The ghost month this year is said to begin today, August 22, and will continue until September 19, where evil spirits from hell are released to the world (according to Chinese legend). By this time, you boss who believes in feng shui should be lying low on projects.

How about you? How's things are going on your end? Do you feel that this month's going to be awry? Here's one tip: Forget that there is a ghost month and just go hustle your way out. Do not let this dictate your targets. Though if you can't move on from this belief, it is recommended to target not just one audience, like how Warren Buffet puts his investments in "baskets."

Here's the thing: If you're in the Customer Experience industry, this should not stop you at all, since Customer Experience is round-the-clock, every day. Customers, regardless of whether they believe in this or not, will still be there, waiting to be introduced to the experience that you are offering. This should not stop you in approaching your target.

Business is half-theory, half-application; but overall, it's the effort that counts. In order to increase your chances of good luck, you need to increase your efforts. Hustle, friend, for the world will not stop for the so-called "ghost month."

While we're at it, the Customer Love Fest will happen at Tower Club Makati on October 19 to 20, featuring key personalities in the Customer Experience, Customer Relationship Management and Customer Loyalty industries. 

Visit customerlovefest.com for more info or get in touch with Ex-Link at (02) 633-0153, 643-3887, 0920-981-4376, 0920-924-2532, info@exlinkevents.com or at @CustomerLoveFest on Facebook Messenger.

The two-day 2016 Customer Lovefest held at the New World Makati Hotel held last October 20-21, 2016 is attended by around 100 participants who want to learn from key resource speakers and interact with fellow professionals on how everyone can improve their relationships and experiences with their customers in the fields of Customer Loyalty & Rewards, Customer Relationship Management and Customer Experience.

Among the highlights of the event are the Brain Date, where they exchanged ideas on customer experience improvement with a select "date"; Quicknet, where delegates exchanged contacts with one another; and the Workshops, in which everyone shared their challenges and solutions in their respective fields.

These are aside from the valuable insights and outlooks from speakers Mr. Alex Araneta (Catalyst360 Training and Consultancy), Ms. Yayu Javier (AVANZA), Ms. Brie Caces (SM Hotels and Conventions), Mr. Paul Malcolm (Vivid Engagement), Ms. Pauline Pangan (AllFamous Digital), Mr. Darrel Wisbey, Ms. Cynthia Mamon (Enchanted Kingdom), Mr. Philipp Kristian Diekhöner (Die Denkfabrik), Mr. JJ Sison (AudioWAV Media), Dr. Nick Fontanilla (I-Metrics Asia Pacific), Mr. Bobby Horrigan (Enderun Management Consultancy) and Ms. Matec Villanueva (formerly of Publicis Manila) who shared their time with the delegates.

Th event capped off with a quick raffle to thank the delegates for their time well-spent. Overall, the 2016 Customer Lovefest is a resounding success despite bad weather conditions.

Ex-Link Events is certainly looking forward to next year's Customer Lovefest with a planned new look and set of speakers that will delight customer professionals.


The Customer Lovefest would like to thank New World Makati Hotel as its venue; the Bank Marketing Association of the Philippines (BMAP), Avolution, Grab for Work, Pag-IBIG Fund, Brother Philippines, Citibank and Avail.at as its major sponsors; Jade Pacific Residences, Nestea, Faber-Castell, Dinsmor Promo, Azumi Boutique Hotel, Organique Acai, MobileMINDS, Inc., Krispy Kreme Doughnuts, Dee's Gourmet Popcorn, TagCash, Avanza, Catalyst 360 Training and Consultancy, Enchanted Kingdom, Primo Loyalty and Rewards, AllFamous Digital, Vivid Engagement, Enderun Management Consultancy, AudioWAV Media, Inc., and I-Metrics Asia Pacific Corporation as its event partners; and media partners Malaya Business Insight, BusinessWorld, BusinessMirror, Manila Bulletin, Inquirer.net, Azrael's Merryland and Wish 107.5.

The Customer Lovefest is organized by Ex-Link Management and Marketing Services Corporation. For inquiries and partnerships, contact (02) 633-01-53, 643-38-87, SMS 0920-981-4376, 0920-924-2532 or email info@exlinkevents.com.

The 2016 Customer Love Fest will come in just three days, and to give you a sneak peek at this year's event, we would like to share to you a few words that can sum this up:

• Personal Image. How personal image can affect Customer Loyalty and Rewards?
• Implementation. What are the best practices in Customer Loyalty and Rewards?
• Competition. Check your Customer Loyalty and Rewards program to see if it still stands out
• Transformation. What are the benefits of Customer Loyalty, Rewards and Engagement programs for your business? 
• Age of Customer. How do you keep up in today's age where Customer Loyalty and Rewards are much valuable as ever? 
• Customer Expectations. What do you need to know about Customer Expectations and how it should bring up your company's next program?

Business owners, imagine this: You or your employees are using Grab for your work tasks (some of you might even ask them to use it), like going to a specific place for meetings, delivery of goods, so on and so forth. Chances are, your employees are required to submit their proof of their ride to be submitted to your company's HR department.

With this in mind, Grab wanted to remove the hassle of documenting every trip your employees take, and thus they offer their Grab for Work service.

• Save time by reducing paperwork - Grab for Work integrates to your HR so your employees won't think of sending receipts to HR; instead, it will be automatically sent to HR itself. Less hassle, less worries!
• Full flexibility with multiple payment options - Credit cards, debit cards, cash or even through a monthly direct billing plan, Grab for Work works with these payment options.
• Increase savings with affordable rides - Grab's competitive prices with their transparent fixed fare guarantee, will maximize your company's cost savings.
• Stay in control for better cost management - You can set your company's transportation fare limits

Considering these benefits that we mentioned, you know you want to get a grasp of Grab for Work. For more information, go to https://www.grab.com/ph/work/.

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Grab for Work is among the sponsors of the 2016 Customer Love Fest happening at the New World Makati Hotel this October 20-21, Thursday and Friday. Learn from local and international speakers how to step up your loyalty, brand and marketing approaches for the customers of now.

The Customer Love Fest is produced and organized by Ex-Link Events. For more information, call 633-0153 or 633-0088, SMS 0920-981-4376, 0920-924-2532 or email info@exlinkevents.com. 

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There's a lot of games that are available to play on smartphones, from the casual to the hardcore - and each of these games have their own following. We take on for example two trending games that are hit with the anime-loving youth: The LoveLive! School idol festival and Mystic Messenger.

LoveLive! SIF is part of the multimedia LoveLive! School idol project franchise that produced the eighth best-selling musical act in Japan of the year 2015, two anime titles, a full-length movie, so on and so forth. It is a rhythm game where you can collect cards of various designs of its different characters, depending on the seasonal campaigns that are constantly being conceptualized.

On the other hand, the newcomer Mystic Messenger published by Cheritz in South Korea last June is a game wherein you talk to pretty guys and get into different situations. Heck, the game will even "call" or "message" you all of a sudden - even at 3 in the morning, as some players have mentioned.

What these games have in common? Both are available on the two common mobile OS platforms Android and iOS, both have in-app payments ("lovecas" or gems in SIF, "hourglasses" in MM), and both provide rewarding experiences to its players (the character cards are the things players look forward to in SIF, while MM players - mostly female - are looking forward to gush on their in-game crushes).

Now, the smartphone is an all-purpose device - we've told you before that your smartphone is a rewards card, and now we've shown you another aspect of the smartphone (as well as mobile computing on its own) - it's no longer reserved for the ones in business like in the 90's, and consumers are really into it more than the TV. With that said, smartphones are no longer a buzzword but a household name.

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If you are a Customer Loyalty professional, check out the 5th Customer Loyalty Conference and Expo featuring key resource speakers, fellow customer experience professionals, and a great environment to share concepts on Customer Experience.

The 5th Customer Loyalty Conference and Expo is part of the Customer Love Fest 2016, happening at the New World Makati Hotel on October 20 to 21. For reservations and other inquiries, contact 633-0153, SMS 0920 981 4376 or 0920 924 2532, or email info@exlinkevents.com. Ex-Link Events is on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube.