We’ve come a long way baby
Filed under: consumer, customer service, news, social media, Twitter
I’m Monty and I’m the new operations lead for one of Telstra’s newest business units, Telstra Digital.
For those of you who don’t know, Telstra Digital was born in March to improve all of our digital channels so that dealing with us online is simple and convenient – the way it should be. My job is managing the day-to-day running and strategic direction of Telstra’s websites, devices and applications as well as our social media strategy and execution.
As a new addition to the Telstra family I’m pretty chuffed that for my first blog I have the privilege of sharing some great news – that is on Tuesday, many of you helped us reach a significant milestone with our Twitter account attracting over 10,000 followers.
It’s estimated that over one million Australians currently use Twitter and it’s no secret that among other social media channels, it continues to grow at a rapid pace. So why are we on there? The answer is simple: because you are.
We’ve come a long way since our first tweet in July 2009 and over 30,000 public messages have been sent in response to your queries. Our social media team in Adelaide reach out to customers like you every day, who are interested in or experiencing difficulties with Telstra products and services.
Our efforts in the social media space will continue to grow as well because we know it’s important to provide you with help and support wherever you’re online – whether that’s at home or out-and-about on your mobile or tablet.
We’re working on a whole range of improvements to our online services, many of which are underway already, and I want to introduce myself because I will be working with our team in Adelaide to lead this new program of work.
I’m excited about joining Big T and would love to hear your thoughts and ideas about how we can further help you in the social media space.
If you haven’t already, why not join the conversation on Twitter by going to www.twitter.com/telstra
Or if you already up to speed with Twitter, follow us @Telstra and say hello to our team in Adelaide.
Did you know?
- Our @BigpondTeam Twitter account was one of the first Australian businesses to service customers on Twitter – with around 80-100 queries received each business day. On Facebook, Telstra has attracted over 20,000 fans, many of whom have daily interactions with us on topics including sponsorships and community, new products and customer service.
- We also reach out to customers interested in or experiencing difficulties with Telstra products in Whirlpool – one of the largest online forums in Australia. Whirlpool has over 400k registered members and attracts over 20k visitors each day.
Telstra News
- You can stay up–to-date on Telstra news by going to @Telstra_News
Customer support on Twitter
- @BigPondTeam: BigPond customer support on Twitter. Online 9am–6:30pm M-F.
- @Telstra: Telstra customer support for mobile phone, Internet or landline. Online 8am–8pm M-F.
Releated links:
Well done everyone!
Here’s to the 1st 100,000 folllowers, soon
Congrats guys! Love the customer support effort, and sites like ours get to stay on top of whats going on in the industry.
Thanks for your support. Monty H
I am trying to complete your your coverage feedback page – clearly nobody has attempted to complete this within Telstra because it simply does not work. When you complete the form and then try to enter the address where the coverage is not working you are asked to navigate to a map to select the address you have just entered, when you click on the map and the submit you get an error message enter postcode and address UUUUUUUUURRRRRRGGGGHHHHHH!!!!
Thanks for the feedback Martin, I have the team looking into this at the moment. Monty H
Hi Monty.
Congratulations on your new role – and wishing you all the best in it into the future. As a Telstra customer, I certainly want to see more of the improvements and changes the CEO is leading in the business towards becoming a more customer focussed organisation.
Telstra has had somewhat of a chequered recent history wrt servicing their smartphone customers in the matter of Phone OS updates. In my specific area of interest, Windows Phone (7) by MS, the handling earlier this year of the #NoDo update was a saga to say the least.
I hope that one of the key performance areas in your role managing all the Telstra Digital customer engagement is that Telstra will be doing everything reasonable to ensure that the significant #Mango phone update due Q4 is passed promptly and smoothly to new and existing Telstra customers when it is released.
Your Smartphone Update page (listing OS, updates and schedules) can be further enhanced from the “rough” 1st cut that is still in place today. Additionally, your call staff and support teams had very little experience in handling calls and concerns earlier this year on WP7 OS updates. Maybe some additional training or a specific tech support routing in the help process for Smartphone OS update queries by customers.
I would welcome any engagement on the part of you or your team on the matter of Windows Phone – as I run an Aussie dedicated WP7 site: http://www.sheeds.com.au
In so far as Whirlpool – there was no official engagement earlier this year from any Telstra staff on delays, issues or problems with Windows Phone updates – so again any future improvement in this area for WP7 customers and enthusiasts will be appreciated.
Regards,
Sheeds.
Hello Sheeds,
Thanks for your support.
We first created the Smartphone Updates section in response to feedback from our customers online. This was updated today (23 June) with the latest info:
http://telstra.com.au/mobile/phones/smartphones.html#tab-spf
As you’d be well aware, the smartphone updates happen thick and fast – we do our best to have these certified and delivered to our customers as quickly as possible. Of course in doing so we need to ensure no corners are cut – providing a reliable network and handset is the first priority – as a result, sometimes this certification takes a little longer than we expect.
See you online soon,
Monty H
Thanks for the reply Monty.
(and the feedback idea that started that page was actually mine – which I then arranged an online campaign to support it and push it to number 1 on your ideas page at the time in the hope that Telstra would initiate it!)
Nice, well done, great challenge. The @telstra team have been very helpful when I’ve got stuck in the other channels.
Walter @adamson
Thanks Walter – Keep spreading the word, the next 10,000 will come from customers like you telling a few friends. You’re not far off 1,000 followers yourself! Monty H