits using the Frontline Suite.
Let’s get started!
Reach Every Outlet With Real-Time Feedback
Imagine having an operational tool that allows your business to scale customer feedback with minimal on-site interactions from BDRs?
With the Frontline Suite, you can receive direct feedback from every outlet in your global portfolio without ever having to send a rep in person.
Our platform sets the frontline up for success to build great relationships digitally, but also continue enriching the ones they meet on-site regularly.
The most successful CPG companies are collecting feedback right now from the head office to outlets in an “always-on” fashion to anticipate customer needs.
This helps businesses create an action plan for better service and growth targeted at the customers that represent the biggest problems and opportunities.
With over 20 product launches in 2023 alone, CustomerGauge has continuously improved its platform, introducing more than 200 features and enhancements — we’re only getting started.
These advancements translate into tangible customer benefits, empowering frontline teams to address risks, enhance customer retention, and drive growth.
In The Account Experience Podcast above, leaders from Heineken, Coca-Cola HBC, and Anheuser-Busch told us how Account Experience has become their new area of competitive advantage.
We heard how each brand had been transforming its distribution chain into one that’s customer-centric, leveraging the Net Promoter System (NPS).
The answer is clear: gathering B2B customer feedback once a year isn’t cutting it anymore for traditional trade.
Empowering Traditional Trade with Enhanced Campaign Management
One of the key highlights of CustomerGauge's recent developments is the enhanced campaign builder, designed to maximize feedback collection across various survey distribution methods such as emails, SMS, and WhatsApp.
This powerful tool offers personalized domains, automated reminders, and multilingual support (over 190+ languages!), ensuring high response rates and meaningful feedback collection.
The intuitive survey builder further streamlines the process, allowing the frontline to create customized surveys tailored to customers' preferences.
Data Quality Management and Smart Alerts
Understanding the importance of data quality, CustomerGauge has introduced capabilities to help organizations manage data integrity effectively.
By making certain data fields mandatory and limiting the type of information that can be uploaded, the platform prevents data pollution and ensures the reliability of insights generated.
Additionally, smart alerts enable frontline teams to stay informed and act promptly on customer feedback, with personalized notifications made for individual recipients.
Tailored-Made Features to Identify Actions to Grow Business
CustomerGauge's Frontline Suite is a game-changer for frontline teams, providing BDRs with the tools they need to build and nurture long-lasting B2B customer relationships.
- Geocoding capabilities. This innovative feature offers frontline teams a comprehensive view of customer engagement and loyalty in their geographical area. By visualizing customer data on a map, teams can prioritize their visits and develop action plans tailored to specific territories.
- Close-the-loop artificial intelligence (AI) assistant. Our closed-loop assistant powered by AI, or GaugieAI, revolutionizes the feedback response process. Analyzing customer feedback in real-time, AI generates professional responses personalized to each customer's feedback, significantly reducing response time and enhancing customer satisfaction.
- Localization by language. It’s all about providing customers with a personalized experience, including speaking the same language through custom responses. Our fully integrated language suite has 198 languages and locales to choose from to further improve response rates. Plus, real-time language translations are available as well.
CustomerGauge's Frontline Suite seamlessly integrates into frontline teams' daily routines, empowering them to incorporate customer feedback as part of their everyday interactions.
From prioritizing customer visits to closing the loop on feedback, the suite enhances efficiency and effectiveness in customer relationship management.
Day in the Life of Joe: a Business Development Representative
Explicitly designed to aid frontline teams in surveying all outlets and incorporating customer feedback into their action plans, the Frontline Suite is made for BDRs to have their responses literally in their back pocket.
Let’s walk through a day in the life of Joe, a Business Development Rep, fully leveraging the CustomerGauge Frontline Suite.
Joe works for beverage giant Sodr, where he has about 50 customer touches a day within his territory of Greater Amsterdam.
His main priorities typically include onsite distributor visits and customer relationship management. Today, Joe is planning on addressing his current challenges using the Frontline Suite.
A few challenges he’s been experiencing are:
High-expected touches
No way to prioritize customer territory
Taking too long to follow up with customers
Lack of customization in follow-ups
Inconsistency with follow-ups
Let’s start at the beginning of Joe’s day and see how he utilizes CustomerGauge throughout.
Joe wakes up to a new ‘smart alert’
CustomerGauge’s ‘smart alerts’ immediately notify any device once new feedback comes in.
Unfortunately for Joe, his morning began with a smart alert notifying him that one of his top 20% revenue accounts just submitted a detractor score.
While not off to a great start, this smart alert is helping him plan out crucial next steps to address this feedback.
Saves time with the close-the-loop AI assistant
Joe wastes no time quickly getting on the road to visit his at-risk clients.
While on the go, Joe can drill into the CustomerGauge platform refreshing his memory with the customer’s history, reasons for the negative feedback, and more.
He now needs to craft a personalized and attentive response fast due to his company’s strict 48-hour close-the-loop policy and knows exactly which feature is going to help most — GaugieAI 🤖
Our close-the-loop AI assistant produces thoughtful responses to customer feedback within seconds. Once a response is generated, Joe can easily tweak and add any additional information necessary to make it his own.
What would have taken Joe anywhere from 10 to 30 minutes to write, gets done so quickly that it puts him 15 minutes ahead of schedule.
Joe plans his route
Now that Joe has closed the loop on his detractor feedback, he’s ready to look at his territory and plan his route for the day.
With the geocoding map, Joe can easily identify his customer's location based on engagement, customer loyalty, and more.
Joe notices the detractor account is right near a large cluster of other high-value accounts that do not have responses. He decides that’s the best place to start to attend to these detractors and proceeds to create a route around these customers.
The geocoding map is always available to BDRs on the road. That means if Joe ever needs to detour and change his route for the day, he can fast.
He visits a detractor account
While Joe had already responded to the detractor account this morning, he is going the extra mile by visiting them in person as well.
He comes fully prepared with an understanding of what went wrong and how Joe’s business can help fix the problem.
His customers are more than satisfied that their feedback was heard and their relationship with Joe definitely improved.
Joe's checklist is complete
In just one day, Joe had tackled every area he needed to fix using the CustomerGauge Frontline Suite.
Our Vice President of Product Management at CustomerGauge, Trishaala Chengappa, shared:
“This shows how a BDR like Joe can incorporate customer feedback as part of their daily routine. They can make this a part of their customer touches with the geocoding map and have the ability to prioritize which customers they want to visit first, territories to focus on, and more. This is really exciting stuff."
CustomerGauge VP of Product Introduces Frontline Suite at Monetize! Digital
Trishaala Chengappa recently introduced the Frontline Suite’s cutting-edge features the Product Team created last year during her Monetize! Digital presentation.
Turning Frontline Teams Into Heroes in the Eyes of Customers
CustomerGauge's Frontline Suite is more than just a tool — it's a catalyst for frontline teams to become heroes in the B2B traditional trade landscape.
The all-new capabilities enable frontline teams to deliver exceptional customer experiences, drive retention, and fuel growth by providing the necessary resources and support.
So, what are you waiting for?
The Frontline Suite is now live in the CustomerGauge platform, ready to empower BDRs and elevate their B2B relationships to new heights.
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