TELSTRA has joined forces with Facebook to provide a new online live chat service for customers querying billing or looking to set up new accounts.
"We need to get where our customers are, and Facebook has 10 million regular users [in Australia] and it makes sense for us to deliver our services there," Telstra head of digital Gerd Schenkel says.
The live-chat function is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week in recognition that customers often need questions answered outside business hours, Schenkel says.
Telstra has also reached out on Twitter, where a team monitors comments and posts replies. That service is being extended to a 24-7 platform.
Schenkel says the Twitter platform, with its 2 million users, is one of the best to deal with customer inquiries and that many issues were resolved within one hour.
Telstra's push to further engage with customers online speaks to a recognition by businesses of the need to adapt to changing consumer patterns. The shift in approach within the technology and communication industry is underscored by Google's $US12.5 billion ($12bn) deal to acquire Motorola Mobility, the devices division of the company.
Telstra chief David Thodey told a Melbourne Press Club lunch yesterday the deal showed Google had realised it needed to better integrate its operating system - Android - with mobile phone hardware.
"By acquiring Motorola mobiles, it will likely make a better product," he said.
Telstra sells several phones that use Google's Android operating system - the rival to Apple's iPhone - and Thodey questioned how the company best known for its eponymous search engine would deal with being a manufacturer.
"They've always had a model that they are innovators and they make money out of advertising dollars," he said. "Google's model is not to talk to customers."
Telstra's social-media strategy is part of the telco's push to complete more transactions via the web.
