Annual Report
Delivering a World Beyond Letters
Moving Closer to Our Customers
Hongkong Post is committed to providing quality service at all times. To ensure we can deliver a unique experience to our customers, we devote time and resources to understanding and anticipating customer needs. Our customer service strategy is to move closer to our customers and increase their satisfaction. We remain a highly customer-focused organisation.
Achievements
- Top Winner in Team Award, Gold Award in Counter Service and Internal Support Service, Silver Award in Field & Special Service, Customer Service Excellence Award 2005 from Hong Kong Association for Customer Service Excellence
- First Runner-up in Service Enhancement Award, First Runner-up in Partnership Award, First Runner-up in E- Service Award, Second Runner-up and two Merit Awards in Front-line/Counter Service Award, in Civil Service Outstanding Service Award Scheme 2005
KNOWING OUR CUSTOMERS
During the year, we have completed a range of initiatives that helped Hongkong Post gain deeper insights into customer perceptions of our service. A key initiative was our annual public perception survey conducted by an independent consultant, that showed respondents continue to express a very high level of satisfaction with Hongkong Post. The results revealed we are ranked second among major service organisations in Hong Kong. This is the eighth year in a row we have been ranked as one of the top three in the survey, providing clear evidence of our ability to sustain excellent service. When the survey results were broken down across three sub-groups, they showed that 98% of the general public, 96% of business customers, and 97% of philatelists are either "very satisfied" or "satisfied" with our services. The satisfaction levels beat that of the previous year by two percentage points in the case of the public, and by one percentage point for business customers.
Results of another survey, conducted among households in late 2005 to measure customer satisfaction regarding our counter, delivery and hotline services, were also very positive. 93% of our customers said they were either "very satisfied" or "satisfied" with our counter services, and 96% and 93% expressed the same sentiments concerning our delivery and hotline services.
We also commissioned an independent user survey into our international courier service - Speedpost - to better understand customer preferences, as well as their buying criteria and perceptions in relation to Speedpost and other service providers. The survey showed that customers prefer Speedpost because of our simple pricing policy that is on weight only with no surcharges.
Maintaining our focus on consumer preferences, we conducted our first-ever study into how customers view different media used in business communications - from TV, radio, print and outdoor advertising to telephone marketing, direct mail, e-mail, Internet and SMS. The study showed that consumers see direct mail as an essential and effective marketing channel that ranks alongside major media such as TV and print. We leveraged this research findings by hosting a Direct Mail Seminar in October 2005 at which we promoted the popularity and potential benefits of direct mail to an audience that included marketing professionals.
Our PostalPlus for SME continued to offer a comprehensive range of value-for-money services in support of Small and Medium Enterprises (SME). PostalPlus for SME continued to provide an effective marketing channel that ensured we stay close to our 26,000 members. Hongkong Post also participated in the World SME Expo held in November 2005 where we presented our one-stop, cost-efficient postal solutions to help SME in developing their business. Our two Customer Liaison Groups continued to foster close links with customers and a dedicated Speedpost sales team was set up to support our SME customer segment.
To stay in tune with what our customers require, we recognise the need to adopt a holistic Customer Relationship Management strategy. In line with this, we set up a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) Section that focuses on how we can better understand and meet customer needs.
ENHANCING CUSTOMER SATISFACTION
To increase customer convenience, we introduced a new e-Request function on our website in late 2005. This allows customers to make online requests for re-delivery of Local CourierPost items, or to select another collection office for registered delivery and recorded delivery items, as well as parcels. This enhanced service complements the existing Interactive Voice Response System.
The online advance order service for stamps - Stamp OnNet - was also launched in 2005 to enable customers to manage their accounts for philatelic products round-the-clock at their convenience.
Hongkong Post participated in the 2005 World SME Expo
Customer Liaison Group Annual General Meeting 2005
The "One Person, One Letter" campaign encouraged the public to send caring messages through letters
Rewarding our loyal customers through the Speedpost Bonus Point Scheme
One of the activities for the "2005 Love and Care Day" was a free film show for customers
The Letter Writing Competition was organised to promote youngsters' interest in letter-writing
BUILDING CUSTOMER LOYALTY
We launched our second "Love and Care Day" in September 2005 and hosted a variety of programmes that expressed appreciation to our loyal customers. We gave out souvenirs carrying the "Love and Care" message, and hosted our first-ever free Film Show for customers. To promote the use of letters to convey personal messages, we again ran our "One Person, One Letter" campaign that accepted local personal letters to be mailed free of charge. Finally, to provide added convenience to customers, we increased the number of designated acceptance post offices supporting the "One Person, One Letter" campaign from four in 2004 to ten in 2005.
To encourage letter-writing among the younger generation, we organised a letter-writing competition for Hong Kong students. This successful initiative attracted more than 9,000 entries from both primary and secondary schools. The Champion was selected from these entries to represent Hong Kong in the Universal Postal Union's (UPU) 35th International Letter Writing Competition.
Hongkong Post held a variety of targeted sales promotions, competitions and lucky draws during the year to attract customers, stimulate business growth and build goodwill among our customers. Speedpost remained a key focus and we conducted a number of promotions to boost its usage. The popular Speedpost Bonus Points Scheme again proved to be an effective promotional tool, with customers receiving a "bonus point" for every dollar spent and the points in turn being redeemable against a range of gifts.
At Hongkong Post, it has always been our mission to win the hearts of our customers by providing them with accessible, reliable and affordable postal services. With this in mind, we were delighted to exceed 16 of the 24 performance targets set for 2005/06. We take pride in maintaining world class delivery standards, achieving 99.8% reliability on next-day delivery of local letters across Hong Kong against a pledge of 98% that already represents the highest in the world.
Specific achievements in the context of customer service underline our ability to build customer loyalty. For example, we won eight awards, in the Civil Service Outstanding Service Award Scheme organised by the Civil Service Bureau. With over 130 entries from 45 government departments, the Award Scheme aims to promote adoption of a customer-oriented approach in the delivery of public service - a philosophy that is key to Hongkong Post's corporate values.
We also achieved outstanding results in the Customer Service Excellence Award 2005 organised by the Hong Kong Association for Customer Service Excellence (HKACE). We were the Grand Champion in the Overall Team Award and received two Gold Awards and a Silver Award in the individual team category. We received another honour from Cathay Pacific Airways’ 2005 Business Partner Award.
We received Cathay Pacific Airway's 2005 Business Partner Award
The joyous moment for the winners of the Grand Champion in the "Customer Service Excellence Award 2005" organised by the Hong Kong Association for Customer Services Excellence.
Hongkong Post won 8 awards in the Civil Service Outstanding Service Award Scheme 2005 organised by the Civil Service Bureau
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