David Thodey, the Telstra CEO during the heady NBN-rollout era of Australian telecommunications, has certainly done well during the Thodeyan Tenure to dramatically improve customer service at the 800 pound telcorilla.
But for the times of the Thodey to continue at Telstra, something even more important than customer service must be improved on even further, lest the green pastures of retirement beckon too soon, like the flashing light of Logan, the time clock of Will Salas or that of Roy Batty make an unwanted arrival.
The ticking time clock tick tock for David Thodey now rests upon his and Telstra’s performance on privacy, something spectacularly besmirched over the NetSweeper Smart Controls affair for users of oft-heralded Next G network, which led to Geoff Huston’s blog post “All your packets belong to us” which we explored here.
Now comes news of a letter David Thodey sent to his staff, which was republished at Whirlpool and which Telstra is reported to have verified, which places the issue of privacy breaches squarely at the centre of his email, strongly reminding the “team” of the essential importance of privacy, and how the breach “must never happen again”.
The email can be read in full at the link above, but Mr Thodey states that “customer privacy is not negotiable”, that “the damage to our reputation was already done” despite Tesltra reacting quickly to the news of the Netsweeper scandal, that “some of our customers may feel we have broken their trust” and “are entitled to feel that way”, and that “it will take months of hard work to win back that trust”.
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However, says Mr Thodey, “the truth is we care deeply about customer privacy”, and that he wants to “remind everyone that privacy is not an aspiration at Telstra – it is an essential requirement and our license to operate”, that Telstra has “to do better”, that staff should “raise the issue with your manager as a matter of urgency” if they see or suspect privacy breaches are happening, that customer trust is “both precious and fragile”, taking “months and years to build, but can be broken in one day”.
David Thodey concludes by stating: “That’s what happened last week. It must not happen again”.
Well said, Mr Thodey – we certainly hope that Telstra’s customers are never subjected to privacy breaches again, and that we hear more from Telstra – and David Thodey – on what else Telstra can do to bring the awareness of the need for all Australians to value and protect their digital privacy today, lest a Telstra of the future not have a man of David Thodey’s calibre at the helm.
Like banks, telcos are companies that consumers love to hate, but it need not be that way, with a company such as Amaysim a great example of a telco its customers truly love.
Telstra may never quite gain that status with the majority of Australians, but as long as it proactively protects the privacy of its users, and delivers the best telecommunications services in Australia even if that means charging a higher price, then Telstra doesn’t need to be loved – it just needs to be honest, courteous, helpful, prompt and strive to make things easier for its customers, just like previous advertising jingles have promised.
Telstra’s privacy trust breaches are troubling, and tinkle the many memories of past Telstra disappoinments, but with David Thodey’s swift privacy prescription, I think it’s safe to say Thodey’s travels atop Telstra’s totem pole are set to continue for some time yet.
