Russian Post launches patronage pilot in 500 post offices

Russian Post is launching a pilot programme in the Moscow area in which managers within the company’s head office will take personal charge of individual post offices. The state-owned postal service hopes the personal patronage system will boost the quality of customer service in 500 post offices in the Russian capital, and increase customer satisfaction.

If successful, the pilot will be rolled out across the country.

Each manager will take personal responsibility for supervising a post office, bringing the management skills from head office directly to the front-line retail outlets. They will identify operational weaknesses in the post offices they sponsor, make recommendations for improvement and monitor the resolution of issues.

Post office “chiefs” will monitor operations at the retail outlets against certain parameters such as for customer communication, appearance and speed of service.

Moscow’s post offices carry out more than 1.5m customer transactions each day, and accept 700,000 letters, packets and parcels from mailers.

Alexander Kiselev, the director general of Russian Post, said the customer was at the heart of the initiative.

He said: “In order to create a high-quality and modern post worth of our great country, we need a strong foundation. We are now providing the basis of this foundation by using all means available to us.”