Telstra launches ‘Thanks’ loyalty program
Telstra has announced a new loyalty program offering movie tickets, access to live music and sport to customers.
The loyalty program is call ‘Thanks’ and was launched today by Telstra chief marketing officer Mark Buckman today in an attempt to drive customer advocacy.
“Our customers were telling us they wanted to have their loyalty recognised,” said Buckman.
“We want our customers to turn into advocates for our business. They stay longer with you, they spend more money with you and they recommend you to friends and family.”
So, exactly what Optus already offers?
I will just settle for good 3G and mobile coverage. No wasteful marketing.
I’d rather they just offer decent customer service and fair prices.
As a reward could Telstra remove the surcharge I have to pay when I pay by credit card over the phone?
Simple.
It is absolutely super that Telstra have discovered loyalty and customer advocacy. Gosh, we were only talking about in the early 90s too.
You want to reward me for loyalty Telstra?!
How about picking up the bloody telephone and letting me know when there’s a spare ADSL2 port at my exchange?
Telstra spent a lot of money in last weekend’s press with two full colour page ads in which it vowed, among other promises, that it was “working hard to ensure you have the right advice when you need it, with round-the-clock phone support”.
The ads did not bear a telephone number. We are talking Telstra here – a telecommunications company. Is this some kind of a joke?
Telstra is the worst company I have ever had to deal with. Very bad customer services. There prices are extreme. Very slow internet. The people on the end of the phone are not trained. Telstra must be ubiquitous the top 10 worst companys in the world.
Hi Dave,
I tend to disagree. I used to absolutely hate the company’s poor customer service – particularly three to six years ago. In my experience it’s improved a lot. It’s not there yet, but it is much better than it was.
As to speed of internet, it depends what product you are paying for (I presume you are referring to a landline service) . If you’re in a metro location. their 4G wireless service is astonishingly fast, by the way.
Cheers,
Tim – Mumbrella
Am I right in thinking that internet speed capacity is a finite concept within the available infrastructure?
IE: The more 4G-tastic it is in the urban then the slower it goes everywhere else?
Customers of course pay the same rates where-ever they are don’t they
Tim!! You are much more clever and successful than I, but on this point you are misguided, if not just plain wrong. 5 to 8 years ago I could come home from work, have dinner, watch the news and then call Telstra to discuss an Issue. Better Yet, they would often call me to check if my plan was working for me. Once an (Australian) Operator even found an unfair charge, and credited my bill with 6 months of that charge.
Telstra’s Customer Service has NOT Improved. It has slipped so horrifically, that they may as well bite the bullet and become a bank.
Hi James,
I guess we must simply have had different experiences. For me they were at their worst about five to six years ago, at the point service was better for you. At that point, I used to utterly hate them. I still remember being told off by one helpdesk staffer (who was unable to get to the bottom of why I still had no service weeks after signing up) for keeping him on the phone beyond his going home time… then he hung up. My own experiences are better in recent years.
Cheers,
Tim – Mumbrella
With the “broadband” running at an astonishing 0.5 megabits per second during peak times in our street. I am looking forward to the movie tickets for loyalty. Because there’s certainly no way I can watch video via Telstra. After going through several levels of complaint escalation (some helpful staff some not, to be balanced) they admit that it is congestion at the exchange and further admit that they sold me the “fast broadband” service knowing it was congested. That they continue to sell into the same congested exchange, that they “have no plans to upgrade” the exchange. Clearly they are better at marketing than providing 20th (sic) century telecoms. And they can count on my loyalty because there is no other choice because even any unbundled service would have to use the same creaking infrastructure, which they won’t upgrade. And this is inside the metro area and, yes, I could use mobile and get much better data rates and pay many times more per gigabyte.
How do I become a member so that I can take advantage of ticket presales