Following a successful year, Telstra has now opened its 32nd store.

Telstra Consumer, executive director, Andy Ellis, said that the Sydney T [life] store had exceeded expectations during its first year of business and the flagship Melbourne T [life] shop was also off to a great start.

“We are revolutionising the customer experience in telecommunications,” said Ellis.

“We have put the customer at the centre of the retailing experience and T [life] customers are buying double our normal sales conversion rates on mobile services at T [life] shops compared to that of our traditional Telstra shops and average APRU (average revenue per user) levels are also up.

“We recently celebrated our 32nd T [life] store opening and our intention is to open 60 by the end of the financial year. The T [life] concept of trying before you buy has proven extremely popular with our customers and is helping put us ahead of our competitors, with service and products that they simply cannot match,” said Ellis.

Since the trial tutorial programs commenced, more than 2500 one-on-one Mentor sessions have taken place, with an average satisfaction rating to date of 94 per cent, according to Ellis.

“We are seeing that mentored customers purchase 66 per cent more browsing packs and their data usage is more than 1.5 times that of customers that have not been mentored.

“More than 4000 individual My-place consultations have occurred since November 2007, with more than nine out of 10 customers satisfied with the service. We’ve moved away from a one-size-fits-all approach and customers are thrilled with the flexibility and freedom T [life] offers them,” added Ellis.