For a nice change of style from the usual ‘I hate Telstra story’, Telstra have decided to focus on customers (*gasp*) – rather than profit and loss statements. Today, Telstra will give customers access to a new online portal that aims to be a one-stop shop for all things plan-related.
Excuse me for my skeptism, but isn’t this exactly the same thing that competitors Vodafone, Virgin and Optus have had in place for the last year or two? For what it’s worth, Telstra’s bigwig David Thodey had this to say about the planned online renaissance:
“It will give customers the option of using their computer or mobile devices to order new services, change their plans or activate features, for instance, without having to call to speak to company representatives”
I seem to remember being able to perform similar plan and product changes with Optus for the last two years – but given their website looks like a dog’s breakfast – it shouldn’t be too hard to manage something slightly more ordered.
Telstra have made no apologies about their love of all things online – with the same kind of zealous enthusiasm that helped banks in the early 2000′s drive essential services online and close branches. All snarky comments aside, Telstra said it aims to have 35% of all transactions performed online by 2013 – which to be honest, is probably underestimating the burgeoning interest in the space. Gus from LifeHacker tells me that Twitter is still the best way to get hold of Telstra customer service reps when you’re in the fix. So it seems, Telstra is not entirely new to this space after all.
Oh and they’ll open 100 Telstra shops in the next three years too – kind of nice to have a physical presence as well.
Peter Simpson
Monday, February 21, 2011 at 3:25 PMToo bad their retail outlets are utterly dreadful. Having worked for an electronics chain that sells Telstra products and often located in the same mall as Telstra, I have had the displeasure to hear every tale under the sun. Not knowing their own products, back and forwards from phone to store for spare parts. They just want new contacts. That said, I got my HTC Desire from Fone Zone and the call afterwards to their offshore tech support to increase my data cap was great.
ODEED
Monday, February 21, 2011 at 10:22 PMI agree with not knowing their products.
I purchased a HTC Mozart from a Telstra shop, set up the contract stuff then the girl handed me over to the “technical support” guy to insert the SIM and turn it on etc. He then said “Look I don’t really know anything about this model so I can’t show you much about it.”
I work in IT so I was not that worried, and personally didnt care what he had to say, but God help someone a little less savy.
Daniel Busoli
Monday, February 21, 2011 at 4:21 PMHopefully this will result in a cleanup on the Telstra.com website. It’s a massive mess of new and outdated applications with links that go nowhere, and logins that bounce you from consumer to business, then to bigpond.
SPK
Monday, February 21, 2011 at 7:38 PMThe Telstra twitter support team are amazing. So helpful. The most best support team I’ve had to deal with out of all Telstra, Optus and Voda
Mogwai
Wednesday, February 23, 2011 at 1:42 PMWho gives a rats. When Telstra can’t even get basic bill payment working (my wife still can’t get her pre-paid to automatically direct debit her bank account when low) or number porting working correct (wife also spent a week on the phone trying to get her pre-paid credit sorted out after a T store stuffed it) then who gives a crap about whether they answer questions via twitter.
Given the fact they are closing call centers left and right and take power out of the hands of people in T stores to actually fix anything without ringing the call center what hope have they got. I have spent numerous converstations over an issue and the next person you speak to ( because the first person just fobbed you off to go and do something stupid like get another SIM card even though it had nothing to do with the problem) doesn’t bother to update or even read the call notes means you’re just constantly repeating you problems and having to tell them what actions they have taken to attempt to fix your problem !!!
This is all spin. Telstra neither have the money or the nouse to actually improve customer service. They are just trying to win more customers and they think this will help.
Once your on-board just watch as they put prices up.