Customer experience is one of the main drivers of loyalty and brand reputation; companies that still treat customer service as an operational department lose competitiveness. This is the evaluation ofJoão Paulo Ribeiro, specialist in customer-centered organizational culture and CEO ofInove Grouporganization that has worked with more than 100 companies in Brazil and abroad.
"As long as customer service remains isolated from strategic planning, it will continue firefighting instead of creating value. Customer service is the company's living culture; it is where the customer practically sees what was promised by marketing," says Ribeiro.
According to a survey by FGV Projects, 62% of medium and large companies in the country still classify customer service as a cost area rather than a value area. The number contrasts with data from PwC consultancy, which indicates that 73% of Brazilian consumers have already abandoned a brand after bad experiences with customer service. "The account doesn't add up. It's incoherent to invest in branding and innovation if the contact channel with the customer is neglected," the executive adds.
Service as a mirror of culture
For João Paulo, customer service should be the first department to reflect the values of the organizational culture. He argues that companies with a clear, internally lived culture have a greater ability to deliver consistent experiences, and that starts with the relationship teams.
"The behavior of those who serve says more about the company than any institutional campaign. It is there that the true values of the organization are revealed," he says. According to João, it is possible to identify clear symptoms of misalignment between culture and service, such as high turnover, lack of autonomy among attendants, and absence of indicators related to the experience.
A 2024 study by McKinsey & Company corroborates the view. The consultancy showed that companies that integrate the customer journey into their internal culture can increase satisfaction rates by up to 20% and reduce conflicts in customer service by 35%. In Brazil, according to data from Hibou Market Monitoring, 68% of consumers say they have been poorly served by employees who were clearly unprepared or demotivated.
Restructure the service to grow
Leading the Inove Group for over a decade, João Paulo implements personalized culture and service diagnostics that help companies transform their relationship area into a competitive advantage. The approach includes leadership analysis, team training, and process adjustment with a focus on active listening.
"Before improving the script, it is necessary to listen to those on the front line. Many CEOs want efficiency without listening to those who deal with the customer every day," he says.
The executive believes that the way forward is to integrate customer service with management decisions. "Customer service is not just a channel for complaints. It is also a source of insights, innovation, and real market perception," he summarizes.
Alert indicators
Ribeiro lists five signs that the service is disconnected from the company's culture:
- Above-average turnoverof the sector;
- Lack of clarity of purposeamong the attendants;
- Low first contact resolution (FCR) rate;
- Misalignment between the brand's discourse and the practice of customer service;
- Lack of experience indicators, such as NPS or CSAT.
Companies that exhibit at least three of these signs, according to the specialist, face an urgent challenge of strategic repositioning in the area.
