Moving lives in an economy of experiences
Technology is very quickly changing our lives. We learn, buy and interact with our friends, customers, colleagues and even family in a different way than we did just a few years ago. We live in a world of constant change, in which yesterday’s beliefs and certainties no longer help us predict what could happen tomorrow. This creates uncertainty, not only about the future… but also about our immediate present.
Grupo Corporativo Perez is a company with more than 60 years of experience and a leader in the automotive sector in Panama, but we are aware that our past performance does not equal future success. We must develop a new collective intelligence that renews our value proposition to continue being a leading company. We face change in an optimistic way and believe challenges that are boldly taken on are an opportunity to create new possibilities for our customers and inspire renewed growth for the company.
The disruption is blurring the boundaries of the automotive industry. We no longer manufacture automobiles, but we develop technology, automated vehicles, alternative engines and robotic solutions, among other products, where mobility is a service. Our business is no longer focused on selling cars, although we count on the best international brands, such as Toyota or Lexus. Our line of work focuses on forming relationships with our customers to understand their needs and offer the best mobility solutions.
Until recently, having good cars meant having loyal customers; however, a good design, technical competency and technology no longer guarantees success. Much more is needed—we now need to make our customers’ dreams come true.
Our line of work focuses on forming relationships with our customers to understand their needs and offer the best mobility solutions
We exist to “move lives,” more than just physically so. We touch people’s hearts to move them emotionally and encourage them commit to our values of quality; competitiveness; and economic, social and environmental sustainability. This purpose stems from having a business and team that is passionate and committed to their work, allowing us to serve our customers well.
To generate the commitment and attitude needed to face the new challenges, we must shift from the dominant business culture that is currently product-focused to a culture centered on excellent customer service. We must also display the same level of excellence in each of our points of contact given we are an organization with dozens of dealers and service centers throughout the country.
To move from an industrial to a service economy, the products and service must produce an equal or better experience than what our customers expect. We must offer a service that transmits security, innovation and excellence, and transforms the ordinary into the extraordinary. Every contact has to be as exceptional as our cars.
To achieve this, companies must commit to a transformation process and become organizations that create experiences. We have great cars, the best team and the broadest commercial and support network, but to be competitive and sustainable we have to generate the best experience. We want our customers to be satisfied with our cars and hard work, so they are moved to share their experience with others.
Technology is an excellent ally, since it streamlines processes and shortens time, which is extraordinarily valuable for customers. Likewise, technology offers the opportunity to connect and retain them by attending quickly to their needs when they require assistance. Each customer is an opportunity to build a relationship of trust in the long term, but it requires well-designed and well-executed interactions, as well as platforms that integrate human and technological aspects to produce a memorable customer experience. Digitalization is more and more relevant by the day, but a committed and passionate team really makes a difference.
Communication plays a fundamental role in monitoring and evaluating, through active listening, the perception of our customers and stakeholders
Being client-centric is also a responsibility and Ricardo Perez has demonstrated being a responsible company made us profitable too. Each time we give back a part of our economic value to society, it trusts us more and more, again and again. Doing business like this makes sense and is our central strategy.
Over these 62 years we have collected great little stories that come from well-developed and well-thought-out daily work that looks both outside the company and serves our customers, but also within the company, moving our collaborators’ lives and offering them the necessary tools and training to allow them to improve.
We are proud of our journey, but we know we can achieve more. We are facing a world where digital transformation will, by the year 2050, have a dramatic impact on the way people move, so we know we have to prepare—customers’ needs and expectations change and we must constantly adapt to their new realities. The customer experience is going to become the main competitive advantage, so we have to build new experiences that make even transactional processes a positive and memorable moment for customers.
Coherence will be absolutely necessary. We are actively designing a strategy that makes our value proposition and our differentiation and personalization strategy stand. Communication plays a fundamental role in monitoring and evaluating, through active listening, the perception of our customers and stakeholders. Communicating means listening, so we need to maintain an open and transparent conversation with customers and society.
We have made the seemingly impossible possible and now face new challenges that require we work with courage, creativity and efficiency. We want to continue moving lives as we have done in recent decades and to do so, our customers’ trust is and will always be the basis of our future success.
