Postal services across the world are fighting for their survival, under the combined impact of technology and market savvy courier service agencies. And many of them have made attempts at stemming this decline by doing a re-branding exercises to transform themselves and emerge in a new avatar...Even Indian Post went through a similar exercise a couple of years back, but then the results ........
If one were to list the strenghts of Indian Post, number one is their reach and volume which is unmatched in the country, more so in the far-flung rural areas of the country. The next on the list would be their staff especially the ubiquitous post man who is their customer facing arm , who interacts with the customers on a daily basis and knows them by name and is more than a messenger. I am not sure if this holds true today in all places in the country. And then comes the range of product offerings from areas in Banking , Insurance, and of course the postal services.
If I were to pick-up one issue which needs to be tackled by Indian Post on a war footing would be how to attract younger generation post offices. I do not know how many of you would have been to a post offices in the recent times. For me today's visit to a post office came after many years, and one of the first things which I observed was we were among the only young people around, we totally surrounded by senior citizens (average age not less than 65), though it might also be influenced by the fact that we went there on a month end. But it was as if young people were not welcome to a post office.
I have identified this as the number one issue because it is essential that the younger generation is able to connect , associate themselves with a post office. I am still part of that generation which even till a few years back was used to waiting for the post man to deliver letters and have copies of many letter which I had exchanged with my friends, but the Internet generation which is used to sending IMs and sending updates on the facebook would feel as if they have landed in a alien land if they were to ever walk into a post office, and this is something which should worry the people at Indian Post.
As with many other things in life, it is easy to say that 'x' needs to be done , but then the moot question is 'How'.............
I like that you think. Thank you for share very much.
ReplyDeleteI think Postal services face the problem of being product focussed rather than need focussed. This is simillar to what rail road manufacutrers faced in age of Aviation. The need being catered there was travel and in this case it is communications. Now the product paper based letter is close to obsolence now, only places it is prevelant is legal documents which are on their way to modernization. Now, it is difficult for an Indian Post to become Google or Yahoo and deliver e-mails keeping the need same. But, in that case either they should shut office or choose another need to serve. This is not a question of ignorance from younger generation but the relevance of India Post in today's world.
ReplyDeletei have just started communicating with friends the old fashioned way - a handwritten letter. i don't know if this will last but it's worth a try. since the email guarantees instant replies, how much can one write about? how many events occur within a 10 minute interval? couriers have taken over with their same-day or within-48-hours service.
ReplyDeleteMy last visit to a post office (the one inside IIM Lucknow) was on a Monday when I had to send my friend's and my passport to Delhi on an urgent basis for visa purposes. The postmaster guaranteed that the speed post would reach on a priority basis - and encouraged me to write "priority" on the cover of the envelope. I trusted his conviction and sent my passport my speed post, only to discover that it could not reach Delhi on Tuesday, as promised by him. I decided to wait for another day, and was surprised when it did not reach Delhi even on Wednesday. When I knocked on the doors of the Post Office along with the receipt, the postmaster had great difficulty in reading the receipt number for tracking down the speed post, and finally when he actually did manage to do that, the internet connection failed. After about 30 minutes, when the internet finally connected, he said that the parcel had still not reached Delhi. Many phone calls later to the destination post office as well as the Indian Post Office headquarters, I was still unable to determine the location of my parcel.
ReplyDeleteMy parcel finally reached next Monday, a week later.
If it takes a week to deliver a simple envelope containing very important documents from Lucknow to Delhi, I think that the future of Indian Post is doomed.
PS: It takes around a week for a dedicated devotee to walk from Lucknow to Delhi, the same as a speed post by Indian Post.
Well Sir I hate going to the post office just because all I see there are grumpy faces, like the ones I see at my own office. I do not use speed post and prefer couriers, For ordinary post, I have bought lots of stamps in advance, so that I need not visit the post office at all.
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