Walter Adamson

The reluctant customer - OK I'll buy even if I don't Like you

I like the look of the new Telstra Digital Business bundle, even though like many (most) people I'm not a fan nor an advocate of my telco provider. I'm certainly not about to Like them anywhere in the social ecosphere!

I don't Like you but the others are probably worse - I fear

I'm a "hostage" customer in that I think the couple of other "competitors" are just as bad if not worse. Telstra has earned it's share of the rising number of complaints to the Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman (but to be fair its proportion of the complaints has fallen). And the marketing telebabble which all the players indulge in has been likened to Orwell's 1984 doublespeak - it's decidedly scammy but that's the world in which their marketing departments live.

So despite in the past having to endure up to 6 hours on the phone trying to rectify my accounts (they eventually offered me $500 to "settle" one blunder) I have "registered my interest" in their new Digital Business offer.

What is the real "natural market" for telco business extensions?

The future for telcos is a hot topic and the big events on this get the attention of the top people, especially if Tomi Ahonen is on the stage!

That's because it's not so obvious. For example, personally I don't buy the argument that telcos are the "natural owners" of cloud computing services and that this will be their new salvation.

Over the last decade telcos have said to be the natural owners of many things - web hosting, general hosting, media, entertainment, sports, SMB services, SaaS portals, systems integration services, enterprise software services, buying groups, trade exchanges, trade markets, trade directories, trade forums - but few if any have had any traction despite the billions poured into these initiatives globally. 

Let's face it, although the "app store" and "iTunes" was invented and commercialised by Japanese carriers 5 to 6 years before Apple the telco world elsewhere universally proved to be the dead hand which crushed such initiatives, and others such as mobile payments.

Apple didn't innovate iTunes, it innovated out of the dead hand of the telcos

Apple's innovation wasn't in iTunes or the app store, they were proven models in Japan, it was in taking control out of the dead hands of the telcos and music companies. That was a true commercial innovation. And I suspect Apple will also take control of a broader payment system as well. In these respects telcos universally are duds and they've lost those races.

Telco 2.0 provides industry research and strategy, and their model has 6 "opportunity types". Telstra's Digital Business initiative lies across 2 of those types - Vertical Industry Solutions, and Embedded Communications. The bundle comprises:

• New voice calling features: including an "Auto attendant" redirecting calls to fixed phones in up to three locations and mobiles;
• High-def call quality – SME voice-over-broadband;
• Sophisticated voicemail – fixed and mobile voicemail messages are collected in a single hosted voice box and can be forwarded to staff as email or SMS;
• New pricing – businesses pay a ‘per user' fee rather than "per phone line", with a flat rate for services including hosted email;
• Free calls - all voice calls between phones on a Digital Business account including mobiles are free of charge;
• Domain Registration - access to professional email and web addresses;
• Hosted email via Microsoft Exchange Online - real-time and synchronised email, calendar and address book information across computers, laptops, tablets or smartphones;
• Broadband back-up service via the Next GTM network – can switch businesses automatically to wireless in the event of a fixed network outage.

I'm sure that there are many similar bundles offered by telcos elsewhere, and this stikes me as an attractive package to small businesses like mine. If the rumoured entry price of $120 per user per month is correct then that is attractive, subject to the detail. I'm paying almost that much now just for my mobile phone. (And if Tesltra would add in virtual fax then it would be a real winner.)

Scaling is always the killer because the channel is the choke

The $64 question for Telstra is how can their distribution channel cope with a product of this "complexity". After all just signing up for a mobile phone has the channel extended to its limits. It doesn't matter to me personally, as long I as I can sign up without too much grief. But in order to achieve scale the digital and the retail engagement model will need to be designed and executed with care and a lot of attention to operational excellence and digital engagement.

I'll buy!

I'm not about to Like Telstra, but I am looking forward to the detail of the new offer, and I'll very likely sign up. If they get it right then Telstra will suck the wind from the sails of many of the smaller existing IT service providers to the SMB market, particularly the "Medium", and that's something which which should be keeping these providers awake at night. Don't bet on Telstra's previous incompetence, if nothing else their price point is going to crunch the market.

It's not as if relationships don't have a strong role. The smaller service providers have this advantage with their current customers. It's just that at some stage the value offered by the local service provider falls below the value created by the low price point of offers like Telstras.

I actually hope that Telstra can deliver as if it is well done it will help small business productivity with the suite of integrated services. It's a sign of "cloud" productivity and economics hitting the mass market.

Are you a user of a similar bundle, from your telco or elsewhere?

What natural markets do you see for telcos to extend into?

How threatened should smaller IT service providers feel by these kinds of bundled offers?

Walter @adamson

| 09.12.27 | My weekly ramble in social spaces and places

Where I've been this week in the social web's places and spaces:

• This is great 2000s Decade Recap - Business and Technology, from Mojo, and even better if it had a matched music track! The decade in 3 minutes 22 seconds and really worth the time to watch.
• If you are a Linkedin member - key social media trends 2010 - useful comments.
• You've heard of a stream of consciousness, how about a Twitter-style stream of purchases.
• The sad story of the Borders "corporate blog" - PR disaster or a story of staff dedication?
• You no doubt saw this monster news - catch up with the latest - For the first time in 23 years, Pepsi will not have any ads in the Super Bowl - instead the company will be spending $20m in social media.
• Rohn Jay Miller abandons a top agency job as no future in a "marketing" strategy - good read - I’ve Got a New Job–and So Do You.
• If you are interested in Smartphone penetration and competition this is a good article, even if US-centric - Top 10 Smartphone Advances Of 2009.
• Celebrating 30 Years of Mobile Phones, Thank You NTT of Japan - not Marty Cooper - this is a great post by the inimitable Tomi Ahonen.
• Did you know that Indian Cabinet Ministers, and Bahraini, are Twitterers? That's the magic of the internet.
• A tip from Jasper Martens: At Simply Business the amount of followers for our Twitter account grew fast when we stopped talking about our insurance products and started talking about small business tips to help our customers.

http://xeesm.com/walter

How Telstra trained 12,000 staff 6-page social media policy

Telstra, Australia's largest telco and the legacy of the old monopoly carrier, has had a few rough patches lately, both in the social media and in the rising level of complaints, which they have acknowledged.

There is kind of a pent-up tide of anger about Telstra's service, which, perhaps counter-intuitively, erupts in a tirade of negative comments and abuse whenever Telstra announces any intentions to improve the service.

See my post "Will customers help Telstra - Australia's most hated company".

The same again, in response to their just-announced public airing of their social media training guide, where a bunch of people have responded by saying "hey get your service right" and then we'll take you seriously.

However, I think that we should view this social media move on it's own merits. (I'm a customer by the way, and not necessarily a willing one.)

After all social media is only part of the brand experience and getting all the parts in unison is not going to happen overnight. 

I think this particular initiative does show considerable, ah initiative, and far-sightedness for such a corporation. After all this is no simple thing to navigate the politics of this in a 40,000+ employee organisation. In the past it would probably have been issued as a 100 page legalistic document.

The fact that (it's reported that) they've trained 12,000 people to these principles is a fabulous example to the corporate world. 

Another great thing about Telstra publishing this guide is that it gives a big kick up the backside to all those consultants writing about how companies should be so careful about letting their employees get into social media and all the hidden dangers. I get tired of reading those hacked out posts which are really just touting for work. I mean get a life.

If Telstra can do it, and sure it did take them a lot of hard thinking, then any company can do it and they can instantly piggy-back on this published training. They don't need a consultant for this bit (hey, I'm a consultant!).

Telstra has helped the whole social media business adoption move along by being as bold as it has in putting this out in the public form.

As for the content, it's good. I think that a revision should include more relevant stats than 2008, and the idea of not using any Telstra trademarks in any postings by employees on their personal sites seems impractical, but overall it's a very fit for purpose training piece.

It gives a big picture view and short helpful guidance about defamation, which in the past would have bored the life out of employees but here it is in perfect context, short and relevant. It's important to know about Facebook slanders.

AND, you get download the whole 6 page Social Media Policy by clicking on the link on page 31 of the training guide.

Click for a copy PDF 60Kb - Download

6 pages? Seems too long?

Well, 2 pages are introduction, 2 pages are for those employees endorsed as people authorised to communicate on Telstra's behalf, and 2 pages are for all other employees. It's actually very practical, pragmatic, and sensible.

Dare I say, well done Telstra!

http://xeesm.com/walter

Update #1 My Telstra Experience FAIL

I'm following Telstra's My Telstra Experience initiative. I didn't plan to update every day, but perhaps I will have to as it has a certain momentum in the social media world even though it is a closed survey panel. 

Unfortunately the first big media exposure was a complete FAIL.

The whole mess is written up here "Hold the phoney: Telstra’s 'customer' unmasked", and you just have to ask what WERE they thinking???

Excuse my disparaging language but how did they think that bringing in a PR hack to a nightly current affairs show posing as a former disgruntled customer was ever going to work in this day and age?

You can see from the comments on the article exposing this that it has really just pulled the rug out of Telstra's efforts to convince people that My Telstra Experience was anything but yet another PR stunt. That bit is not being derogatory that's just stating the facts as revealed in the comments - universally negative.

If we think about some of the tenets of not just social media, but also customer relations, we think of openness, transparency, disclosure, and perhaps even honesty!

In posing their PR hack as a customer Telstra failed transparency, failed openness, failed to be honest, and of course failed in disclosure. I mean this was utter contempt for the public and and a complete and utter FAIL. It's hard to go on because it is just such a complete exposure of the potentially PR-based thinking behind the whole My Telstra Experience.

Time will tell whether this IS a fatal blow, right out of the gate. The campaign was less than one week old!

 As for my own "Telstra Experience", since I am interested and also a mobile phone and a landline customer, I went to sign up. My experience hit a brick wall at the first step as my browser choked on the very first page. I have all the latest Flash etc, just updated them the other day, but it couldn't break the registration system. That's just a small UI hiccup as thousands have registered, but it stopped me.

In related news Perth Now published a "Memo to David Thodey: here's what your Telstra customers want fixed" after asking for comments from its readers.

...since Telstra put out the call yesterday for customers to tell the struggling telco how to fix its woeful customer service, our readers have scrambled to join the queue. Perthnow.com.au readers ripped into Australia's big telco, slamming it for a complete lack of care, having staff who can't speak English, and of being "too far gone to fix". Instead of getting answers, Telstra got brickbats. Only a few readers gave helpful advice. Rex wasn't one of them, emailing us with: "Their prices - even with their new ones - are between 'not competitive' to 'an outright ripoff'," he said. Telstra this week admitted it didn't know how to fix its woeful service standards, so it called on customers to tell it how to do it.

There's no shortage of people with a willingness to comment. The question remains open - how willing Telstra to listen and to act and to be seen to be acting in good faith?

Will customers help Telstra - Australia's most hated company

According to News Telstra is "Australia's most hated company in terms of complaints". The news is that Telstra has decided, shortly after firing its Chief Marketing Officer Holly Kramer, that it would like to hear from customers about how to "combat soaring dissatisfaction levels".

"We know we've disappointed customers," Telstra's executive director for market-based management Gloria Farler said. "It's not entirely altruistic. If we have low customer satisfaction that means low customer loyalty and if your customers are not loyal they are very likely to (leave), which leads to a high cost of marketing and that leads to disappointing profits," she added.

(Aside - it is amazing how huge those profits actually are in any telco's language given the high levels of dissatisfaction - leading to a kind of hostage syndrome among customers.)

So this is an admirable, if not altruistic, initiative.

Will or can it succeed?

On face value it would seem like a great idea, and with a sure chance of success given the pent up rage against Telstra from its customers.

But before proceeding into the unknown let's start with the known and proclaim that this will indeed be a certain success as measured by Telstra.

How do I know this? Because David Thodey, Telstra's CEO, has reportedly "offered $40 million in bonuses to staff if there are even slight improvements in satisfaction levels". Therefore, as in every large business, these numbers will be met and bonuses will be paid - there is zero doubt!!

Now, let's venture into the unknown to ponder will it actually work in reality.

There is no doubt that Telstra's customers want to give their feedback. After all the very News article itself had generated over 421 comments in 12 hours since 6am the day it was published, that's about 35 per hour or more than 1 comment every 2 minutes.

That's a remarkable number in itself, 100X the normal response.

The key to success is in the planning, the essence of having an integrated social media strategy as opposed to a campaign. So let's list some challenges, and then we can track how things progress at Telstra against these challenges:

1. Since they have 104,000 complaints on the table with names addresses and telephone numbers from the last 12 months, and now another 421 comments which are 98% hostile, is Telstra firstly going to track all those down in the real world and the social media world? Or does Telstra just let lie comments such as the following and start a brand new day with the community portal?

• I just had to check my calendar to make sure it wasn't April Fools Day. :-);
• Like there's ANY chance whatsoever they will actually listen to complaints and/or suggestions and fix anything. They never have before and there's a less than zero chance they will now. This is just a PR exercise to get some exposure;
• What a joke, you dont know what to do to improve customer service, i thought you had 104,000 customers last year who could give you an idea, just an example of the fact that youre NOT LISTENING so why will you listen to people who complete your on line surveys;
• I just want to speak to a real person that gives a damn.

2. Do they have their heads screwed on, or are they dreaming, about the tsumani of rage and complaints that will flood into "My Telstra Experience" experiment exactly parallel to the comments to the article? Presumably they will have an already detailed and approved strategic and operational plan and resources to handle these and to coordinate responses in a systematic and timely way.

3. What is the plan of the coordination needed, which will be more than once a day to start, to handle the tsumani, and how are all departments keyed into that plan including, for example, the ability of the call centres to answer basic questions about My Telstra Experience?

4. How well thought through is the risk analysis of managing the rage, managing those who complain loudest, working with the social media as people blog Twitter and Facebook their experiences with My Telstra Experience?

5. How well is Telstra prepared as an organisation to respond to the My Telstra Experience inputs given that (a) their own staff already know most of the problems and have made zero progress (according to the doubling of complaints) and (b) the inputs from customers mostly speak to symptoms and not causes. It's about the organisational mindset - the "prepared mind" as Pasteur once said.

OK, where are we?

On face value and given history this initiative has a very poor chance of real success (I don't mean that the Telstra managers will not get their bonuses!). However I'm not a fan of being trapped by history so let's see what might be different this time.

On the issue of "what might be different this time" the BIG difference since the last in a string of similar attempts by Telstra is that we are now in a new era of established social media. This means that no matter how much they try to constrain views within the closed panel it will not work. There is absolutely no doubt that this will be a public exercise.

Now given that social media IS the BIG DIFFERENCE now you would wonder why a firm would be reverting back to the past in conducting closed shop panels as market research? It seems like a backward view to me, but Telstra are obviously being advised by Vision Critical who are experts in this field and have an impressive track record.

You might also ask me how come this has anything to do with social media as it is a closed panel of surveys? Well that's a good question, and one which no doubt Telstra has thought through. My answer - the panel has people, those same people exist in the social media; the panel will no doubt ask some open questions or give people a chance to make open comments - that opens the chance for the pent up rage and the outlets into social media if satisfaction is not forthcoming. There are other reasons as well that this closed panel is no longer a close panel, but that's enough for now.

But back to my headline - will customers help? They will certainly try, whether it lasts is completely up to Telstra's management of the relationship, and once doubt sets in to the customers' minds then it is all over rover.

I'm interested to hear your views or of your experience with My Telstra Experience.

PS - Below are Poll Results from Adelaide Now which ran the poll with the article announcing Telstra's plans to ask customers for help.

How do you rate Telstra's customer service? 

• Excellent, faultless 1% (29 votes)
• Acceptable, if not perfect 5% (112 votes)
• Average, needs work 11% (228 votes)
• Poor, needs urgent fix 41% (836 votes)
• Sorry... you're breaking up 39% (803 votes)

Total of 2008 votes.

| 09.10.18 | My weekly ramble in social spaces and places

Where I've been this week in the social web's places and spaces:

• Not social media but social drama - this week at one of our suburban rail stations a mother lost her baby over the platform as a train came in - it survived but see the video!!!
• If you didn't see - Twitter selling its own brand of wine!
• I'm cheating - here are Gavin Heath's "5 must-read posts from last week".
• Social media-exposed consumers are far more likely to search for brand and product-related terms - Comscore survey.
• Factoid! It's said that Canadians are the heaviest users of Facebook per capita. (I don't have an authoritative source.)
• Canada's Flowtown "helps small businesses communicate with their customers, anywhere, everywhere, super efficiently " - I signed up for a free account.
• Martell Home Builders, a construction company in Moncton, New Brunswick, which specializes in the promise that it can build a new home in 99 days, is on Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube; runs a blog; and lets buyers follow their home construction progress online, get pictures, and post comments, says social media is changing how business is done.
• 45% of small-business owners have Twitter or Facebook accounts yet only 44% have websites - social media taking off - according to survey.
• Hyper-targeting using Facebook - good Slideshare presentation by Clara Shih the Facebook guru, I like her work she is a very clear thinker (and speaker).
• I like @johnhaydon's work such as Seven ways to prevent your social media strategy from going into a tailspin.

My social places: http://xeesm.com/walter

Dr Semmoto and the eMobile magic pudding of Japan's telecom industry

I'm interested in mobile internet (meaning mobile phones using Internet) and used to follow the Japanese market and industry quite closely. The emergence of eMobile shook up the industry, and all the more so since it was started by one of the industry founders who is both a big business executive and an entrepreneur. 

Dr. Semmoto is an extremely successful Japanese multi-entrepreneur. He is one of the co-founders of DDI (today part of KDDI), he founded the ADSL provider eAccess, and in 2005 he founded eMobile. He gave a great interview late last year to EuroTechnology (Gerhard Fasol).

One of eMobile's many distinguishing features is that it offers subscribers unlimited/uncapped data access. Meaning even if they upload or download enormous amounts of data including Skype and VOIP, or watch or upload movies all-day eMobile does reduce such users' connection speed, nor do they charge extra.

In other countries such plans do not exist, and some operators would even say that it is commercial madness. In fact many operators seek to exclude VOIP or Skype from mobile data subscriptions - and they almost always have a "fair use" policy which can wind you back.

Here are some excepts which stood out to me:

Our "secret" is very simple: 1) high usability of network based on state-of-the-art technology, competitive low cost construction and operations, and 2) operational know-how from fixed broadband market (through eAccess). Incumbent carriers offer flat-rate data service only because competition forced them to. We believe we have great competitive advantages against incumbent carriers.

[One of the key issues for telecom operators is often said to be to "avoid becoming a dumb data pipe"... What is your strategy that your company and your network does not become "a dumb pipe", a commodity?]  Dr. Semmoto: We are confident in providing "a pipe". It is a pipe but a GREAT pipe, mobile broadband service, and it is what customers are willing to use. I believe other Japanese mobile carriers are "too intelligent", too far from real customer needs. High speed, flat-rate mobile broadband data is in itself a differentiated service.

[What do you think is the future of DoCoMo's model of controlling mobile phone specifications? And what is eMobile's handset strategy? Do you want to accept as many handsets as possible on your network, which seems to be SoftBank's strategy?]  Dr. Semmoto: We emphasize standardized technology and open business models. It is not our strategy to control mobile phone specifications too much by committing the purchasing numbers, and by subsidizing developing and manufacturing costs because this would lead us to lose cost competitiveness. We are willing to adopt high-quality, worldwide standard and state-of-the-art handsets.

[What do you think mobile communications markets will look like in 10 years from now? What is your vision for the industry?]  Dr. Semmoto: the mobile market will become more data-focused, furthermore, broadband focused, which we already have experienced in the fixed telecommunication market (from narrowband data/voice to broadband internet). We will see through these mega trends and we will enforce our competitiveness in order to create brand new markets.

| 09.10.04 | Ramblings in social spaces and places

Where I've been this week in the social web's places and spaces:

• For Linkedin members, Future Social Media Group, if you're interested in engagement and transmedia storytelling and why it's far more than social media then a must read is Alan Moore's discussion.
• If you are interested in the business opportunities rising from the NEXT 4 BILLION mobile handsets then you must read Tomi Ahonen.
• In Social Media Marketing Beyond Facebook & Twitter the article says that for "brands" "five out of 10 social media tools evaluated in the study are being used by more than 50 percent of brands and retailers, with the Facebook Fan Page topping the list with an 86 percent adoption rate".
• McDonald's has been slow to enter the Twitter-sphere. Unlike other brands that got onto the social media site early, McDonald's took its time. The company will officially launch its @McDonalds Twitter site tomorrow.
• Twitter Lists about to launch - "a new feature we're testing with a small subset of users". The idea is to allow people to curate lists of Twitter accounts.
• Brands Stumble On Twitter And Facebook is worth reading, from the Brand Channel and unfollow-friday.
• I find Collecta interesting as you get to know it.. see what people are saying about Real-time search for... right now on Collecta.
• Add Topsy and FourSquare to Place Pages for Google Maps and what do you have - something really exciting full multimedia information plus real time twitterverse!
• Did You Know 4.0 - focuses on the converging media landscape and especially mobile - helpful to put things in context.
• Ten Reasons Why Mobile Advertising Has Not Reached Its Potential - It's not just the third screen! - Reason #5.