What the Globe Life means to the regular consumers?

During the Press Launch of the consolidated brand Globe Life this afternoon at the Oriental Mandarin Hotel, I asked CEO Gerry Ablaza Jr. what this change would mean to the regular consumer aside from having Globe Telecoms, Innove Communications and G-Xchange run under one umbrella brand.

And his answer?

The Globe Life is a commitment to customer ease and relevance. I was hoping for more concrete answers like — reduced broadband pricing (which they’re actually doing — 3Mbps for Php1,995USD 34INR 2,882EUR 32CNY 248 and 1.5Mbps for Php995USD 17INR 1,437EUR 16CNY 123), more competitive GPRS/3G rates, more proactive customer support or faster resolution time, and maybe a little more transparent customer feedback mechanism. Mr. Ablaza added that they will work harder to meet most of these expectations and not leave this transformation as a mere organizational restructuring but a more customer-centric approach to doing business. At the end of the day, whatever changes or improvements they’ll implement, only the customers can say if they’re really doing a good job.

I asked those same questions to several of the group heads I met during lunch and some of them are candid enough to admit that part of their daily customer feedback routine is tracking blogs and verifying complaints of commenters on those blogs. So, if you’ve been getting a surprised visit from Globe technicians in your area, more or less they picked up the issue thru your blog.

On a related note, Mr. Macalua and I will be doing a blogging seminar to Globe employees next week as requested by their corporate HR. This is in line with the re-launch of their intranet site which will now host blogs of employees interested to go into blogging. I’ve also suggested that they start with a Corporate Blogging Policy. Whether they can convince the execs or the CEO to blog remains to be seen.

P.S.
Attendees were asked to try out Globe GCash and those interested were given SIM cards plus Php1,000USD 17INR 1,445EUR 16CNY 124 worth of GCash. I’m giving away that GCash in the form of a Globe AutoLoad. Check out the simple mechanics in the forums. I also wanted to give away the schwags but I’m not sure if anyone will be interested in them.