Research into Post Office services

Postwatch, the consumer watchdog for postal services, and Postcomm, the
postal services regulator, today announced details of their joint research,
undertaken by MORI, into the customer experience of using post offices.

The main findings of the research are:

· 1 in 5 of the researchers had to wait in queues of more than 5 minutes
before being served. 1 in 10 waited for more than 10 minutes.

· Overall, only 40 per cent of customers were sold the most appropriate
service to their needs. Examples are: –

ü 1st class was sold as the most appropriate product in 72 per cent of all
transactions. It was only the most appropriate in 33 per cent.

ü Special Delivery should have been sold as the most appropriate service in
67 per cent of cases; it was sold in 14 per cent of cases.

The actual total postal spend was half that it would have been had the
appropriate products been sold ( £510 out of a possible £1,020).

· Directly managed branches were better equipped than franchise post offices
for disabled customers:

Facilities Directly Managed Franchise
Wide aisles 67% 39%
Hearing Loops 36% 17%
Low level Counter 40% 14%

· Over 96% of staff were polite and calm in their dealings with customers.

Commenting on the research, Peter Carr, Chairman of Postwatch, said: “This
research provides information that will help Post Office Limited improve its
service and make significantly more money. Too often customers are not
receiving best advice. That needs to change for the benefit of customers and
the POL organisation.

“The research throws up some clear priorities. We shall be pressing for
action on the findings. The priorities being: –

· Improving disabled access;

· Reducing waiting times to below 5 minutes;

· Improving the quality of advice given to customers; and

· the product knowledge of customer advisors.

“We will be doing follow up research to check on improvements.”

NOTES TO EDITORS

1. The main findings of the MORI report are available on the websites of
Postwatch (www.postwatch.co.uk ) and Postcomm (www.psc.gov.uk ). The full
report will also be available on these sites shortly.

2. The MORI Research was undertaken by mystery shopping visits to a sample
of 302 directly-managed and franchised urban post offices across the UK
(from a total of approximately 1,200). All visits took place between 18 and
28 October 2004 and were started before 2pm. Data has been subsequently
weighted by region and type of post office to reflect the national profile
of urban post offices.

3. Directly Managed Branches are those operated by Post Office Ltd.
Franchise post offices visited in this research were the large urban ones
owned and run by private businesses. Small sub-post offices were not
visited.

4. Prices: 1st class stamps 28 pence, 2nd class stamps 21 pence and Special
Delivery from £3.75.

FURTHER INFORMATION

Please contact:

Andy Frewin on 020 7259 1223 or 07900 263004