Globe Telecom invests in the fine art of delighting customers

Eclipse introduces Globe Telecom to the audience at the Adobe Symposium.

Globe Telecom, which provides cellular, broadband and mobile data services, has become the No. 1 mobile brand in the Philippines by focusing on customer experience. At the Adobe Symposium 2016 in Singapore, Rebecca Eclipse, Chief Customer Experience Officer, Globe Telecom, spoke about the company's journey.

Globe's mission, found on its website, is "We create wonderful experiences for people to have choices, overcome challenges, and discover new ways to enjoy life", while a list of core values includes "We put customers first. We value people and together, we make the difference."

The shift towards customer experience started in 2013 and gathered momentum in 2014 with a customer experience transformation programme called Delivering the Next Act (DNA). In 2015, Globe reached out to further embed the culture of service not only in Globe employees but also in vendor partners, and empowered customers to resolve their concerns through a 150,000-strong Globe community. 

Eclipse said the journey had not been easy. In the early days, the company had to grapple with network problems, billing issues, as well as too many projects going on at the same time. "There were a lot of process inefficiencies. Orders were not being served on time. Promises were being broken to our customers," she noted. "Even the way we measured our success was internal.. it did not address pain of customers."

Globe went right to the heart of the problem, initiating mystery shopping, consulting external experts, and had staff sell at stores, Eclipse recounted. Even the CEO answered calls. Globe decided that customer experience would be the key differentiator. Copying from the competition did not faze Globe, Eclipse added. "One thing that they cannot buy is our organisation, our people and the way we care for our customers," she said. "Today we have one of highest employee engagement (scores) globally. The environment in Globe is not toxic."

In 2013 Globe reported that employee satisfaction was at an all-time high. In 2014 Globe Telecom won three international Gold Quill awards for employee engagement, internal communications, and social media. The Gold Quill Awards is the premier strategic communication programme of the International Association of Business Communicators (IABC) that honours the best of the best communication and marketing practices from all over the world.

On 3 August this year, Globe Telecom announced that it is the first telecommunications company in the Philippines to be included in the 2016 Global High Performance Companies Norm by Willis Towers Watson, a global advisory, broking and solutions company. The Global High Performance Companies Norm consists of organisations which have superior financial performance and superior human resource practices*.

Globe Telecom is the first telecommunications company in the Philippines to be included in the 2016 Global High Performance Companies Norm, which comprises organizations with exemplary financial performance and human resource practices.
Updated by the Willis Towers Watson, a leading global advisory, broking and solutions company, the Global High Performance Companies Norm include companies that meet two distinct criteria namely “superior financial performance” and “superior human resource practices”.  Superior financial performance is defined by a net profit margin and/or return on invested capital that exceeds industry averages while superior human resource practices is defined by employee opinion scores near the top among the most financially successful companies surveyed by Willis Towers Watson.
- See more at: http://newsroom.globe.com.ph/press-release/corporate/2016-global-high-performance-companies-norm-now-includes-globe-telecom#sthash.EWh7yubC.dpuf

While Globe has made great strides in serving customers, there is more to be done, Eclipse continued. The problems she listed are the result of the way the industry has evolved as a whole, and do not take into account the way people consume content or make buying decisions today. Challenges include content channels that do not take "normal human behaviour" into account, she explained, likening it to a man going courting and just talking about himself.

"Our portals are just about our products, the same as in advertisements. Why then would (customers) take an interest in going to our sites?" she asked. "They are very internal-focused, in furtherance of our own deliverables."

Websites are also needlessly complex, and have led to disjointed customer experiences. "We forced customers to interact with us according to our internal organisation," she said, explaining that there are typically separate portals and logins, as well as different experiences for consumers and small businesses because different departments had taken ownership of different parts of the customer journey, resulting in a different look and feel.

"Capabilities were used without the customer journey in mind," she said. "Our customers are quite clear in what they want. (They say,) 'give me control'..they want to finish what they started across different channels. (They say,) 'don't make me repeat myself'."

In the next wave of transforming customer experience, Globe is getting to know customers better, and overhauling channels to make it easier for customers to interact with the company. "Marketers tend to design for themselves as if they were the customer," Eclipse said. "Know thy customer, for he is not you. You must deliver an end-to-end experience."

"We now start with the voice of the customer, plotting their journeys, mapping their experience.. which shall shape the capabilities to be delivered. We're aligning the organisation towards creating wonderful customer experiences, rationalising portals, overhauling channels, redesigning our experience, this is why we have a very close relationship with Adobe. This sounds simple but it is definitely not easy."

Now that it has beat the competition and is addressing the customer, Globe's next target is to lift the entire country, Eclipse shared. "Our burning ambition is to make the Philippines one of the best places to do business with, a country where our families and loved ones would like to live in," she concluded, to loud applause.

Globe is transforming the customer experience.

Globe has created a framework on how to create customers right.

Hashtag: #AdobeSymp

*Superior financial performance is defined by a net profit margin and/or return on invested capital that exceeds industry averages while superior human resource practices is defined by employee opinion scores near the top among the most financially successful companies surveyed by Willis Towers Watson.
 

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