Bad reviews on social media can spread like wildfire in a few minutes and can taint your public image. This is particularly true for the Philippines, whose citizens are among the heaviest internet users in the world. They each clock in an average of 10 hours and two minutes of screen time a day, according to a Hootsuite and We are Social’s report in 2019.

As such, negative reviews posted online can be detrimental to a business. One may think these reviews are solely brought about by a response to a bad product experience. But if you read through customer reviews on almost every e-commerce site, you would see it is, more often than not, a byproduct of the whole customer experience and the customer’s engagement with the business or seller. This then raises the importance of ensuring that a customer is satisfied with each engagement. But how can this be achieved?

First, let us define what customer engagement is. As the term implies, customer engagement is composed of all interactions a customer has with a business. It can differ from one business to another, even if two businesses are in the same industry and have similar products. It is set by the business. A business can choose which customers can reach out to it through Facebook, email, SMS or any other channel available. But at the end of the day, it is how a business interacts with its customers and how it adds to their experience that matters.

Going back to the initial question, how can a business achieve excellent customer engagement? It involves three steps that eventually form a cycle, with each feeding into the next.

– Moment of interaction. As customer engagement is defined as a customer’s interaction with a business, the first step in having excellent customer engagement is providing excellent service at each customer touchpoint. This means being able to answer these questions:

What is the customer journey like? What are the different customer touchpoints? Knowing each customer touchpoint from a customer’s perspective means being able to identify different concerns he or she may have about a business’ product or service. This empowers the business to anticipate concerns and prepare scripts, spiels and templates that customer-facing teams can use and which can be a part of their training.

Who is responsible for each customer touchpoint? If a customer is at a certain stage in the customer journey, who should they reach out to? How will that be relayed to him or her Identifying who a business’ customer-facing teams are and which aspect of the business they should be trained on is an important aspect of customer engagement. This ensures that a business’ brand is consistent across all customer touchpoints, whatever stage in the customer journey a customer is in and who he or she is talking to. Ideally, each customer-facing team should be knowledgeable on all stages of the customer journey, but they may be an expert on a specific part of a business.

Where are the customers currently at? Which channels are they using? Is it email, SMS, Facebook, Viber or other channels? Identifying which channels customers currently use is a crucial part in knowing which channels a business should be available in. This ensures that it is convenient for customers to reach out to the business and also prevents it from investing in a channel that customers will not use. This enables the business to meet customers where they are and be accessible to customers when they need to.

Answering these questions sets up the foundation of each customer engagement. This enables a business to create an avenue for customers to reach out to the business beyond their transactions with the product, when the customer needs to and where the customer can conveniently do so.

– Processing multiple interactions. After each moment of interaction with the customer, each engagement should be categorized based on the topic of engagement. What was the interaction about? What did the customer need? Was it a problem with the product? Are they following up? These are some sample questions that can be answered by categorizing each interaction. Having a way to categorize each interaction means being able to subsequently identify what the recurring concerns are.

An example of this is identifying whether an engagement with the customer is a problem, task or question, after which it can be further categorized based on each step in the customer journey, such as account creation, a customer’s first purchase or a subsequent one. Numerous business questions can be answered by being able to process multiple interactions. This then feeds into the last step, which is using processed interactions to improve each moment of interaction.

– Using processed interactions to improve each moment of interaction (and other parts of the business). After categorizing interactions, aggregate results can then be analyzed. For example, Company A saw that, in a certain month, questions about account creation increased. With this information, Company A can decide to train its sales and support teams to educate customers on how to create their accounts. Spiels and templates can be created to ensure that communication is consistent with each customer. Experiments can also be conducted to check which spiel and template is the most effective in explaining how Company A’s account creation process goes. This process means each moment of interaction is now being used to improve each new moment of interaction.

Besides using processed interactions to improve each new moment of interaction, aggregate interactions can also be used to improve other parts of the business. For the aforementioned example, the business can further investigate why the account creation process seems to be unclear to customers. Is it the screens used? Or the words? Upon further investigation, the business might discover that the current screens for account creation is not suitable for mobile view, which is what the majority of customers use. The business can use this information to create a better user interface for account creation. This process means being able to use processed interactions and consequently, each moment of interaction, to improve other parts of the business.

How a business interacts with customers is now as important as the benefit customers receive from a product or a service. Being able to provide excellent moments of interaction, processing those moments of interaction, and using processed interactions to improve future moments of interaction and the whole customer experience is key in creating excellent customer engagements. This ensures that a customer has an overall exceptional experience, from onboarding to retention. With excellent customer engagements, the question now is how beneficial would it be for a business if a single tweet, review or Facebook post praises a business for the benefits the customer has received?

Listed Converge ICT Solutions Inc. said on Friday its strong rollout and subscriber growth boosted its January-to-September revenues by 67 percent to P10.7 billion year-on-year.

In a disclosure, Converge ICT said its residential business contributed P8.4 billion to total revenues and its enterprises business contributed P2.3 billion in the period.

“Despite the Covid-19 (coronavirus disease 2019) pandemic-related headwinds in the Philippine enterprise connectivity market, which, according to the market research firm MPA, is expected to result in a decline of the market in 2020, the enterprise business of Converge continued to grow steadily,” the company said in the disclosure.

According to the internet provider, its consolidated revenues for the third quarter increased by 71 percent to P4.2 billion.

Converge ICT continued to expand its network infrastructure in the three-month period and has deployed around 490,000 additional fiber-to-the-home ports, 2.7 times more than the number recorded in the first quarter.

As of end-September, Converge ICT’s network has reached more than 5.1 million homes nationwide.

The number of new subscribers, meanwhile, jumped to 900,531 last month from 454,438 a year earlier.

Converge ICT debuted on the PSE on Monday, with its shares down 9.4 percent or P1.58 to P15.22 each at the end of trading.

Converge ICT shares declined by 38 centavos or 2.51 percent to finish at P14.78 apiece on Friday.

Ayala-led Integrated Micro-Electronics Inc. (IMI) incurred a net loss of $13.5 million in the first nine months of 2020 despite an improved third-quarter profit.

In a filing on Thursday, the listed manufacturing arm of AC Industrial Technology Holdings Inc. said revenues fell to $789 million in January to September from $940 million year-on-year.

For July to September, net income reached $9.5 million, which included a one-off gain of $2.4 million. Revenues grew to $312 million in the period as operations normalized in all the firm’s facilities.

“IMI’s diverse expertise across multiple business segments, along with our wide geographical footprint, has allowed us to rebound from the pandemic stronger and faster than market expectations,” IMI President and Chief Executive Officer Arthur Tan said in the filing.

Holcim Philippines Inc. reported on Friday that its net income dropped to P1.03 billion in the nine months ending September despite a substantial growth in its earnings in the third quarter.

In a disclosure, the listed cement manufacturer said the figure was down 45 percent from P1.9 billion in the same period last year.

It also reported that net sales declined by 21 percent to P18.8 percent from P23.7 billion year-on year.

For July to September, net profit rose by 34.2 percent to P613.7 million from P457.5 million a year earlier, while revenues slipped by 11.1 percent to P7.4 billion from P8.3 billion.

“Business conditions remained challenging, although there were noted improvements in the market in the third quarter. However, this recovery is not enough to offset yet the impact of the pandemic-induced stoppage and slowdown of operations from March to May, the peak season of construction,” Holcim said in the disclosure.

“We are proud of our organization’s tremendous resilience amid the unprecedented challenges posed by Covid-19 (coronavirus disease 2019),” Holcim Philippines President and Chief Executive Officer John Stull was quoted as saying in the disclosure.

“While there are challenges ahead, we remain confident that the steps to keep our people healthy and safe, preserve cash, and be prudent on costs enable us to emerge stronger from this crisis,” he added.

A member of the LafargeHolcim Group, Holcim Philippines has cement manufacturing facilities in La Union, Bulacan, Batangas, Misamis Oriental and Davao.

Holcim Philippines shares climbed by 6 centavos or 1.06 percent to finish at P5.72 each on Friday.

Provisions for bad loans slashed Metropolitan Bank & Trust Co.’s (Metrobank) net income by almost half in the first nine months of the year.

In a statement on Friday, the Ty-led lender said it netted P11 billion in the period, a 49.07-percent decrease from the P21.6 billion reported a year ago.

This came after Metrobank set aside P35.4 billion in provisions for bad loans, almost five times the P7.8-billion provisions booked in January to September 2019.

As a result, its NPL cover soared to 174 percent from 96 percent previously.

As of September, the bank’s NPL ratio rose to 2.25 percent from 1.52 percent in the same period a year ago.

“The increase in NPLs remains within expectations amidst a slowdown in the economy,” it said.

Despite this, Metrobank President Fabian Dee noted that the lender’s total revenues expanded by 20 percent to P96.3 billion, income before provisions grew by 41 percent to P52.4 billion, and net interest margin increased by 4.1 percent while deposits and capital levels remained healthy.

“Amid the effects of the [coronavirus] pandemic looming over the economy, the bank’s overall performance is better than expected,” he said. “Even though nonperforming assets are currently within manageable levels, our strategy is to be conservative by building reserves in case the crisis drags on.”

The 22-percent improvement in low-cost deposits supported Metrobank’s deposits, which jumped by 10 percent to P1.7 trillion.

“Healthy deposit growth, accompanied by the 175-basis-point reduction in policy rates, helped ease funding cost in the first nine months of the year, driving net interest margin improvement by 20 basis points to 4.1 percent,” Metrobank said.

Robust trading and foreign exchange gains of P17.8 billion lifted its non-interest income by 28 percent, it added. Lower transaction volumes and the waiver of some fees dragged earnings from service fees and commissions by 10 percent.

Metrobank’s total capital adequacy ratio reached 19.9 percent and its common equity tier 1 ratio settled at 19 percent. The bank’s consolidated assets stood at P2.4 trillion.

Metrobank shares decreased by 95 centavos or 2.28 percent to close at P40.75 each on Friday.

State-owned Development Bank of the Philippines (DBP) has committed to help the tourism industry recover from the adverse effects of coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic.

In a statement on Thursday, DBP President and Chief Executive Officer Emmanuel Herbosa said the lender was committed to the development and progress of the tourism industry, as its gains had proven to cut across all segments of the social strata.

With this, he said the DBP was working closely with the Department of Tourism and tourism enterprises in formulating long-term solutions and interventions to help the industry rebound from the impact of the pandemic.

According to him, the bank is ready to provide the resources needed to enable industry players to implement mechanisms that would rebuild trust in travel, seamlessly adapt to digital platforms, and innovate traditional offerings to spur demand.

The “DBP has had a long history of collaboration with the tourism industry,” Herbosa said. “We shall remain a steadfast partner in finding meaningful solutions to revive, revitalize and reinvent the tourism sector.”

The lender said the tourism sector was an integral component of its loan portfolio. As of the first half of the year, the DBP disbursed more than P11.98 billion in credit assistance to the industry, which has benefited 178 tourism-related firms nationwide.

The DBP’s assistance for the tourism sector is lodged under two programs: the Retail Lending for Micro and Small Enterprises, which targets firms with an asset size of P15-million; and the Medium Enterprises and Other Business Enterprise Lending, which caters to businesses with assets of up to P100 million.

Herbosa said distressed businesses might also avail themselves of credit support under his bank’s Rehabilitation Support Program on Severe Events, which could extend financing support for the rehabilitation efforts of both public and private institutions adversely affected by calamities.

“Moving forward, we must ensure that resources for the industry are channeled not just for recovery and rebuilding but also for enhancing the readiness and resiliency to combat sudden and debilitating fluxes in the economy,” the DBP chief said.

DBP is the seventh largest bank in the country in terms of assets and provides credit support to four strategic sectors of the economy — infrastructure and logistics; micro, small and medium enterprises; social services and community development; and the environment.

Its total loan portfolio in the first nine months of the year hit P364.4 billion, 15.6 percent higher than the P315.13 billion a year ago.

Additionally, our plan to reshape our business and strategies for recovery greatly involves the accelerated development of our digital banking solutions. This is to address the needs of our customers through efficient and effective online and mobile banking channels capable of facilitating local and international transactions. As we roll out these innovative developments, we are prepared to embrace the shift together with all members of the Bank of China (BOC). This is the reason we are continuously working on people initiatives and trainings that would help them adapt and implement these new changes to form and cultivate a strong digital culture. By building and implementing our digital transformation strategy, both in our assets and our people, we will be able to further improve the efficiency of our operations and processes, reduce operational risks and, most importantly, develop a better, sustainable future-proof customer experience.

At the BOC, we not only want to cultivate resilience in ourselves, but also share the spirit of resiliency with communities and society through our own unique ways. Bearing in mind its core value of responsibility, the BOC made efforts to support Wuhan in their fight against Covid-19. In February, the team made an deltamarket reviews video to share a message of encouragement and resiliency for the people of Wuhan by saying, “Be strong, Wuhan. Be strong, China. Bank of China fully supports you.” In March, the bank sent its donations of gloves and isolations suits to Wuhan. In addition, Bank of China Ltd., through its Manila branch, donated disposable medical masks to the Department of Health (DoH) to assist in its efforts to extend assistance and protection to affected hospitals and communities in the Philippines.

With the best diploma of globalization, the bank took at the obligation of corporate citizenship through the exercise of China’s idea of community of human destiny and the global humanitarian spirit of “one circle of relatives within the world.” As the most internationalized bank in China, the BOC places a remarkable deal of significance on being a family. It is because of this that the bank urgently mobilized businesses to buy a extraordinary variety of medical safety sources from the mainland and made every effort to without delay deliver these to foreign places. At the height of the 2 international locations’ fight towards the coronavirus, the non-public protecting system furnished a great deal-needed safety for our clinical heroes who are making tremendous sacrifices to help Covid-19 sufferers get better. In the bins become a Filipino proverb that asserts, “Matibay ang walis, palibhasa’y magkabigkis.” This message of aid and harmony highlights the significance of gaining electricity and resilience in being united, for solidarity is paramount to prevailing the combat in opposition to the coronavirus.

Going thru this pandemic is a work in progress. We have witnessed a few lapses and hurdles along the way, but the entire BOC Manila team made certain that, on the end of the day, we were able to come up with answers and nonetheless deliver the first-class possible carrier to each our internal and outside customers. While the thought of overcoming the pandemic may be very tough, it did not prevent us from continuing to serve our clients’ financial wishes.

Through our persevering with projects during this pandemic, we’re constructive that we have the
braveness to move ahead, the power to persevere, and the wisdom to confront any limitations we are facing on the way to deliver higher, lasting consequences for all our stakeholders.

Everything we do is guided with the aid of the BOC core values of duty, integrity, innovation and professionalism that we try to embody in each selection and action we make. When we look again to this period inside the financial institution’s history, we will bear in mind a extremely good tale of resilience that we have embedded in our culture, a story of ways we weathered the downturn and how we helped our personnel, our customers and the society to live on and flourish. In these attempting instances, it is essential to remind ourselves that we are all together on this combat, and it is all on us to preserve each other safe and assist each other to thrive.

And as we navigate the uncertainty across the coronavirus pandemic, we at the BOC will preserve with our responsibility to endure the spirit of resilience for the duration of hard instances for it’s far our quality threat at assisting construct a brighter destiny for all of us.

The mine website is in Antique Province, around 510 kilometers southwest of Manila.

Lopez implied that liberating the audit effects to Semirara Mining changed into premature as the DENR became scheduled to release the audit results of all mining operations on Tuesday.

“That RD is in warm water. What he did changed into completely inappropriate,” Lopez stated.
GLOBE Telecom Inc. Is embarking on a cause-led transformation for a more sustainable agency, the business enterprise said in a statement over the weekend.

Globe president & CEO Ernest Cu unveiled the organisation’s new motive of ‘Treating humans right to create a Globe of Good’ at the Wonderful World of Globe XII event held recently on the Globe Iconic Store in Bonifacio Global City.

Without coal, there would be outages, commercial enterprise disruption and retrenchment, and, within the case of affected cement organizations, perhaps a supply lack that might have an effect on infrastructure and housing,” he introduced.

Environment Secretary Regina Paz Lopez stated remaining week that the report issued via EMB Region 6 regional director Jonathan Bulos remained unofficial. Bulos reportedly released copies of an audit report to Semirara without the approval or expertise of the audit group and Lopez.

In a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange closing week, Semirara stated that it obtained copies of the audit file from the EMB, noting that the DENR has found its Molave enlargement assignment “technically sound” and “compliant with environmental legal guidelines.”

Coal is a constant every day source of electricity and is some of the cheapest feedstock in comparison to bunker and gasoline, among others. Coal money owed for 45 percentage of general power generated ultimate yr, SMPC said. Without coal, strength would be greater costly, the enterprise said.

Based on August statistics, power from coal vegetation owned by way of SMPC’s sister enterprise changed into offered to energy distributor Manila Electric Company (Meralco) for only P2.517 consistent with kilowatt-hour, the bottom charge. All others ranged from above P3 in keeping with kWh, all the way to extra than P8 in step with kWh, Lozada said.

“The closure of the Semirara coal mine might had been disastrous for the economic system and the public, and probable ought to create pointless political dangers for the management,” Lozada said.

We usually defend the surroundings even as extracting coal. The audit reports verify that commitment. We are accountable miners and keep upgrading our structures and strategies when new technologies come to the marketplace,” stated Engineer Ruben Lozada, resident manager of the Molave coal mine in Semirara Island.

The Department of Energy (DOE) and the Environmental Management Bureau (EMB) of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) issued separate audits remaining week announcing that SMPC complies with all authorities regulations at the safety of the environment.

The organisation debts for 97 percent of nearby coal manufacturing, which is used for energy technology and by way of some cement groups.