At Aussie Broadband, we have five values that shape nearly every decision we make in all parts of the business – from our leadership team through to our staff on the ground dealing directly with our customers and the broader public.

Over the next few months, we are going to introduce you to each of them and give you an idea of what they mean with the Aussie Broadband flare!

Be good to people

Sounds pretty straight forward right? In some ways it is, but it isn’t always clear cut.

Being good to people can come in many different forms – and being good to people isn’t necessarily the same as being nice to people. It can sometimes be tough to make decisions in the spirit of being good to people.

We particularly see that our “Be good to people” value can sometimes conflict with one of our other values, “No bullsh*t” (and we’ll touch more on no bullsh*t later in the series). Sometimes these two values butt heads and it can be hard to identify which value wins. As an example, if a customer gives us a bad review online, and we know it’s because we’ve cut off their service after giving them lots of opportunities to pay their bill and they haven’t, do we call them on their bullsh*t, or not? (and if you’re wondering, generally we don’t, we’d prefer to keep it dignified).

In a similar line, we understand that internet problems can be incredibly frustrating and sometimes people get tense on the phone. We also make it clear to our customers, and our staff, that we don’t tolerate abuse of any kind (either from customers or our staff, or vice versa). We’re happy to have no bullsh*t conversations; abusive conversations are not on.

Being good to people includes supporting our staff to be the best they can be. We want to give them every opportunity we can to grow both professionally and personally, to feel they can bring their whole self to work and be included in the Aussie Broadband family, and to feel safe.

Being good to people also includes having a positive impact on our community. Many of our staff – including several of our senior leaders – are community volunteers outside their Aussie Broadband lives. We pursue “be good to people” projects like Small Change Big Change on-bill donations, our corporate giving programs, and paid community service leave, because we believe Aussie Broadband has a role to play not only in being a great business, but also in making our communities better.

Most of all, we see the best way that we can be good to people is to help our customers with their internet issues, big or small. If the issue is ours, we own it. If the issue lies elsewhere, we work hard for it to be resolved. Delivering good internet is the best way we can be good to people.

We encourage not only our staff, but you as well, to be good to people. A big part of this is to think clearly and carefully about the difference between being nice and being good. Being nice is often easy, and being good is often hard – but we think the difference is worth it.