Re-inventing PLDT

PLDT Chairman and CEO Manny Pangilinan announced last Monday management changes in key positions designed “to re-invent” PLDT, the nation’s biggest company in terms of market value. Pangilinan said “the re-invention of the PLDT group — and that of the fixed-line business in particular — is fundamental to our overall effort to attain a higher level of convergence and integration within the group.”

I, for one, totally agree with MVP on the need to re-invent PLDT specially its fixed-line business. In fairness to MVP, he has already drastically transformed PLDT from the monopoly that couldn’t care less about service, to one that is more competitive in today’s service oriented environment. However, it does seem that PLDT needs a little shaking up again and MVP saw that too.

To begin with, MVP’s secret of success in transforming the Cojuangco era PLDT to today’s PLDT is vastly improved customer focus. I know. Every time readers of my column complain about some aspect of its service, I forward the e-mail to MVP. And MVP responds quickly wherever he might be in the globe. Every time, the complaining reader e-mails back that his concern was quickly and properly addressed.

But even with MVP constantly harping on the importance of good customer service, old habits die hard… specially in the fixed line business. Less than stellar service there doesn’t hurt PLDT that much because PLDT now is more of a holding company whose principal asset is Smart. Those who buy PLDT stocks today are really investing in Smart, the cellular business.

The fixed line business for the phone companies today is actually the smaller and problematic part of the business. The fact is, plain old telephone service or POTS is no longer the business it once was. The cellular phone business has all but killed POTS. Growth in the fixed line business today is more about broadband… DSL service.

Like the cell phone business, the DSL business is highly competitive. This is why if you will notice PLDT’s advertisements, they are offering DSL for just P900 or so with free telephone service. They don’t have a choice. Aside from PLDT, Globe, BayanTel and Digitel, cable companies like SkyCable are also competing with them in the broadband business.

As in the cell phone business, tough competition requires excellent customer service. Unfortunately, based on my experience, the people in the fixed line business of PLDT are unable to provide that. Must be a carryover of the bad old days when fixed line folks were kings. MVP must have noticed it too, hence the management revamp “to re-invent PLDT… specially in the fixed line business.”

The mistake, as I see it, is in the way PLDT went all out to sell its DSL service without first fixing the customer support side of the business and retraining staff. Worse, the feverish marketing was not complemented by substantial investment in DSL hardware, a much bigger pipe, so as to deliver world class quality service expected these days.

Aside from very low subscriber rates that gave away the regular phone service for free, PLDT has also helped small entrepreneurs put up Internet cafes. That’s great marketing, even excellent CSR for providing livelihood opportunities. It is no wonder that DSL uptake has increased tremendously. Anyone who has a DSL connection can verify this fact from the serious traffic jam they experience in our cyberspace.

I have no doubt their marketing effort had been pretty successful. That’s great, except that I remember the old adage I learned during my advertising days — nothing kills a bad product faster than good and effective marketing. I surmise MVP saw this danger and has acted decisively.

I was one of those early adapters who signed up for PLDT’s DSL service when they launched it. I suffered the kind of service expected as the phone company went through its learning curve. I suffered through the shift in PLDT’s hardware from Nokia to Alcatel… all the while paying an atrocious rate. Then the service became surprisingly good and reliable until they started having more subscribers than their facilities could really handle. Today, I could hardly use the service at night. It seems the whole of Metro Manila are surfing the Internet or downloading mega files before bedtime.

The service between 9 p.m. to past midnight is an unbearable crawl. I have taken to reading the day’s newspapers or even a book while waiting for Internet pages to show up in my computer screen. I don’t even attempt to click on any video reports on the news websites because the result is a stop and go thing that would just drive me nuts.

And when my kids call from abroad on my VOIP connection attached to the PLDT DSL service, their voices often sound like they are coming from another dimension. Strangely enough, they could hear and understand me perfectly. The techies I talked to explain that the leg going out of the country is relatively open but the leg coming to the country is congested, which explains why my surfing is slow and the voices of my kids sound muffled.

Of course, when my kids last visited Manila, they mocked my PLDT DSL connection as “DSL kuno”. The irony of it is, they are paying less for their DSL connections in California than I am here, strong peso not withstanding. Needless to say, they found their broadband experience here frustrating.

I am paying over P2,000 for my DSL and regular phone service. The irony is, the new DSL subscribers who are paying half of that and also getting free regular phone service are the ones clogging the DSL pipeline to my disadvantage. The least PLDT could have done is to make my plan similar to the new offers they are advertising… a little consideration for loyalty.

Otherwise, NTC should probably look into this and come up with a rule like the “tender offer” in corporate takeovers to benefit those who have been there all along. If the service was good, I wouldn’t even complain about the unfairness.

I am tempted to shift service providers but if the blogs are any indication, it seems the others are just as bad as PLDT or only marginally better. How can this happen in call center country? If my kids rib me about my Third World DSL service when they come home this Christmas, I may have to do something to show them that we old folks in the old country will not be taken for granted by poor service providers.

I don’t think it will come to that. There’s hope because MVP noticed the need to re-invent PLDT, which really is, fixing its fixed line business. And not a moment too soon, I might add… if Polly Nazareno can hack it, now that Doy Vea has taken the cellular business load from him.

Thriller with Trillanes

Reader Robin Tong sent me this one.

Top Ten Reasons Why They Should Have Gone To Victoria Court Instead Of The Pen

1) They were only gonna stay for a ‘short time’ anyway

2) Bishop Labayen & Fr. Robert Reyes could have heard confessions… lots of sinners there!

3) They could have wet the towels in the jacuzzi to combat tear gas… while wrapped in towels.

4) There are no wedding receptions in Victoria Court… only honeymoons.

5) The police will think twice before lobbing tear gas coz their officers may be there.

6) The APC won’t know which garage to park in.

7) The ceiling mirrors would have thrown off the raiding party.

8) ABS-CBN could have done an episode of XXX and The Buzz while covering the coup

9) “What happens in Victoria Court stays in Victoria court”

10) It’s a better place to get screwed.

Mga bwiset!!

Boo Chanco’s e-mail address is [email protected]