Telstra: making it easy or making it hard?

Alex Zaharov-Reutt
Monday, 15 February 2010 19:46

Opinion and Analysis

I've been helping a friend with tech support issues today, a friend whose Telstra Business Next G modem has seemingly failed, but it's a diagnosis we've had to make on our own, with Telstra's 'making it easy for you' transformation, support people and systems delivering wasted hours and no result at the end but frustration - with a surprise secret ending that arrived just pre-publication that's no surprise in the end.

Telstra is Australia's largest telecommunications company, making billions of dollars of profit per year, running the world's fastest wireless network, operating a 100Mbps downstream service over cable in Melbourne years before the Government's NBN network will come online, and has spent billions of dollars transforming its IT systems, amongst many other achievements, from Next IP to its own media division.

But when it comes to getting tech support from Telstra, my experiences have almost always been complex and frustrating affairs. Why can't calling customer service be a joy, where problems are eagerly solved, rather than a buck-passing 'your call is important to us' frustration?

Stuff the 'call' being important to you, Telstra, how about the 'customer' being important to you?

How about delivering customer service that demonstrates your systems are truly integrated, that allows ONE single person to deal with all problems, even going so far as to be on a three-way call with an accounts person or someone else, if the customer wants it?

How about having your call centres in Australia, with Australians (of any cultural heritage or previous nationality) who speak clear and easily understandable English, rather than shuffling your customers off to a call centre in the Philippines, or India, or whichever part of the world you have your customer service people in?

Perhaps you could even offer, to avoid charges of discrimination, customer service in different languages for those customers of yours in Australia that don't have English as their mother tongue.

There might also be people that enjoy listening to complex tech support instructions delivered in Filipino or Indian English accents. In that case, let the customer decide - for tech support from India or the Phillipines, dial 1. For tech support from Australia, dial 2.

Given your propensity, Telstra, of overcharging, you could even tell customers that an Australian call centre support call will incur a $1 charge added to the bill if the problem is solved first time over the phone - and naturally free of charge if it takes more than one phone call to fix.

The benefit for some customers of using the Indian or Filipino call centres would undoubtedly be much faster service with no extra charges, given that presumably most customers would prefer talking to an Australian call centre, quite possibly even it if cost $1, and would completely free you of any charges of discrimination whatsoever, while giving your all important customer the CHOICE of where they want to get customer service from.

I know that using more Australian call centres staffed with anyone that can speak English in a clear and understandable manner will cost more money, given higher wages and other conditions in Australia, and this will cause the loss of jobs in whichever overseas country the tech support services are in, but this simple thing would instantly avoid a lot of customer angst, as well as being measurable, letting you truly see what customers prefer.

The rage is maintained and amplified on page 2, please read on!