Postal access and the opportunity to celebrate

Looking into and cherishing the role of the Posts during the Holiday season. As I write this in late November, knowing it will arrive in your in boxes at the start of December, it would be wrong and practically impossible, to ignore the impact and significance of public holidays, such as Christmas, as reason for celebration around the world.

So, this moment in time seemed a particularly timely one to look at the many ways in which Posts support gift -giving and receiving.  For example, all postal operators, especially those with their own retail network of offices, will be aware that the holyday period is by far the busiest time of the year and that they will struggle with demand, if they failed to plan in advance.

Such is the case, per example of UPS which plans to hire 50k temporary employees of the holiday season, City Link has recently taken delivery of 56 new tractor units as it gears up for the Christmas rush, or the Royal Mail Group that will have eight dedicated Christmas parcel sort centres to handle the growth in online shopping.

PostnParcel readers will have, as of late, read with interest the predictions of likely volumes, mix of traffic and anticipated patterns of posting, transport arrangements, technical systems changes and the essential ingredient of people planning ahead, all designed to ensure that goods and services are delivered to meet our service promises to our customers.

Public holidays are often annual events and  often represent an added challenge to our core business where Posts have a legacy as market leaders linking up B2C and C2C.  Yet we are acutely aware that consumer habits and expectations are changing rapidly, and that it’s becoming ever more important to learn from colleagues and new market entrants working in different ways to help our own organisations embrace innovation whilst retaining traditional values.

I almost feel the temptation of a Dickensian story of past times emerging, but I don’t think you will appreciate taking time out from busy schedules to look back, when we still have holidays and celebrations ahead of us, not to mention a lot of hard work.  Right now, some of you may, of course, be helping Santa with his postbag of letters from children setting out their hopes and desires.

So, for now let’s not become too reflective and stay practical, by sampling how some Posts are helping consumers meet the challenges in the run up to the holiday season.  We know some consumers like to plan ahead, so they often use the financial services provided by their local post office (in store, online or via ATMs).  They may be taking advantage of a Christmas Club and committed to a regular savings plan to meet the anticipated costs that accompany holidays and celebrations. The Post Office Limited has been holding their Christmas Club for many years, where you can spread the cost of Christmas throughout the year and top up your Christmas Club card for a very small amount every week.Others start to prepare rather closer to the holiday, in the last few weeks or perhaps even at the last minute, in the hope of bargain purchases or maybe just due to lack of time.

The market research carried out by Posts amongst their consumer customers all highlights the importance of integrity, trust and reliability as key attributes linked to the postal brand.  The media campaigns by Posts that have been running recently will have been reinforcing the roles of Posts in supporting the provision and delivery of both the important and everyday things in life.

So let’s be reminded about the ranges of products and services on offer to support gift-giving.  Most Posts now provide, as a minimum, some form of gift tokens, a range of own brand products, small gifts and collectable items, packaging materials, stationery items, as well as customised and seasonal stamps.  Increasingly these are available online.

In the United States USPS, for example, has an online holiday store advertising itself as the place to ”buy gifts and fun stuff“.  New Zealand Post’s “Prezzy cards” can be used in 29 million Visa outlets. Australia Post sells toys, magazines and supplies. In fact, the more the elves in the Triangle research team were asked to search around the topic of gifts hosted via Posts’ stores the greater the combination of possible products we found.

So let’s look very quickly at what and how we offer to get supplies and gifts to the consumer in time at a place which is convenient and accessible to meet their needs, since this too is changing our business models.  Again lots of options exist now for ways in which customers can choose to receive or collect what they have ordered or others have sent to them.

We set out to look at giving or accessing gifts or goods to enable consumers to enjoy holidays, so it seems that in the main that we are referring to three-dimensional items, from small packets to parcels.  This thought took me to “boxes”, “lockers” and “terminals” and reminded me of how rapidly we have seen the growth and expansion of these to enhance access and improve service and customer satisfaction.

Many posts have started to either establish their own parcel terminal network (SingPost, Correos de Chile, PostNL, etc.) and others are making impressive plans to expand their network (Luxembourg Post, Bpost, etc.)

Learning and building on the longstanding experience with, for example, Deutsche Post, we see Posts and alternative delivery networks trialled and becoming established around the globe.  There are several models in operation offering different functionality. They all offer flexibility and fixed service points for Posts. For customers they offer customer choice and convenience.

For those of us who are inevitably busy until just before the holidays , although we did manage to place orders for gifts and supplies, parcel ‘terminals’ and ‘secure ‘ boxes may offer us a more convenient option to collect and pick up goods and presents up to the last minute. Just in time to enable us to breathe a sigh of relief, relax, reflect and enjoy the holiday period before getting ready to start the rich circle of life all over again!

It isn’t just the range of new products we find fascinating, but the increase within the last couple of years of sales channel development, giving the consumer greater choice of convenient options when transacting business with Posts.  If you agree, maybe you will want to make a diary note to tell us what you think is the most interesting, new and different from the perspective of a product, service or channel in your part of the world.

You may also want to start to think about whether the Triangle 2013 Americas event, European and World Mail Awards would be an opportunity to share more details with us.  Make a diary note to discuss this with Agustin or Helen at the start of the year, when they will be in touch to discuss future plans for newsletter readers and members.In the meantime, on behalf of the Triangle Research team we wish you good luck over the next few weeks as you work to ensure all the services are delivered and your customers are satisfied.

Looking ahead we wish you, your families and your colleagues, good health and best wishes for 2013.

From Ann, Helen and Agustin

This article first appeared in the November 2012 issue of Triangle’s Postal Access Forum newsletter. For further information about this forum please click here.