Singtel Optus is the 2nd largest telecommunications provider in Australia with over 31.4% subscriber market share for mobile. While they experienced a recent decline in total revenue in FY22, mobile revenue is up 6.9% YOY. Importantly it added 273,000 new subscribers in FY22 while increasing the average revenue per user (ARPU) by 8.1% proving their exceptional customer experience.
The telco is currently focusing on deploying its 5G towers in coastal capitals and inner cities. Recently, the telco deployed its 5G Innovation Hub at the heart of Sydney’s Central Business District (CBD). Here, individuals can experience the full digital brilliance of the 5G era. Consumers may test products, read use cases, plan business strategies and demo 5G technology.
Drive for CX
“We’re up to about 150 bots, but it’s actually more about the processes: how many processes can you run with a bot?… Think of it like how many tasks or jobs a person can do in one day. If you can have that and you can expand that across a bot that runs 24×7, how many tasks can you get the bot to do?” – Ruth Santangelo, Associate director of digital, service and automation
twimbit conducted a detailed study to identify the top 10 telcos in APAC to ace customer experience. We benchmarked telcos across four pillars: digital experience, service experience, employee experience and brand experience.
Optus placed 7th in the analysis of customer experience. Their strong drive to integrate automation using bots has led to the ability to deliver exceptional customer experience. Optus is the only telco among the ten telcos with such heavy emphasis on bots and virtualisation. Furthermore, they have multiple initiatives to nurture this vision and up-skilling employees for new-age technology.
Key initiatives
Driving ‘automation’ via bots
As part of their continuous effort to bolster digital capabilities and customer experience, Optus has invested in automation technologies to improve routine tasks and rule-based decision-making. Over 150 bots are currently running over 300 automated solutions in the company. Optus has conducted several programs such as Build-a-Bot Hackathons, iAutomate centre of excellence, and Optus’ Automation Academy to further propel its goal of automation by up-skilling employees for automation roles.
Among the bots prepared during the hackathon:
Talent Acquisition Robot Assistant (TARA): This robot assistant automatically scans and categorises resumes, enabling recruiters to deal with people instead of paper.
RobotSmith: A virtual contact centre agent logs into Optus Business-managed customer environments and confirms if they are functioning.
Putting customers in command of their connectivity
Optus Living Network is an application designed to enable customisation of the consumer’s network plans. This approach is in stark contrast to how a traditional telco operates. It enables users to customise their network experience.
Creating a future-ready workforce
Optus has initiated programs to equip employees with skills capable of handling emerging technologies. Collaborating with ICT companies, they focus on up-skilling their employees, exposing them to different digital programs.
This collaboration has seen significant traction. In FY21, they had over 580 employees certified in intelligent automation, process analysis and design, robotic process automation, digital process automation and artificial intelligence. The leading initiatives include:
Optus Cloud Academy & Optus U: Micro-credential program: Optus partnered with AWS to equip their employees with the skills in cloud and other technologies.
Intelligent Automation Academy: Modules built by Optus are learnt and supported by UiPath and Microsoft automation experts.
‘Donate Your Data’ helps the underprivileged
The telco developed a campaign called ‘Donate Your Data’ to help the underprivileged. In this campaign, customers can donate unused data to young people, their families and other Australians in need. This campaign has benefited a large number of individuals and has seen an extremely large amount of data donated by customers
How you can match up with/to Optus
Singtel Optus prioritised automation to enhance their digital service, brand and employee experience. Meanwhile, initiatives such as Optus Academy and donating data are focused on building and aiding individuals. Optus has differentiated on three key pillars:
- Put customers in control of their connectivity
- Skilled employees as a digital strategy
- Use technology to overcome social disparities