Optus employees will be out of a job if they are found to be upsetting customers with staff encouraged to dob in their colleagues who aren’t providing adequate customer service.
According to the Brisbane Times, the company is working to increase customer satisfaction, after being reported as one of the most complained about telcos in the country.
An Optus staff member reportedly told the publication Singtel Optus chief executive Allen Lew sent a strong warning to employees across the country that they will be sacked if they aren’t up-to-scratch.
“The customer is why we exist. If you make customers unhappy, you will be sacked,” the employee told the Brisbane Times.
The CEO also urged employees to make reports to the complaints hotline about any colleagues who have upset customers in call centres or in store.
Read more: Optus and Telstra named ‘worst telcos’ as customer complaints surge: Report
This news follows reports released by the Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman (TIO), highlighting Optus and Telstra as the most complained about telcos.
The data showed Optus Group, which includes Virgin, had a 35 per cent increase in complaints compared to the previous year, with 40,665 complaints received about Optus, compared to 30,120 during the 2016-17 financial year.
Meanwhile, the TIO received 82,528 customer complaints (up 7.7 per cent) about Telstra in the last financial year. While the NBN hasn’t done too well in previous TIO reports, this year’s report saw them improve significantly.
According to the report, the majority of complaints made to the TIO (51, 328) were about mobile phone services, with the most complained about issue being the time it took for a service provider to address or fix issues with phone or internet services.
Read more: Telco report reveals customers are waiting three weeks for service
The shocking statistics, followed the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission’s (ACCC) announcement that they had commenced proceedings against Optus, alleging it made false or misleading representation to consumers in relation to its third-party billing service known as ‘Direct Carrier Billing’ (DCB).
Optus has admitted that it was aware, from at least April 2014, its DCB service led a significant number of consumers to be charged for premium content such as ringtones and games, that they didn’t want and hadn’t agreed to buy.
The mobile provider now might be forced to pay $10 million in penalties. Optus has also offered to refund all customers affected by the service — it’s possible that more than 240,000 customers were affected.
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