PLDT going more digital, says Panlilio

MANILA, Philippines — Incoming PLDT Inc. president and CEO Alfredo Panlilio is aiming for a more digital PLDT in the next decade to make customer engagement seamless and simple.

“By 2030, we hope to continue being the leader in customer experience,” said Panlilio, who currently serves as chief revenue officer of PLDT and president of Smart Communications.

“We also ought to be more digital by then, with a platform in place that makes it easy for our customers to engage with us whenever they need us. Technology is driving us there, especially 5G.  We hope to make customer engagement seamless and simple – this is the only way we can continue to be top-of-mind for our customers,” he said in a podcast interview.

Since returning to the PLDT Group in 2019 after spearheading Meralco’s strategic shift to digitalization and pushing innovations in customer service practices, Panlilio has been rallying PLDT and Smart employees behind his vision of putting customer experience first.

“I think everybody has embraced that idea that we really need to serve our customers. We do have some issues. We must improve our customer care. We must get out of these silos and hyper-collaborate across all teams to make it happen. There are still a lot of processes that we need to streamline,” Panlilio said.

According to Panlilio, Filipino consumers are expecting customer experience that is at par with global companies like Netflix, Amazon and Google.

He said the telco giant’s focus in the next decade should ultimately be in improving within the company.

“We need to improve ourselves first, beat our personal best and keep getting better and stronger. This is the only way to beat competition – be the best in the industry and serve our customers better than anyone else,” he said.

“At the end of the day, we would like to make sure that our customer engagement is good, and that our customers are responding positively to the kind of experience that we deliver,” the official said.

PLDT and Smart are targeting to further ramp-up nationwide coverage for 5G in the next three years to capitalize on the latest technology.

As of May, Smart has fired up more than 3,000 5G sites across the country, the widest 5G network.

“Last year, we made the bold decision to accelerate 5G, and I’m glad we did that. It is important for us to expand 5G coverage,” Panlilio said.

Business titan Manuel V. Pangilinan earlier announced that he is passing the torch to Panlilio as president and CEO of PLDT, while staying on as the telco giant’s chairman.

The appointment is expected to be made official during PLDT’s annual shareholders’ meeting scheduled next week.