Consumer Relations Manager at PepsiCo

Main Purpose

• Develop and lead the SSA Consumer Relations function and manage the centre budget to establish functional expertise and efficiency within the cluster. Risk mitigation through early warning of potential issues and incidents, promote consumer loyalty and advocacy as well as effective insights sharing to support the business innovation agenda. Contribute to raising awareness and managing cross market potential ‘hot topics’ and incidents.
• Lead the development, implementation and management of robust Consumer Relations processes in line with the global/ESSA strategy to drive proactive early warning that ensures alignment of risk management protocols and processes, delivery of clear consumer insights to drive business awareness of consumer preferences. Maintain robust capability and consumer connectivity, promoting agreed best practices.
• Ensure implementation of the defined Incident and Crisis Response Management systems for SSA Consumer Relations and protecting the business, company and brands reputation by providing early visibility of key data and effectively managing consumer engagement as relevant.
• Lead the design, implementation and ongoing development of the SSA Consumer Relations Social Media & Digital community management team, delivering 5 day service flexibility and driving process efficiencies and consumer engagement to drive competitive advantage for PepsiCo.
• SME & Trusted advisor on CR issues for internal stakeholders in Marketing, Communications, Quality Assurance, R&D, Supply Chain, Regulatory and local/sector Corporate Affairs, identifying and implementing ways to drive consumer intimacy and delivering against our Winning with Purpose agenda.

Accountabilities

• Consumer Relations Lead for SSA implementing the global CR Maturity Model and Playbook criteria across the region, identifying areas of integration and change, adapting to meet local needs whilst ensuring a consistent and aligned approach to CR, across all channels and all contact types.
• Mitigate risk of escalated issues by sharing early information and leveraging well-established and well-documented best practices, aligned to Incident Management protocols and driving consistency with best practice from the global CR Centres of Excellence.
• As SME, liaise with cross-functional internal stakeholders to inform and consult on critical or escalated consumer issues, managing claims and escalated consumer issues in line with local, sector or global recommendations and balanced against local market cultural and legal obligations.
• Support Brand and Marketing Teams to deliver effective consumer messaging and response management that seeks to engage consumers and managing potential issues that provide support for new product and promotions activities and drives consumer loyalty and advocacy.
• Develop and provide SSA reporting programmes, bringing greater visibility of all consumer complaints, issues and trends to key internal stakeholders.
• Develop SSA CR Team capability and service excellence, identifying and implementing best practice external Communication Centre service, building skills sets and core competencies across the team, engaging with the team members, colleagues across SSA and within the global Centres of Excellence to drive capability excellence.
• Develop key proactive story-telling for consumers to showcase Winning with Purpose goals and achievements, identifying opportunities to continually engage consumers and raise visibility of PepsiCo commitments.
• Deliver effective management of consumer data, maintaining compliance from data entry to managing data deletion programmes that ensure PepsiCo legal compliance to ESSA Data Privacy regulations
• Play an active role in identifying and implementing opportunities to drive best practice, leading local and sector projects and collaborating with colleagues within and across functions to deliver against key CR strategies
• Design and deliver robust Service Level Agreements and Key Performance Indicators that support the development and maintenance of competitive advantaged consumer engagement. Identify and implement continuous improvement opportunities, ensuring wider team engagement and adherence.
• Develop and implement corporate and brand approved responses across both traditional and digital communication channels to address key issues which pose a risk to corporate and brand reputation, aligning with Corporate Communications, Legal, Regulatory and key stakeholders as required to mitigate risk of miscommunication and reputation damage.
• Create and share concise, informative and insightful consumer feedback reporting for both Quality/Food Safety and other necessary departments (R&D, marketing, sales)
• Develop and maintain collaborative relationships with key cross functional stakeholders and relevant 3rd parties to deliver competitively advantaged Consumer Relations, from consumer engagement to risk mitigation and early warning; including Social Media Teams, Legal, R&D, Regulatory, Marketing, Corporate Communications, Supply Chain, Promotion/Marketing Agencies and other local market Consumer Relations leads.

Qualifications/Requirements

Key skills / Requirements

• Excellent communication skills, both written and verbal across all stakeholders groups – internally and externally
• Degree level qualification with proven business experience or relevant Consumer Care Management experience
• Solid systems knowledge and awareness of new technologies
• Minimum five years’ experience in Consumer Relations or similar field
• Solid understanding of the business and strategy
• Collaborative; strong influencing and relationship skills
• Consumer advocacy and passion to engage
• Reputation management, strong negotiation and issue resolution skills
• Strong organizational prioritisation skills, able to plan and evaluate the impact of consumer issues on the business
• Ability to work independently in a dynamic and changing environment and with cross-functional teams and individuals
• High level of responsiveness, sensitivity and confidentiality
• Bi-lingual capability an advantage;
• Ability to motivate, influence and lead Consumer Relations team and direct reports
• Ability to implement key strategic agenda and influence programmes in a pragmatic and flexible style.
• Ideally, material knowledge across various subject matters – (Manufacturing process principles, product portfolio, Quality and Food Safety processes, key business plans and Incident Management processes).
• Analytical skills to interpret consumer data and distil into meaningful insights for key stakeholders.
• Computer literacy, numerate and good time management skills