Pag-IBIG Fund: New systems reduce hotline calls by 74%

MANILA, Philippines — Heeding President Duterte’s call on Monday’s State of the Nation Address, top executives of Pag-IBIG Fund said that Fund-related calls to 8888 Citizens’ Hotline Complaint Center have dropped 74% in the first half of 2019 as the systems they put in place have already resulted in the resolution of 99% of the concerns received through the hotline.

“We concur with President Rodrigo Roa Duterte when he said that much has to be done in ensuring responsiveness to people’s needs. And while Pag-IBIG Fund made the list of the agencies that need to improve service delivery, it gives us the chance to shine light on our advancements. Because in the last two years, we have been monitoring 8888 calls closely and I’m happy to report that 99% of all calls are already resolved,” said Secretary Eduardo del Rosario, chairperson of the Housing and Urban Development Coordinating Council and Pag-IBIG Fund Board of Trustees.

He said that in the Fund’s monitoring, data showed that about 50% of the total calls received are not complaints but are actually inquiries or requests for assistance regarding their records.

“Majority of the real complaints touched on delays in loans processing. This is understandable because we were improving our systems during that time. We completed the full deployment of our new core systems in December 2017 and we spent the first half of 2018 addressing backlog brought about by data migration. Now, we receive lesser complaints because the new systems are up and running,” Del Rosario said.

Acmad Rizaldy Moti, chief executive officer of Pag-IBIG Fund, said they have noticed the declining number of Fund-related calls which started in the second half of 2018. He said that compared to the first half of 2018, Pag-IBIG Fund related concerns dropped 58% in the second half of the year.

This vast improvement was further highlighted by customer satisfaction surveys done in September and October 2018 wherein customers gave Pag-IBIG Fund a 96% satisfaction rating attributed to faster service delivery.

Then, from January to June 2019, the number of calls further decreased.

“We received a lot of calls last year as we were upgrading to our new system. While the system migration caused delays in the processing of some loans and records, we doubled our efforts to help our members in the branch level. That’s why we launched our Lingkod Pag-IBIG Campaign. And since changes in our systems have now stabilized, Fund-related calls in the first half of 2019 declined 74% year-on-year,” Moti said.

“While we faced challenges along the way, we renewed our commitment to serve our members better and worked hard to address their concerns. Because of this, we are able to settle and reduce the number of calls significantly every semester. And with our new and improved system fully functioning, we can now process loans in as fast as 1.8 days. And soon, we will launch our Virtual Branch — a project we have been working on for a while. With the President’s recent call to provide services electronically, our Virtual Branch shall eventually serve all our members anytime, anywhere. So whether you are online or offline, you can count on us to be true to our Lingkod Pag-IBIG commitment: Tapat na Serbisyo, Mula sa Puso,” he added.