Executive summary

As Australia’s second-largest telecommunications provider, Optus is in the business of connecting people. They offer a broad range of communications services to over 10 million customers every day. While they are a company that is focused on equipping homes and businesses with technology and entertainment, their vision is to lead Australia in providing an outstanding customer experience. To accomplish their goals, Optus leveraged Khoros Community and Care to reduce costs, improve resolution rates, and build customer loyalty. 

Optus worked hard to implement a Khoros-powered community, but they realized they weren’t fully leveraging the technology. They set about developing an overarching Customer Service Strategy. Their strategy had the dual goals of meeting the shift in customer expectations of digital support while also reducing support costs, and fully realizing the potential of their community was a key part of reaching their goals. Optus set out to deflect 350,000 calls from the call center to My Optus Community during the first fiscal year of their new strategy. They sought to achieve financial benefits and unlock the potential of peer-to-peer customer support. In conjunction with their new strategy, Optus onboarded Khoros Care to target apathetic competitor customers through active listening on social media.

The combination of executive support, solid strategy, and a focused team delivered an outstanding set of outcomes for My Optus Community and Khoros Care. Optus saw a significant impact in their traffic and resolution rates as well as in the growth of their Super User program. They saw a 107-percent increase in traffic to the community during the first year of their new strategy. Community members now have the control to identify support content they want and think other members might need, allowing Optus to scale the volume of content available. The Optus social service team was recognized as the #1 Socially Devoted brand in Australia by Social Bakers for four quarters in a row. With social listening, supported by Khoros Care, the Optus sales team also engaged nearly 5,000 prospects over the course of the first year of their new strategy, with an 89-percent engagement rate. Of those newly engaged customers, the sales team realized a 13-percent conversion rate, which led to more than $400K in annualized revenue to the business.

“With Khoros, we are positioned to lead Australian telecom brands in providing unparalleled customer service.”

— Karen Le
Community Manager, Optus