On-site visit to Volg

The postal agency – a success story

A postal agency guarantees the universal postal service and strengthens the infrastructure in the village.

Sending parcels and letters, collecting consignments, buying stamps, making cashless payments, withdrawing cash: everyday postal transactions can now increasingly be done while shopping – for example, in the postal agency at the Volg branch in Unterbäch, canton of Valais.

Twenty to eight in the morning at the Volg branch in Unterbäch. Brilliantly coloured tomatoes, peppers and lettuce on display, the smell of fresh bread in the air. A young woman buys two croissants and a yoghurt on her way to the office – but before she goes to work she quickly sends two letters and a parcel – at the postal agency right here in the shop, where there is a unit in Swiss Post yellow with a weighing scale, similar to the self-service for fruits and vegetables. It can be used to weigh letters or parcels and then print the postage using a simple and intuitive display. Payment is later, at the checkout with the other purchases. And that's exactly what the young woman does three minutes later.

Appreciated: longer opening times

“It couldn't be easier,” says Dieter Krähenbühl, Head of Sales at the Volg Group. He says that customers understood the system immediately, and are particularly happy about the opening times that the postal agency in Volg can offer them: “Quickly pick up a parcel before school or after work, make a payment or hand in a consignment – you can do that here in Unterbäch from 7.30 in the morning to 6.30 in the evening. On Saturday, the branch is open until 5 p.m.” Older people also very much appreciate being able to do their errands in a shop. For Krähenbühl, the partnership with Swiss Post is clearly a success story. And the cooperation with partners is being steadily expanded: Swiss Post has already established a total of more than 660 postal agencies by the spring of 2015, with more planned to follow.