The key focus is on easy access to our services, not the format.

And we focus on the established model of current and new access points existing side by side.

Interview

By the year 2020, postal services will be accessible at more than 4,000 locations in Switzerland.

Urs Schwaller, when was the last time you paid a bill with an inpayment slip at the post office counter? 

I’ve been handling most of my payments online for years now. And I’m no different from the vast majority of our customers in this respect. Habits have changed and there are many new technological options. We’ve all become more mobile, which means that we want services we can use anywhere and anytime, when it suits us. Swiss Post must therefore also remain as close to its customers as possible in future.

What has Swiss Post done to meet its customers’ changing requirements and habits? 

Susanne Ruoff: You can now handle your postal transactions seven days a week, and increasingly also around the clock. This is made possible by the growing number of My Post 24 terminals or the nationwide network of acceptance and collection points at petrol stations and train stations. With our pick@home service, parcel carriers collect parcels from the customer’s home or another address of their choice. Other examples include the SMS postage stamp, management of registered letter and parcel deliveries, and PostCard Creator. For payment transactions, the trends are similar. PostFinance already offers a wide range of solutions that allow customers to manage their finances 24/7.

Customer requirements and habits will continue to change. What does this mean for the postal network?

Urs Schwaller: The key focus is on easy access to our services, not the format. With the traditional post office, Swiss Post is less and less able to meet today’s customer requirements. This trend is apparent in the drastically declining volumes of letters, parcels and inpayments handled over the counter, which is why in the autumn of 2016, we communicated our vision of the postal network of the future and how we intend to move forward to policymakers and the public. In our development of the postal network, we are considering the varying needs of the different generations, regions and cultures. And we are focusing on the established model of current and new access points, existing side by side and complementing each other. The postal agency model is a top priority: in the past ten years, it has proved to be a practical and popular access point.

What does this mean for the universal service?

Urs Schwaller: In the long term, we want to maintain a dense network of access points that is both customer-friendly and financially viable. By the year 2020, postal services will be accessible at more than 4,000 locations in Switzerland. Today that number stands at around 3,800. Swiss Post is committed to a strong public service now and in the future. The restructuring of our network is a great opportunity to build a Swiss Post that is close to the customer and financially sound.

How important are profits for Swiss Post in this respect?

Urs Schwaller: Swiss Post must generate a solid profit. It is often forgotten that Swiss Post uses its own resources to fund its development and is not dependent on financing by the Confederation. It is essential that this should remain the case in the future. Every year, we invest between 400 and 500 million francs in the ongoing development of our infrastructure and services. We are aware of our considerable responsibility and intend to continue offering Switzerland the best universal postal service in the future. To achieve this, we need a regulatory framework that allows us to develop.

There are still many customers who prefer personal contact. How does Swiss Post accommodate this requirement?

Susanne Ruoff: People who prefer personal contact will still be able to use this service in the future. That is why we are expanding the agency network. Postal agencies offer numerous postal services and longer opening hours, and the collaboration with a local partner strengthens the infrastructure of the village or district. We want to increase the number of branches at partners to between 1,200 and 1,300 by 2020, while also creating 200 to 400 additional service points such as acceptance and collection points or My Post 24 terminals. 

People in Switzerland like to shop online. This means that parcel volumes are increasing steadily. What is Swiss Post doing for senders and recipients in this area?

Susanne Ruoff: Yes, Swiss Post does indeed benefit from this shopping behaviour. Since 2013, parcel volumes have increased by 10.7 percent. In 2016, we delivered a record number of 122 million parcels. We have developed new services: we want our customers to be able to receive their consignments as flexibly as possible, which is why, for example, we have created 310 additional service points. With “My consignments”, recipient customers can manage their consignments before they are delivered, including consignments sent to them without their knowledge. The support we provide to our sender customers allows them to operate their business even more successfully, for example with services such as Sunday delivery or same-day delivery. Our basic aim is to support Swiss companies in domestic and international e-commerce with appropriate services.

In traditional retailing, mobile payment is a big issue. How is Swiss Post positioned in this sector?

Susanne Ruoff: Mobile payment must be simple and convenient. But to establish itself against the use of cash, there must also be an additional benefit for the customer. TWINT is more than just a payment app. With TWINT, business customers can design their own mobile marketing campaigns and use attractive coupons or loyalty cards to increase their sales in a targeted way.

This means that TWINT also opens up new opportunities in direct marketing for business customers. Doesn’t this compete with the letter?

Susanne Ruoff: Paper still has a major impact. Brochures lie on the kitchen table, and you can pick them up again two days later. Digital advertising by contrast is quickly clicked away. The possibilities offered by TWINT are the ideal supplement to Swiss Post’s services and fit in with our strategy of connecting the physical and digital worlds. This is our approach to accommodating all our customers’ requirements. But the big challenge is and will remain finding a good balance between the traditional and the new.

Do you see other opportunities for new services or business areas?

Susanne Ruoff: We want to carry our core competencies into the digital world. Part of this is taking a close look at the issues surrounding smart mobility. For example, we are testing new forms of delivery, such as delivery robots or drones, and automated logistics solutions. Or the intelligent parcel that finds the customer automatically because it knows where the customer wants to receive it. Another of Swiss Post’s core competencies is the confidential handling of sensitive data. We already assist companies with the digital transformation of their business processes. For business customers, we take care of the entire document solutions system, capture the information it contains, enrich it and integrate it into the customer’s systems. We also support companies in the automation of business processes.

Speaking of digital transformation: how does it affect Swiss Post? 

Urs Schwaller: We are digitizing our business on three levels: first, we are supplementing our core business with new digital services. “My consignments” is one example of this, where we let the customer intervene in the delivery process by telling us when and where they want to receive their consignment. Thanks to platforms in eHealth and e-voting, Swiss Post is a trustworthy partner that is opening up new opportunities for its customers in the digital world and pushing forward into new business areas. In future, we will be able to vote electronically in elections and referendums. With e-voting, we are supplementing what used to be a physical process with an electronic one. And last but not least, we are of course also digitizing our own processes, including our operating processes at the major sorting centers, our procurement processes and our human resources processes, such as recruitment or departures.