'Private' post offices need to be fine-tuned to provide better service :

MADURAI: 'Private' post offices in some areas seem to be doing good business but these franchisee outlets of the postal department need to be fine-tuned to provide better service, officials here said.

                With a network of 1.55 lakh post offices (P.O), said to be the largest in the world, the Indian postal department hit up on the novel scheme of opening franchisee outlets or 'private post offices,' as it is popularly called, to reach out to more customers and in areas where P.Os could not be opened.

                A success story is the Franchisee post office, started in 2007, at Pethaniapuram in this city which reports a turnover of Rs three lakh per month.

                An official said 100 Private post offices were set up in specified circles since 2007 but the scheme was successful only in some places like Pethaniapuram.

                The reason may be people were either suspicious about the franchisee or it could be some other reason. Three outlets had been closed in Tamil Nadu, the offical said.

                But a survey conducted revealed that people did have faith in private post offices, which needed to be fine-tuned to provide better service, especially for marketing various postal department products.

                With banks themselves offering money transfer facilities, demand for sending money order declined, leading to failure of franchisee outlets in some belts, officials said.

                M Nageshwaran,operating a franchisee, said their dependence on "poor quality of service" by Speed Post did not help them, and a 'private' P.O in an industrial estate in Theni district failed because many people opted to use courier service. But after the franchisee was shifted to a Medical college premises, business picked up, he claimed.

Source; The Economic Times, August 11,2011