Forward thinking
Loh Choo Beng, executive vice president, Retail & Financial Services, SingPost, explains his company’s ambition to transform beyond a traditional postal service provider. Would you have imagined somebody going to a post office to pick up a bottle of wine, chill out with friends or even drop their children at the child care centre? Probably not. But these are the scenes already playing out at some post offices in Singapore.
In a dynamic and competitive environment, adapting to changes is no longer enough. To experience breakthroughs, transformation is now an imperative as it holds the key to opening up new possibilities and harvesting greater growth.
For this reason, Singapore Post Limited (SingPost) has been in a relentless pursuit to transform itself since its listing in 2003, way before the end of its monopoly on basic mail services in April 2007.
Foray into financial services
Since 2003, SingPost has been focusing on strengthening its capabilities and enhancing its three core businesses of Mail, Logistics and Retail. Besides reinventing its products and services across the business lines, SingPost has also been steering its operations and corporate culture from one that is process-oriented to one that is growth-oriented and customer-centric.
One of SingPost’s strategies is to leverage its strong retail network for diversification. In 2004, SingPost leveraged its long established tradition of trust and reliability to roll out its very first financial service, SpeedCash. The collateralised lending provides quick liquidity for the mass segment to meet their short-term cash flow needs.
Meeting unmet needs
In the subsequent year, SingPost entered into a partnership with GE Money to provide unsecured personal finance, ezyCash, reaching out to the under-served segment and providing a formal channel for its customers to enter the formal credit system and build their credit histories.
The accessibility of SingPost’s branches, coupled with GE Money’s expertise in consumer finance, put them in a good position to increase and fortify their customer base. Until then, banks and financial institutions were not allowed to offer unsecured loans to those earning less than S$30,000 per annum.
In 2006, GE Money and SingPost rolled out a new personal loan service, James, targeting a higher income group. A friendly and personalised service with flexible repayment options and fast approval time differentiate the service from those by the banks.
Taking consumer banking products further
As part of its strategy to offer high value products to its customers, SingPost collaborated with another bank in 2008 to distribute unsecured personal line of credit, PostLine. This partnership fundamentally expanded the sales and distribution channel of The Royal Bank of Scotland, formerly ABN AMRO, in a cost-efficient manner.
In 2009, SingPost forged a strategic alliance with UOB to distribute HDB home loans at selected post offices, offering customers yet another channel to have their home financing needs met.
Venturing into insurance and investment products
The offering of life insurance policies at post offices in 2005 marked SingPost’s foray into the distribution of insurance products, giving customers direct access to the financial consultants from Prudential Assurance. Subsequently, under its Care for Life brand, SingPost also offers unit trusts in partnership with Prudential Asset Management Singapore Ltd.
In addition, together with GE Money, a myriad of insurance products has been added including travel insurance and home protection plans.
Providing global remittance services
With globalisation, the world is becoming more borderless and people are increasingly working and living outside their home countries. In Singapore, foreign workers and permanent residents make up 1.2m of the 4.9m total population, resulting in the exponential growth of the remittance service.
Recognising the tremendous potential for remittance business, SingPost has been growing its remittance services under its CASHOME brand to offer its customers a secure, affordable and reliable way of transferring funds to over 200 countries worldwide. The use of CASHOME eliminates the need for customers to fill up forms at every transaction, thereby improving the process and providing a hassle-free experience for the customers.
Philippines, Indonesia, China and India are several of the major remittance destinations for SingPost. In addition to collaborating with Western Union to provide remittance services to its customers, SingPost also partnered with the Philippines National Bank (PNB) and the Bank Negara Indonesia (BNI) to allow its customers to send monies straight into the recipients’ bank account maintained with PNB or BNI. Its tie-up with another partner, Banco De Ore (BDO), also allows its customers to transfer funds to the Philippines, giving their recipients the flexibility of withdrawing the money from BDO ATMs, MegaLink BancNet or Express Net or PLUS ATMs worldwide.
In 2008, SingPost became the first postal service provider in the world to offer Visa Money Transfer. This enables the senders to directly credit funds into the recipient’s Visa card account. As of January 2010, monies can be remitted via VISA Money Transfer to Visa cardholders in 21 countries including Australia, India, Malaysia, Thailand and United Kingdom.
The availability of the 24/7 round-the-clock remittance service via SingPost’s Self-service Automated Machines (SAMs) for Visa Money Transfer, BNI and BDO remittance services further enhances the CASHOME remittance offerings to the customers.
Optimising retail assets
SingPost owns one of the largest retail distribution networks in Singapore through its tri-channel platform of 62 post offices, 299 SAMs and vPOST, an internet portal facilitating bill payments and offering online shopping and shipping services.
To drive more revenue through its assets, SingPost has been adding more services to SAM. It has also extended operating hours of selected post offices that experience high traffic, a win-win way of optimising its assets while providing added convenience to the customers.
Redefining customer experience
In 2008, SingPost reconfigured three of its post offices by integrating a shopping mall, a lifestyle restaurant and a child-care centre respectively. In so doing, SingPost has not only optimised its retail space and obtained better yield, but also injected lifestyle elements to enhance customer experience. The very essence of providing a more integrated and wholesome experience is for the company to stay relevant to the community and to reach out to a younger segment of customers.
Not constraining its retail space to a brick-and-mortar store, SingPost introduced a new mobile post office, PoWee or Post-on-Wheels, at Changi Airport Terminals 1 and 3 in 2009 to provide tourists and locals with a unique and more appealing postal experience, while enhancing the convenience factor.
Providing unique shopping experience
SingPost’s very own shopping catalogue, Shop@Post, made its debut in 2007. Leveraging its direct mail’s capabilities and the accessibility of its post offices, SingPost is able to offer its customers a wide range of lifestyle products and exclusive deals.
SingPost also grows and expands its online retailing via its internet portal, vPOST, enabling its customers access to goods, particularly from US and Europe, which they would not normally be able to access in Singapore. More than a secure portal for bill payment and online shopping, vPOST also rides on SingPost’s logistics capabilities to provide door-to-door parcel delivery.
Conclusion
SingPost’s strategic thrust has been to grow and extend its core competencies. Recognising the pressures from external challenges such as e-substitution and cost-cutting measures by the public and private sectors, SingPost has been expanding its operations beyond postal services. By bringing in more diverse and high-value products and services to its customers, and investing and capitalising on technology as an enabler, SingPost is transforming itself from a traditional service provider to a progressive, customer-oriented organisation.
This article is featured in the March 2010 issue of the Mail & Express Review. If you do not receive the industry-leading magazine and don’t want to miss out, subscribe by clicking here.
