Balancing Life and Work, key in becoming VBP’s first Employee of the Year

Balancing Life and Work, key in becoming VBP’s first Employee of the Year

by | Nov 3, 2016 | Working at VBP

Through discipline, responsibility, and good relationship with clients, Chyrell Eliza “Chy” delos Reyes bagged the first VBP Employee of the Year Award held in August 2016 at the Mandarin Plaza Hotel.

Chyrell shared her road to success on what she believed it takes to become a great CSR (Client Service Representative), which is to balance work and life.

“When it’s work time, then focus on your work. When it’s break time, then take a break. Give time for yourself to unwind because not all of your time is for work. You just have to balance them out,” Chy said.

She also enumerated some tips for new CSRs on how to excel in a workplace like VBP which include:

• Take time to learn the intricacies about their job.
• Mingle and learn from other CSRs. Learn about the challenges they’ve encountered and how they’ve overcome them.
• Take responsibility for your own development. Discover things on your own pace, but make sure that you don’t get left behind.
• Most importantly, build trust and a professional relationship with your clients.

Among the tips she mentioned, she greatly emphasized the importance of having a strong relationship with clients. For her, CSRs must know how to keenly observe the details of their clients’ attitudes, characteristics, behaviors, and their preferences in work. In addition, she added that CSRs must know how to be themselves in communicating with their clients.

“We have to adjust to the way our clients behave and sometimes we tend to mimic them. In all instances, we should learn on how to limit ourselves and to not go over to the point that our way of dealing with them would sound inappropriate and unprofessional. We should keep harmonious relationships with them,” she expressed.

Chyrell, 31, has been working with VBP for more than a year as a CSR dedicated full time to her client. She said that one of the biggest challenges she had faced with her client that other CSRs might have also met is communication. According to her, late replies and responses from clients confused her whether to jump into another task or to wait for her client’s instructions on how to proceed with difficult tasks. Chy surmounted this challenge by learning on how to become persistent in asking how to go on with her tasks without being annoying.

“I use Skype in communicating with my clients, but when it comes to sensitive and complex information, I use email. I ask via email for things I am doubtful of. I also make sure that my content of my email is easy to understand which is why I always use bullet points and numbering to be more comprehensive,” Chy explained.

She further concluded that good communication and effective task management leads to a strong foundation of CSRs’ relationships with their clients.

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Read Chy's ingsights
Chyrell’s insights as VBP’s first Employee of the Year

Chyrell’s insights as VBP’s first Employee of the Year

by | Nov 3, 2016 | Working at VBP

“I was super speechless at the awards night. I am proud to know that the amount of time and effort I have contributed did not go unnoticed. This inspired me to work harder although the pressure is there knowing that the expectations have gone higher,” Chy exclaimed.

According to Chy, she offers her award to her daughter, Lian, who has been her main reason to work hard each day. “I want to be able to provide for her and at the same time I want her to be proud. Maybe someday she will look at my photos and say, ‘That’s my mum!’”she added.

Along with the glassy plaque received by Chyrell is a trip to Australia early next year to visit her client. Chy has built a strong relationship with her client and has appreciated the support they have shown her in their first year working together. This is the first time for VBP to hold an Awards Night to recognize the significant efforts and contributions done by its employees to the company and its clients.

“It’s our way of giving back to staff for their great hard work and at the same time providing another opportunity for our clients to recognize their CSRs and/or Paraplanners in experiencing our culture,” said Shi-an Llanto, VBP Head of Client Services.

The event was attended by the company’s Chief Executive Officer David Carney, Chief Operating Officer David Deegan, and a few Australian clients. (See more photos here)

“In the next year, we will have a better and more comprehensive training for staff to prepare them for the dedicated support role by extending induction training to 6 weeks. Whether it’s financial planning, mortgage, marketing, or adhoc projects, VBP can cater. We can support on all these for the clients to have more time client facing and building new businesses & relationships. We are excited about our full end to end process, where clients can opt to get both paraplanning and administration support at the same time, which significantly reduce the time between when a planner first sees a client to when the SOA is presented and signup can be done ”Llanto added.

Gearing up for 2017 with a new office to double its capacity, activities like the Awards Night will create major impact to the growth of the company, which aims to become the Philippines’ best place to work at.