Hi Jesús, tell us about yourself and your background.
I am from Puerto Rico. Live in South Florida, and most of my time, I am between airports and Mexico. This was before the pandemic. Now I am 100% working remote in Latin America. I started in the CRM space when it was known as Telemarketing or SFA as a developer in a startup here in Florida during the early 90s. During the late 90s, I worked at Cambridge Technology Partners as a CRM Domain Manager implementing Vantive, Clarify, and Siebel throughout Latin America. And during the 2000s, I started Solvis Consulting and worked as well as an independent analyst influencer. Love hiking, baseball, mountain biking, and national parks.
How did you first start working in the CX space?
This is a tricky question. I can say that in the last 10 years or so, I started working on CX because many of our customers started requesting to implement CX or Customer Engagement ecosystems. With Solvis, we implemented communities, social media platforms, CRM, Martech, and call centers, all as part of a customer engagement platform or ecosystem.
What are some of the common misunderstandings related to customer experience?
That CX is just analyzing sentiment data and/or surveys for CSAT or NPS. Or that CX is a methodology that does not need the use of technology to start with. CX is a complete ecosystem of tools that needs to have the customer as the center.
Have you seen any interesting new trends in eCommerce this year?
Yes. Three letters. CDP. Everybody wants to have a Customer Data Platform to improve eCommerce. In Latin America is to be able to provide omnichannel experiences, use messaging platforms, and work with delivery partners that will help with logistics.
eCommerce boomed in 2020, and consumers started leaving more product reviews online. How can we make the most out of this momentum?
Boomed? Due to necessity. Due to the pandemic. But companies are not ready yet to provide end-to-end experiences to retain and add more customers. Companies need to be able now to create Commerce platforms that will scale via cloud technologies, strong logistics, and key partners in their industry.
What are some CX companies/solutions you’re keeping your eyes on right now?
Fintech and last-mile delivery solutions. All companies need to have a fintech element in their eCommerce and have strong partnerships with local delivery companies in Latin America.
So many things changed in 2020. While some things will return to “normal,” what are new trends and habits you think will stay with us in the long term?
Customers want to work from home, go to local markets, buy groceries from a few places, and connect back with their families and communities; they want to move to rural places. Each country will have different trends and habits. Companies need to start really looking into the future to make decisions now. They need their own analysts, influencers, and think tank groups.
Do you believe focus groups are still relevant in the era of eCommerce? Why?
Yes. You need to include focus groups, data scientists, sentiment analysis, community managers, surveys from employees and customers. CX is all the above. Above is where your company has data to measure Commerce and any channel in your eCommerce.
Last but not least, what is your favorite CX metric?
Who bought it yesterday and why? The rest will follow. You need a matrix of Customer metrics, not just CX. Metrics that will measure each stage of your customer relationship lifecycle from acquisition to maintaining the customer, from upselling and cross-selling to loyalty. And if you do all the proper things, you don’t need to retain the customers. He or she is already a good customer or advocate already.
