David Thodey is a nice guy and he’s very customer focussed. His people have put in place a Social Media team who respond promptly to issues raised with @telstra. Unfortunately, answering tweets and the telephone quickly isn’t going to be enough to fix Telstra, Thodey is going to have to go into the bowels of the organisation, to fix the mess he’s inherited.
I’m moving house and the new place has cable. I’ve been very happy with iinet ADSL for the last two years, but due to a previous Telstra screw up, I have a $1300 credit sitting in my account. I decided to take Telstra Bigpond Cable up as part of a bundle when I moved. I’m now regretting that decision.
The first problem came when I called the Telstra telephone people to have my phone service moved. As I am moving within the same suburb, I knew there was an opportunity to keep my telephone number. The Telstra phone rep virtually begged me to get a new number because the process he had to go through to transfer my number was apparently so arduous for him. Despite the fact that I kept repeating how great it would be for me not to have to change telephone numbers, he continued to plead his case. Rule number one of customer service, you’re there to serve the customer, if I think something you are offering me is great and I’m excited about it, you should never tell me how hard it is for you and try and convince me to do something MORE INCONVENIENT FOR ME! Either way, it took about fifteen minutes of being on hold for him to go through whatever systemic hoops he needed to go through.
Then it was onto my order for a Bigpond Cable service. We went through the various deals even though I knew what I wanted and asked for the biggest and most expensive plan on offer. Rule number two of customer service, if the customer knows what he wants, give it to me! Spending five minutes listening to lower bandwidth plans I didn’t want or being asked to consider NextG, was just annoying.
The guy then asked me if I wanted my Foxtel through Telstra. I’ve never once had a major problem with Foxtel customer service, I always find them prompt and helpful so I said no. I was then offered a price more expensive than what I currently pay. Rule number three of customer service, if I say emphatically that I don’t want a service, don’t pitch me a price unless you know it is ridiculously better than what your competitor is offering.
I was told that someone would call me within 3 business days to organise my cable modem installation and then good-bye and onto a survey.
Well, we’re now on the fourth business day, we’re moving tomorrow and guess what, no Telstra call. Compare this to Foxtel who took my call within seconds, asked me when I was moving, told me the new place was cable, not satellite so a technician would attend to make sure everything works properly and followed it up with an email less than 10 minutes later confirming everything. Then this morning I get a call from Foxtel just to confirm the onsite tech’s time. Oh, did I mention I called them right after the above call to Telstra?
So today I sent out an SOS to the Telstra social media team and Carly made an attempt to help, but there was no order on file. This necessitated a call to the Bigpond call centre. A person, strangely enough named Carly (might it be the same person) answered my call. We went through everything and finally she worked out that because I ordered a “bundle” my order for Bigpond Cable would not be put through UNTIL the phone was connected. Say what now? They also had to quote me 10-14 working days to receive my Telstra Cable modem. That never came up during the original call. Then the kicker was, instead of Tuesday my phone transfering across, Telstra had it happening Thursday! It was the trifecta of screwed over!
Carly told me that ideally the cable modem will arrive in three or four days after the order goes through. She couldn’t do anything about the telephone order except give me a number to call when it doesn’t work. She then put in a follow-up reminder to send the cable modem right away. Best case scenario, I have my cable modem connection on Friday, worst case scenario, some time in mid-to-late October. Not good.
This is the challenge Thodey faces. The internal workings and machinations of his company are so screwed up that it is a joke. When thinking of Telstra is it important to call a spade a spade, you are not dealing with one organisation you are dealing with several – the Bigpond team is totally different from the telephone team and the mobile team is not the wholesale group. Telstra is a thin veneer atop a mass of different companies with their own systems and structures. If Thodey wants to overcome this, having a happy smiling customer facing team isn’t going to be the end game, he needs to tackle this terrible internal systemic problem.
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