Call for postal `value-added'. Mailers' group says greater customer-service focus is needed from authorities

The Hong Kong Direct Marketing Association wants postal authorities,
including Hongkong Post, to add more value to customer services,
especially in handling direct and bulk mail.

Association chairman Godfrey Rooke said many international mailers
in Hong Kong had called, through the association, for improved
value-added services.

“We believe customer service will be the key differential factor of
postal services and demand in this area is going to get more acute,”
Mr Rooke told delegates at the World Mail and Express conference
organised by Payload Asia , a trade publication for the air freight
industry in Asia-Pacific and the Middle East.

The direct-marketing association is made up of 80 members including
large organisations such as Cathay Pacific Airways, HSBC and smaller
companies, all of which are large customers of international mail.

Mr Rooke asked how many postal-service chiefs talked to customers
about services. He said association members needed business partners
to provide certainty of mail delivery.

While acknowledging services provided by Hong Kong postal
authorities were impeccable, Mr Rooke said the service could improve
by offering free track-and-trace facilities and automatic feedback
on mail delivery.

He suggested Hongkong Post hire a person with a marketing background
to a senior position to help improve the service’s activities.

This would boost a valuable sector of business, he said, adding that
Hongkong Post was not sales or marketing oriented.

Mr Rooke said in a cost-effective environment, customers wanted
flexibility and reliability, and the postal services had to be
sensitive to those needs.

Post Master General P.C. Luk said the service implemented a
customer-account management system in 1996 and implemented a postal
re-engineering last year that had improved productivity by 7 per
cent.

“We hope to improve it even further this year,” Mr Luk said.
Universal Postal Union (UPU) director-general Thomas Leavey said as
customers moved to online electronic messaging, postal authorities
needed to go online as well to offer improved services to compete.

He said postal authorities had to capitalise on advantages such as
worldwide networks, collaboration between services and technology
partners, and common infrastructure and services.

They could also take advantage of global associated brands – as
Intel has its brand name used in computers – to enhance service
image.

Mr Leavey said the UPU had taken a positive role by acquiring a
global e-post.com site, which would incorporate services such as
global post access and call centres.

UPU, as part of the first phase of the plans, would develop
prototypes of services such as postal-delivery and payment-tracking
services for international merchants, he said. When operational, the
prototype would be integrated with existing domestic systems and
services.

Mr Leavey said UPU would provide payment options to ease fears of
making payment over the Internet.

Other features would include customs, currency exchange and tax
returns.
Copyright 2001 South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd.
Source: World Reporter (Trade Mark) – Asia Intelligence Wire.
SOUTH CHINA MORNING POST, 26th February 2001