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Optus is challenging the communications market in a bid to become Australia’s “most loved service brand”. By harnessing Salesforce’s #unfairadvantage derived from a suite of clouds, the challenger is much closer to making that a reality.

Excellence in customer service tends to come from a platform that delivers speed, flexibility and simplicity so that service teams can react easily to customers’ needs. Optus was struggling with an environment more characterised by complexity, inefficiency and “clutter”.

The biggest challenge says Francis Martin, Head of Sales Development and Operations at Optus, was that administration was onerous and sometimes involved “double-handling”. The reason for this complexity was 10 disparate systems to service frontline teams in its SMB Business.

As Reid Meldrum, Head of Channels describes, Optus’ approach was to “get the basics right” in the way that compliance, pipeline management and customer service were managed. The #unfairadvantage Optus has gained from deploying Salesforce - including [Sales Cloud, Marketing Cloud, Salesforce1 Platform and apps from the Salesforce AppExchange] – means, in Reid’s own words, they have been able to “digitise the frontline.”

Fundamental to this is the ability to reduce processes so deals can close much faster - 5 days faster in fact. Even more - as Frances Martin describes - the Salesforce1 Platform gives them the ability to be relevant to the customer “in the moment”.

A great example was when one customer service representative bringing on board a new customer was able to meet his contact in the airport before they flew to Hawaii on business, build a customised offer on-the-spot and sign it on glass on an iPad in the departure lounge before he boarded his plane. This kind of flexibility - to be where the customer is at a time that suits them - is essential in today’s fast-pace business world.

“I think it’s the simplicity, and you know...our staff love it as much as the customers!” Frances Martin, Head of Sales Development and Operations.

As a result of Salesforce Optus has already see a “40 point increase in customer satisfaction” according to Reid Meldrum, making it an “absolute game changer”.

You can learn more about how Optus is making using af an integrated Salesforce system to win the market in their amazing story:

 


We were also lucky enough to be joined by David Palmer, Director, Northern Region Business Channels, at Salesforce World Tour in Melbourne in March to talk through how Optus is growing sales faster. You can watch the video replay here or read more about their story on our website here.