Optus’ Community of Experts wins customer service excellence award

• Optus has been recognised as an ABA100® Winner for Service Excellence in the Australian Business Awards 2023. 
• The awards celebrate organisations setting the standard for Customer Service excellence.

Optus' innovative Community of Experts (CoEx), designed to set new standards in customer service has been recognised as an ABA100® Winner for Service Excellence in The Australian Business Awards 2023.

Launched in 2020, CoEx was created to offer uniquely personalised customer support, remove complicated phone menus, ensure end-to-end accountability and eliminate the need for call transferring.

Maurice McCarthy, Managing Director for Customer Success at Optus, said, “We are proud winners of the ABA100® Service Excellence award, which reinforces our unwavering commitment to raising the bar on customer service as we strive to become Australia’s most loved everyday brand with lasting customer relationships.”

Optus has invested over 170,000 hours of training for the multi-disciplinary Experts team to be able to handle all conversations and as a result has cut customer call-wait times in half.

One of the Community of Experts goals was to resolve customer enquiries on the first contact, reducing call centre frustration and run around.

In 2023, the Community of Experts delivered a double digit increase in customers who had their enquiry resolved in the first phone call to Optus while the customer call transfer rate to other departments was slashed to just 0.1%.

Tommy Tzirtis, Vice President Customer Contact Centres at Optus, said, “When we introduced the Community of Experts three years ago, we knew we were embarking on the most significant customer care transformation in Optus’ history.

“We also knew that this service model would save our customers time, improve their experience when seeking assistance from us and elevate the service standards across the industry.”

Customers call Optus for a range of enquiries, such as renewing their contract or learning more about our Living Network features, but when they call they return to the same team; their Community of Experts.

Experts are empowered and multi-skilled in technical support, customer payment support and sales across all channels so they can handle all potential voice and messaging inquiries.

To deliver dynamic, intelligent and meaningful experiences, Optus also invested in new technology for its call centres.

This includes replacing the traditional, complicated push button phone menu with AI innovation. 

The Australian Business Award for Service Excellence recognise organisations that have successfully implemented initiatives that demonstrate leadership and commitment to Customer Service excellence.