iTnews

Telstra treads fine line when sending - or suppressing - marketing messages

By Ry Crozier on Apr 21, 2021 6:50AM
Telstra treads fine line when sending - or suppressing - marketing messages

But says tech deployed under T22 transformation is helping.

Telstra said it is treading a fine line in the kinds of digital marketing messages it sends and suppresses based on what it deduces about customers, particularly when it comes to guessing at what they might be able to afford.

Chief marketing officer Jeremy Nicholas told Salesforce Live A/NZ that the telco took into account a larger amount of data when marketing to its customers after system changes made in the T22 transformation.

Nicholas said the carrier’s use of Salesforce marketing cloud, in particular, enabled it to personalise in-store, agent and online experiences for customers to a much greater degree.

“Having a centralised decisioning engine and data source is really key,” he said.

“We’re well down the path on that - we’re not perfect, but that’s been part of this big transformation.”

Nicholas said that customer context was an important factor when determining the types of marketing messages to send and not send.

“If you had an NBN outage in your area, it’s not the right time right now to be selling you something, so to be able to suppress marketing or service messages or actually engage in service and marketing messages, depending on customer behaviour or what they might be experiencing, is hugely important,” Nicholas said.

He raised an example of Telstra using its own data around cellular utilisation to find customers that could benefit from 5G services.

“If you’re in a 5G area and we’ve turned on the cell towers in your area and flipped over to 5G, we’ll see that you’re connecting onto that [tower] say 30-40-50 percent of the time and we’ll say, ‘Hey, we’ve actually rolled out 5G in your area, we can see that the cell tower you use all the time for most of the things you do is actually 5G-enabled. Here’s a great 5G upgrade offer on your new iPhone or Samsung’,” Nicholas said. 

“It’s not like a big creepy thing from Telstra but it’s quite helpful - it’s good to know. It’s not about pressuring you into [buying 5G services] but if you’re interested in [cellular connectivity], here’s something we might be able to help you with.”

Telstra also used first-party data to identify vulnerable sections of its customer base that it believed should be excluded from receiving certain types of messages.

Vulnerability could be determined by factors such as perceived financial literacy, which may be deduced from previous interactions.

“Taking all that into consideration when you’re marketing or selling something … has emerged more strongly in the last four or five years in terms of personalisation,” Nicholas said.

“Suppressing offers or things to people whom you don’t think could afford it or that may get themselves into trouble is something certainly we do pursue. 

“At the same time I’m cognisant of the other points of view which could be, ‘who are you to decide what I can and can’t afford, and what I do and don’t want?’ 

“Obviously you’ve got to counterbalance some of that, but I think we are erring much more on the side of caution and trying to do the right thing by our customers.”

Nicholas said that Telstra was particularly conscious of marketing suppression because, with a large customer base, impacting even a fraction of a single percent with an ill-timed or inadvisable message amounted to thousands of people.

“When you’ve got that many millions of customers, getting it right 99.9 percent of the time is not good enough because out of 8 million [customers] that leaves tens of thousands of people where there’s a problem,” Nicholas said. 

“That’s the thing you’ve got to really strive for, and it’s actually not look at the percentages but look at the raw customer numbers, because that’s where you get the real impact.”

Nicholas added that the telco saw itself as having a duty of care, both regulated via the universal service obligation, but also generally as a large Australian company.

“The most important driving force here is our purpose and trying to look after the country,” he said.

“If we do that really well, then the returns will follow.”

Got a news tip for our journalists? Share it with us anonymously here.
Copyright © iTnews.com.au . All rights reserved.
Tags:
cloudmarketingmessagepersonalisationsuppressiont22telcotelco/isptelstra

Partner Content

Don't miss Australia’s premiere IoT Conference on 9th June
Promoted Content Don't miss Australia’s premiere IoT Conference on 9th June
Avoiding CAPEX by making on-premise IT more cloud-like
Promoted Content Avoiding CAPEX by making on-premise IT more cloud-like
Top 5 Benefits of Managed IT Services
Promoted Content Top 5 Benefits of Managed IT Services
Security "mindset shift" needed to protect organisations
Promoted Content Security "mindset shift" needed to protect organisations

Sponsored Whitepapers

Planning before the breach: You can’t protect what you can’t see
Planning before the breach: You can’t protect what you can’t see
Beyond FTP: Securing and Managing File Transfers
Beyond FTP: Securing and Managing File Transfers
NextGen Security Operations: A Roadmap for the Future
NextGen Security Operations: A Roadmap for the Future
Video: Watch Juniper talk about its Aston Martin partnership
Video: Watch Juniper talk about its Aston Martin partnership
Don’t pay the ransom: A three-step guide to ransomware protection
Don’t pay the ransom: A three-step guide to ransomware protection

Events

  • iTnews Benchmark Awards 2022 - Finalist Showcase
  • IoT Impact Conference
  • Cyber Security for Government Summit
By Ry Crozier
Apr 21 2021
6:50AM
0 Comments

Related Articles

  • Telstra pushes its personalisation engine faster
  • Telstra promotes Michael Ackland to chief financial officer
  • Telstra to drive AI into every part of its business
  • Telstra shows off edge compute in Barcelona
Share on Twitter Share on Facebook Share on LinkedIn Share on Whatsapp Email A Friend

Most Read Articles

NBN Co sizes up six-figure customer exodus a year to fixed wireless

NBN Co sizes up six-figure customer exodus a year to fixed wireless

NBN Co to cut 160 applications under $200m IT simplification

NBN Co to cut 160 applications under $200m IT simplification

What to expect from the incoming Labor government

What to expect from the incoming Labor government

NBN Co's 250Mbps and gigabit growth is finally clear

NBN Co's 250Mbps and gigabit growth is finally clear

Digital Nation

COVER STORY: A Year in the Metaverse
COVER STORY: A Year in the Metaverse
Lendlease launches its own metaverse in Milan
Lendlease launches its own metaverse in Milan
COVER STORY: Data and IoT set digital agriculture on a sustainable future
COVER STORY: Data and IoT set digital agriculture on a sustainable future
CTO Juergen Mueller offers a glimpse into SAP's metaverse play
CTO Juergen Mueller offers a glimpse into SAP's metaverse play
Why do DeFi and DAOs matter to business?
Why do DeFi and DAOs matter to business?
All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed in any form without prior authorisation.
Your use of this website constitutes acceptance of nextmedia's Privacy Policy and Terms & Conditions.