The last thing you want is for a hostile pack of politicians to be conveying to the public their version of updates.
Medibank adopted this approach quite successfully when it fell victim to a cyberattack last year.
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In response to the disaster this week, Optus posted on social media early on Wednesday saying it was aware of the outage and was trying to fix it. Bayer Rosmarin then spoke to the ABC mid-morning and did a few radio interviews around lunchtime. She communicated with other media in the evening after the network was restored.
Therefore, Bayer Rosmarin disputes she wasn’t conveying her message adequately.
That said, other than repeated apologies, Bayer Rosmarin’s communications machine is yielding little. Meanwhile, she has inflamed critics and some parts of the government by suggesting that offering a couple of dollars compensation for retail customers is meaningless.
Bayer Rosmarin’s point is reasonable but only for those customers for whom the outage was just annoying or inconvenient. For those whose businesses lost sales, it is a different matter, and Optus is yet to tell them if, or how, they might be compensated.
In 2016, when its rival Telstra suffered four network outages, that company’s then chief executive, Andy Penn, offered customers free data for days. That worked back then, when data was expensive, but that solution won’t work today. Compensation for Telstra’s commercial customers was conducted on a case-by-case basis.
Penn also responded by announcing an additional $250 million would be invested in the network as insurance against similar outages happening again.
Perhaps Optus’ biggest communications sin was missing the opportunity to address the crisis on Thursday, when the company’s parent, SingTel, released its half-year result.
It wasn’t a great profit performance for Optus as earnings before interest and tax fell 14 per cent in the half-year to September. But on the plus side, Optus’ customer base grew by 167,000.
And unfortunately, one line that survived the editing of the profit press release was a quote from Bayer Rosmarin: “We will continue to work to delight customers who are looking for value, innovation and a great network experience.”
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That “great network experience” will colour how customers will respond to this disaster. Optus lost customers after the hacking affair, but has been adding new customers in recent months, and only a few months ago had received a boost from having broadcast rights to the Matildas’ FIFA World Cup campaign.
Bayer Rosmarin now has challenges ahead – holding on to existing customers and enticing new ones.
And perversely, innovations that were not around seven years ago during Telstra’s outage, now make it easier for more technologically savvy customers to move faster.
Kogan Mobile, which is a reseller, took to social media on Wednesday during the Optus outage offering 60 per cent off eSIMs (virtual SIM cards), which enable people to switch networks almost instantly. It said yesterday it had a 400 per cent lift in sales than on a normal day.
Kogan alone won’t move the dial, but Optus’ other competitors will also be looking to soak up some of the spoils.
They won’t want to be seen dancing on a competitor’s grave – at least not publicly.
