Globe partners with Aegis, sets up trilingual call center

CEBU, Philippines - In a move to pursue personalized customer service for its growing subscriber base in the Bisaya-speaking areas, Globe Telecom has set up a “Bisaya” speaking call center service in partnership with Aegis Philippines.

Initially, Aegis will designate at least 50 agents to serve Globe’s customers in Cebu other parts of Visayas and Mindanao regions.

The Visayan language is the second most-widely spoken dialect in the country, with over 20 million Filipinos speaking the language in various provinces and cities in the Southern Philippines.

Globe Telecom president Ernest Cu said that this development is just part of the network’s move to make their subscribers’ the center of their business, by “speaking their language, and listening to them.”

“Once again, we are raising the bar of customer experience. By having a Cebu-based contact center, we are able to break the language barrier experienced by a number of our Visayan subscribers today,” said Joe Carillo, Globe head for customer experience.

Aegis Philippines president Bong Borja said Globe is the first telecom firm in the Philippines to require this particular service. This would therefore communicates that “customers matter to them [Globe]”.

As of December 2011, the Visayan region revenue contribution to Globe’s business, grew by seven percent. Likewise, its subscriber-base rose to 18 percent in the same period.

Aside from establishing the “trilingual” customer service, Globe is also spending multi-million dollar investments to over-haul its network infrastructure in Cebu, with all base-stations will be re-placed with brand new equipment to provide better speed and service in both mobile and broadband services.

This investment is part of the company’s allocated US$790 million capital expenditure which started last year until 2013. About 70 percent of the budget had already been spent, Cu said.

He clarified that US$70 million will be spent to improve its network, while the US$90 million will utilized to update the company’s IT related infrastructure and services.

Meanwhile, with the launch of this language option, Visayan-speaking customers will now have access to Globe/TM sales and after-sales services through a dedicated Visayan Interactive Voice Response System (IVRS).

By following the self-service IVRS voice prompts (in Visayan) callers are dedicated to a Visayan-speaking customer service representative based in Cebu.

Visayan-speaking customers can inquire about any Globe mobile, landline or broadband services for sales, care or tech concerns.

Also, the launch of the new customer service with a Cebu-based contact center, allow subscribers to converse with Globe easily in their vernacular of choice.

Cu reiterated that this is aligned with the company’s thrust of constantly innovating customer experience by giving customers choices to make their Globe experience more personal.

In 2011, Globe closed the year with all-time high service revenues of P67.8 billion, nine percent higher than previous year’s normalized level of P62.0 billion.

The mobile business delivered strong results across all postpaid and prepaid brands, while the broadband business continued to register double-digit revenue growth, riding on the strength of the Tattoo brand and the rising demand for fast and reliable internet connectivity. — (FREEMAN)