Optus is planning a major revamp of its retail stores for early next year, and has discontinued business arrangements with major players in its reseller channels in an effort to take control of and improve its brand image.
According to the Australian Financial Review, Allphones is the latest major Optus partner to be trimmed from the telco’s reseller network. This follows the announcement by Optus to cut ties with Telechoice and youth-brand Boost Mobile over a month ago.
Instead, Optus will open 33 new retail stores and introduce new customer service functions, including a place where customers can troubleshoot technical issues, similar to Apple’s Genius Bars. Optus is hoping that this will improve its relationship with its customers and encourage them to maintain their subscriptions beyond the initial 24-month contract period.
It’s not all about customer service, though. There are large savings to be made in shrinking its retail channels, which will follow the 750 job cuts made by the telco this year.