Hi Raul, tell us about yourself and your background.
I’m an experience designer, and the founder of UMUNTU CX DESIGN in Miami, Florida. I’m also the author of the book Beyond Customer Experience, with a foreword by Don Peppers.
How did you start working in the customer experience space?
My first steps were back then in the 1990’s, when I was part of the Verizon team first launching mobile properties in Latin America and acting as VP of Nextel Communications. I was in charge of Sales & Customer Relations then. I had the opportunity to learn best practices that later on were part of my own work methodology.
Can you tell us a little bit about your current role?
I am the CEO of UMUNTU, an Experience Design Consulting firm with extensive footprint in US, Latin America and Europe. We create state of the art experiential programs for companies like Mastercard or Abbott Nutrition, and we are frequently invited by companies like Google, SAP, and Oracle among others for insightful working sessions.
How can companies better listen and understand their customer base?
We developed a disruptive method to decode customer mental model by using projective techniques or AI. Today we are working with some Tech giants to develop a Dynamic profiling based on Digital & social tracking. It will provide an ongoing flow of insights allowing to re profile customer archetypes.
What are some companies that you think are doing an excellent job at customer experience, and why?
Definitely Amazon is the company that has developed AI based tools to understand better their customers, but also linking that knowledge with operational improvements. The experience turned to better every time because the system learns from the interactions.
Many companies are currently undergoing digital transformation processes – what are your tips on a successful digital transformation?
Start with the culture. If you don t change your people`s mindset, if you don t teach and empower them to feel responsible of the delivery of great experiences, you won’t have chances to succeed. Then go for the business process re-design, and just then start asking what technological tools you need to enable the best customer experience. The biggest challenge today is that you need to deliver digital experiences to non-digital people
What are some CX solutions or tools that you’re keeping your eyes on right now?
UMUNTU has developed a real time Experience Auditing tool based on the way customers build perception at every interaction. It is going to revolutionize the wholem NPS concept.
Did you read any interesting books this past summer that you’d like to recommend?
RETAIL 4.0 by my mentor Philip Kotler and my good friend Giuseppe Stigliano.
What is your favorite CX metric?
Those who influence the most on customer perception. Our methodology includes a set of 24 variables per archetype, which are being used dynamically at every interaction.
