Globe opens flagship store in Ayala Center

CEBU, Philippines - To give its clients a better experience, Globe Telecoms launched last Wednesday its flagship store located at the Ayala Center Cebu Active Zone.

Touted as the largest flagship store in Cebu City and the 7th in the country, the concept store, showcases the “blueprint for the future.”

“The new look of the Globe Store reflects our desire to provide a full customer experience by offering a full range of products and services, including the hottest gadgets and most affordable plans in town, coupled with great customer service and after-sales support. Our store environment was designed to make it very easy and engaging for customers to choose the communication services they need. Our customers find the products and services they need all within the convenience of a one-stop shop,” said Maridol Ylanan, Globe Head of Stores.

Globe Telecoms President and CEO Ernest Cu said that the store is a big manifestation to show the public that Globe truly wants to fulfill its promise of customer service.

“Globe has a strategy to really transform itself to a very customer-centric company. We look at all aspects of our customer touch points. We felt that it was good to differentiate ourselves from the rest of the pack by how we interact with the customers. People can come to these stores and can actually touch and feel the devices. Every device here works. You can sample Globe’s service, you can test if you like the device or not. We have leading devices here like the Iphone 4, the Samsung Galaxy tablet, we have the Ipad in some stores. People can make an informed choice in what cellphone they are buying,” he said.

Cu said that before the concept stores were launched, they noticed that a lot of the Globe centers were not really selling and were just accepting payments and handling complaints.

“We felt that the experience should be different, should be exciting to the public,” he said.

The first flagship store was opened in Greenbelt 4 and Cu said the store was an instant success. After validating the concept, the systems and the experience, the telco started launching one store a week beginning November, with the Ayala Center store being the 7th. The 8th flagship store is at the SM North Edsa.

The store, created by the award-winning Australian architectural firm Public Design Group, features a seamless, semi-circular, two-section layout which allows the customers to easily browse around the product display or request for after sales support. Aside from the latest mobile phone models, the shopo also has laptops with Wi-Fi and broadband connections so clients can try the internet services of Globe. There is also a Service Zone that houses a Self Help, Express Service and Customer Service area.

Cu added that the Cebu flagship store also has a training center for staff from Visayas and Mindanao. He said that staff from the Visayas and Mindanao used to go to Manila to train for six to eight weeks. But with the training center at the flagship store, training can now be done here in Cebu. “This is not just a redecoration. This is, end to end, a different customer experience, end to end, different operations. It requires a reshaping of the way people engage the customer,” he said.