How Aussie Broadband become a customer service hero

Now a household name, Aussie Broadband had its beginnings in the loungeroom of a home in Morwell, Victoria, more than 17 years ago.

Today it’s the fifth largest provider of NBN services across Australia, and regularly takes home accolades such as being named Customer Service Organisation of the Year – Large and Service Champion (runner up) for Customer Service Project of the Year – Service Innovation at the recent CSIA awards.

And while theirs isn’t quite an ‘overnight’ success story, Aussie Broadband has nailed the winning formula of being a trusted telco provider as well as an outstanding employer and a customer service hero.

Janet Granger-Wilcox, General Manager Corporate Affairs at Aussie Broadband, says it’s their people that give Aussie the edge.

“We have always followed the philosophy that if our staff are happy, our customers will be happy,” she says. “We look for staff who can first and foremost align with our values (don’t be ordinary be awesome, think big, no bullsh*t, be good to people and have fun),” she says.

“That willingness to use our values at every level of the business is why our team is so successful. We have a cutting-edge inclusion program helping staff to bring their whole selves to work if they choose, we encourage experimentation without blame, we set and play for breakthrough targets and we have high levels of internal promotions.”

The company has grown from providing 18,300 broadband services to more than 490,000 in five years, but rather than be thrown by the challenges of such rapid growth, Aussie Broadband has always managed to stay ahead of the curve, and on track.

“We encourage innovative thinking, with a strong emphasis on experimenting without fear,” Janet says. “This has led to initiatives such as our CVC bot which helps to monitor and manage our network for optimum customer experience, and a program that helps to detect customers affected by natural disasters in some states, then offer customised support.

“Continual automation is another strong factor in our success.”

In addition to taking out the Customer Service Organisation of the Year, Aussie also won Customer Service Project of the Year – Service Innovation, for their game changing Carbon platform.

“Carbon is an industry-leading, one-stop-shop for everything business and enterprise customers need,” Janet explains.

“Essentially, it gives our customers a level of control over their services that they’ve never had access to before. It allows them to fully customise, design and order telecommunication services at the touch of a button and turns processes that previously took months into minutes.”

Despite disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, Aussie Broadband is continuing to grow, with a project underway to build its own multi-million dollar fibre network to replace leased infrastructure.

“We are in an industry that people heavily relied on during the peaks of the pandemic, and so demand for our services has increased,” Janet says. 

“As to how we’ve managed to keep kicking goals, it’s really about getting back to basics – our leadership, our people, our values, our culture.  They are the backbone, and enable our people to do their thing, and do it well.”