1GLOBAL & The World’s Best Service Team

In February 2021, 1GLOBAL was awarded the World’s Best Customer Service Team by Contact Centre World - for the second time! We interviewed Head of Service Experience Maria Perez to discover the strategy behind the achievement. 

The story begins

Oliver: Hi Maria. Tell us where the story first began. 

Maria: Our journey began back in 2012, when we were creating a wholesale cultural change in customer service, starting off with a program called INSPIRE. The executive team set us a huge goal to actually become the world's best service team. Not just the winner of the award, but a fact that we believed and our customers believed too. 

At that time, I was thinking, “This guy is a loony, how would we do that?” Because we were such a small team. But we transformed bit by bit. We changed how we engaged our people. We changed how we really bring to life the customer stories, and really made sure that we kept in touch with what the customer was feeling and what they wanted. 

We had managed to shift the entire spirit of the team in an organic but a very real way. I would see team members who would stay at work long after their shift because they promised something to the customer. We’d created a culture of real responsibility. 

Going to regionals

How did that translate to the award? 

By the end of 2013, my director said to me "Okay Maria, over Christmas please enter us for the Contact Centre World competition.” The next year, the news arrived that we’d reached the regional finales for both APAC being held in Singapore, and EMEA being held in Portugal. I was invited to present. 

Our team was sat among huge brands like DHL and ANZ with their vast ecosystems, deep pockets and busy contact centers. I was concerned 1GLOBAL, with its 40-strong customer service team split across two offices and two hemispheres  would get lost in the noise. Established brands can buy favor with refunds and goodwill gestures, but we were a startup who couldn’t afford for things to go wrong for our customers. 

1GLOBAL won both awards and we were put forward for the World Championship in Las Vegas in November. I will never forget it because it was my birthday and I was away from my family for the first time. I was homesick but I'm not going to deny it was a lot of fun celebrating in Las Vegas! 

The next night, we were awarded the World's Best Customer Service Team. 

The excitement builds

That’s so exciting, how did you react at the time? 

I remember thinking about a wall in the Manila office onto which we had plastered the words ‘We are the World's Best Service Team’ before we actually even entered for the award. It was physically huge, and there was no way to tear it down, so I was just so grateful that we won. 

Back then I used to look up at it thinking "How do we ever achieve that?" But then, step by step, my director showed us that it’s in little things that we change, in the pursuit of that single ideal that really focus the mind and help us get there. 

Judgement

Why do you think we stood out to the judges? 

The INSPIRE program focuses on celebrating the small wins, asking the customer for feedback and engaging the employees to make the little changes that matter. 

When we hire, we try to hire based on characters, not only CVs, so it created a life of its own. I have a very small team of very committed people. That's why, even as the business has expanded with new types of products and new types of customers including consumers, IoT, finance, and mobile operators, we’ve been able to maintain the level of service professionalism across the board. 

In other contact centers, you would have a team for inbound calls, outbound calls, emails, chat support—all very disparate. At 1GLOBAL we have a small group of service delivery managers who, because they get to interact with the same people all the time, they know the pain points of these people, they understand the demands, are able to build rapport and care for these customers. It means we're able to keep our operations lean while supporting a massive user-base with different needs. 

Returning champions

And when did you feel we were in a good place to re-enter the race for World’s Best Service Team? 

In late 2019 I talked to Harry Odenhoven, our Global COO, and told him that I want to win the award again. The Contact Centre World award is very competitive, and you get to see and hear the best practices of all sorts of service industries in the world, meaning it’s a really useful exercise, even without winning. 

All entries are anonymous so it’s just the submissions and facts that are judged. We first got through to the EMEA regional finals in February 2020. Of course, only a few weeks later the world locked down due to the pandemic and the format changed. No longer would we be able to present in person: everything was via video submission. I worked closely with the Communications team to create a presentation from home that was slick, professional and had the same impact as if we were there in person. I drafted in my photographer sister to help with the backdrop and lighting. 

Growing through change

What themes did you decide to bring out in the submission? 

We were clear from the start that instead of avoiding the pressures of the pandemic, we should confront them. This was a year like no other and, for better or worse, we were a different team as a result. It would have been disingenuous to pretend otherwise. 

We had such amazing support during this scary time, and the service we continued to pass onto customers reflected that. Our NPS actually grew to 57 in the six months since March. What’s more, our new virtual environment meant we had pretty amazing evidence of this support, all the great team building events now taking place over Teams and Zoom and were recorded. 

We won the regional championships in October and once again went through to the world final. And then we got judged in February and named the World's Best Service Team yet again. 

More than a trophy  

What does the second award mean for you? 

I am so very happy that I could just give it back to the team, that they know exactly how well they're doing in the industry and what kind of service they are giving. A lot of support centers, even in-house, are people are just waiting for the next pay-check, not caring much for the job. 

To be able to proudly show how our operations shine under pressure felt incredibly important. It was likely because a calm response to strange situations is something that comes naturally to a team with such a customer-centric focus. It was also not our first time dealing with something similar: not long before the pandemic struck, we also had a big volcanic eruption near Manila and had to send everyone home in the middle of the night. 

What’s remarkable is that the customers didn't feel it at all because the people who were already at home were volunteering to log in and take the calls, and the team in Lisbon took on extra cases to help customers. It created a spiral of good emotions within the team, the idea that people know they were able to help their teammates, to go above and beyond to support customers makes them feel good—and therefore the customers feel it too. 

This is what makes it more than just a title. We haven’t just won the World’s Best Service Team; we know we're the World's Best Service Team and that’s incredibly powerful.