the globe handyphone experience - when customer service turns into a disservice

we will be starting a series of articles on the customer service and call center experience in the philippines. this is the first one, with globe handyphone, first posted here: http://wawam.wordpress.com/2010/04/18/when-customer-relations-hotline-service-is-not-hot-and-a-disservice/

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there was a time not long ago getting some customer service was very difficult. if something goes wrong with the telephone service you subscribe to, it was not easy to get it resolved. first you might not know what number to call. if you get connected to someone, that might not be the person who can help you. if you talk to somebody, it will take a long time to get it resolved.


a silver bullet called customer relations service was invented. companies have set up these with the thinking it is best from a business standpoint to satisfy an existing customer and prevent that customer from dropping your service or product and move to competition. studies show that it is much more costly and much more difficult for a company to get new users or customers than keeping an existing one. the thinking is that you do your best to prevent your customers from dropping your service to move to other companies. this is much easier to services like a mobile service than products like toothpaste or shampoo. service companies have the luxury of talking directly to their customers, making customer retention an easier task.

modern marketing is also a very competitive one. two to three competing companies are fighting for the same customer. when a current customer is already using your product/service, it will be much easier to convince that customer to stay on since he/she already has experience with your product/service. converting a new customer puts you on stage 1 of the product preference cycle not to mention your competitors are most likely also going after the same customer.

pair the idea of customer relations with another emerging trend called the call center makes it even more potent. with call centers, dispensing customer relations will be much more efficient, makes it standard and more importantly very quick. this pair builds more loyal customers.

or at least so goes the theory.

that is the theory part because in practice, in this case with globe handyphone in particular, that might not be true at all and has the effect of the exact opposite.

we have been experiencing globe handyphone’s customer service hotline in the past weeks and this is where we are:

the first call we made to globe handyphone’s hotline service was on march 20. it has been unresolved as of this writing – now 30 days.

since march 20, to follow-up, we have made a call to the hotline number at least 14 days out of the 30 days for an average of 1 call every other day. since april 1, this was more frequent with calls almost on a daily basis. the average will go much higher if you subtract 4 days from the total because of the holy week period when there was no work.

we have accumulated a total of 6 reference numbers on the same topic and complaint

we have on file the names of at least 16 call center agents and 4 supervisors (with their corresponding ID numbers), in total at least 20 who we have talked to on the phone

we have talked to 3 supervisors who promised me they will call me back within the day to tell me when someone will call me but he/she never did

obviously, the globe handyphone customer service hot line is a failure in my case. i have been calling them for the same problem for 30 days now and it continue to be unresolved. some observations:

i don’t understand why they need to give me a separate reference number every time i call when it is exactly the same topic. towards the end, i refused to accept a new reference number as having a new one gives it a more recent time stamp and just delays the call back time aside from the fact that it is just confusing.

every time i called them, they will tell me someone will call me within 3 to 5 working days.

first, i don’t understand why it will take them 3 to 5 working days. taking a full work week i think is just too long. that is extremely slow service specially when it is to resolove a problem. it will take half a day to stop subscription and move to another mobile company.

saying each time someone will call you in 3 to 5 working days just extends the period. they actually never called back. it has been 12 working days since april 1 and no one has called me back yet. it has been 11 working days since april 2 and no one has called me back either. the list goes on.

the call center agents keep asking me for my number where they can call me back. this question kills me and is most irritating. i am a subscriber to their cell phone service why will they not know how to call me? is my cell phone number not in their record? i have also given them my landline number a long time ago, they did not keep that on file?

that is the same problem with my email address. one of the agents asked for my email address. i gave it to them but 5 days after, talking to another call center agent, she asks me again for my email address. that means the first person who asked me the info did not file it in their system.

what is the point of asking a customers for their contact numbers and email address when they don’t bother to save it in their system?

they also have this habit of asking for the past history of the calls when these are supposed to be recorded in their system. we would be asked when and with whom we have talked to during previous calla.

instead of answering, we asked them – do you have my file open on your monitor? a few would say yes. most will ask for 30 seconds to open my record on their computer. i don’t understand this – why would they not open my record at the start of the call?

then i ask another question – can you not see the history of my calls on your computer screen? the answer is yes sir, it’s here. so we ask – why are you asking that question when you will know the answer just by looking at your computer screen? no reply. then change topic.

customer relations dispensed through call centers is supposed to make customer servicing much more efficient and quicker. my experience so far with globe handyphone is it is mostly inefficient and very much slow. the whole system simply does not work nor is it giving globe the speed and efficiency they were supposed to get in investing in computer systems and hiring or outsourcing call center services.

neither are their customers happier and more satisfied with their service. if at all this customer is angrier and more disappointed at the kind of service they were giving us. we have been a globe handyphone customer for the past 11 years and never missed paying a single monthly bill. this is my first major call to them that is service related. we have made no more than 4 calls within that 11 year period. globe is making a lot of money out of my subscription to their service – monthly bills paid on time for 11 years and with only 5 calls made to their call center. we are not a bother to them and we pay them good money.

the systems they have put in place, the customer service and call center facility is meant to make things easier and faster for customers, our experience with them so far is anything but fats and efficient.

the above customer service experience is just on the first level in resolving the issue we have brought to them. apparently there is another department who is in charge of resolving the issue. unfortunately it is this other department that has been very unresponsive.

all the call center agents and supervisors we have talked to have said they have sent urgent requests to have my issue resolved by that other department. it is also the other department who is supposed to call me about my problem. it looks like the continuing problems i have been encountering with them is being caused by that other department.

the name of the department — the Loyalty Group or the Customer Relations Management.

we think it is the ultimate irony that the department who has been unresponsive to a customer relations complaint is the one in charge of “loyalty” and “customer relations”.

the experience so far, for the past 30 days is one that does not inspire loyalty to globe handyphone on our side nor do we think their non-action and unresponsiveness is good “customer relations”. for sure the mission of the department is to “build loyalty” among current customers and to “ensure good customer relations” among subscribers.

with this performance and the way they have set up their system – what then is the point of putting up a “loyalty group” and a “customer relations group”?

tomorrow will be 31 days of unresolved loyalty and customer relations for us.

apple ipad's intro tv ad - the magic is in simplicity

one of the reasons we love apple products is its simplicity in almost everything in physical design, application and getting the most out of what we buy from them like i-tunes and the app store.

apple's tablet the ipad is no different. i do not think you can be more simpler than it is a large ipod touch. it is a disappointment that it is just a large ipod touch, we were hoping it was going to be a smaller or at least lighter and thinner macbook. we were saving mega bucks to get one of those just in case it will be a small, lighter and thinner macbook but it did not happen that way.

so we now have some cash saved up that we don't plan to allow apple to get at them for now. we bought apple stocks instead, which by the way has reached an all time high price of $219.08 as of yesterday's closing.

the ad like the product is a simple tv ad. it simply shows what you can do with it, mostly staying on the gestures you need to do to make it work just like you would in an ipod touch or iphone but in what at certain times felt like an awkward size - way to big. (if i hear a clink, it's my ipod touch falling on the floor but on this own it will be "thud"  or a breaking glass.)

that's it? yes, that's it.

steve jobs describes the product as "magic". the ad did not show it. look, magic is something you have not seen before or something amazing. both was not shown the ipad has. so i guess, we will need to wait for the magic to appear in the future. sooner than later, i hope.

before we end this piece, we did see magic - it was on the nasdaq when AAPL reached it's all time high price last night. that is truly magical! we are looking forward to something like $300 within the year.

BDO's "we find ways" tv spot

lucky me's pancit canton tv spot

mcdonald's "tweens" tv ad sizzles with tween consumer insight

relevance is a word written all over this mcdonald's ad for tweens. the story told in this ad is one that every tween and yes, every parent of a tween understand, has experienced and can agree with.

this ad makes mcdonald's as the fast food chain for real people, making it look very much a part of pinoy life. they have been coming out with great ads very similar to this one. we applaud them and hope they will not stop coming up with ads like these.

one of the key barriers for patronage of mcdonald's in this market is it is less pinoy than jollibee. ads like this chips away on that barrier. in fact the recent ads of mcdonald's shows it is successfully shedding that barrier.

this ad is 5 stars!

evian babies have fun

watching sci-fi and adventure movies, one of the things that impresses you is that there is now nothing that movies cannot do. putting into movies the super heroes we love to read in comics are now on screen in their smallest detail, erasing the divide between real and man-made.

this evian commercial is one commercial that fits the description above. and it is enjoyable

this was posted by "anonymous" here: http://the-wawam-file.blogspot.com/2009/08/magician-21st-philippine-advertising.html

The magician was imagining a full house because as a performer... that was what he wanted to see. *Every* performer longs to live in the limelight, to be acknowledged and cheered on by a crowd. The sad reality for him was, the 'standing ovation' was nothing more than an illusion, a thing he conjured up in his own mind OR it could have been a memory of his former glory days. Hence, with a flicker of the light, the hurrahs are replaced with yawns, from a less than ecstatic audience.

In this way, it is creatively intellectual, (as opposed to "just being creative for creativity's sake"), for its irony, for he, who gives illusions to please others, creates an illusion for himself, to keep his spirit alive. You may see this in Psychology books filed under the subject: "Coping Mechanism." You see, performers die a little inside every time they realize that nobody gives a crap about their "art". However, he also knows that the show must go on, and that he must prop up that smile because that is what 'professionals' do. How can you not get that?

no, i did not get that at all that the magician was imagining a full house. how did you even get all that from the tv ad? where is it in the ad that all that you said is shown or said? you must be writer of the ad to know all that.

that says to me that aside from the weakness in the copy-writing of this ad, there is a bigger weakness in the directorial treatment of the ad.

the director failed to execute that idea from a visual and movement standpoint. the directorial treatment failed in establishing the visuals being shown come from different perspectives. in the ad, it was just a flash of light that was supposed to signal the change in perspective. that is a very weak visual treatment.

the copy also did not help. it hardly had copy in the first place but the the change in perspective visual was shown just before the copy said "witness this death defying act". the story is about a magician making a woman disappear, it will confuse the audience- what is supposed to disappear, the woman or the audience.

because of the very bad directorial treatment, i don't think anyone will get there is a change in perspective but will rather stick to the story in the ad.

one of the thing i remember about effective ads is this - "what you see is what you get". in this ad that is what i got because that is what i saw and it was in fact what was given visually and copy-wise.

more on this later. it is a WAWAM!

unilab

will scam ads win big again in 2009 Philippine Advertising Congress?

‘Goodvertising’ top Subic ad talk
By Robert Gonzaga
Philippine
Daily InquirerFirst
Posted 04:51:00 11/20/2009

SUBIC BAY FREEPORT — By doing good, the advertising industry could thrive in the future, a top advertising executive in South Africa told delegates to the 21st Philippine Advertising Congress (PAC) here Thursday.

Mike Schalit, chief creative officer of Network BBDO South Africa, said the advertising industry should “turn away from cute, clever advertising designed to win awards but don’t do any good in the world.”

“What about the real problems of the world? Like homelessness. What can we do about that?” he asked.

read in full here: http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/inquirerheadlines/nation/view/20091120-237322/Goodvertising-top-Subic-ad-talk

this one caught my attention: “turn away from cute, clever advertising designed to win awards but don’t do any good in the world.”

cute and clever advertising are great, it’s the last part that i have problems with – “designed to win awards”. we got reminded of the “scam ads” that populate the philippine ad con awards that we had written about in 2008.

no doubt, scam ads will once again win in the adcon. it is almost like an industry within an industry, a mafia like operation that ad agencies, creatives specifically run. all the effort just to win awards.

these efforts that creatives run in mafia like fashion does not do anything good to the ad industry, all it does is enhance the egoes of individual creatives. it does not even build business for clients.

creatives do not do the same kind of quality work on a daily basis that they present to legitimate clients. this kind of award winning work are just too difficult to do, to time consuming, very risky for them and offers no ego reward for them. it will be a miracle if we see these types in print or in tv for 10% of the work.

there are 3 parts to what Mike Schalit said, the third part is the point i am making:

“turn away from cute, clever advertising designed to win awards but don’t do any good in the world.”

posted here: http://wawam.wordpress.com/2009/11/20/will-scam-ads-win-big-again-in-2009-philippine-advertising-congress-2/

"Hornitex" - what does it sell? for adults only?

no, this is not a joke. we were driving down mandaluyong one time and right beside our car is the small van that had this brand name painted on its back door, side and front - HORNITEX.

it was shocking! i thought, geez this is the first time i have heard of a pornsite or cyberden in wheels! i thought, man, the police must be on them that they need to have their operation inside a small van to always be on the move to avoid being caught.

of course it was not a pornsite or a cyberden on wheels! it was just my imagination. i did not have my camera with me, so i quickly got my cellphone out and took this picture of the van. traffic was about to move, i got my hand out of the car and took the picture.

there was something written on the van but since traffic was already moving, i did not get to read what it said. it must have explained what Hornitex was selling. i am sure it was something legal, but i did not get to read what it was.

Hornitex -- textile? animal horns? viagra-type meds?

i got my hand out of my car and pointed to the name for the passengers of the cars behind me to take a look. looking at my back and side view mirrors, i saw a group of teen-agers and adults in a car and a van snickering at what i pointed to them.

i googled the name. whoa! there really is a company called Hornitex! it is located in san juan and check out what they sell. just google it.

must be tough to work for the company.

salesman: hello, sir. i work for hornitex. can i call on you to sell you something?

telephone operator: hello, hornitex. can i help you?

salesman: i am from hornitex, can i give you a demo?

tHe idiOts proMo: LRT'S "Bike-On Bike-Off (Bike O2)” - not good even on paper

this one landed on page 1 of PDI with a huge picture - LRT's "Bike-On-Bike-Off (Bike 02)" service. the LRT will now allow people with bicycles to ride the trains. we are so confused with this new service - we do totally understand what it is for, we do not see any advantage and we don't see the point.

first of all, commuters on the train with bikes will only be allowed to ride the train IF their bikes are the foldable types. commuters with regular bikes will still not be allowed to ride the train.

how many filipinos own foldable bikes? not very many. in fact we think extremely few filipinos own foldable bikes. there is a simple reason for it - foldable bikes are much more expensive than regular bikes. also, the appeal of foldable bikes is that owners can stow them inside the trunk of your car. that means the target commuters of Bike 02 are people who own cars. why would foldable bike owners park their cars someplace, remove the bike from the trunk of their cars and carry the foldable bike up to the LRT when they can just drive to their destination in the comfort of their cars?

right off, this idea says it is a totally useless service - it will cater to an extremely few number filipinos, probably less than 0.00001% of the metro manila population who own foldable bikes. and of those 0.00001% who own foldable bikes they will never use the service as it gives them no benefit and no advantage. in fact it inconveniences them as they need to carry the foldable bikes up the unforgiving stairs of the LRT from the ground to the trains.

allowing commuters who use regular bikes to ride the train may give some benefit to many of the poor who use bikes to go to their work and who use them in their work like messengers. many messengers can't afford motorcycles and use regular bikes. being able to ride the LRT with their bikes rather than bike along the treacherous Taft Avenue will be of great benefit to them as it will not only save them time, it will also keep them safe from being run-over in the streets. none of them can afford to buy foldable bikes as its cost will probably be equivalent to their salary for 3 to 5 years.

it leads you to ask a very important question --- who are the intended beneficiaries of this new service at the LRT? who are the target users?

it cannot be ordinary folks as they own only regular bikes. since they allow commuters with foldable bikes, the target seem to be the rich folks as they are the only ones who can afford to buy these types of bikes. but rich folks don't take the LRT, they have their own cars. in fact these rich folks buy foldable bikes because they want to be able to stow their bikes inside the trunk of their cars. if you own a car, you don't usually take the train, you use your car. we do not think you will find a rich folk who will buy a foldable bike just so he can take the LRT.

we are stumped! we can't figure out who the target market or target beneficiaries of this new service at the LRT. brands and companies launch new services to answer a need or to serve a target market. this one does not do any of that.

30 bike enthusiasts were on hand when this new service was launched by the LRT. the commuters, rich folks for sure, led by no less than Senator Pia Cayetano, took the train at the Araneta Center in Cubao then got off at the Legarda station in Manila. the article said the train ride took only 15 minutes versus riding the bike that will normally take them 30 minutes.

so what is the big deal with a 15 minutes of saving riding time? these 30 people are leisure bikers and health enthusiasts - saving 15 minutes of biking is not what they want to do. the point of being a leisure and health biker is to use the bike as long as you can, as often as you can. cutting biking time for these types of people is not the point for them!

the conclusion is that the LRT launched a new service, got page 1 coverage, that does not serve anyone and does not give anyone any benefit. it is a classic for tHe idiOts proMo.

you may be having a headache now at this point. this new service is probably driving you crazy. well, we have one more to drive you completely nuts. take a deep breathe -

the name of the new service is "Bike-On Bike-Off ” which is of course a play on the now famous RO-RO (Ride-On Ride-Off) service that allows people to use their cars to go from one island to the next. commuters ride their cars to barges and rides it off them on the next island.

here is what will drive you crazy. "Bike-On Bike-Off ”, the acronym for this service is actually BO-BO! hahahaha. a perfect name for a perfectly bobo service.

congrats to the LRT and the brilliant communication person who thought of this new service.

sunkist iced tea : sarap, honest

apples' anti-windows 7 tv ads

pantene shampoo thailand - ad that did not shine

this is a tv ad that asks a lot from the viewers for you to like it. it asks you to like it both in obvious and not at all obvious ways.

its easy to like the ad - there is a story and its a very dramatic story. everyone likes a story of triumph where the unlikely overcomes barriers and succeeds. this is also told in a very graphic way - there is a protagonist we love to hate and a heroine we love to love.

i forgot - this is a tv ad for pantene, a shampoo brand. yes, shampoo for the hair. but lets not get into that. its not that important.

the other part that this ad is asking us is what science fiction movies asks us to do and it is the only way we can appreciate this tv ad. we all know what science fiction movies are - they are make believe, the exact meaning of the word "fiction". the only way we can appreciate a science fiction movie is for us to suspend logic, throw away common sense, ignore truth and yes forget about science. there is much irony there - to enjoy a science fiction movie, we need to forget science.

that is the only way to do it. in a science fiction movie, we need to believe super heroes are real. humans in human life forms can fly and women have super powers. if we don't do it that way, there is no point in watching the movie as none of it will make sense.

that is what you need to do in this ad. you need to believe that a person who does not have the sense of hearing can learn to play a musical instrument and that a beaten up violin put together only by crude industrial tape can still sound beautiful when played, of concert quality no less.

if you don't treat those like you treat elements of a science fiction movie, you won't be able to appreciate all 4 minutes of this commercial. it is one of the longest tv ads i have seen. we don't think the ad was aired a lot of times in thailand given the length and the cost involved in airing it but even that we are willing to suspend logic for.

its a long ad because of many repeated scenes, over-extended sequences, unneeded scenes and subplots. we think the editing was very bad as many of the scenes specially those repeated were unnecessary to repeat. many of the scenes could have been taken out, specially the repeated ones and the story will still be intact.

the scene with the cocoon transforming into a butterfly then in flight we thought was unnecessary. the story itself of the little girl growing up then learning how to play was enough and actually very obvious that we did not need to see the cocoon to butterfly transformation. besides, in the first place that is not the point of the story. the story is about a girl who has dreams of playing a violin overcome adversity both her physical inability and the other girl protagonist. this is a story of overcoming adverssity, not of birth to adulthood or fulfillment.

before we forget, this is an ad for a shampoo brand. that is one more weakness of the ad. the ad forgot what it is supposed to do. it even missed the part of showing glorious hair at the end pay-off sequence. they tried to do it with the flowing and flying long hair but the shot was very poorly done. the hair was not shiny at all and the lighting was over-exposed that you are unable to see good volume of the hair. having poor cinematography at this sequence we think is a mortal sin and a huge opportunity loss in making a great sale for the brand.

ironic that the tagline at the end is "you can shine". we think its a WAWAM!

    

steve jobs back on the job