The Humans of smrtPhone

Our “smrtie of the Month” is an organized, car-obsessed, compassionate member of our Quality Control team, ready to make your smrtPhone experience better.

Name

Gabriel Villapana aka Gabe

Title / Role in the Company

I’m the Quality Control Coordinator for customer service. I monitor our chat conversations with clients to see what can be improved or adjusted with how we handle them. I put together plans to support, train, and coach the team and individual agents so we can improve customer experience. 

On a daily basis, I do scorecards and I keep in touch with agents who I find need help with expressing empathy or need to brush up on their product knowledge. I make sure they follow the processes. I suggest to Tudor [Head of Support] and the Team Leads new procedures and tactics they can try to implement to make the process a lot better. 

For example, we recently reviewed how our Support team can handle requests for cancellation, to make sure we can turn something that would normally be bad news for our team into a positive learning experience. I build and coach on what type of responses can be used in order to make things go smoothly and also get important feedback that will help us be better.

How long have you worked for smrtPhone?

Since August of 2023.

What’s your background? 

I started working in service really early. I started working for BPOs here in the Philippines back in 2003, when I was 23. I had a lot of different roles. I was a support agent, back office agent, billing analyst, and project manager. In 2013, I decided to set up my own business manufacturing and selling vapes. I went to the U.S. in 2013 to help build this business. 

When my father got ill, I moved back to the Philippines to take over running the family business. It was a logistics company, focused on trucking. Specifically, we would take containers from the ports to various warehouses.

In 2017, I moved back to Tarlac City, and I had to decide what to do with the company. In the end, we decided to close it down and we sold the trucks. That’s when I moved to working from home for various businesses. I did lead generation, I did sales, and I did project management for years. I started working for [smrtPhone CEO] Jordan’s company Gamechangers, which was a Podio consulting company, doing project management. Eventually that company became Syncrony and after a short bit I moved over to smrtPhone. 

What was your first job? 

My father has done many things over his lifetime and when I was 18 he was a movie director here in The Philippines. I started working for him as a production manager, handling the finances of the movie. Everything we needed to rent, to buy, props we needed to make, payments to the artists – I handled all of that. The movies were not so frequent that it was a full time thing for my father, but he saw that I was talented at the business side of things. 

What do you like about working for smrtPhone? 

One thing I like is the environment, the people I work with. I can’t think of anyone in the company that has made me feel uneasy or doubtful about my potential. I enjoy the constant communication with the team. It’s really open and it’s two-way. I get to teach them, and they teach me in the process as well. The open door policy is one of the things I like the most. I can easily talk with anyone if I needed to, without hesitation.

Describe smrtPhone in 3 words: 

• Extensive. The product is quite intricate and powerful and therefore to support it, the team needs to have a broad range of knowledge. Plus the processes and procedures for making sure everything works and that we can service everyone. It’s a system with a lot of moving pieces. 
• Amazing. It’s a good product. It’s always been, even before I worked directly for the company. When I worked with Gamechangers, we would always recommend smrtPhone. 
• Surprising. It’s a very honest and inclusive company. Not all companies that hire people abroad would actually bring the team to be together. What amazes me is how people interact, how they think of their work, and how they actually seem like longtime friends, even if they have only met here at smrtPhone.  Even before I met them in person this past summer, I noticed there is a chemistry you can see between coworkers that is obvious.

Is there a particular moment/project at smrtPhone that stands out and makes you feel proud?  

Because I was familiar with smrtPhone as a product before I joined the company, I would say that overall I’m just amazed at how smrtPhone has grown so much over the years. 

I worked for many home-based companies doing sales and lead generation and I’ve used all kinds of softphones including RingCentral and Dialpad. When we first started using smrtPhone for our Podio clients, it was a basic phone system. Now, it does so much more. 

That’s something I brag about when I talk to my friends, “smrtPhone is far better than the competition.” Features like Call Monitoring and the ability to join a call… it’s a softphone that is like an Avaya desk phone, but better. I’m proud to work for a company that has such a great product. It’s the most common thing that I brag about. 

I also enjoy that I am getting the chance to build the QCC process from the ground up. It’s not as easy as you’d think. I need to consider all of the options and the culture. I need to keep a steady flow of ideas to improve everything, while always keeping the main focus on the customer experience. We need to entice people to stay, even when they’ve had an issue. I’m not done yet, so I can’t say the project is over – it will be ongoing – but it’s been a fun experience.

What do you like to do in your free time?

During my free time, I’m a bit obsessive. I like to clean. I love my cars. I own a pickup truck, an SUV and a small car, a Chevrolet Spark. I like to clean them, keep them up, and work on them. My typical routine is to get up, do some work, go to the gym, go home, clean whatever vehicle I used that day. Then I start cooking and start work again.  

I don’t just like cars, I also like driving. Almost every week, we drive 3 or 4 hours to Manila. 

I have two kids. My daughter is in college for MedTech courses, she’s pushing to move into general medicine. My son is in high school and his plan is to become an aeronautical pilot. They are the main reasons that keep me going, pushing me every day, inspiring me to be better. 

I also love spending time with Mina [Head of Client Success, my longtime girlfriend.] We go to restaurants because that’s her favorite. We have excellent food all around us.  But I have a family history of diabetes, and I just turned 40, so I try to stay on top of my health and workout a lot. 

Name something that is on your “bucket list”

One thing I haven’t done yet is skiing in snow. I would love to experience something really different like that. I’ve been to the States but I lived in Los Angeles.

What is a fun fact people might not know about you? 

The first thing that comes to mind is that when you see me, you might not think I’m as organized as I am. My dad was into gambling in a bad way, and I grew up with nothing. I try really hard to make sure my kids have everything. My childhood is why I’m so organized and on top of things, I want things to be different than they were. I take a lot of pride in acquiring things on my own and taking really good care of them. It’s not something people can easily detect by just looking at me, but it’s who I am.