2004-05 Annual Report - Australia Post

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In October 2004, we opened
a “new concept” PostShop in
the Westfield Bondi Junction
shopping centre in Sydney,
where we are trialling new
retailing approaches, including
clearer product presentation and
new merchandising techniques.
The standard designs for
PostShops and Post business
centres are currently under
review. Changes will be based
on data from our new inventory
management system, clarification
of our brand promise and closer
analysis of trials conducted at
various outlets. We are also
trialling a model for franchised
PostShops and plan to expand
the trial from four to 20 outlets
over the coming financial year.
Licensed post offices
Two-thirds of all retail postal
outlets in Australia are operated
under a licensing arrangement
as small businesses, known as
licensed post offices (LPOs).
At 30 June 2005, there were
2,979 privately run LPOs serving
local communities across the
nation. One factor contributing
to overall revenue growth in retail
has been the steadily improving
performance of the LPO network,
which achieved an 8.9 per cent
increase in retail product sales
this year.
The central role that the LPO
network plays in the social and
commercial fabric of communities
throughout Australia has a
major impact on our corporate
reputation and commercial return.
This year, by introducing elections
for the Licensee Advisory Council
(LAC), we continued to focus
on improving co-operation and
consultation with licensees.
Established in 2003, the LAC
provides an important forum
for the licensees and Post to
discuss retailing issues and
business development ideas
and initiatives. The board of the
national LAC is comprised of nine
elected licensee representatives
and four senior managers from
Post’s Retail business.
Following the council’s inaugural
elections in July 2004, the first
meeting of the national council
was held in October 2004.
Through the LAC, licensees
have been involved in a number
of product-related initiatives
this year, including changes to
product supply, communication,
merchandising and the
development of licensee-specific
product offers.
Customer service programs
We have established a very
successful program for analysing
and improving our sales and
customer service performance.
Our mystery shopper program,
priorityCustomer, enables us to
assess selling skills and customer
service performance at point of
sale and identify any opportunities
for improvement. In 2004–05, our
customer service rating under
the priorityCustomer program
improved to 95.2 per cent
(previously 93.4 per cent).
This is the second year in which
we have run a national reward
and recognition program for
retail staff. Called Retail Star
Performance, the program
offers cash rewards to staff
working in corporation-owned
outlets that achieve a range of
financial and customer service
performance targets.
AGENCY SERVICES
The scale of our nationwide
retail network, combined with
community trust in our brand,
has enabled us to position the
network as a convenient, local
agency where government
bodies and businesses can
connect with their customers.
Our retail outlets conduct a broad
range of agency transactions, face
to face with customers, on behalf
of Australian businesses and
government bodies. We now have
3,078 outlets that are equipped
with the point-of-sale information
technology to conduct these
agency transactions, and this
technology is connected in
real time to the systems of our
business partners.
We are well known for offering
agency-based banking services
on behalf of financial institutions
and a bill-payment service
on behalf of companies and
government bodies. Other agency
services that we offer include
travellers’ cheques, money
transfer services and personal
identification services.
Revenue from agency services
increased by 3.5 per cent this
year, mainly as a result of strong
growth in relatively new business
areas, such as Western Union
Money Transfers and 100-point
identity checks.
Bill payment
Transaction volumes for our
bill-payment service, Postbillpay,
remained steady at 170 million
transactions. The gross value of
bill-payment collections handled
by Postbillpay increased to $78
billion ($75.5 billion previously).
The number of bill-payment
partners increased significantly
to 633 (from 564 last year),
mainly because a number of local
councils signed on to use the
service. Out of this total, all 633
billers offer their customers the
over-the-counter payment option,
413 offer payment by telephone
(336 last year), and 416 offer the
Internet-based payment channel
(335 last year).
While overall transaction volumes
were maintained, an increasing
proportion of Postbillpay
transactions are now being
processed via our telephone and
Internet-based channels, rather
than over the counter in Post
outlets. In 2004–05, there was
a 43 per cent increase in the
volume of Postbillpay transactions
processed by telephone and a 19
per cent increase in transactions
processed via the Internet.
In the face of increasing
electronic substitution, we are
defending our position by working
with bill-payment partners to offer
an Internet payment service that
operates on their own website
and under their brand but uses
the Postbillpay infrastructure.
This year we developed a
customised Internet-based