Customers: At the centre of everything we do
This year’s performance is the result of Optus’ strong customer-led strategy. We’ve put our customers’ needs first in the decisions we have made and actions we have taken – delivering Australia’s fastest 5G mobile network, creating new experiences that enrich their lives through the Living Network, and offering significant value to them through competitively priced products and services. Our innovation credentials have also been recognised, with Optus named as one of Australia’s most innovative companies. As a result, we’ve seen 425,000 new customers join Optus, enhancements to our products and service offerings, and improvement in our ROIC and profitability growth.
We also brought our Consumer and Enterprise businesses together, creating an integrated ‘One Optus’ to serve all Australian customers. The newly formed Enterprise and Business division creates the opportunity to deliver scale and synergies and saw Optus gain traction in all segments of the B2B market, as well as deliver initial cost efficiencies.
Whilst these achievements are positive, we recognise that we have more work to do to achieve our vision to be Australia’s most loved everyday brand with lasting customer relationships. We strive to play a positive role in our customers’ lives by driving regular positive engagement, and enhancing their digital engagement, and we remain focused on building their trust and loyalty in the year ahead.
Delivering real value
Many Australian households are being careful with their spending, with near historical low consumer confidence metrics showing the impacts of high inflation, rising interest rates and economic uncertainties. Optus is offering customers more value in the ways it will matter most, whether it’s our flexible Choice Plans which provide exceptional value compared to our main competitor, our newly refreshed Roaming Plans to delight those venturing overseas again, or our differentiated O-Team and Smart Spaces services to help run a more efficient and connected home.
Optus also continued to increase the options available on our world-first SubHub product, which simplifies management of customers’ myriad of subscription services – and the unique opportunity to trial and save up to 10% on their services. Now with 16 partners, Optus SubHub offers customers an even wider variety of choices to bundle and save, including popular platforms like Netflix, Amazon Prime, Paramount+ and now Microsoft 365 and Binge as well.
Optus Sport reinforced its commitment to streaming the world’s best football for sport-loving Australians, by streaming not only the Premier League, but also securing the Australian media rights to the final tournament of the UEFA EURO 2024, the exclusive Australian rights to Spain’s LaLiga as well as holding the Australian media rights to the FIFA Women’s World Cup 2023, to be held from July to August 2023 in Australia and New Zealand.
Putting customers in control of their connectivity
We continue to provide customers with new reasons to engage with us, including launching additional features on our Living Network. Launched in May 2021, the Optus Living Network offers a range of on-demand innovative network features designed to empower them to transform their daily connected experience within the category-leading My Optus App.
One noteworthy Living Network addition is Network Pulse, a new interactive feature that provides customers with unique transparency in relation to the quality of their connection. Unlike anything any other telco has offered, Network Pulse provides real-time details on the strength and speed of their connection, whether they are streaming, gaming or making video calls. And if a customer wants to increase their mobile or home internet network performance, they can pay for a Turbocharge on demand!
In addition to Network Pulse, the Optus Living Network includes Internet and Mobile Turbocharge, Unlimited Data Day, Donate Your Data, Donate Your Device, Call Translate, Optus Pause, WiFi Secure®, Game Path, Sidekick, Call Notes and Optus Eco, with more features to come.
More customer connectivity
We’ve rolled out an additional 1,200 5G sites and switched on our 3,000th 5G site this year. We’ve also expanded the breadth of our 5G coverage, taking it far and wide to places like Tasmania, Townsville, Mackay and remote Northern Territory, just to name a few. This year, Opensignal named Optus Australia’s Fastest 5G for mobile download speeds for the third year in a row, with an average of 240.5Mbps.
Winning back customer trust
Optus is committed to rebuilding trust following the cyber attack which targeted our customers’ personal information. We are deeply sorry this attack happened on our watch, and we are determined to do better in the future.
We’ve made a series of commitments and investments to lift our cyber capabilities, provide additional protections and tools for our customers, and share insights and learnings to help protect Australia more broadly.
Building capabilities customers expect
Optus is taking an innovative approach to ensure we have the skills required to deliver what our customers need now and to anticipate what they will need in the future.
Optus customers embrace digital – with over 87% of service interactions delivered via self-serve digital channels – and we’ve continued to leverage Contact Centre AI technology to improve our service offering and help reduce customer wait times.
We are also equipping our teams with enhanced digital skills and accreditation to better support customer outcomes and career development. Now in its third year, Optus U, delivered in partnership with Australian universities, creates bespoke curriculums and delivers our people micro-credential programmes that focus on the skills needed to drive our business to future success. This year, Optus also welcomed our biggest ever graduate cohort, with 50 science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) graduates taking part in our newly established Tech Talent Incubator programme, a bespoke multi-year graduate programme designed to ensure we attract the very best talent in the market to serve our customers.
Powering optimism with options for our customers
We truly value our customers’ loyalty and commitment to us, and are determined to provide value for money with more options and unique features that matter to them and to empower them to be more connected than ever and optimistic about their futures.
We will continue to prioritise our customers in the decisions we make and the actions we take so we can achieve our vision of becoming Australia’s most loved everyday brand with lasting customer relationships.
