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  • 'Make customers unhappy, you will be sacked': Optus CEO blasts staff
  • By Jennifer Duke
  • 29/10/2018 Make a Comment
  • Contributed by: Pina ( 12 articles in 2018 )
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Singtel Optus chief executive Allen Lew has told staff "they will be sacked" if they are found to be upsetting customers and has encouraged employees to "dob in" colleagues who are not up to scratch, after the telco had a 35 per cent surge in complaints.

The telecommunications company holds weekly “TGIF” (Thank God It’s Friday) meetings, where Mr Lew speaks to hundreds of Optus’ staff in person at the business’ Macquarie Park campus in Sydney and live-streams the conference to Brisbane, Melbourne and Perth. At the last two TGIFs a furious Mr Lew warned employees of his no-nonsense approach to improving their reputation with Australians.

“The customer is why we exist. If you make customers unhappy, you will be sacked," Mr Lew told employees, according to a staff member at the meeting.

Two weeks ago, the Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman released data showing a jump in complaints from Optus customers, with 40,665 issues brought to the ombudsman’s attention in the last financial year. This included the period covering the telco’s World Cup fiasco, where customers trying to stream struggled to view the matches, ultimately leading Optus to share its exclusive rights with public broadcaster SBS.

On the same day as the TIO data was released, the competition regulator revealed plans to encourage the court to hit Optus with a $10 million fine over potentially misleading billing charges that resulted in 600,000 customer inquiries.

In a sign of how seriously the Optus boss is taking the news, Mr Lew is now encouraging staff to use the telco’s independently-run whistleblower hotline to report colleagues believed to have been upsetting customers. This phone line has typically been used for employees to report instances of fraud, corruption and unethical conduct.

"At Optus there is only one boss: not me, the customer."
— Optus CEO Allen Lew

Seven West Media finance and business reporter Gemma Acton’s television segment on the complaints was shown to staff during one of the Friday sessions, during which a resident of western Sydney suburb of Willmot was interviewed. The Sydneysider said "constant drop-outs and no-show technicians" had her saying "see ya later" to Optus.

Ms Acton then pointed out the telco's "astonishing" jump in complaints in the TIO’s report.

“Watch this and be embarrassed,” Mr Lew said.

“At Optus there is only one boss: not me, the customer,” he said.

Rival Telstra had a 7.7 per cent increase in complaints to 82,528, while TPG Telecom and Vodafone Hutchison Australia had improved year-on-year in the results.

The only telco with a bigger increase in complaints than Optus within the data set was smaller telco MyRepublic, with a 101.6 per cent rise to 1816, largely explained by a mathematical quirk as the provider recently launched and now has many more customers.

Optus vice president of regulatory and public affairs Andrew Sheridan said in a statement that Mr Lew was "passionate about customer service and in a recent address to staff did not sugarcoat his bitter disappointment regarding Optus’ performance in a recent annual TIO complaints report".

"Allen expects every Optus employee to be clear that we are all answerable to our customers, and that we are all responsible for delivering exceptional customer experience, not just those interacting with customers through stores and call centres," Mr Sheridan said.

The CEPU Communications Union national president Shane Murphy slammed Mr Lew's comments describing them as "outrageous".

“Optus workers are just trying to do their jobs under very difficult circumstances. Of course customers are unhappy – they’re unhappy because rather than improving Optus services, management at the telco is more focused on axing jobs and threatening staff," Mr Murphy said in a statement.

Response:
Union slams Optus chief Allen Lew's threats to fire staff over complaints surge

Source: https://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/business/companies/make-customers-unhappy-you-will-be-sacked-optus-ceo-blasts-staff-20181029-p50clv.html


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