By Aimee Chanthadavong
Optus has defended its decision to cut off telco resellers such as Allphones and Telechoice, saying that its experiences will be better for consumers and that third party retailers are too aggressive when dealing with customers.
Speaking at Optus’ brand refresh event in Sydney yesterday, Optus MD of sales, Rohan Ganeson said resellers were not engaging enough and were too concerned with ‘flogging’ phones.
“We believe [that] investing more in our stores, investing more online and investing into our people will deliver [the] results we need them to, but also deliver a greater experience for our customers overall,” he said. “We think the renewed focus will give a cleaner, more engaging…customer experience — much more enjoyable — rather than going in and having a phone flogged to you.”
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Ganeson said that in addition to wanting to improve the experience for customers, Optus had too many resellers prior to the axing.
“We are fundamentally over distributed and have been across the board. If you see different stores doing the same thing in the mall then you know you’ve over invested in distribution. So we are going back to a strong branded presence in cases that matter to us.”
Now that Optus has a more direct path to consumers, through its ubiquitous Optus retail stores, Ganeson believes the brand can create relationships with consumers.
“It becomes about the relationship you build with people and those relationships are important. We know people inside the sales process — it’s [an] important thing that drives the sale.”
Optus’ new branding will be rolled out over the next 6-to-8 weeks. This will see the introduction of the new Optus ‘Yes’ logo with a lighter teal and brightened yellow toning.
Its digital, television, print and in-store campaigns will be represented by their new mascot nicknamed ‘Ollie’, while the company will also be reaching out to customers with their ‘Declaration of YES’.