A Stamp

Post Fiji

of success Post Fiji reviews operations one year later

A year ago, Fiji Post and Telecommunications (FPTL) split into two separate entities. Post Fiji became a separate company and set out to make it on its own.

Looking back a year after the split, Post Fiji’s general manager, Peni Mau, sees the survival of the company as commendable.

He said Post Fiji had become stronger and was able to concentrate better on its weak er areas of business now that it was on its own.

“We have become a better and more

efficient company.”

The government of Fiji decided to cor poratise the company in a bid to boost the private sector and the economy. At the

time, the government said its decision to corporatise reflected its policy to divest itself from those activities which would best be undertaken on a commercial basis.

When Post Fiji was part of FPTL, Mau said, the telecommunications division was regarded as the provider of greater and bet ter services.

“Despite that, we had always main tained a high standard of customer satis faction and the separation equipped us to fully handle and carry out our service requirements to a more reliable and effec

tive degree.

“We will never look at mail the same way again since our separation from Telecom. Where we were once a supple ment to the major money earner - Telecom - mail has become the core business in its own right.”

He said the split had enabled Post Fiji to release its energy.

“When Post was part of Telecom, we were overshadowed by Telecom. And now, because of the split, we are able to focus our energy on our priority and objective and what we really need,” Mau maintains.

“As a result, financially. Post has been able to go from strength to strength. The level of profit which the company is feel ing now has never been experienced before.

“This is due mainly to the changes that have been brought about.”

“One of the things which was given a lot of attention was bringing in the high trust culture - where having trust and con fidence in the employees was one of the key ways to getting the job done efficient ly- “At Post Fiji, we have woken up to the concept of a stand-alone entity. We are now an independent company and our future depends on how well we can per form in the postal business, and realising how important the customer is.”

Mau said that in the past or in “civil ser vice days”, the organisation was run on a laissez faire basis, but that this approach

was gradually being phased out.

“Our focus is gradually shifting to one that is customer driven and our mission is to seek, satisfy and retain our customers.”

To make this possible, staff have been put through vigorous training programmes and, Mau says, this has reflected greatly in their work.

“People are getting efficient and are actually enjoying the work. In addition, we

Peni Mau... “We have become a better and more efficient company”

have brought in new blood who will act as catalysts in establishing the customer-first culture.”

Besides facilitating a customer-oriented culture within the staff, plans are also in the pipeline to take on board and utilise the

relevant technology that will help improve

the standard and quality of service to cus tomers.

There are several other plans to make the postal business a success and one is the one-stop-shop concept for post offices around the country, the general manager says.

“This concept will mean that customers will be able to get all services under one roof. They will be able to pay all their bills at a post office as well make payments for department stores and [carry out] other business.

“There will also be the post shops .”

The post shop concept has already been implemented in all post offices around the country and this was one of the things which helped make the company more profitable, according to Mau.

All of Post Fiji’s 51 post offices - both

in rural and urban areas - have a post shop.

“Twenty-seven of these post offices were running at a loss and, with the intro duction of the post shops, they are now

breaking even.

“This year, I am even looking at some of these post offices making profits something which will be another achieve ment for the company.”

Among the changes apparent since the split. Post Fiji has been able to offer a range of products new to Fiji.

“A lot of companies are competing for a market when there is no market, but I believe my company is competing for opportunities. We look at what opportunity is available and then create products which will suit the market.

“As a result, you see, in the last year, we launched quite a few products and the response to these products surprised even us. It shows that all the products and ser vices that we have lodged have experi enced very high rates of growth. It also shows that the demand is there.

“In the past, marketing of postal prod ucts were non-existent. However, now that

Post Fiji is forging its own way and, with the public’s high expectations, marketing has become an essential tool.”

Some of the new products which Post Fiji launched over the past year are: • International Fastpost. Launched last year, this service allows mail to get on the first available international flight as quick ly as possible to its destination from any major town in Fiji. • Adpost is Post Fiji’s addressed circu lar advertising. It is a mass advertising medium designed to help businesses, non profit organisations and church groups reach their customers by mailing all their flyers, brochures, catalogues and circulars. • Business Reply Post makes it easier for businesses to get responses from their customers. Each business supplies self addressed postage envelopes and business cards based on specific requirements. A major benefit of this service is that users get faster replies and orders. Postage is only paid for customers who respond. • Prepaid Post Envelopes were intro duced to provide customers with a more convenient and efficient mailing system. It

is time saving as customers do not have to queue at the counter for a stamp. • Messenger Post is Post Fiji’s newest service. It is for urgent, same-day deliver ies. Currently, this service is only available in the capital city of Suva but will soon be available at other major centres throughout

Fiji.

Post Fiji also acts as agent for a number of organisations for which it provides vari ous services and included in its services is mail management, whereby Post Fiji col lects, collates, stamps, cancels and dis patches statements as and when required by a company. This service is carried out at

fully secured premises to ensure total con fidentiality of the statements. Mail man agement provides customers with cost effective means of statement collating and processing; increases the efficiency of existing staff; and is time efficient in pro cessing and dispatching of statements.

The telegraphic money order, or TMO service, has been improved with less docu mentation with the newly designed carbon documents.

This has made the process faster and more efficient, Mau states.

Mau said the split had also allowed Post Fiji to look more closely at the services it

was providing and at ways of making them more attractive and efficient. One of the improvements Man points out is Post Fiji’s

mail operations.

“Modem sorting frames and face-up tables standardise and speed up the process of sorting mail. They have created a com fortable, work-friendly environment for the staff. Thus, productivity has increased,” he said.

And shifts have been changed to match delivery promises. As a result, carry-overs are greatly eliminated, allowing for flexi

bility to improve existing products and

introduce new ones, Mau says.

“There has also been an increase in the number of vehicles in our fleet to meet the new delivery schedules.

“The security on mails has been empha sised with the installation of cameras in the mailroom.

“More post boxes have been installed to meet the demands of our customers. In addition, box holders are regularly advised of their uncleared mail.” But all the improvements are not being carried out behind the counter.

Post Fiji’s new management also brought about a number of physical changes to match what it believes is the organisation’s new direction.

Fiji Post has a new look, a new logo and a new image.

“The general post office has undergone renovations. It now flaunts a modem, new look that portrays the new professional image. The bold colours of blue and red, along with the innovative logo, now grace all our post offices and postal agencies throughout Fiji.

“We have changed from being a gov ernment-type office look to a commercial look. This does help.” And, despite eco nomic problems in Fiji, business was doing really well, Mau said.

“This is supported by the fact that the kind of money the company is making in this quarter is what it usually makes around the few months in any year which were usually the peak season for mail - being Christmas and New Year.”

He said post was a very competitive business and they were working very hard to keep up with the market.

“You name any service and product I have and there is a competitor. We are in no way a monopoly but we are trying hard - and achievement over the past year is a proof of our hard work.” ■

The Suva City main building

Customer service is their priority