a note to GLOBE

Dear Globe,

 

 I have been a loyal subscriber for 13 years (and counting) and throughout this time, your telecom service has been well within my tolerance, even recently what with all your major connection fails. I wish I could say the same for your customer service. I find it has degraded as the years passed by.

 

 I’ve encountered multiple bouts of terrible customer service from your company and I am saddened because these past few months, I have been campaigning (albeit passively) that GLOBE’s customer service is still better than SMART’s (partly because I really believe so, taking from friend's experiences; also because I work for a sister company; and because I would like my contacts to remain in the same network) but goodness, my arguments has become very old and invalid. It is frustrating that we, mobile users, have to choose the lesser of two evils. It is disheartening that you spew your taglines of having things MY WAY and giving it HASSLE FREE, yet give your customers anything but what you promised.

Customer service is a simple concept, but it has the largest impact in service companies such as yours. Giving excellent service is not that difficult, or more expensive to do. I strongly believe your customers would appreciate it more if you invest in giving superb basic services than throwing your money at secondary promotions. Have you heard of Kano’s Service Model (http://kanomodel.com/)? It is one of the simplest but truest service development tools. You might want to consider evaluating your service using this.

There are lots of things I wanted to comment on as I went through the whole ordeal. First is the need to streamline your processes and systems, to avoid having to pass customers around. We do not care if your system for billing is different for that of technical issues. We just need to be able to access you with ease and minimal hassle. And do not ask us to put down the phone and call the hotline for another issue. There is just no sense in that. Troubleshoot your processes from the customers’ perspective, you’ll find that it will bring out the most efficient process.

Secondly, re-train your customer service representatives. Make their responses and attitude more customer-centric. Empower them with information because they are the ones your customers run to for answers. Encourage them to help the customers any way they can. We don't care about a CSR's long winded scripts. We just need them to talk to us. Evaluate your SLAs and processing times. An issue is not considered closed once it is inputted in the system. It will be closed once the customer complaint has been COMPLETELY RESOLVED.

Be transparent with your customers. Give them status updates. Do not wait for their follow-ups. Make them believe that you are doing something to resolve their problem. When you tell them that the service you owe them will arrive in 3 days, do not let heaven or hell stop you from delivering it within 3 days.

If you can’t deliver on time, then do not promise that. Give them a promise you can keep. It may not matter how long you keep them waiting, as long as they are guaranteed of what they are waiting for. Harvard Business Review* found that customers find waiting more tolerable when they can see the work being done on their behalf.

Lastly, listen to your customers. You have your social media accounts, pages, hotlines, service centers and websites but none of those seem to be really open for customer’s suggestions. You once tweeted “One voice can move thousands of minds. Speak up and be heard!” Have you been listening?

 

Still a loyal customer,

D Eusebio

 

PS, can you please give the option "0" to directly talk to a customer service rep and not let customers spend 3 minutes listening to a recording and answering questions worse than final exams, only to end up talking to a customer service representative who again asks for information previously given?

 

*http://hbr.org/2011/05/think-customers-hate-waiting-not-so-fast/ar/1

ANNEX A

My very first notable encounter with this poor service was when I applied for a new line back in 2011 at the SM Bacoor Service Center. It had reached a point where I was in disagreement with a supervisor because of your company’s processes. She was as agitated as I was and at one point bursts out, saying “Pwede patapusin niyo muna ako magsalita?!” and the first thing that went to my mind was, “Well, aren’t you on the wrong side of the counter to be saying that?” But I let it pass since she was pregnant and probably hormonal. I eventually got the line before I left the store, and things ran smoothly after that.

 

This year, I decided to get a new line through the Globe Hotline, because it was more convenient as I can access that even while I’m at the office, and partly because I had not forgotten the nightmare I’d gone through at the service center nearest me.

 

I applied my line on June 5, a BB Plan 499 with the free 9220. I had sent my requirement by June 6, where the auto-reply said that I should expect to hear from them within 2-3 days. Before the day ended, I had decided to change it to a BB Plan 9320 with the free 9320. I had asked the nice agent if I needed to request that the credit limit of my first line be lessened, but she said that it was okay not to. So I didn’t. After 3 days, and no call backs, I got really impatient and called once, twice or thrice, but had not gotten any news. I tried going to the SM Bacoor Service Center, to see if it might be faster to process it there. After waiting for my number to be called (it takes a while), I get to talk to the front liner and tell my story, and I asked if she could just retrieve my application then and there because there was a computer in front of her. She says that online application is different from the offline one. That I had to cancel my online application or else it would be doubled. So I said, okay, let’s process an offline application and I will cancel my online one as soon as we’re through. And she said no, I had to cancel it before we process. So I say, okay, I’ll call now. She asks me to step out of the service center (for real!) to call, then come back and get a new number after I had cancelled the online application. Which totally does not make sense, and for real? You are asking the customer to do THAT? Real customer centricity would have you dial for the customer. So I argue on why I shouldn’t get another number and the lady just goes, “This is your transaction for this number. The application will be a new transaction so you need a new number.” YOU CALL THAT A TRANSACTION?! So I abandon the notion that the SM Bacoor Service Center is better than online application.
 

Finally, during the 3^rd week of June, I called again and the agent told me that they could not yet process my request since I had not yet had my credit limit lowered. So I told her of my conversation with the agent earlier. She said that agents were generally not supposed to say that because they are not authorized. I said, I did not care, because I wouldn’t know what an agent’s authorizations were. So I asked her if she could lower it down, and she says that I have to call 211 regarding this. I argue and after a few more minutes (a few more minutes too long in my opinion), we settled that she will take my request to have it down. This call was so frustrating for the following reasons: (1) I was hassled because of an INTERNAL conflict re: agent’s scope of authority, (2) the agent actually asked me to put the phone down and call 211 to have my credit limit brought down, when in fact, as far as I (THE CUSTOMER) is concerned, I am already talking to GLOBE, the same company I will talk to when I call 211, and (3) if I had not called to ask for the status of my request, the application would not move.

Now that the application was a go, it will be passed on to an investigating team for final approval. So I asked the agent how long it would take, and she said about 3 days or so (in so many words, and I had to really pester her about giving me an estimated time). So I give them their 3 days. After which I had spent 3 days arguing, losing my temper, being put on hold, and feeling damn frustrated just to get the phone to my doorstep. I had lost all my temper by this time that I had demanded that the phone be delivered to my doorstep from your head office. And finally it arrived on June 30. It took almost a month, and 10 reference numbers to get the phone I ordered. Is that within your standard turnaround time? Because if it is, I would ask you to consider revisiting your SOPs.  And after it arrived, it was said that the line activation will be within 24-48 hours. But it was activated on July 05 (72 hours past expected time) and to make matters worse, the BB service was not activated! It was only resolved on July 08. Are you guys for real? Well, at least it’s now working and I let the occasional loss of signal fly by.

Then came the time when I needed to pay for my September bill. And I was so stoked to find out that it can be paid via the internet using a credit card. So I take advantage and pay on September 13. I even got a confirmation email. About a week after, I receive a text from 290 reminding me to pay the bill. So I called the hotline and reported the issue. The agent told me that it was already recorded and that I should just call back after 2-3 days to know if the issue has been resolved. And I was like, “For real, you are telling me to call back to check if it was resolved? YOU WILL NOT EVEN MAKE AN EFFORT TO TELL ME THAT YOU HAVE DONE YOUR WORK?”

 

After 3 days, nobody has called so I call back. The agent told me to forward the email confirmation so that the technical team can work on it. So I do as I am told. I forward it, together with the reference number of the complaint to talk@globetel.com.ph. Five days later, a reply comes, asking me to send a screen shot of the confirmation email. ARE THESE CUSTOMER SERVICE REPRESENTATIVES FOR REAL? I have already forwarded the email, and they ask for a screen shot? Unfortunately, until now, I have no word if this has been resolved, hence this letter.