Improve customer advocacy

We continue to listen to our customers to help us improve the way we do things and we use the Net Promoter System (NPS) to get their feedback. Customers provide feedback through surveys we run at the end of a conversation or contact with Telstra and via external market research. We use this feedback to help our frontline teams improve their conversations with customers and to improve our processes, products and services.

Encouragingly, our NPS performances in Telstra Business Managed, Wholesale, GES Australia and GES International improved over the course of the year.

Our overall NPS performance this year was disappointing, and shows we have more to do to deliver a great experience for our customers every time they interact with us. Our recent announcement that we will invest up to an extra $3 billion over three years on new investments in networks and business initiatives is designed to deliver significant benefits to all our customers.

In 2016, we made progress on some of our customer advocacy initiatives, taking action to address some of the issues customers are telling us about and delivering extra value to our customers with new product and content offers.

We improved our orders process

When customers are placing a new order, adding a service or recontracting, we have made changes to our order process to ensure we set the right expectations at the point of sale, to help them understand what they have ordered, what will happen next and what their bill will look like.

Our online services are growing

Digital channels now account for 58 per cent of all consumer service transactions, with millions of customers regularly using the Telstra 24×7 App® and My Account portal for activities such as keeping track of their data usage and staying in control of their account and services. Customers are using our online channels at the time that best suits them, with the ability to log in and make a change to their service, or to complete simple transactions such as purchasing extra mobile data, unlocking a mobile device, or requesting a payment extension.

The Nielsen mobile and tablet usage survey (Oct 2015) ranked Telstra’s 24×7 App® as the number one tablet and number two smartphone app amongst Australian companies.

We’re talking to customers in more languages

To support ongoing international growth, we have enhanced our 24/7 Global Service Desk for our international enterprise customers with more support in multiple languages. We have created a new global approach with service desks in Hong Kong, London and Kuala Lumpur. Our standard international customer contracts are also now available in Japanese, Korean and traditional and simplified Chinese.

More customers watched Telstra TV®

Our Telstra TV® service has been performing well, and is the first streaming device in Australia to include all three streaming services – Stan^, Presto^^ and Netflix^^^. It also includes all five free-to-air catch up apps and movie rentals through BigPond Movies. We are pleased to see that Telstra TV is providing a simple way for our customers to access the content they love, using their Telstra Home Broadband. There are now over 300,000 Telstra TV devices in households across the country with access to apps such as Fox Sports Now**, ZooMoo^# and many more.

We offered more music

Telstra offers a six-month Apple Music^## membership to all retail customers on any 12 or 24 month Go Mobile Plan with a compatible device. An Apple Music membership provides access to the full Apple Music library, expert recommendations, worldwide radio and unlimited skips on all other radio stations.

We grew our Telstra Air® Wi-Fi network

More than 1.1 million home broadband and mobile customers are now activated to use Telstra Air, Australia’s largest Wi-Fi network. Our fixed broadband customers have created over 500,000 homespots nationally, which Telstra Air customers can access across Australia. We now have over 4,500 public hotspots including selected Telstra pink payphones, most Telstra stores and other outdoor locations. Home broadband customers can also access Wi-Fi at more than 19 million hotspots overseas through our partnership with international Wi-Fi provider, Fon.

We bumped up the data on popular plans

In 2016, we increased the data available through our popular mobile plans to enable our customers to make the most of their experience. Telstra consumer mobile and fixed broadband customers get access to a free 200GB Microsoft OneDrive⁺ subscription to store, share and access important documents, photos and files at home or on the go.

Our bundles are better value

In April, we offered consumer customers our best value bundle ever. New and existing Broadband customers, including those connecting to or moving onto the nbn^TM network, receive 1000GB on a Telstra Large Bundle for 24 months. As part of the bundle, they have access to unlimited fixed line calls to local, standard national and Australian mobile numbers. It also includes a Telstra TV with a six-month Presto subscription, three months access to Fox Sports Now and a $15 BigPond Movie voucher.

On top of this, customers buying the bundle with an eligible broadband service will receive a Telstra Air® Wi-Fi compatible gateway modem.

We gave Data Top Ups to Business Customers

In May, we began rolling out double data allowances for all Telstra Business Broadband, Digital Office Technology™ (DOT) and BizEssentials® customers. Providing this data boost will help businesses take up new ways of working, such as video conferencing or setting up an online retail presence. Telstra also doubled the data for new customers who signed up to a business broadband plan from May 2016.

We entertained with our Live Football Digital Passes and Telstra Thanks® rewards

The AFL Live Pass or NRL Season Pass is included on eligible mobile plans and for Pre-Paid Freedom Plus® customers. This means our customers can watch every game live for the 2016 season, including finals, on their compatible device in Australia.

The Telstra Thanks® program offers customers a range of great rewards and extras, just for being a Telstra customer. In entertainment, customers can access specially priced movie tickets, and get exclusive pre-sale offers for live music events and concerts. Telstra customers can also enjoy $20 tickets to select AFL games and 20 per cent off selected 2016 NRL tickets.

We offered better value with Telstra Platinum®

We’ve changed the Telstra Platinum offering to give customers the same great technology support but more flexibility and better value. We’ve halved the contract period for new Telstra Platinum Service Subscriptions and also halved the cost of in-home services for our subscription customers.

We introduced exciting new technologies

We introduced our first Software Defined Networking (SDN) products for both Australian and international customers, enabling businesses to rapidly deploy and configure services over Telstra’s networks.

We also launched Telstra’s Cloud Gateway, which makes it easy for customers to connect multiple clouds; including world-leading cloud platforms Amazon Web Services⁺⁺ (AWS), Microsoft Azure⁺, Office365⁺ and VMware’s vCloud Air as well as IBM SoftLayer.

We’ve been Checking-In with customers

We continue to check-in regularly with our customers to make sure they have the best products and plans to meet their needs. For regional and remote customers, we have used our Telstra Check-In Tour, which provides face to face contact in areas where we don’t have stores, so our customers can talk to a Telstra representative in person about their needs. This year through our Check-In program, we delivered 6.6 million personalised Check-In communications to business and consumer customers.

Telstra’s first Indigenous Check-In Tour travelled to some of Australia’s most remote communities to help our customers with their services, resolve issues and discuss new technologies.