June 2017

16 APAC / June 2017 , 1702AP22 Hello, It’s Macquarie TheMacquarie TelecomGroup have a vision to change the telecom industry, and their customer approval ratings show that they are succeeding. The Macquarie Telecom Group journey started when they were an entrepreneurial start-up with a passion for making a difference in customer service and opening the newly deregulated telecom industry. Setting Out to Make a Change The industry was dominated by the monopolist Telstra who called customers “subscribers”, tried to crush competition wherever it emerged and delayed the introduction of new technologies that would erode their profits. Macquarie were the challenger who fought for deregulation, to bring down prices and launch new innovative technology for their customers. Starting with just the savings of their founders, Macquarie differentiated themselves from their competition early on. Crediting customers gave for the opportunity, they changed their service experience and grew from zero to $200m in revenue in 10 years. Macquarie are passionate about continued development and innovation, in 2000 they opened Australia’s first Tier 3 data centre. In 2005 they brought competition and innovation to Government security. In 2011 they brought private cloud compute and cloud storage services to Australia. In 2015 they launched the first WAN that enables customers to embrace SaaS cloud offerings. Alongside this, the group are currently working on future projects which are soon to be launched. What’s in a Name? Macquarie are proudly Australian and named the group after one of the founding fathers. With a vision to reimagining the industry, in the same way Governor Macquarie transformed the country from an open-air prison into a country people actively migrate to, the group try to embrace the power of the human spirit, in the same way Macquarie gave opportunity to all. The Best Customer Experience in Australia Macquarie have always been focused on one customer segment, the underserved corporate customer. Understanding that customers have always had significant complexity in their needs, but lack the depth of IT skills and knowing that customers have always had significant successful businesses, but have become lost in an ocean of statistics and public clouds. They set themselves one goal; the deliver the best customer service experience in Australia. The group have achieved this through the total adoption of Net Promoter Score (NPS). Asking customers to measure their experiences every day using the simple and powerful Net Promotor Score (NPS) question: “How likely is it that you would recommend our company to a friend or colleague?”. This translates into a customer experience score between -100 and +100 with most companies achieving scores in a bell curve in the middle around 0. Changing for good When setting the goal of being the best, they decided that they would change everything to achieve this. Nothing was off limits. They changed the transparency of NPS so everyone internally and externally can see how well they are looking after their customers on a real-time basis. Macquarie were the world’s first company to start sharing this information publicly. Their real- time customer experience score of +66 is the rolling average for the last three months. Macquarie have changed their systems and processes, people hiring profile and even altered their bonus processes to be based on their NPS score achievement. This has brought massive changes to the company, empowering employees, putting the company reputation into the hands of customers and developing trustworthy relationships with current and potential clients. In an industry that is notorious for bad customer service, Macquarie have revolutionised their approach to business to ensure that they change the game and keep it that way. Dedicated account service team Macquarie aim to provide all services for their clients from the start, without the gimmicky promotions that greatly disadvantage existing customers or make long-term clients feel pushed aside in favour of new money. To do this, the group build a team to suit the business’ needs and requirements which is committed to keeping activities on track, so that any issues encountered by businesses and clients are managed and rectified a soon as possible. The account manager is the main point of contact for clients – whether it’s a billing issue, a question about provisioning, or a review of the company’s technology, account managers are available to assist with all issues, queries an advice needed to make sure the client accounts run smoothly, from end to end. Macquarie Telecom provide dedicated account service to cover everything from billing to provisioning. Each of Macquarie’s customers has a voice within Macquarie Telecom – and that’s their Service Manager. They’ll make sure the relationship with Macquarie is always as good as it should be, by holding regular meetings and keeping clients in the loop, sharing information with clients when something goes wrong, and working to fix it and making sure every service is as seamless as possible. The technical consultants provided are tech gurus, they determine what each client needs from their network, and then build a way to deliver it. They also translate tech speak for the less tech-savvy clients. Macquarie’s project managers are responsible for coordinating things, including looking after the delivery and supply of clients’ solutions. They handle all the orders and deliveries, and help to get everything up and running – all while keeping clients up-to- date.