Have you ever inherited a team facing an uphill battle? Imagine joining a department known for its customer service struggles. That’s exactly what Aboitiz Land’s Customer Service Senior Manager Dennis Bacea, encountered just two months into his new role.
But Dennis didn’t back down. Instead, he spearheaded a remarkable turnaround, transforming a team in need of improvement into a key driver of customer satisfaction in just a year. This isn’t just his story – it’s the journey of unwavering teamwork and commitment that fueled a complete 180-degree shift, reminding us that even the toughest challenges can be overcome.
Let’s dive into Dennis’ insights and discover how we can all unlock similar transformations within our own teams.
I’m Dennis Bacea, and I am here not to tell you about MY story, but the story of my TEAM – the Customer Service Team of Aboitiz Land.
Let me start by sharing what happened to me in April 2022. I was new in Aboitiz Land, just barely two months into my role, when I had my first face-to-face conversation with our CEO, Mr. David Rafael. I can still vividly recall what he told me about my team – “we have the worst customer service in the industry.” Let’s just say, I questioned my life choices at that moment!
However, fast forward to mid 2023. Our ECSS survey result for the first half of the year came out and revealed a complete 180 – Good customer service was cited as among the main drivers of customer satisfaction in Aboitiz Land!
This transformation did not happen by chance. Our turnaround story was driven by three things:
- Openness to change and having the willingness to invest and take risks in the name of transformation.
- Being Agile in terms of navigating the stages of transformation, learning from mistakes and continuously improving
- Teamwork – making sure that each team member reaps the benefits of the transformation.
Our first major step was to build our digital ecosystem. This meant breaking down legacy processes and fast tracking digitization and adopting tools and systems that unified the experience for our customers across all of our channels.
We expanded the ways our Vecinos could reach us and no matter where the Vecinos are or how they chose to do so.
We set up standardized metrics that tracked how fast we are responding and resolving customer concerns, how fast and how well we are delivering the experience of turning over homes to our customers, and how satisfied they are with our service. In short, we measured our work through metrics that mattered the most to our Vecinos. The digital systems we adopted made it easy for us to track our performance, with real time data available at any given moment.
This digitalization was also a key for empowerment – we freed up our team members from tedious and trivial tasks so they could focus more on what truly matters in delivering an exceptional customer experience.
The backbone of our transformation is bringing together and taking the best of PEOPLE, PROCESS, and TECHNOLOGY – with none of these pillars left behind.
While we’ve come a long way, our journey is far from over. We have recently adopted AI and are in the process of integrating this technology into our day-to-day activities. We are fully digitizing our acceptance and turnover processes before the end of the year. Needless to say, our transformation still continues.
If there is one thing that I would like to impart with you today, it is that a great transformation can be possible. We are experiencing it, and maybe you are too. Maybe you are also in your own transformation journey, just starting or well underway.
