Hi Bruno, tell us about yourself and your background.
Hello CXBuzz readers, it’s an honor to participate in this interview! I’m very passionate about what I do, which is understanding people as customers, understanding their needs and desires, and building the best relationship that can exist between a company and a customer. I am Brazilian, and I have been working with customer relationships for 20 years. I started in the service and support area, and over time I realized how strategic this area could and should be within companies. I started to implement customer voice programs and work on the culture within the organizations so that they understood that the customer is the priority of everyone in the company.
How did you start working in the customer experience space?
I’ve been doing consulting for 20 years, and a few years ago, I started on a project to build a visitation program for an aeronautical museum. It so happens that this museum belonged to the main Brazilian Air Company in the mid-2000s. More than that, it was the dream of its late founder, Rolim Amaro, who for us here is one of the greatest references in customer relations.
This project gave me the autonomy to build a true visitor experience program. We thought about everything, at each point of interaction, from planning the visit, to every experience that should take place, during the visit to the updating of the workshops for customers who were afraid of flying or the ones for aviation enthusiasts. I learned a lot on this project. We had clients arriving by private plane, car, bus, and motorcycle. Each with a different need, and a unique expectation.
I consider this 2006 project to be my first project that fully adheres to the standards of customer experience as we know it today.
Can you tell us a little bit about your current role?
Currently I am the Head of Customer Relations at Estrela Toys, the largest toy manufacturer in Brazil, and I also take on some consulting services occasionally.
However, my big project, the one that makes me very proud, is to have launched the PeopleXperience, which is the first professional Brazilian platform for mapping persona and customer journeys. The platform is also available in English and it’s free.
How can companies better listen and understand their customer base?
We have two challenges in this question. The first thing is to understand the client, and to this point, I insist on the importance of mapping the personas. That’s because in this mapping process, we will have to look for information about customer behavior, feelings, challenges, pains, and goals; this helps a lot in how we will offer our products and services, and in how I will relate to the customer.
The second challenge for a company is to listen to the customer, and this involves minimally structuring a process where the collection of requested and unrequested feedback is meaningful. The most painful point of this process is to make all departments open to understand the voice of the customer, and help with the necessary changes… It is a process of refining the existing culture that can take a few years, but it is worth it. It is beautiful to see truly engaged companies, where employees do their best for customers in a natural way.
What are some companies that you think are doing an excellent job at customer experience, and why?
In addition to the more mainstream ones, like Disney, Amazon, Starbucks, Spotify and Netflix, I’d like to list some companies here in Brazil that are on a very positive path towards customer centricity. They are: Nubank, IFood, Sempre em Casa, Corner Shop and Natural da Terra.
Here is what they have in common: the customer’s convenience and low effort to conduct business, friendly environment, fair price and, above all, good after-sales support, they choose to trust in the customer and bring him or her close, rather than create difficulties, distrust, and an experience that repels the customer from continuing business with the company.
Many companies are currently undergoing digital transformation processes – what are your tips on a successful digital transformation?
In my opinion, digital transformation cannot be confused with technology insertion. Transformation exists when something changes in the company’s culture, that is, in the way we do and deliver results, whether internally or for the client. Thinking this way, my tip would always be to reflect if we are focusing on tool and process, or if we are focusing on changes in our culture to impact the delivery of greater added value to the customer.
What are some CX solutions or tools that you’re keeping your eyes on right now?
For sure what we are doing at PeopleXperience will bring great results for many companies. The platform itself, I said, is free and has many features. There are professional plans for the company to have a corporate directory. But the icing on the cake is our API, which is called LiveXperiences and which will be able to integrate data into the journey, giving a single view per customer, helping support agents and an important dashboard for CX management in companies.
Did you read any interesting books this past summer that you’d like to recommend?
Yes, I am eternally interested in reducing customer effort, and I have been focusing on this theme. Another topic that fascinates me is related to market cases, talking about CX strategy and management. I recommend the book The Effortless Experience, by Matthew Dixon, and the book Driven to Delight, where Joseph A. Michelli presents the Mercedes Benz case.
What is your favorite CX metric?
The perfect metric is one that we manage to transform into practical actions for CX management. I really like and believe in NPS, but I think companies often apply it in the wrong way, or at the wrong time, or allowing it to be manipulated. And I really appreciate CES, because even before this metric existed, I was a fan of reducing the customer’s effort, reducing bureaucracy, making processes more fluid and consistent with what the customer expected from us as a company.
