Does Latin American customer satisfaction differ at all from other regions? For companies whose cross-border e-commerce sales take them into the Southern Hemisphere, specifically Central and South America, this is a pressing question.
In this post, we’ll discuss how in-country customer support can benefit e-commerce companies in their attempt to improve international customer satisfaction scores.
In Person vs. Online: The Difference in Business
The rise of cross-border e-commerce has brought a lot of new product choices and simplified shopping for consumers in emerging markets like Latin America. But with opportunity comes challenges.
According to Invesp, at least 30% of all products ordered online are returned, compared to under 9% for traditional retail. However, 92% of consumers will stay loyal if returns are easy.
Without face-to-face, in-store interactions with customers, e-commerce retailers rely on customer support centers and websites to handle things like returns and troubleshooting.
When it comes to cross-border e-commerce, language barriers, cultural differences, and time zone differences all make taking care of the customer more difficult. While local retailers don’t have to deal with these complications, there are ways for e-commerce companies to stay competitive by encouraging online customer satisfaction.
Why In-Country Customer Support Matters
In-country customer support can help small- to medium-sized e-commerce companies even the playing field with local Latin American companies. Without the cost of shipping and tariffs, locally made products are often less expensive than foreign e-commerce options. On top of that, 88% of consumers say local businesses offer better, more personalized service.
Local companies have a built-in advantage, but employing local people who understand the culture to provide customer service in the local language can help international companies stay competitive in the race to build brand loyalty.
With these hurdles, it’s all the more important to utilize international customer satisfaction scores. Customer satisfaction scores help you measure how loyal customers are to your company. The investment made to expand into foreign markets can be wiped away quickly if you don’t monitor the loyalty of your customers in those regions.
Measuring Latin American Customer Satisfaction
There are a variety of ways companies can measure customer satisfaction, including Net Promoter Scores (NPS) and Customer Satisfaction Scores (CSAT). NPS measures how likely customers are to recommend a product or company to someone else, on a scale of 1 to 10. CSAT asks how satisfied customers are with certain interactions, like the purchasing process or customer support.
Measuring customer support interactions is particularly important for cross-border e-commerce companies selling in Latin America. According to Nielsen, Latin American consumers (59%) say that enhanced customer service is critical for them to remain loyal to a brand.
While CSAT and NPS questionnaires are relatively simple, that doesn’t mean there aren’t regional differences in the way consumers approach them. It’s important to know how to read the results of these questionnaires to effectively gauge Latin American customer satisfaction.
However, Latin American consumers are less likely to voice complaints, which can make gauging customer satisfaction in Latin America difficult. To combat this tendency, Americas Market Intelligence suggests “harnessing social media, utilizing mystery shopping and other indirect channels of communication” to effectively measure Latin American customer satisfaction.
HubSpot offers another suggestion: an “‘in-country, cross-company’ loyalty score assessment approach.” In other words, comparing your scores to similar companies within the same country will allow you to know whether you’re under- or over-performing.
SkyPostal Can Help Boost Customer Satisfaction
According to Forbes, 49% of Latin American consumers will abandon a brand they love after one bad customer experience. For cross-border e-commerce, one of the most important elements of the customer service experience is the logistics process, from shipping to returns.
SkyPostal does more than offer competitive pricing and shipping times. SkyPostal provides local customer service in every country we do business in, meaning Latin American consumers have access to local representatives to understand their issue and help with the logistics process. Through the years, we’ve developed relationships with the best delivery partners and service providers in over 25 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean, such as Mexico, Chile, Colombia, and Brazil.
If you’re looking to improve your Latin American customer satisfaction scores, contact us today to learn more about how we can help.
