Customer experience (CX) management is today one of the pillars of competitiveness for many companies. Although I'm not going to prospect or sell on woku, I always participate in team meetings, listening to the problems and experiences that Paula and Fernanda face. These conversations are key to defining how to evolve our product and adjust our strategies. Since Fernanda joined the team, the volume of sales meetings increased, and with it, our understanding of the issues that customers face when managing CX.

It is clear that in Latin America, even in large and multinational companies, CX does not yet have a maturity that allows it to truly move the business compass, both in terms of financial results and operations, areas where the core of the business is usually concentrated.

Competing in the Experience Economy↑

In today's context, most companies compete based on customer experience. Why do we go to Starbucks instead of a kiosk or Jumbo instead of the neighborhood supermarket? Because we're paying for the experience. Gartner warned in 2016 that 89% of companies compete based on customer experience. But it's not enough to aim to deliver an incredible experience: to manage it well, you need data.

What sounds like common sense is, in fact, an enormous challenge: understanding what customers think about their experience with the company, from the first interaction to the post-sale. It is a journey full of moments and stages that form the famous “customer journey”. And to decipher that journey, surveys are the primary tool.↑

The bombardment of surveys*

The problem is that with the massive digitization of surveys - from Google Forms to Qualtrics - customers receive bombardments of surveys in every interaction: by email, WhatsApp, telephone, and other channels. This bombing directly affects the response rate, which before the digital boom was over 70%. Today, some companies report rates as low as 10%. The result? Without data, you can't understand the customer.2,3

The Simpsons meme showing a group of concerned children. At the top, the text reads: “Please stop”, and at the bottom: “There have already been a lot of polls”. The meme represents customer frustration at receiving too many surveys.

But even when they do manage to get answers, standard metrics such as NPS, CSAT, and CES often fall short. These numbers don't reflect what customers really think. How can a number communicate the reasons why someone would or would not recommend a product? This approach also limits other critical areas of the company: marketing does not receive relevant information to create campaigns, sales lacks insights to close deals, and operations do not identify problems in a timely way.

Flexibility: The Achilles' heel of surveyings↑

While designing an effective survey is complex and requires time and statistical validation, the biggest problem is a lack of flexibility. When the context changes—as we saw with the pandemic—, questions and priorities must be adjusted. But adapting a survey to make it a valid instrument involves redoing the work from scratch, which is not feasible in situations where speed is crucial'.

I share a previous post in which I explain why designing surveys and asking good questions is not child's play: https://www.woku.app/blog/que-tan-dificil-es-hacer-una-buena-encuesta

Three key issues in Latam's CX

In our conversations with companies, we have identified three recurring problems in managing CX in Latin America:

Customers hate surveys: With plummeting response rates, data is scarce and feedback loses value.
Metrics that don't change: While NPS, CSAT, and CES are popular, they rarely succeed in driving tangible improvements in marketing, sales, or operations.
Lack of flexibility: Surveys don't adapt quickly to changes in context, leaving companies with outdated metrics and unable to react.

This creates a disconnect between CX management and strategic decisions. According to a study by McKinsey & Company, more than 93% of companies use survey-based methods, but only 15% of managers are satisfied with these methods, and only 6% believe that they really help with decision-making.

Surveys, which should be a powerful tool, have become a silent enemy for many companies in managing the customer experience.

References

Diebner, R., Malfara, D., Neher, K., Thompson, M., & Vancauwenberghe, M. (2021). Prediction: The Future of Customer Experience. McKinsey & Company. https://www.mckinsey.com/capabilities/growth-marketing-and-sales/our-insights/prediction-the-future-of-cx/es-CL#/
Gartner. (2016). Customer Experience Primer for 2016. Gartner Research. https://www.gartner.com/en/documents/3188924