In America it’s customer experience. But in South America, it’s experiencia del cliente. No matter the language, the principles are still the same—customers should be the focus of every company.
South American companies face the volatile world of instability and inflation, but they still show that focusing on customers can lead to success. Here are 10 of the most customer-focused companies in South America.
Arcos Dorados is based in Brazil and is the world’s largest independent McDonald’s franchisee with stores in more than 20 Latin American countries. The brand focuses on “cooltura de servicio”, or “service culture,” and encourages each employee to provide personalized service to customers.
Employees are engaged and properly trained, which means they can offer creative solutions and great service to every customer. Arcos Dorados is a great place to work, and that shows to how its employees treat customers.
One of South America’s largest banks, Santander has more than 44 million customers across 6,000 branches. Although its reach is widespread, Santander customizes each branch to match the regulations and culture of the country so that customers feel comfortable.
Santander is always listening to customers and providing innovative solutions. In Chile, Santander runs Work Cafes, which are a combination bank and café that makes it convenient and enjoyable for customers to bank, work and grab a cup of coffee.
Bolivia’s largest pharmaceutical chain connects with customers on every step of their journey. The company uses data from all of its transactions to track customer trends and provide the best products and prices.
Farmacorp wins customers with its competitive pricing, but it retains them with personalized service and loyalty programs so customers know they are valued. Every Farmacorp employee is engaged in the customer-first culture and knows the importance of the role they play.
Business services company Concentrix is one of the best-loved companies in Brazil, and it all comes down to customer relationships. Concentrix works with each B2B customer individually to best understand their needs and provide personalized recommendations and service.
When customers have questions, they can get personalized answers from a human instead of searching aimlessly. Concentrix Brazil is focused on doing whatever it takes to help its customers lower their costs and increase their business.
It can be hard to find the right furniture piece online, but it’s also challenging for stores to have room for huge amounts of inventory. Brazilian home-furnishing brand Magazine Luiza realized its customers wanted to be able to see the products, so it came up with an innovative solution that allows for customized experiences.
The virtual store model allows customers to see and test products in store and then order them online. The model is especially effective in smaller cities, where customers didn’t have furniture stores but still wanted good products. The brand now has more than 100 virtual stores throughout Brazil.
Magazine Luiza shows the power of thinking outside the box to address customer needs.
Chile-based AIRA, or Artificial Intelligence Recruitment Assistant, understands the struggles of its customers and uses technology to create innovative solutions.
Finding new employees can be frustrating and time-consuming. AIRA found the biggest pain points for recruiters and created an AI system to post job openings, read and rank all resumes and even conduct video interviews. The system also scores each applicant’s responses and overall compatibility with the company.
AIRA gets regular feedback from its customers to improve the service so it can become an effective and useful tool.
Airline Avianca uses data to put customers at the center of everything it does.
The company collects data on each flight and every customer interaction to create customer profiles that include their travel history and preferences. When a customer contacts the airline or checks in for a flight, Avianca employees provide personalized service and recommend products or flights that the customer would like.
The company can also easily identify top customers and reward them for their loyalty. Using data to put customers first can make every flight feel like a VIP experience.
Customer focus also applies to B2B companies. ContaAzul saw that many small businesses couldn’t survive in Brazil because of the complicated tax system, so it started talking to customers and understanding their needs.
ContaAzul created affordable online accounting programs specifically matched to the Brazil tax system. The brand is constantly talking with customers and small business owners through webinars and conferences to learn what they need most to help their business thrive. ContaAzul stays agile so that its customers can always get the help they need.
As Latin America’s largest online video platform, Samba Tech manages the content for many large international brands.
The company focuses on live streaming and distance learning but always has an ear to the floor to see what customers want next. Samba Tech stays ahead of technology to ensure its video service is reliable.
The company’s goal is for every customer to have a consistent experience, no matter where they are or what they’re streaming. In order for that to happen, the company stays up to date on technology trends to maximize its bandwidth and consumer trends to make sure it always has content customers want to see.
Based in Ecuador, Produbanco puts banking customers at the center of everything it does, from the products it offers to the technology it uses.
Produbanco discovered its customers preferred automated services and went through a digital transformation to automate as much as possible. Even with self-service options, every Produbanco employee works to build personal relationships with customers to help them in their financial journeys.
As the bank grows its small business products, it listens to customers and provides extra resources for small business owners, including an advisory service to help customers feel comfortable about their banking decisions.
These diverse companies show that customer-centricity applies to all languages and countries. Focusing on customers can help create a strong competitive advantage for companies in every industry.
