Today’s Spotlight Interview feature is Aboitiz Power’s Head of Customer Experience, Melody Lim, or Melow, as she is fondly called by friends and colleagues. As a CX leader, she is responsible for designing and implementing a strategic CX roadmap to support the evolution of Aboitiz Power Distribution Group, in line with the digitalization of its customers.
While Melow has over 17 years of experience in project and product management, process improvement, and CX, she actually graduated BS Psychology from De La Salle University Manila in the hopes of becoming a pediatric doctor.
Now you would wonder why she took the CX route. Well, in fact these two aspects are coherent with each other. Melow perceives that the benefit of taking a major related to humanities is that it provides a theoretical understanding of why people behave the way they do. “And regardless of what industry you eventually find yourself in, you can use it because at the end of the day, you’ll have human interactions.”
Being in the customer service sphere built a solid foundation that grounded Melow early in her career. Later on, she took a leap of faith and joined an advertising agency that drew her closer to understanding consumers as customers. Eventually, she was given a breakthrough opportunity to be a driver for transformation as the product manager for the first ever mobile banking app in the Philippines. “So if you take a look at it closely, it’s really the experiences that I had throughout my career that helped me navigate the customer experience universe that I’m in right now. That may be, plus guts and the mindset that things can be learned and developed.”
According to research, the Philippines has been progressing in catching up to its more developed neighbors regarding technological advancements. Innovation has been rapidly improving across the energy sector. Believing that digitization has been at the forefront of the energy industry, Melow highlights that Aboitiz Power embraces transformation because they believe that it is the only way to prepare their business for the future that’s not near but already here. In their organization, digitization helps them put the rest of their other efforts to things that actually move the needle. Melow feels that it can be daunting for an industry that may be centuries old like theirs, but also “We accept that we need to evolve and transform and in the same vein that our customers are also evolving and transforming”.
Great customer experience starts with motivated and engaged employees. Melow shared that there are plenty of activities within their organization in light of motivating and engaging employees in general. Their HR team organizes sports fest, team buildings, training, daily catch up, etc. Those activities improve camaraderie and cross – functional relationships. “As leaders, we are encouraged to give our teams the right tools and guide them with the right perspective that actually aligns with their business objectives. And then we empower them to make decisions, if not recommend, and then we support them to execute.” For Melow, there is no one size fits all strategy. But across their organization, she has witnessed how empowerment in one form or another has driven better engagement and results from their people.
For more of Melow Lim, come and be a part of our first ever Customer Experience Summit Asia 2024 on March 21st, 2024 at Shangri-La Fort, Bonifacio Global City. Indulge with the phenomenal CX leaders’ insightful thoughts in the CX sphere.