Unpacking Our Expanded Customer Value Proposition

As customer priorities evolved, so have we—that is why we’ve progressed our customer value proposition in tandem to focus on four value pillars. We caught up with Oliver Camplin-Warner, CEO, Telstra International, to tell us more on the story behind our global ambition.

Hey, Oliver! It’s exciting to hear about the expanded customer value proposition and value pillars. Can you tell us more?

With our very diverse, extensive global network, with a real concentration of cables across Asia and the Pacific, Telstra plays a large part in keeping the world connected and running. To support our customers in furthering their business outcomes amid current and evolving market dynamics, we have primed our transformative strategy with a new ambition and tagline: “Global connections. Infinite possibilities.”

‘Service’, ‘Partnership’, ‘Solutions’ and ‘Trust’ are the four value pillars to guide and shape our business. We believe in delivering a service that is second to none and this is reflected in our high NPS score of 58; we want to take a partnership approach with our customers rather than a transactional one; we believe we have the most innovative solutions in the industry for customers to launch their next big idea; and finally our high NPS scores shows that customers can always trust us to deliver on-time and within budget. 

There’s also a great story on how we collaborated with our employees and creative agency to create our customer value proposition and tagline.

Let’s talk about the value pillar on service, how is Telstra International planning to achieve that? 

Day in, day out we are constantly innovating our approach by simplifying processes and improving our multichannel  customer service interactions. As we help our customers go digital, we are also doing the same for our services. 

Whether it’s high bandwidth requirements, private adaptive networks or VOIP solutions, the most frequent complaint I always hear from CEOs and CTOs in any industry is the lead time needed to fix connectivity issues and to get new services online. This is why we launched our Telstra Connect portal to digitise many of our customer service interactions, such as managing incidents, checking of network and ordering new products and services—making it simple for our customers to do business with us. Over 60% of our customers now interact with us through this digital portal and I have made it a goal for the team to get this to 80% within this financial year.

Telstra International aims to be partners in success. What do you envision this to look like?

The global pandemic caught many companies off guard and made C-suite execs re-evaluate the digital side of their business. As the world continues to recover and move on, I want our success to be our customers’ success and vice versa. After receiving many comments from customers mentioning how they appreciate a solution-driven, partnership type of relationship rather than a selling and transactional type of relationship, this is how I want our customer facing teams to behave.

With over 1,600 leading telco experts supporting Telstra International’s enterprise and wholesale businesses, my vision is to help customers today while also preparing their businesses for tomorrow and not get caught off guard again like what happened with COVID.

How can Telstra International’s innovative solutions help customers launch their next big idea? 

I can provide you with a very recent success story! We recently worked with Linode, the world’s largest independent cloud provider, when they underwent expansion during a high-growth period. They wanted a telco partner that offered the requisite network strength, scale and product innovation that could keep pace with their current needs, as well as grow with them into the future.  

To enhance the performance and flexibility of Linode’s cloud offerings, we introduced an adaptable software-defined networking solution, Telstra Programmable Network (TPN), along with our Telstra Connect portal. TPN and Telstra Connect helped future-proof Linode’s network, giving it the ability to turn up network services on-demand, enabling rapid response to seasonal demands and spikes in traffic, and also add resilience to their network. All this contributed to better network management for Linode, and ultimately, a better experience for its customers. 

Telstra International can be trusted to deliver—tell us more about the team and how it is building trust. 

Trust is a powerful word in both daily and business life and we do not use this word lightly. Trust always begins from within and building a team that is aligned with our vision is key. 

We recognise that long-term success largely depends on how we do business, and we are committed to operating in a reliable and ethical manner for the businesses we serve and the global communities where we operate in. This is backed by a foundation of strong corporate governance, commitment to Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) goals, and accountability—assuring customers will be taken care of by an international team of professionals who are trained and rewarded for upholding our values of respect, integrity and inclusivity. 

We were named the Diversity and Inclusion Champion at the Pacific Telecommunications Council Awards in 2022, which acknowledges outstanding contributions being made to improve the ability of people and organisations in the Pacific region. 

How will the acquisition of Digicel Pacific enhance Telstra International’s customer value proposition?

Digicel Pacific is one of the leading telcos in Papua New Guinea, Nauru, Samoa, Tonga and Vanuatu, and Fiji. The acquisition aligns with our core strength of providing global connectivity solutions and adding partnerships and diversity to our portfolio. It also puts us on track for our corporate 2025 strategy of investing in wholesale operations, growing the enterprise business and expanding into new markets. 

Looking ahead, what are Telstra International’s plans? 

We’ll continue to innovate alongside our customers and our partners, creating exciting new possibilities powered by our global connections. Just 12 months ago, when our customers came to us to ask for upgrades or new capacity, that process would take weeks, sometimes months in more complex situations. Because of what we have  delivered during the pandemic, our customers’ expectations have now changed and they expect resolutions in days.

That demand, expectation and dependency on having the capacity when you need it is not going to go away. There is a new level of agility and responsiveness that is being demanded and that is going be front and centre in our future plans.