Telstra has started a person to person campaign seeking converts to their new Next G technology. They plan to go door to door to people currently on the older CDMA network and try to talk to them about the virtues of switching to Next G.
Telstra is calling these evangelical network service pitch makers “cellular advocates”. The company plans to send 57 of them out into carious parts of Australia where the idea of a Next g network change has not taken hold.
Why the series of house calls? Telstra is aiming this initiative at people (mostly farmers and other rural Australians) who have equipment that won’t work on the Next G network. They purportedly want to educate their client base on the proper equipment to invest in for making the switch, be it cell phones or routers.
From ZDN: The National Farmers’ Federation has repeatedly objected to the closure of the CDMA network in favour of Next G. A survey of 1,200 farmers carried out by the NFF last week found that 71 percent believed CDMA to be more reliable than Next G and 23 percent said they had yet to make the switch to the 3G network.
Each of the advocates are local to the zone they will be advocating within, in hopes that they will better connect with the Telstra’s customer base. While in the customer’s home the agents are supposed to offer assistance on existing non-Next G compliant devices while discussing the switch to Next G – fixing minor equipment issues, testing SIM cards and more.
It isn’t clear how Telstra came about the idea, however; in light of recent drags on Telstra’s customer satisfaction ratings during the upheaval of CDMA for Next G, we must assume part of the plan is to not only pave the way for their new network standard but also to improve their standing and status overall. The personal touch may just be what saves them.
