Smart Employee Off to Cupertino After Winning Apple Competition

Wazzup Pilipinas!


An employee of Smart Communications will fly to the Apple headquarters in Cupertino, California this August after a stellar showing at the Apple Experts Camp held recently in Singapore.

Charles Bartolaba – a customer solutions officer at the Smart Store in Ali Mall, Cubao – was chosen as one of two Philippine representatives to Apple’s three-day Worldwide Excellence Summit in the US. At the summit, he and other Apple Experts from all over the world will learn from Apple executives and go on an exclusive tour of the Apple Park.

The Cupertino summit is expected to equip the participants – who are all customer-facing personnel in stores that sell Apple products and services – with the knowledge and skills needed to provide better customer service in their respective stores.

Bartolaba was selected as Philippine representative after a panel interview at the Singapore camp joined by Apple Experts from the Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam. Two representatives were picked out of 10 participants per country.

Among the 10 Filipino participants in Singapore were Smart Store front-liners Jayson Quilapio of the SM North Edsa branch and Rosette Abitria of the Cash & Carry store. They got in the Singapore camp after Apple’s assessment of their video entries and their performance as Apple Experts for the past year.

Apple has partnered with Smart and other companies for the Apple Expert Program, which ensures that stores have a front-liner who is very knowledgeable on Apple products and services. All Smart Stores in the Philippines have at least one Apple Expert.

To be considered an Apple Expert, employees have to undergo quarterly workshops, answer weekly quizzes, get at least a 90% score in the quarterly exam, cascade their learnings to fellow front-liners, and get a score of at least 4 out of 5 from Apple’s mystery shoppers who go to stores to check on the Experts’ knowledge and demonstration skills.

“It is an honor to represent Smart and the Philippines in the Apple summit in California. It boosts my drive to provide our customers with world-class service, and to cascade my learnings to my colleagues,” Bartolaba said.