In an increasingly competitive world, placing the customer at the center of the business strategy—reflecting the concept of customer centricity—has become essential for companies that seek not only to grow, but to build long-lasting and mutually beneficial relationships. Customer centricity is not just about meeting expectations—it is about deeply understanding them and using this knowledge to continuously create and deliver shared value.
Putting customers first means knowing their motivations, expectations, challenges and preferences. When a company embraces this approach, it puts itself in a privileged position to transform feedback into improvements, adjust its offerings according to market needs and create memorable experiences. Customer Experience (CX) practices focus precisely on recognizing the humanity behind each customer. Companies are made up of people who bring life to business relationships. Understanding the humanity behind relationships means going beyond business and seeing a person, his/her goals and desires, making these connections stronger and more authentic.
The main benefits of a customer-centric approach include increased satisfaction, lean processes tailored to customer needs, deeper loyalty, a stronger reputation in the market and, consequently, more consistent financial results. Companies that practice customer centricity are able to transform satisfied customers into actual brand ambassadors, who share their positive experiences and help drive business expansion. A company’s ability to adapt to its customers’ needs also strengthens its position against the competition and increases retention.
Suzano’s Journey Toward Customer Centricity
At Suzano, we place our customers at the center of our strategy. In 2023, we went deeper into our transformation journey focused on understanding what our customers value. We know that providing great experiences not only strengthens business relationships, but also helps connect people to a greater purpose, directly benefiting the businesses of our customers.
With a dedicated Customer Experience team that is trained to recognize our customers’ needs, we strive to ensure that each interaction is an opportunity to deliver value. This commitment is demonstrated by the more than 20 projects we are implementing to improve our processes and optimize points of contact with our customers, the countless people-to-people connections we are creating or strengthening, our long-standing relationships with some of our some customers, surpassing three or four decades of partnership, and the visits of foreign customers to our sites in Brazil, a unique opportunity to share and interact with various areas of our business. This is all part of a journey that has taught us countless lessons that enable us to transform knowledge into actionable insight, transactions into relationships, and customer satisfaction into success for both parties.
We know that our focus on customer centricity has yield positive results. Some customers have said that we have become their supplier of choice, their favorite supplier, because we offer higher added value and partnership experiences that go beyond commodities. Feedback like this fills us with pride and helps us increase our relevance in the market and ensure that our partnerships are increasingly solid and long-lasting.
The Power of Feedback
Listening to our customers is key to continuing to innovate and co-create solutions that meet their expectations.
Transparent and effective feedback is essential for us to continue evolving as part of our customer centricity journey.
On November 21, we will begin the 2024 cycle of our Net Promoter Score (NPS) satisfaction survey. The link will be sent via email and mobile messages (WhatsApp and SMS). We know that our customers’ time is valuable. That is why we created a simple and straightforward form that will require only a few minutes to complete.
Based on information from the 2023 cycle, in 2024, we made concrete improvements in customer service operations involving more than 40 customers on all continents. In 2025, we will continue and accelerate the progress we have made so far. To achieve this goal, we are counting on the participation of each of our customers in this new cycle.
