It has been said that 32% of executives say that retaining existing customers is in top of their agenda, and 65% of a company's business thrives from its existing customer base. Therefore, we should consider our current customers as the ones who will advocate for your business.

Most of the time, Marketing Managers invest in inviting more customers than tending to the present customer base they have; but some are getting wiser and wiser that they also balance both markets. This is good. Here's why:

• A good combination of in-house promotions and word-of-mouth marketing means that as your marketing strikes out your target markets, word-of-mouth will convince them further.
• If you have a Loyalty Program, you can integrate it - for example, if your friend shows up their loyalty card at your store, he/she gets an extra drink that they can share to you. If you liked it, you are sure to crave for it, turning you from a customer to a fan.

Hyundai (n). A manufacturer of cars.
Abenson (n). An appliance distributor.
Unilab (n). Among the leading medicine producers in the country.

All of these three have one thing in common: They are not only looking to themselves to improve, they know better - they want to learn from other leaders at the Customer Love Fest.

This year's Customer Experience Conference is sure to be an interesting one as we have the leaders from various companies talking on stage about the latest technologies, tips, and insights on today's Customer Experience industry.


Meet distinguished speakers and learn more on Customer Experience, Customer Loyalty and Customer Relationship - join the Customer Lovefest 2017 this October 19-20, 2017 at the Tower Club Makati. 

The 6th Customer Lovefest conference on Customer Loyalty and Customer Experience welcomes Fountain Head Technologies' Managing Director James Cruz!

James Cruz has 18 years of learning and global IT management experience working for Fortune 100 companies, developing and executing strategies into operational deliverables across the areas of IT Governance, Application Delivery, Information Security, IT Outsourcing, Infrastructure management, and Next-Gen Cloud Architecture. He has considerable experience with Cloud architecture and shared services strategies while working in Microsoft, Hewlett-Packard, and Procter&Gamble.

He is a project management practitioner with lead experience on international technology projects up to US$50 million spanning the U.S., E.M.E.A., and Asia. He was Treasurer and Board Director for ISACA Singapore Chapter for 5 years. As a technical manager in Microsoft, James helped build the shared services team, processes, and infrastructure for Microsoft’s global online services and Cloud computing platforms. James has broad experience working in the U.S., Western Europe, and most of Asia.

See James Cruz at the Customer Loyalty track of the conference on Day 1 (Thursday, October 19).


Meet distinguished speakers and learn more on Customer Experience, Customer Loyalty and Customer Relationship - join the Customer Lovefest 2017 this October 19-20, 2017 at the New World Makati Hotel. 

The 6th Customer Lovefest conference on Customer Loyalty and Customer Experience welcomes Loyalty Program Consultant Joey P. Reyes! Joey P. Reyes is a Loyalty Program Consultant with almost a decade of work experience in Sales and Consultancy.

See Joey at the Customer Loyalty track of the conference on Day 1 (Thursday, October 19).


Meet distinguished speakers and learn more on Customer Experience, Customer Loyalty and Customer Relationship - join the Customer Lovefest 2017 this October 19-20, 2017 at the New World Makati Hotel. 

The 6th Customer Lovefest conference on Customer Loyalty and Customer Experience welcomes Avail.at Business Head Bea Hernandez!

Bea Hernandez is the Business Head of Avail.at, which specializes in converting traditional performance based rewards programs, into one that is online, always-on, curated and efficient. Among Avail.at’s clients include, Ayala Land Premier, Security Bank, UCPB Rewards, Nissan, Country Bankers Insurance Corporation, iRegalo, Insightspedia and Rappler. Prior to Avail.at, she was the Marketing Manager for Ensogo, Corporate Communications Manager for GE Money Bank Philippines and a Customer Service Officer for myAyala.com.

See Bea at the Customer Loyalty track of the conference on Day 1 (Thursday, October 19).


Meet distinguished speakers and learn more on Customer Experience, Customer Loyalty and Customer Relationship - join the Customer Lovefest 2017 this October 19-20, 2017 at the New World Makati Hotel. 

The 6th Customer Lovefest conference on Customer Loyalty and Customer Experience welcomes Professional Trainer and Chief Executive Igniter of People Ignite, Inc., Ms. JV Wong!

JV Wong is the Chief Executive Igniter and Think On Your Feet® Master Trainer of People Impact, a professional training company which has served clients in the Media, Telecommunications, Financial and Pharmaceutical Industries and is partnered with the Philippine Retailers Association, Philippine Society for Training and Development Foundation, and the People Management Association of the Philippines.

See JV at the Customer Experience track of the conference on Day 2 (Friday, October 20).


Meet distinguished speakers and learn more on Customer Experience, Customer Loyalty and Customer Relationship - join the Customer Lovefest 2017 this October 19-20, 2017 at the New World Makati Hotel. 

Visit customerlovefest.com for more info or get in touch with Ex-Link at (02) 633-0153, 643-3887, 0920-981-4376, 0920-924-2532, info@exlinkevents.com or at @CustomerLovefest on Facebook Messenger.

The 6th Customer Lovefest conference on Customer Loyalty and Customer Experience welcomes Air21 President Reuben S.J. Pangan!

Prior to becoming the President of Airfreight 2100 (Air21), Mr. Reuben S. J. Pangan already has a career in customer service that spans two decades – from being a Front Desk Officer at the Manila Hotel just after he graduated, he became the Head of Sales and Customer Service and Assistant to the President of Air21 (1990-1995), VP for Customer Service of Globe Telecom (2001-2002), Business Unit head and CEO for Dynamic Outsource Solutions Inc. (DOS-I) (2003-2005), VP for Customer Service of Air21 (2002-2005), Vice President for Customer Relationship Management for Sun Cellular (2006-2013) and Head of Customer Care for both Sun Cellular and Smart Communications (2013-2015).

See Reuben S.J. Pangan at the Customer Experience track of the conference on Day 2 (Friday, October 20).


Meet distinguished speakers and learn more on Customer Experience, Customer Loyalty and Customer Relationship - join the Customer Lovefest 2017 this October 19-20, 2017 at the New World Makati Hotel. 

Visit customerlovefest.com for more info or get in touch with Ex-Link at (02) 633-0153, 643-3887, 0920-981-4376, 0920-924-2532, info@exlinkevents.com or at @CustomerLovefest on Facebook Messenger.

The 6th Customer Lovefest conference on Customer Loyalty and Customer Experience welcomes XIRUS Technologies' Edward Ng straight from Singapore!

Edward Ng is an engineering graduate, Network Specialist and Entrepreneur from Hong Kong. He is the Founder of XIRUS Technologies, a company that researches, develops and deploys proprietary applications with WiFi. Before founding XIRUS, Edward has over 20 years of experience in blue chip US Tech firms.

See Edward at the Customer Loyalty track of the conference on Day 1 (Thursday, October 19).


See Steven and other distinguished speakers, and learn more on Customer Experience, Customer Loyalty and Customer Relationship - join the Customer Lovefest 2017 this October 19-20, 2017 at the New World Makati Hotel. 

Visit customerlovefest.com for more info or get in touch with Ex-Link at (02) 633-0153, 643-3887, 0920-981-4376, 0920-924-2532, info@exlinkevents.com or at @CustomerLovefest on Facebook Messenger.

The 6th Customer Lovefest Conference - the pioneer conference on Customer Loyalty and Customer Experience welcomes internet rockstar Carlo Ople!

Carlo currently serves as Vice-President for Digital Marketing Strategy of the leading telco in the Philippines, PLDT.

He started his career at LEVEL UP! as Community Manager and left the company as Marketing Head for the Casual Games Division after 5 years. His journey in digital marketing went deeper as the pioneer social networking site Friendster hired him as Digital Marketing Manager in 2009.

He went on to join TV5 to put up their digital division as he assumed the role of the company’s first New Media Head. He left TV5 to be a partner and Managing Director for the newly created digital agency of the most awarded agency in the Philippines, DM9 JaymeSyfu. After 4 years he sold his shares and exited after it was bought by the largest single branded agency in the world, Dentsu.

As a digital entrepreneur, he founded several web properties with the latest one being recognized as one of the top tech and gadget sites in the country, Unbox.ph. He is also very active in the local digital industry.

It is his 3rd year as a Director for the Internet and Mobile Marketing Association of the Philippines (IMMAP) where he currently serves as Vice-President for External affairs. He is also currently the Treasurer for the Ad Standards Council (ASC) of the Philippines.



See Carlo and other distinguished speakers from various industries; and know more about Customer Experience, Customer Loyalty and Customer Relationship at the Customer Love Fest 2017 this October 19-20, 2017 at the New World Makati Hotel. 


Visit customerlovefest.com for more info or get in touch with Ex-Link at (02) 633-0153, 643-3887, 0920-981-4376, 0920-924-2532, info@exlinkevents.com or at @CustomerLoveFest on Facebook Messenger.

We're now in the connected age - and most Loyalty Programs are also connected online. If your program is the one that should be always online, and there's no way to record the data offline for uploading as soon as the internet's on, then we have a problem.

There are times that a customer shows up his/her loyalty card to the counter, everything looks good and fine until the internet connection broke. This is a headache for you and the customer-loyalist.
It's already one thing if the customer wants to see his/her data updated instantaneously, but this one is worse. Consider asking your provider to add an option to save the record offline. In short, the data needs a backup in the store first, and this is already a standard among providers.

Let's pay attention to the effort of the loyal customers who drop by your store, trying to earn points so they can get the gift or discount they want. In that way, they will know you care for them as much as they care for you.


Continue your education on Customer Experience, Customer Loyalty and Customer Relationship, join the Customer Love Fest 2017 this October 19-20, 2017 at Tower Club Makati. 


Visit customerlovefest.com for more info or get in touch with Ex-Link at (02) 633-0153, 643-3887, 0920-981-4376, 0920-924-2532, info@exlinkevents.com or at @CustomerLoveFest on Facebook Messenger.

There was a time where managing customers' relationship with the brand or business is referred to as "Customer Relationship Management," but a new term rose above: "Customer Experience." The latter sounds better, simpler and broader; while the former gives a rather technical feel.

The question is this: Which term is much preferred online?

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Comparing the results from Google Trends, "Customer Experience" is the commonly-used term worldwide, but in the Philippines, the case is different: "Customer Relationship" is still common.

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On a global scale, most of the world prefer to use "Customer Experience" whereas some countries in the Southeast Asian region, India and Africa still prefer "Customer Relationship."

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With all these said and done, should we follow the rest of the world in using "Customer Experience" instead of "Customer Relationship?" Share your thoughts in the comments below.


If you are looking to continue your education on Customer Experience, Customer Loyalty and Customer Relationship, join the Customer Love Fest 2017 this October 19-20, 2017 at Tower Club Makati. 

Visit customerlovefest.com for more info or get in touch with Ex-Link at (02) 633-0153, 643-3887, 0920-981-4376, 0920-924-2532, info@exlinkevents.com or at @CustomerLoveFest on Facebook Messenger.

The two-day 2016 Customer Lovefest held at the New World Makati Hotel held last October 20-21, 2016 is attended by around 100 participants who want to learn from key resource speakers and interact with fellow professionals on how everyone can improve their relationships and experiences with their customers in the fields of Customer Loyalty & Rewards, Customer Relationship Management and Customer Experience.

Among the highlights of the event are the Brain Date, where they exchanged ideas on customer experience improvement with a select "date"; Quicknet, where delegates exchanged contacts with one another; and the Workshops, in which everyone shared their challenges and solutions in their respective fields.

These are aside from the valuable insights and outlooks from speakers Mr. Alex Araneta (Catalyst360 Training and Consultancy), Ms. Yayu Javier (AVANZA), Ms. Brie Caces (SM Hotels and Conventions), Mr. Paul Malcolm (Vivid Engagement), Ms. Pauline Pangan (AllFamous Digital), Mr. Darrel Wisbey, Ms. Cynthia Mamon (Enchanted Kingdom), Mr. Philipp Kristian Diekhöner (Die Denkfabrik), Mr. JJ Sison (AudioWAV Media), Dr. Nick Fontanilla (I-Metrics Asia Pacific), Mr. Bobby Horrigan (Enderun Management Consultancy) and Ms. Matec Villanueva (formerly of Publicis Manila) who shared their time with the delegates.

Th event capped off with a quick raffle to thank the delegates for their time well-spent. Overall, the 2016 Customer Lovefest is a resounding success despite bad weather conditions.

Ex-Link Events is certainly looking forward to next year's Customer Lovefest with a planned new look and set of speakers that will delight customer professionals.


The Customer Lovefest would like to thank New World Makati Hotel as its venue; the Bank Marketing Association of the Philippines (BMAP), Avolution, Grab for Work, Pag-IBIG Fund, Brother Philippines, Citibank and Avail.at as its major sponsors; Jade Pacific Residences, Nestea, Faber-Castell, Dinsmor Promo, Azumi Boutique Hotel, Organique Acai, MobileMINDS, Inc., Krispy Kreme Doughnuts, Dee's Gourmet Popcorn, TagCash, Avanza, Catalyst 360 Training and Consultancy, Enchanted Kingdom, Primo Loyalty and Rewards, AllFamous Digital, Vivid Engagement, Enderun Management Consultancy, AudioWAV Media, Inc., and I-Metrics Asia Pacific Corporation as its event partners; and media partners Malaya Business Insight, BusinessWorld, BusinessMirror, Manila Bulletin, Inquirer.net, Azrael's Merryland and Wish 107.5.

The Customer Lovefest is organized by Ex-Link Management and Marketing Services Corporation. For inquiries and partnerships, contact (02) 633-01-53, 643-38-87, SMS 0920-981-4376, 0920-924-2532 or email info@exlinkevents.com.

• Sustainability. How will you make your Customer Experience program sustainable?
• Innovation. How will you innovate your Customer Experience processes through new technologies?
• Shopping Analytics. How can shopping analytics improve your customer service?
• New Experiences. Are your customers so satisfied that they're coming back frequently?
• Customer-Centric Trends. Have you heard about the latest trends in Customer Experience?

• Markets. Match your brand to your ever-changing market. If you are targeting the youth, you need to pep up your brand.
• Age. If you are a hundred-year old company, chances are you constantly refresh your logos or branding to fit every generation. If your company has stayed in business for more or less than a decade, you need to see if your brand is appealing enough to  This is a never-ending process as long as your brand 
• Elements. Before every company had a great logo, they had a dozen of rejected logo concepts. Think about the shapes, the color, the typography, and the meaning of each of it.
• Culture. Your company's culture also tells the kind of brand you want to show to your potential clients. If you are a brand that promotes its employees' well-being, you got to learn the work-play-live philosophy that is common in today's millennials. A company's culture is reflected by even just one employee working in your company.

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Join the 2016 Customer Love Fest, which will be held at the New World Makati Hotel this October 20-21, 2016. Reserve your seats by calling 633-0153, 643-3887, 0920-981-4376 or email info@exlinkevents.com.

Business owners, imagine this: You or your employees are using Grab for your work tasks (some of you might even ask them to use it), like going to a specific place for meetings, delivery of goods, so on and so forth. Chances are, your employees are required to submit their proof of their ride to be submitted to your company's HR department.

With this in mind, Grab wanted to remove the hassle of documenting every trip your employees take, and thus they offer their Grab for Work service.

• Save time by reducing paperwork - Grab for Work integrates to your HR so your employees won't think of sending receipts to HR; instead, it will be automatically sent to HR itself. Less hassle, less worries!
• Full flexibility with multiple payment options - Credit cards, debit cards, cash or even through a monthly direct billing plan, Grab for Work works with these payment options.
• Increase savings with affordable rides - Grab's competitive prices with their transparent fixed fare guarantee, will maximize your company's cost savings.
• Stay in control for better cost management - You can set your company's transportation fare limits

Considering these benefits that we mentioned, you know you want to get a grasp of Grab for Work. For more information, go to https://www.grab.com/ph/work/.

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Grab for Work is among the sponsors of the 2016 Customer Love Fest happening at the New World Makati Hotel this October 20-21, Thursday and Friday. Learn from local and international speakers how to step up your loyalty, brand and marketing approaches for the customers of now.

The Customer Love Fest is produced and organized by Ex-Link Events. For more information, call 633-0153 or 633-0088, SMS 0920-981-4376, 0920-924-2532 or email info@exlinkevents.com. 

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In all aspects of life, one must be fulfilled and satisfied, lest he or she will feel miserable. In this post, we will talk about this approach that can also be applied in your personal branding to serve customers more.

Let's take for example booming industries such as call centers, where dozens of customer service professionals are catering to their clients, most working opposite the normal 9-to-5 time. Most often, these professionals experience burnout - after all, they are the bridge between the client companies and their clients.

The companies' Human Resource Departments get this well, and so they formulate proactive work environments that doesn't only mind work, but also includes socializing and outdoor activities. The objective is to make the professional feel fulfilled, which will lead to increased performance.

For a different perspective, let's take a look this time to the typical 9-to-5 worker. Commute times, targets, deadlines, client calls, meetings, so on and so forth stresses him or her, resulting to dullness of the performance and the persons themselves. If you can hear them talk about having a facial or buffing up at the gym or eat at the nearby food park, it's for their personal satisfaction. Taking a break sometimes is helpful.

As a professional, if you can't derive a sense of meaning in your work, you won't be able to stay long. A Deloitte research shows that most people determine a company's success by how its people are satisfied.

If you have hobbies, you can cling in to them to provide you with some stress relief. Also take note as an employee that if you bring your work at home more than often, it might be a sign that your work is hampering your satisfaction. Another tip to check your happiness is to examine how you see your environment - if you think and feel that your environment is crap, it will reflect on you.

Many things do revolve in yourself, and if you don't take care of your happiness and satisfaction, it can be depressing in the end. Don't be a sad bum, be happy and see the good in everything. This will reflect on your personal branding, and thus you can give a better experience to the people you talk to.

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Speaking better experiences, talk to your boss if you can attend the Customer Love Fest this October in Makati, where local and international speakers will talk about Customer Loyalty and Rewards, Customer Relationship Management, and Customer Experience for two days. Many professionals have attested positively to the event, and we look forward to see you there.

The Customer Experience Management Conference is part of the 2016 Customer Love Fest happening at the New World Makati Hotel on October 20 to 21. For reservations and other inquiries, contact 633-0153, SMS 0920 981 4376 or 0920 924 2532, or email info@exlinkevents.com. Our staff are on stand-by to take your reservation, so get in touch now!

Ex-Link Events is on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube.

If you have been glued to the internet during the long weekend, you should relate well to this post: Clips from various series playing to the tune of Gary Valenciano's rendition of Sugarfree's "Wag ka nang Umiyak" have been sprouting online, and the viral meme has left most series unscathed - Spider Man, How I Met Your Mother, so on and so forth. (If you haven't watched these series before, we'll warn you of spoilers right now.)









We laughed (and cried, or rather, cried laughing) at these videos, but what does this "If X is made in the Philippines" are trying to say? We love telenovelas. Which way you want to see it, we love doing our primetime habit. Even if most are disappointed with the state of prime time television (as evidenced by the gaffe between the head writer of a major TV station against those who are claiming that the station's upcoming series resembles an adaptation made overseas, this and that), we cannot deny that this prime time habit has a majority target audience who are OK to see the typical TV tropes over and over again.

Just few years ago, most of our local telenovelas talked about infidelity, and we got tired of it eventually. This year, trend is more into romance and youth. Truly, Filipinos are romantic.

Notice the difference between the series that have been parodied in the videos above - they play the same song in the end, but they have different outcomes. You can say that the memes reflect how monotonous the prime time business in our country is; or how unoriginal we are, but on the other hand, the people who created these videos have their creativity intact, and are just waiting for someone to think of better ideas through these.

Customer Experience is not an "If it ain't broke, don't fix it" thing - experiences wind down eventually, and once the experience winds down to a monotonous level, it's up for the creatives to build another kind of experience. This applies to the entertainment industry as well, though we don't recognize this at face value.

To sum it up, here's the takeaway from this narrative: Most of us love telenovelas, but the concepts can wind down, so it's up to the creative minds to come up with different experiences so as the audience won't get tired and bored watching at night.

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If you are a Customer Experience professional, check out the Customer Experience Management Conference featuring key resource speakers, fellow customer experience professionals, and a great environment to share concepts on Customer Experience.

The Customer Experience Management Conference is part of the Customer Love Fest 2016, happening at the New World Makati Hotel on October 20 to 21. For reservations and other inquiries, contact 633-0153, SMS 0920 981 4376 or 0920 924 2532, or email info@exlinkevents.com. Ex-Link Events is on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube.