BBVA South America: a close-knit team creating amazing customer experiences

A BBVA Compass sign crowns the building that houses BBVA’s Creation Center in the outskirts of Dallas, Texas. More than 50 designers and engineers work there, one of the teams BBVA has throughout the bank’s different locations around the world. They are in charge of creating and designing products, apps and features that the bank’s customers use on their computers, tablets and smartphones.

At the end of February 2017, the BBVA Creation Center hosted BBVA South America’s Global Week for two and a half days. The event served to connect the five different global units in the Customer Solutions area (Engineering; Global Products; Design & Marketing, Data & Open Innovation; and Distribution & Engagement) with BBVA’s business development and engineering teams in Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Peru and Venezuela.

“About 50 people came to Dallas for two and a half days with three goals in mind: first, focusing on creating something amazing for our customers; second, connecting the teams; and third, concentrating on execution,” explains Derek White, Director of Global Customer Solutions at BBVA. “That’s what the team focused on: Using a close connection to put amazing things in customers’ hands,” he adds.

“That’s what the team focused on: Using a close connection to put amazing things in customers’ hands

Solutions in customers’ hands in three or four months

“We have created a joint work plan for the different global teams and the teams from South American countries,” explains Antonio Bravo, Director of BBVA’s Business Development in South America. “A joint plan in which both teams work as a single team to put solutions in customers’ hands in the next three or four months.”

For two and a half days, the global Customer Solutions teams saw the five South American country teams’ projects firsthand and shared with them the global capacities the BBVA Group has which they can exploit to roll out projects in their countries.

“We are working on a series of projects with South America,” explains Rob Brown, the Global Director of Design and Marketing at BBVA. “Specifically, we dedicated the week to prioritizing projects in each country and equally, prioritizing them in our team in order to assign designers to each one.”

"We dedicated the week to prioritizing projects in each country and equally, prioritizing them in our team in order to assign designers to each one

The first day consisted of pooling all the projects and both local and global capacities. Initial contact. The second day, each of the countries held individual meetings with each global area to discuss the commitments and projects that will be prioritized. The third day, each country explained their agenda of commitments and projects for the coming months.

“Global teams provide capacities that we don’t have in the countries, or capacities that would be very hard for us to develop in terms of cost and time,” says Guillermo González, of BBVA Colombia’s Business Development team. “By having experts in each of the disciplines at the global level who can participate in the local projects we can progress much more quickly.”

BBVA’s six priorities in South America

BBVA has an extensive work agenda in South America, which includes six major projects or focus areas for 2017: digital sales; developing the mobile channel; quality and improving the net promoter score (NPS); promoting referencing and customer recommendation systems; SME business development, and finally, working on open innovation, in other words, finding local partners that can help to co-create with the bank’s teams.

“We attempt to ensure that data are an integral part of the solutions BBVA offers its customers in all countries where it has a presence

The Customer Solutions global teams can help to achieve these goals, by contributing their capacities in terms of investment and knowledge, or by sharing experiences from other countries that can be reused, adapting them to the idiosyncrasies of each market.

“We attempt to ensure that data are an integral part of the solutions BBVA offers its customers in all countries where it has a presence,” explains Elena Alfaro of the Data & Open Innovation team. “On the one hand, the goal is to help with decision-making internally within the bank, but also externally for how customers manage their finances.”

For the global teams, knowing what each country is doing is also key, and allows them to have a panoramic view of all of the Group’s projects.

“I just had a session with Venezuela, explains Hamad Azzam, the Director of Customer Solutions Engineering. “These guys have built a very impressive asset. They have a mobile app with a net promoter score [customers’ average recommendation of a service] of 86. Frankly, I have never seen a score of 86 before,” he says.

A panoramic view of all the countries

According to Antonio Bravo, having this panoramic view of all the countries is extremely useful for the global teams. “It is beneficial for them to understand that South America is a region comprised of countries with different peculiarities and diverse realities,” he explains. “Understanding this diversity among the countries allows them to create plans to implement these global solutions that are adapted to the needs of each of our markets.”

“It is beneficial for them to understand that South America is a region comprised of countries with different peculiarities and diverse realities

For Leandro Álvarez, of BBVA’s Business Development team in Argentina, being able to take advantage of the global experience, implementing it in the country and reusing part of that product significantly cuts down the response time for customers.

Final day: commitments and projects

On the third day, the country teams presented their commitments for the coming months.

“There’s the CRM project to implement “salesforce” in Peru. In terms of quality, there’s improving our NPS for our customers through initiatives to lower claims and improve office support and provide a unique experience…” explains Juan Carlos Ramírez, of BBVA Continental’s Business Development team in Peru.

“We have a lot of different projects on the agenda, but the mobile app is definitely the most relevant,” says Francisco Letelier, from BBVA Chile’s Business Development team. “It is a very extensive project and we have high expectations for it.”

At the end of the day, the teams have the feeling that they work on one single team. The goal has been accomplished: the connection took place. “We have a long list of accomplishments, both local and global, but we working very much as a team. It’s not about being local or global, but that we have a single work plan together,” affirms Susana Reategui, who works on the Engineering team at BBVA Continental in Peru.

“We are leaving with a lot of gifts in terms of collaboration. I think it was a very good experience. I think these conversations make the teams much stronger,” says Pedro Gago  from BBVA Provincial’s Business Development team in Venezuela.