Introduction to Customer Engagement Strategy
The following is an excerpt from The Evangelists: Insights from Leaders of the Nation’s Most Beloved Brands. Written by Pancho Dizon, this chapter is titled “Doing More than Just Connecting.” In it, Marilyn Romero-Ventenilla, the Senior Director for Communications and Marketing of Teleperformance PH, is interviewed about how the organization executes its strategy in having true connections with your consumers.Customers should relate to you
As a global leader in customer experience management, Teleperformance aims to effectively bridge their business partners to their customers, creating amazing customer experiences while supporting the growth of their partners. Present in 80 countries worldwide with over 300,000 employees in total, it’s not a stretch to say that Teleperformance is one of the leaders in the Information Technology-Business Process Management (IT-BPM) industry today.
The company has locations across the Philippines―15 in Metro Manila and seven in the provinces. Considering their extensive reach and with over 24 years of continued business growth, it’s no surprise that Teleperformance stands as one of the leading IT-BPM companies in the country.
However, more than being a leader in the IT-BPM space, Teleperformance also aims to be recognized as a leader in digital integrated business services, which encompass solutions for customer engagement, customer acquisition, data analytics, technical support, shared services, information technology and infrastructure management and back-office services.
“With the shifts in the way organizations do business in this remarkable period, most processes are being primed for digital transformation,” shared Marilyn Romero-Ventenilla, Senior Director for Communications and Marketing for Teleperformance Philippines. “So now, we are trying to align our systems to this transformation ecosystem in the business.”
As a leading IT-BPM company, Ventenilla shares that Teleperformance must also be at the forefront of change in their industry. And one way the company aims to achieve this is through continuous learning and development support for their people.
More than serving as the connecting channel for businesses, Teleperformance creates meaningful interactions at every possible opportunity to closely engage with clients and their customers. Ventenilla stressed that communication is primarily a two-way street. She and her team consider their marketing endeavors successful if their brand message is able to connect with their audience and sustain engagement through different marketing moments.
“We aim to be constantly interacting, always aiming for strong and sound engagement with the market,” she said. “And I think in terms of engagement, Teleperformance has that opportunity to connect to a really broad audience.”
Through the years, Ventenilla and her team have shifted most of their marketing campaigns from traditional tri-media (television, radio, and print), turning instead to work with digital media. Filipinos also gained attention as being one of the most social media savvy people in the world, giving Ventenilla and her team more reasons to craft messages and marketing experiences around this phenomenon.
Currently, Teleperformance is very active on Facebook as their main social media platform. As people began to grow very interested in video content, Ventenilla and her team adjusted accordingly. The amount of video content on Teleperformance’s social pages have been increasing, and now more stories are making their way through new channels, such as TikTok.
Having these options available to them excites Ventenilla, she admitted. “It’s a very exciting time for us because we now have more opportunities to get even more creative with our campaigns,” she said. “There’s this huge space for us where we can anchor our brand on and leverage our value proposition, especially because we have an established market here―the socially connected Filipinos.”
While their methods of communicating and marketing may have changed, Ventenilla shares that she and her team still keep the same values when creating campaigns. In her department, their priority is to establish trust with their customers. “If consumers trust you, if the customers trust your brand, then that will pave the way for a possibly healthy relationship between them and your brand.”
The foundation of trust within the company, Ventenilla believes, is servant leadership anchored on empathy. Her role puts her in a place where she must lead by example, but also work closely with her team. This is important so she can understand how to bring out the best in the team’s capabilities, and at the same time share with her team her learning experiences in the project execution. She has to relate with them first before she gains their trust, and once she has that, the team members can empower one another.
Empathy is also essential in their marketing campaigns; as Ventenilla empathizes with her team, they too must empathize with their target audiences. “No matter how colorful or how glossy your campaigns are, if they do not relate to the needs of your market, then everything you planned for will just go down the drain.”
Showing empathy in their strategies, especially during the pandemic, has become more important than ever. “Empathy allows us to understand not just our target market, but the bigger environment,” she said. Having empathy also helps Ventenilla refine their messaging tactics as seeing through their target audience’s eyes gives them an idea of what they can expect next. “If we can manifest empathy, then our market will consider us, will look to us, hopefully, as a brand leader with a mindset of service for the community.”
To get more insights from other marketing leaders like Marilyn Venetenilla, please check out the full book, available for purchase here.
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