The challenge
The operations team of Telstra’s Retail Partner Channel needed to create a suite of written documents to go out to their external Telstra partner stores, to ensure the store owners understood the key operational, visual merchandising, brand, communications and compliance obligations of their partnership with Telstra.
Not having these documents was causing an excessive reliance by the partners on the individual members of the Telstra operations team for support with daily activities and questions, impeding the ability of the team to focus on other work. The team recognised that a professional technical writer would be best placed to tackle the challenge and deliver a suite of documents that would help partners understand and follow their obligations, reducing pressure on the operations team.
The team also needed a Welcome Pack designed and written for those partners, as well as their own processes documented for potential training of new operations team members, as well as to guide other staff performing other roles within the Retail Partner Channel team, with whom the operations team worked closely (for example, the individual retail store account managers).
Client’s overview of the project goals and benefits
“…to scope, detail and deliver a suite of master documents that will cover all aspects of onboarding new partners, channel operations, training guides & standard operating procedures (SOP). The creation of these manuals will mean that we will have a full set of documents that can help onboard partners, detail financial and sales processes and provide full visibility of TDAs and POR / PWC results. We will also have all risk and compliance process documents completed so that they clearly capture all responsibilities and timelines, ensuring no questions go unanswered and we have a single source of truth to make all of our, and our partners’, lives much easier.”
What we did – the analysis, design and writing process
Over an 8-month period, we worked closely with subject-matter experts in the operations team to design, write and deliver a suite of 10 key documents.
Through one-on-one and group meetings, we gathered key information that needed to be communicated, with a focus on designing and writing the documents for maximum readability. Each manual had a different focus, audience and goals around what needed to be communicated, and we designed and wrote each in line with these goals.
We analysed and considered the likely knowledge level and barriers that the audience might have faced in understanding their key obligations to Telstra, and wrote the content accordingly, often translating highly technical content into more easily understood information (for example, using bullet points, plain, concise language, different colours and boxes to highlight key information, turning chunks of complex text into easy-to-understand diagrams, making sure all key words in the text and internal references were hyperlinked, etc.)
We also wrote the Welcome Pack, welcoming new retail partners to Telstra, and giving them a snapshot of their key obligations and key sources of important information to get them operational as a Telstra partner store.
Finally, we documented the operations team’s own internal processes. This required a range of best-practice technical writing skills be applied, including creating visual representations of complex processes (such as budget distributions), to writing clear, step-by-step instructions for operational processes such as how to pay an external provider’s invoice.
We also tidied up the formatting and professional appearance of all the documents we delivered, using Telstra branding and templates we adapted to ensure the documents had a consistent, professional appearance and impact.
We then finished the project by writing our own chapter in the operations team manual with tips and explanations for the team on how they could use, maintain and update the documents, including with respect to formatting and writing style, to maintain the standards we put in place.
What we delivered
- T Partner Operations Manual (external) – delivered to all Telstra retail partner stores across Australia
- T Partner Operations Manual (internal) – for internal use to explain and outline internal operational procceses
- JB Hi-Fi Operations Manual – distributed to JB Hi-Fi stores
- The Good Guys Operations Manual – distributed to The Good Guys stores
- T Partner Welcome Pack – a welcome pack designed for new retail partners as an introduction to the key operational requirements of their partnership agreement with Telstra. Included key timelines for important steps they needed to take to have their store up-and-running and compliant with Telstra requirements, including with respect to compulsory training their staff needed to undertake and how their store and Telstra products must be displayed and set-up.
- Airport guide – External, for distribution to Telstra partner stores in airports across Australia
- Retail Partner Channel compliance framework – Internal, high-level legal compliance document
- Compare Move Partners Operations Manual – External, distributed to a certain subset of Telstra retail partner stores
- Route Operations Manual – External, distributed to a certain subset of Telstra retail partner stores
- Operations Team Manual – Internal, comprising the documentation of the whole team’s individual roles and operational processes they undertake daily.
What the client said
“Thank you for all of your collaborative work with the team. The end result is a awesome set of documents that place us in an amazing position for good compliance channel expansion and growth.”
“Just wanted to say a big THANK YOU for everything and the manuals. They look and sound fantastic thanks to you ?.“
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