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Telstra reverts to the personal touch

Oct 14, 2014

Telstra has told call centre staff to give their name and contact details as it attempts to recover lost ground in customer service.

The Telco admits it still has a lot of work to do when it comes to improving the quality of service out of its international call centres.

However, it will continue to increase the use of global providers at the expense of its Australian call centres.

Speaking to shareholders at the company’s annual general meeting in Brisbane, chief executive David Thodey said that was for economic reasons.

He said shareholders had raised the issue of the quality of the service offered by international call centres.

“As a business, we have a responsibility to consider the economies of scale offered by global providers along with the flexibility that gives us in managing fluctuating call volumes at different times of the year,” he said.

“This means that our contact centre work here in Australia is declining and will continue to do so.

“We have implemented many initiatives to improve the service we offer our customers, though we still have much to do.”

After years of complaints about calls centres, Telstra has reverted to some personal approaches.

“As part of this thinking, we have moved during the year to further personalise the service we  offer.,” Thodey said.

“In our contact centres, our operators now give the customers that call them their name and contact details at the end of each call. It is a simple but very powerful act that means that if you need to get back in touch with us you can contact the person you last spoke to, the person that knows your issues, your story.

Another example is in our stores, where new post-paid mobile customers now get a phone call from the consultant that served them within 48 hours of making a purchase to make sure everything is working as it should.

“And in the field, our field technicians now leave their calling card after they’ve installed new, or repaired existing services. Again this means that if there is a problem or concern, the follow up can be made directly with the technician that did the job.

“We think these small but significant changes will make a real difference.”

Thodey said the company was “committed to building Telstra into a business that has the customer at the centre of every decision, every action, every opportunity, every day”.

Telstra has attracted controversy by asking the competition regulator for compensation for falling demand on its copper network, as the national broadband network increases the migration of customers away from the service.

Thodey said Telstra “remained committed to acting in the best interests of you, our shareholders, and to maintaining the value of the current agreements”.

Telstra’s rivals, such as Optus, argue it is already being compensated through an $11.2 billion deal with NBN Co and the government to rent out its infrastructure to build the broadband network.

He also said Telstra expected continued low single-digit income and earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation growth as demand for connectivity in Australia and overseas grew.

That would offset the loss of income from the sale of its CSL Hong Kong business.

The company increased net profit by 14.6 per cent in fiscal 2014 to $4.3 billion.

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