Friday, February 15, 2013

Epson Latest Environmental Ideas From Highlighted At Eco-Products 2012




Visitors to Eco-Products 2012, Japan's largest environmental exhibition, had the chance to observe Epson's latest environmental ideas at the company's booth. The exhibition was held at Tokyo Big Sight from December 13 to 15, 2012.


1. Epson booth

Epson's booth was designed around the simple idea of showing how using Epson products can reduce environmental burden and contribute to a sustainable society.

The booth aimed to illustrate the unique nature of Epson's products, and included banners printed using the Epson SurePress label printer and images projected using the latest Epson wall-mounted projectors.






2. Reducing environmental burden using Epson products

Epson's latest products were explained from various environmental points of view including being more compact and lighter, saving energy, having a long lifespan and offering "something new." Each product was explained in terms of its environmental performance, the value it offers to customers and its technological background.

For example, Epson’s Expression series inkjet printers, which are approximately 40% smaller than their predecessor models, were cited as examples of products that were more compact and lighter. In addition to learning how these products reduce the environmental burden in terms of using fewer materials and easier transportation, visitors could see how Epson made its printer components and internal mechanism smaller.

Epson's GPS running monitor, known in Japan as Wristable GPS and containing Epson's original GPS module, was introduced as an example of how the company's products save energy. The product can be used by runners and other athletes for as long as 14 hours on a single charge.

For "something new," booth visitors were given the opportunity to have their pictures taken against an image shown from one of Epson's latest interactive projectors. These photos were then printed out wirelessly from a smartphone to illustrate how easy it was to share pictures regardless of time or location.



3. Contributing to the recycling of resources

In the recycling corner, visitors learned about the ink cartridge recycling process while watching projected images of Epson employees conducting the actual work. Each stage of the process was explained from collection of the cartridges to their rebirth as recycled products. Through this explanation, Epson hoped that visitors would gain a deeper understanding of its efforts to efficiently use the Earth's precious resources.



4. Ink cartridge homecoming project

Away from the main Epson booth, exhibition visitors could also learn about the ink cartridge homecoming project that Epson is conducting in Japan with other printer manufacturers. Visitors were given the opportunity to participate in a workshop that expressed the importance of resources recycling and the ink cartridge collection and recycling process.

As with the previous exhibitions in 2010 and 2011, Epson conducted a survey of booth visitors to understand how they sought to conserve the environment and their expectations for future Epson products. The company plans to carefully analyze the responses and wherever possible use them when it plans future products.

The Next Stage in Printing Evolution: Amazing High Quality Prints With Unbelievably Low Running Cost



With the introduction of the new Epson L-series genuine ink tank system printers, customers can enjoy a huge advantage on low-cost, high quality printing without the unnecessary cost of converting printers into continuous ink supply systems (CISS).


Converting printers may void the manufacturer’s warranty – as in the case with Epson products.  By tampering with the printer mechanism and using third party consumables (inks), consumers end up with inferior quality prints, or worse, malfunctioning printers

The new Epson L-series provides very low printing costs, while ensuring that customers keep the manufacturer’s warranty, and provides high quality prints with its genuine Epson ink. The new Epson L-series, the world’s first and only genuine ink tank system printers, is a result of recognizing the customer’s need to create a new product line that gives customers everything they are looking for in an inkjet printer: fast printing, unbelievably low running cost, ease of use, high quality prints, and peace of mind brought by Epson’s warranty coverage.

“While there may have been a time when there was a clamor to convert printers due to their relative low cost of printing, that time is now past with the entry of Epson’s new L-Series genuine ink tank system printers” said Ed Bonoan, Senior GM for Sales of Epson Philippines.

Epson’s first-in-the-world product has changed the landscape of high-volume printing in the Philippines by ensuring the highest quality prints at the lowest possible running cost to the end-user.  The new L-Series printers offer an incredible value at PhP295 per bottle with a yield of 4,000 pages (black).

Moreover, the L-Series printers use Epson’s proprietary Micro Piezo™ print head technology, ensuring that customers get the best quality prints when they use genuine Epson ink. By using only Epson genuine ink customers are guaranteed to get better, long-lasting results while prolonging their printer’s life. 

“This is, without a doubt, the next stage of evolution in printing technology,” said Bonoan.  “Customers will get what they asked for with Epson’s L-Series – ultra low running cost, high speed, high quality prints, and warranty for their printers.”

Daniel Padilla : The King of Mall Shows

Wazzup Pilipinas!

Who doesn't love Daniel Padilla? I'm sure Valentines Day its the best topic to discuss on a Valentines Day because almost every female teenager out there adores the young lad, and would surely want him to be their Valentines date.

Best love team with Kathryn Bernardo, and the most "kilig" moments with the couple in Philippine history so far...or would many like to contest that statement?

The most notable success of Padilla's showbiz career are the stampeding crowd of people in his mall shows. This earned him the title of the "King of Mall Shows". His fans ranges as young as 4 and as old as 80 years old.

He is usually a trending topic on the social networking site, Twitter. He is also one of the endorsers of BUM (a clothing line in the Philippines), KFC Philippines, Myphone , Whisper and Grips among others. Boy Abunda, a Filipino talk show host and TV personality, has been quoted into saying that "In 5 years, Daniel Padilla is going to be one of the biggest stars of Philippine showbiz".

Padilla has a blockbuster movie in titled Must Be... Love (2013) with Kathryn Bernardo and Liza Soberano.

Time to Love Work Again




Few things in the world are more powerful than a positive push. A smile. A world of optimism and hope. A "you can do it" when things are tough.— Richard M. Devos    

C3 is a Company “Where Love Is In The Workplace”


The holidays got everyone caught up in the hustle and bustle of year-end work, shopping, gift-giving and endless parties. For many, this signalled a winding down of the seasons. For others, it was a time to recollect and think about the year that has just passed and prepare for new beginnings. For those who are looking for a new direction – especially regarding their careers, and are deciding on a different course to take, make that leap; start early, start now. For those who are looking into joining the call center industry, look no further than C3.

            As a contact center in the Philippines, C3 continues to be a breath of fresh air since it was established recently. It passed the 1000 employee mark and now has close to 2,000 employees and five accounts. One cannot deny that its growth is exceptional, but its rise to success is because of the contact center industry experience that its core of leaders brought to C3, along with time-tested methodologies and singular focus on customer solutions.

   More known as C3, but its very essence is found in its full name, C3/CustomerContactChannels. Customer pertains to C3 as a company that serves the customer above all else, with full intent to resolve things quickly, and to do things excellently. Contact means C3 is an expert in contact center management. Channels refers to the way C3 says that for every issue, there is a way, there is an answer.

        

The culture at C3 is anything but ordinary. In fact, a visit to their site at Fort Bonifacio would take you by surprise. All around the halls are posters about Love. Slogans shout out, “Love what you do!”, “Love who you work with!”, “Love learning new things!”, “Time to love coming to work!”
           
The idea about this theme is at the center of C3’s existence. As an offshore Business Process Outsource (BPO) company, C3 Philippines has become a major player in this competitive industry. It fosters an environment where employees take pride and joy in their work.

It is the biggest site of C3 Global. The company founded by David Epstein together with former colleagues at Precision Response Corporation (PRC), is a Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) company that provides customer management solutions worldwide. The company has customer contact centers throughout the Unites States, Asia, China, Europe and Central America and boasts several Fortune 500 companies as its clients. C3 has become a pioneer in handling multichannel customer care and has created a unique, employee-centric culture that is innovative for the contact center industry.  C3 prides itself in having an entrepreneurial spirit that encourages everyone from the top down to suggest new ideas and try new things to make the company better. Its senior leadership is hands-on and personally involved in all corporate accounts.

It is quite fitting that love is in action at C3. Formed by a small group of friends, colleagues in the call center industry for more than 10 years, this Dream Team became the hotbed of ideas for the ideal call center – the one that is housed in state-of-the-art facilities, the one that utilizes the best practices in the industry, the one that can employ the brightest talents.

Andy Sarakinis, the Philippines’ country manager, first called this group together in the middle of 2011. By then, he had been in the Business Process Outsourcing industry for well over a decade.  He and his close friends had been musing for some time, dreaming of a perfect company that they could put all their skills and efforts in. Because of their history, they brought years and years of experience and tenure. They knew what worked and systems were in place that were adapted to the Filipino culture.

C3 is like an extended family. Andy Sarakinis and Kevin Urrutia are like older brothers to everyone there. As a testament to this atmosphere, the employees call Andy and Kevin by their first names, and vice versa. The management team is often seen on the floor, involved in the work of their people and is available to help in any situation.

If that is not a perk in itself, hear this: C3 has one of the better pay scales in the contact center industry and its benefits package is highly competitive. Yet in spite of its success, C3 prides itself in taking care of its employees first and foremost in more tangible ways than one.

C3 takes a unique approach in hiring employees. ”It’s a very effective way to communicate our overall operating practices – the way we like to treat people and the kind of community we’re aiming to build,” says Rick Ferry, COO. “Essentially, we want our staff to enjoy what they do and be proud of it. Your workplace should be a place where you feel at home and feel valued. With that in mind, we have created a place that has been acclaimed one of the finest facilities that people have seen in the Philippines in recent years.”

Come be a part of an exciting adventure at C3. It’s time to love to work again!





Life Lessons at C3

MANILA, Philippines (December 27, 2012) At only 22, Keshia Faculin, a new employee of C3/CustomerContactChannels, a leading provider of Outsourced Customer Management Solutions, can teach us a thing or two about how life could be lived in a dynamic business environment.
A graduate of the Philippine Normal University with a BSE English degree, Faculin had her sights on becoming a teacher.  “I love to teach,” said Faculin, adding that even before she graduated from school, she, like most of her classmates, had already spent time visiting Koreans to teach them the English language. She was so proficient with her tutoring that she was actually offered a job in Korea—an opportunity she let go of to get her teacher’s license instead.
It was at this point that Faculin’s life changed.  Even though she was set on becoming a teacher, Faculin’s professional goals altered when her sister, who was working as an analyst for a Business Process Outsourcing company, encouraged her to try the contact center industry instead. Her sister said that the job could provide her with the opportunity to teach in the future—should she choose to become a trainer. 

After she heard of C3, Faculin asked her friends who were already immersed in the contact center industry for advice and did her own research on the web. Convinced by the company’s record and word-of-mouth reputation, Keshia applied and was immediately put through training at C3.

Trained as a teacher, Keshia expected the process to be somewhat cut and dry. But the experience was exactly the opposite. “There were no PowerPoint presentations,” she said, noting the interaction that the trainers promoted. “The trainers didn’t see us as employees, but more as colleagues and encouraged us to be motivated.”

In fact, she enjoyed C3’s interactive training program so much that her perspective on her future there became clear. “The facilities are not just built for company success, but are built to enhance individual performance as well,” said Faculin.

The company’s offices in Fort Bonifacio show how the company has grown quickly.  Located on four floors of the building, C3 is equipped with the latest in computers and facilities, including rooms for resting and four cafeterias.  

What’s interesting about the cafeterias, Faculin observes, is how they actually reflect the company’s values.  The company encourages the families of employees to become concessionaires, supplying food to C3’s staff.
What struck Faculin the most was how serious the company practices its core values, which include open and honest communication, accountability and to be supportive of each other and the community.

Faculin appreciated the open channels of communication that were impressed upon the trainees, as the practice enabled them to voice their concerns, develop solutions and apply it to real-work situations. “The training helped people to become responsible,” said Faculin.

Faculin experienced firsthand how C3 helps the community during times of disaster. When monsoon rains flooded Metro Manila and surrounding areas a few months ago, her family was affected. Faculin’s family along with other C3 employees, were offered transportation from the nearest possible point from their homes to take shelter at C3. She wasn’t at all surprised that C3 also allowed employees and their families to use the company’s offices as a place of refuge.

To date, Faculin is a full-fledged member of the C3 family. “I just got regularized,” Faculin announced with pride. What makes her job different is that half of the time she works as an administrative assistant to a company officer, and the other half she spends manning the phone lines as a contact center representative.  This provides her with a unique opportunity to see how open lines of communication work with her colleagues and her immediate superior. 

Faculin appreciated that her fellow co-workers go in and out of the supervisors’ offices like clockwork in order to discuss matters that they think are important. “In other BPOs, when call center agents fail, it’s their own responsibility. But at C3, the practice is that when call center agents fail, he or she still has to take responsibility but the company looks at the process to identify how to overcome the next hurdle,” said Faculin.

Faculin realized her goals have shifted since she joined C3. “My goals when I was a student were very different from those that I have right now. The choices that I make now will clearly determine my future.”
Fortunately, the company’s ethics are comparable with her own. “I can’t speak for all, but I am quite happy and satisfied with my job,” Faculin said.

The company provides activities and opportunities that enable its employees to reinforce company camaraderie, as well as career advancement. These include bazaars, vacations as rewards for accomplishments, sports fests, tree planting, museum trips with family members, financial wellness seminars, etc.  

The C3 University platform focuses on self and career development curricula. It houses the courses under a free program which is open to all employees regardless of their tenure. Those who are willing to attend classes in their spare time for career and skills enhancement undergo particular courses that fit the level of skill that needs to be enhanced. Other various training programs are also offered like the C3 Plus and C3 Labs programs, which can likewise spell a faster climb up the corporate ladder.

Faculin is happy that C3 offers a range of opportunities for enhancement of its employees, while keeping sight of and rewarding their accomplishments as they grow at C3.  She credits this to C3’s capacity to think out-of-the-box as embodied in MAD4C3, an acronym-cum-mnemonic device that means, Making A Difference for C3.  As it turns out, the company provides tokens, whether in the form of gift certificates and movie tickets for employees who become exemplary models of conduct worthy of rewards.

To Faculin, it all boils down to the respect that the company extends to its staff, as well as its willingness to instruct its employees through positive actions. “People are willing to learn from you, but only if you teach them,” Faculin said.




Let the good times roll: Redefining 'call center' work


Working at a call center for over six years now has proven to be worth the extra effort, contrary to common perception.

While being at the front line of customer service may be more financially rewarding than working outside the BPO (business process outsourcing) industry, some misperceptions tend to make potential employees call center shy.

26-year-old Marc Espinosa, admits he was drawn to the BPO industry because salary packages are typically higher. “I’ve been in the call center industry for six years now,” shares the young agent who works at CustomerContactChannels (C3). “I started in the BPO industry in 2006 when it was still relatively young. The company I worked for was already quite established and had multiple sites in Manila. I was already a supervisor then, but I felt that the pay I was getting wasn’t really worth the workload I was putting in,” he shares.

But working for his current company, shares Espinosa, paints an entirely different picture. For one, the company walks the talk when it comes to the culture and core values it proudly promotes: open and honest communication, accountability, and recognition of its people. “The culture is different in C3,” says Espinosa. “It fosters happiness, encourages employees to realize their full career potential, and C3 makes work fun.”


Rules of engagement

Since people tend to spend more waking hours working than doing anything else, work happiness plays a huge part in overall happiness. This is exactly the principle behind C3’s unique and empowering culture.

“In an average call center, what the management team normally looks for are the wrong things being done. But what we do in C3 is highlight the good things,” says Director of Operations Kevin Urrutia regarding one of C3’s internal programs dubbed “MAD4C3”.

“MAD4C3 basically means ‘making a difference’,” Urrutia explains. “The management team goes around the office, sees an employee, for example, sporting a very pleasant face while talking to a customer. We sense that it’s a good call so we go up to him and say, ‘you know what, you’re MAD for C3.’ Because of that, he gets an incentive. And it doesn’t just pertain to calls,” Urrutia injects. “It’s a culture thing; we dish out recognitions every time somebody does well,” he says.

Some may deem this approach to agent engagement quite unconventional, but it actually gets the job done. Espinosa shares that working for C3 has made him more at ease with working at a call center. “It’s not always serious stuff at work. At C3, you can meet your targets and have fun at the same time. I enjoy doing my job not because I have to, but because I actually like what I’m doing. It’s a great environment that encourages us to be professional and have fun at the same time. It’s a more relaxing atmosphere, which actually motivates people to deliver better results,” he says.

Espinosa adds that it really matters that management encourages open communication at all levels. “Anytime we have a concern or issue we would like to address, or have an idea that could make us do our jobs better, our management is always willing to listen. That’s important to me,” he says.

“It’s also great when you work hard and you get rewarded for it. There are always incentives that motivate us to perform. They give that on top of our monthly pay, and it’s not hard to get if you’re very dedicated. There are also monthly raffles wherein they give out mobile phones or even trips to Boracay,” Espinosa enthuses.


Where smiles lead to profits

No matter what size a customer contact center business you work for, the same holds true: people are more productive when they have more positive emotions.
In an industry where the average monthly attrition (employee turnover) rate stands at 10 to 15 percent, C3’s is quite low. “Ours is at three to four percent (3% to 4%) attrition. That’s a very big difference. The bottom line is if you show your people you care, they are better employees on the phones when they talk to customers,” Urrutia asserts.

Once an agent himself before climbing up the proverbial corporate ladder, Urrutia says that he knows what it’s like to be an unhappy agent. “When I worked as an agent 11 years ago, I wasn’t happy and motivated. At that time, nobody talked to me about my performance, I didn’t know what my goals were, there were no incentives in place, and I didn’t even know the boss of the company. I had no open line to talk to any of my managers,” he shares.

Having been exposed to the different aspects of the call center industry, C3’s management team—comprised of BPO industry veterans—knew that if they were to set up the company, they had to do things differently. “We wanted to take out all the negative industry practices,” shares Urrutia.

Today, the call center industry has completely evolved. The C3’s training methodology and how they track the performance of the employees are all well in place. At the end of the day, it becomes a profession of skill or will.

“You’d rather hire somebody who has the will than the skill, because if they lack the skill, you can train them. If you have someone who has the will,” Urrutia concludes, “he or she would come in everyday with the attitude that he wants to make a difference. And that will be felt on the call. That’s the kind of employee we’re after, and it’s why we’ve set up our culture the way we did. It’s a people business, and if you want happy customers, it has to start from within the company. You need to make your employees happy first.”

Love Makes The Workplace Go Round




“<” + “3” = LOVE

            Try to type this in Facebook, and you will get a heart. This graphic animation often used in social media messaging is a simplistic and lighthearted depiction of a complex emotion. Love in any form needs demonstration. When one sees love, watches it grow, feels it, lives it, gives and receives it, it becomes real and the most amazing thing, especially if it happens in, of all places, a customer contact center.

            The notion of love is alive and well in C3, a customer communications outsourcer, whose customer contact representatives are surrounded by love, literally as the word fills the spaces on the walls and cubicles around them, and figuratively.  Beyond the literal sense and corporate speak, C3 makes a difference in the information communication technology industry because of its culture of love.

            C3’s full name, C3/CustomerContactChannels, spells out its very essence: Customer, which means that C3 is a company that serves the customer above all else, with full intent to resolve issues quickly, and to do things excellently; Contact, as C3 is an expert in contact center management; and Channels, through which C3 says, for every issue there is a way, there is an answer.


           The company was founded by the same team that founded Precision Response Corporation (PRC), turning C3 into a Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) company providing customer management solution worldwide. The company has opened customer contact centers throughout the Unites States, Asia, Europeand Central America and boasts of several Fortune 500 companies as its clients. C3 is backed by Stone Point Capital, a private equity firm that has raised and managed private equity funds with aggregate committed capital of $9 billion.

C3 has become a pioneer in handling multichannel customer care and has created a unique, employee-centric culture that is innovative for the contact center industry.  C3 prides itself in having an entrepreneurial spirit that encourages everyone in its organization from every level of management and every type of employee to suggest new ideas and try new things to make the company better.

As a contact center in the Philippines, C3 continues to be a breath of fresh air since it was established recently. It passed the 1,000-employee mark and now has close to 2,000 employees and five accounts. One cannot deny that its growth is exceptional, but its rise to success is because of the contact center industry experience that its core of leaders brought to C3, along with time-tested methodologies and singular focus on customer solutions.

Love what you do

            At C3, “Love What You Do” is not a cliché; it is a way of life. From the point of hire, the tagline comes alive for every employee in C3 and it becomes an essential way of doing things.

C3 Philippines was organized by a core team of seven people, all of whom are seasoned professionals in the Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) industry. They brought with them a shared history, the key officers having worked together for almost 10 years in different contact center industries worldwide; tenure; and, the best practices from the industry including their own innovations on how to make a workplace a love-filled hotbed of productivity. This core team knew what was needed to do to make their idea of a dream company become a reality. And this is exactly what they did. They built C3 to be a place of work where someone can love what they do.

            The Philippines being the number one call center destination in the world, employing over 600,000 agents and surpassing India’s 350,000, makes it the ideal place to plant the C3 culture of love. The Philippine contact center industry has grown exponentially in the last five years, contributing a staggering $11 billion (5%) to the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP). This growth has spurred a growth in the income levels of contact center agents.
            But being paid well is not everything, according to Kevin Urrutia, C3’s Vice President for Operations. The contact center industry has seen a high attrition rate even if higher salaries and more bonuses are offered. While the industry average of attrition is 10 percent (10%), C3 only has an attrition rate of between 3 percent (3%) to 4 percent (4%), a significant indicator of how the culture of love in a workplace can affect employee longevity.
“I love people. There is a sense of joy and fulfillment from being able to help someone, which makes me love coming to work every day,” he enthuses. It’s this genuine love and care for people that reflect on the people around him. For instance, he calls everyone by their first names. Even if he is an executive of the company, he treats his employees as peers. “At the end of the day,” he adds, “everybody is equal.”

Do what you love

            It is everyone’s dream to get to do what they love. And when that dream comes true, it makes everything click: the job becomes effortless. Rick Ferry, CustomerContactChannels’ president and COO, explains, “The whole theme is to love coming to work in the morning, love where you work, love who you work for, love who you work with – it comes from the old notion that if you love what you do, then you never ‘work’ a day in your life. There’s a great deal of responsibility that goes behind that word and that overall theme; we have to live that every day. Essentially, we want our staff to enjoy what they do and be proud of it.”

            At C3, an employee’s life begins with a mutual understanding of respect, responsibility, and passion. And as this work culture blossoms, employees become enamored with the dream that indeed they can love what they do. He can learn to give all that he’s got; to be taught and trained so that he could offer solutions to clients; to increase his skills and therefore his confidence in looking for ways to help; to adapt to changing situations and rise to different challenges – and as he learns to do all these things at C3, he will end up doing what he loves and making his dream work become a reality.

            Jill Vivas, Senior Operations Manager and one of the members of the original core team, says, “At C3, we have an open door policy and employees can talk to us anytime. They can bypass their immediate supervisor and talk to any manager. Even the highest officer, our country manager Andy Sarakinis, is available anytime.”

Jill says she was touched when Andy opened his home to his employees during a string of storms in August this year. Another manager, Chris Cardenas, drove employees from their homes to the C3 building’s training rooms, which were made into temporary shelters for employees and their families. She says she has never heard or experienced such kind of caring from employers before. Things like these make employees fiercely loyal to C3, she observes.

            C3 is taking the Philippinesby storm in an unconventional way: by helping its agents learn to love what they do, love where they work, love who they work with and love coming to work. Love in the workplace equals productivity and a rewarding experience. Love the C3 way opens the way to living the dream in the workplace.



Profile of Mark:

Living an adventure at C3

The opportunity of finding satisfaction and adventure in the workplace is not as difficult as one may think.
This Marc Espinosa discovered that as a new employee of C3, a leader in Outsourced Customer Management Solutions.  Armed with an AB English degree from the San Agustin University of Iloilo City, he was faced with the choice of either spending his post-school life teaching in his hometown, or to embark on a journey to Manila for greener pastures. 

“I wanted to become independent,” he recalls, adding that in the end, the lure of trying and experiencing new things clinched his decision to relocate. Almost immediately after arriving in Metro Manila, the driven Marc was able to find employment in the Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) industry.  It was not at all a surprising career choice for him then as the industry was offering lucrative pay to fill the numerous job vacancies that has since made BPOs the darling of the Philippine economy. 

Considering his command of the English language and willingness to learn new things, he soon found himself on the fast track of success in the first BPO he worked for. After attaining a supervisory position, he began evaluating his next career move.

“I stayed there for five years,” he says, noting that he would have remained longer had things been better.  A chance encounter with a former colleague prodded him to take the next step in seeking professional fulfillment.  As it turned out, the former colleague started working for C3 and encouraged Marc to join the company.  Sufficiently intrigued, Marc did some research and found the company’s profile excellent.  “The word-of-mouth reputation of C3 got me thinking,” he relates, noting that the positive impressions he got from colleagues and friends weighed heavily on his decision to make such a drastic professional change.

There was, however, a catch.  After attaining a supervisory position in his former company, the prospects of being a “newbie” once again was not exactly to his liking.  In the end, the opportunity of working for C3 won out.  “It was a chance to work in a new environment,” he notes, adding that unlike other established BPO companies, there was undoubtedly more upward mobility in C3—something that the adventurous Marc looked forward to.

According to Marc, he breezed through the hiring process.  “After five years, I had done a lot of interviews and taken numerous exams,” he says, noting that he was quite confident that he would be hired.
And he was.  Nonetheless, it was only after he decided to join C3 that he soon realized how different the company was from his former employer, or even perhaps with other BPO companies currently operating in the Philippines.  “The training process was very different,” he shares, recalling that there were no boring PowerPoint presentations that put one to sleep.  Instead, the lectures proved to be more interactive with role playing activities included in the program.  This, he observes, made new employees fully grasp the company’s open and honest way of conducting business.

One aspect of the company’s culture that continues to surprise him to this day was how open employees are to one another—including their superiors.  “You can communicate your concerns to the company.  You can actually say if you’re not treated fairly and you can directly reach out to your employers.  In other companies, you don’t have that kind of a relationship.”

C3’s open door policy allows employees from all levels to approach even the senior officers at any time. Marc also notes that unlike other employers who cultivate a serious image, C3’s top officers keep their humor intact.  “My bosses are ‘kalog’ (zany),” he says affectionately, obviously referring to the crazy and fun environment that his superiors encourage to help diffuse the stressful aspects of being a contact center representative.  “It’s a fun place to work in.  We are serious with our work but we have fun and work at the same time.”

Marc and his colleagues are experiencing some of the ‘fun’ activities that the company has been preparing for its employees.  They just recently concluded their ‘Sportsfest’ he says, along with theme days like ‘Halloween’ that are part of the company’s calendar of activities.

In fact, caring for its employees is a responsibility that the company doesn’t take lightly. ‘C3 Cares’ is a phrase that Marc often heard at work. The veracity of how C3 truly cares is something he experienced firsthand during the disastrous monsoon rains that inundated most of the Metropolis a few months back. 

“I live in Pasig City and during the ‘Habagat’ (Southwest Monsoon) our community was flooded,” he recalls.  To add to his worries, the disaster took place during his training period.  When the company told him not to go to work until the floodwaters had receded, it put him at ease that he would be allowed to continue training. Days later, he likewise learned that C3 had actually allowed families of stricken C3 employees to take shelter in their offices until their homes became habitable.

During regular work days, C3 sets targets that employees can realistically achieve. “In other companies, they ask you to do what is impossible.  In C3 they ask you to do what is challenging, but certainly attainable,” he states, noting that the company knows how to prod excellent work by providing an environment that promotes optimum performance.

When it comes to compensation and incentives, says Marc, C3 has likewise proven to be very generous.  “You get rewards for the good work that you’ve done, including incentives for referring people to the company.  And not only financial incentives, they also give out trips to Boracay—which by the way is still ongoing!”

Indeed, C3 encourages friendly competition with its employees, though not, says Marc, for attaining personal scores for oneself, but for the team.  “You get to earn bragging rights, which inspires other employees to work even harder,” referring to the company’s public recognition of optimum team performance.   “It inspires other employees to work even harder,” he adds.

For its part, the company actually provides activities and opportunities that enable its employees to reinforce company camaraderie, as well as career advancement.  These include bazaars, vacations as rewards for accomplishments, sports fests, tree planting, museum trips with family members, financial wellness seminars, etc.

Suffice it to say, Marc has already mapped his goals and is appreciative that the company has in fact instituted programs that will help its employees attain new mindsets and develop skills that will help them on the way to success.  “We have C3 University,” he says, referring to the company’s free program that provides courses to enable employees to move up the company ladder.
The C3 University platform focuses on self and career development curricula. It houses all the courses under a free program which is open to all employees regardless of their tenure. Those who are willing to attend classes in their spare time for career and skills enhancement undergo particular courses that fit the level of skill that needs to be enhanced. Other various training programs are also offered like the C3 Plus and C3 Labs programs, which can also spell a faster climb up the corporate ladder.

At present, Marc has set his sights on the C3 University, but is equally cognizant of the different opportunities that can be found within the company in the near future.  “Next year, they are planning to open even more new accounts,” he observes, referring to the continuous expansion that C3 is experiencing at the moment. “Who knows?  I could apply. Something new could happen, I might get to interact with other people and that could be a new adventure.” 



Profile of Keisha:


Where love takes center stage

Blurb:

It is one thing for a company to proclaim that it 'loves' its employees, but another thing entirely to walk the talk.

Valentine’s Day may traditionally be the time to show people how much you care, but Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) firm C3/CustomerContactChannels (C3) takes the principle of V-Day to heart by making a company culture out of it.

This “love fest” is seen the moment one enters company headquarters—posters strewn across the company walls proudly declare, “Love what you do,” “Love coming to work,” and “Love the difference.” And if that is not enough to convince a visiting client or guest, the employees themselves are the best reflection of the company’s love-centric culture. For an organization that operates mostly at nighttime, the atmosphere teems with a vibrant energy that can only come from people who genuinely enjoy what they do, respect who they work for, and thrive in their work environment.


A Culture of Positivity

For 22-year-old Keshia Faculin, a fresh college graduate, learning about C3’s core principles cinched her decision to work for the company. “C3’s culture best reflects its core values of accountability, open and honest communication, and recognition of people and community—when I saw this, I felt that this was a company that’s not all about business, but also one I can see myself growing in,” she shares.

A born-again Christian, Faculin regularly conducts bible study groups outside of work. “I disciple people and teach them how to lead their lives in a positive way, to be vibrant in spite of challenging circumstances,” she shares, adding that this aspect of her personality is something she feels her company genuinely supports. “In C3, I get to help out people with their concerns. So, aside from being of service in church, I can also do that at work. It totally coincides,” she says.

For call center supervisor Dennis Escobar, it was the fact that C3 is a growing company in the Philippines that drew him in. “It’s the hope of a new culture, a different environment,” he admits. “I didn’t like how things were handled in my previous company—they were quite rigid when it came to their employees. The call center culture I grew into was good, but people would change as they went up the ranks. With C3, the bosses here are different. They listen to you, they treat you as family, and they ask for your input before making a decision. My past company would never ask for my take on the company’s operations. Here, we have an open door policy that is neither abused nor exaggerated. I feel that what I say matters,” Escobar says.


A Caring Employer

More than being an environment that injects fun into the workplace—C3 regularly holds monthly raffle draws, sports fests, and parties to further engage its 1,800-strong workforce—what makes the company’s average attrition rate significantly lower than the industry average is the management team itself.

Comprised of call center veterans that have been in the BPO business since it started in the early 2000s, C3’s team of executives has served the industry as agents themselves who experienced firsthand the negative aspects of the sunrise industry. “Where we came from, there were so many concerns coming out and nobody would listen. The average attrition rate for most companies would be ten to fifteen percent (10 to 15%) every month. But ours is just at three to four percent (3% to 4%) attrition. That’s a very big difference. Only when you show people you care do they become better employees on the phones when they talk to their customers,” says Kevin Urrutia, Director of Operations at C3.

Since people tend to spend more waking hours working than doing anything else, work happiness plays a huge role in overall happiness. More than providing opportunities for its employees to grow and stay motivated, C3 adds depth to this principle by reaching out to its people beyond work.

When the recent heavy monsoon rains struck Metro Manila, a number of C3 employees were left stranded; some even had their homes flooded. “When the habagat (monsoon rains) came, our office was converted into a ‘relief center’ for employees and their families,” shares Escobar, adding that it further added to the family atmosphere the company wants to cultivate. “We had grandparents here, kids and even yayas (nannies). The pantry was open 24/7; there were concession areas, shower areas, etc. It was basically letting employees know that we’re all family here,” says Escobar.

Apart from providing for its employees’ needs, what really struck Escobar was the physical presence of management during the storm. “In most companies I’ve worked for, during storms, you’d never see the bosses. They’d come up and send food, and that’s it. But here in C3, all the bosses were here physically, checking up on people. When we had agents who got stuck in Pasig where it was flooded, it was the managers who drove them from their homes to C3. Our country manager even offered his house for an agent,” Escobar shares.

Indeed, it is one thing for a company to proclaim that it “loves” its employees, but another thing entirely to walk the talk. “Many of our competitors try to do it this way, but it really boils down to execution and sincerity. You can always say that so and so are your values, but if your employee feels from the very beginning that he can’t even talk to his manager, then that automatically tells him that what you’re saying is a lie,” explains Urrutia.

At the end of the day, the golden rule still holds true: “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” Treating people the way you would want to be treated creates more positive results. “For us, it’s all about presenting them opportunities for growth, giving them the right support and training to develop and move up, and showing them that when you work for a company, it should be the other way around—the company should be working for you,” Urrutia asserts, ending that, “it is all about transparency, open lines of communication, and living up to the company’s core values. Once employees see all that, they realize that C3 is not just all talk. It walks the talk.”