PLDT, Smart boost support to customers

MANILA, Philippines — Telco giant PLDT Inc. and its wireless subsidiary Smart Communications Inc. are beefing up their customer support services in response to the increased demand for internet connectivity.

PLDT said the group has made adjustments in its work processes and gradually scaled up its ability to build and repair despite being affected by the restrictions due to the pandemic.

“Now on general community quarantine, we have been able to slowly reinstate the manpower needed to operate our frontline teams. Most of our stores have re-opened. Our network field teams are tirelessly working to fulfill installation and repair requests. Our call center is now back to serving customers 24 hours a day for repair-related concerns,” PLDT-Smart first vice president and commercial operations head Marco Borlongan said.

The new work-and-study-from-home arrangements have resulted in an increase in the volume of calls that PLDT and Smart receive daily.

PLDT said these range from plan upgrades to repairs and billing concerns.

“Our goal is to keep on challenging how we work so we continue to improve in finding ways to make things easier and more simple for our customers. Our direction is to go digital – thus the drive to enable our customers to do more online: get their bills, pay their bills, get help. This is also a needed shift given the global situation today where customers must stay safe in their homes,” Borlongan said.

PLDT-Smart vice president for consumer care Chiqui Abad said resolution of customer issues depends on the concern.

Abad said product or billing-related queries are generally resolved at point of interaction, while some repair-related concerns may need a technician to be dispatched to resolve the issue and thus may take longer.

“We acknowledge that it has been difficult because of the waiting times in our 171 hotline. PLDT and Smart are reinforcing our resources for customer support to be able to answer all of our customers’ calls,” she said.

PLDT said its network service teams have been able to steadily ramp up the company’s installation capacity to meet the continuously growing demands.

It said customer support services are also now operational, including its call center, the PLDT Smart app which customers may download and use and a self-service portal called myHome.

“We are working on adding new channels, like an SMS channel, and strengthening our digital channels, so customers can have other ways of reaching us aside from 171,” Abad said.

“As an integrated telco, we work hard to remain customer-focused across our various business segments – from mobile to fixed to enterprise. We proliferate not just our last mile capabilities, but also our backhaul network to ensure the best customer experience,” PLDT chief revenue officer and Smart president and CEO Alfredo Panlilio said.