Questions for Singapore Post

1. What is the underlying problem for Singapore Post? How did this problem get
created?

● Their initial exceptional last mile deliveries gave them a competitive advantage over their
competitors, which over time became an expected service by all customers.
● Singapore Post did not bring in the process innovation and lacked operational
excellence. They did not bring requisite changes in their service operations with growing
industry demand.
● With growing demand, they did not manage their workforce accordingly. Also, they did
not hire additional required workforce. This led to the increased workload per employee.
● With high workloads and the company primarily focussing on their objective task of
making more deliveries, this undermined the overall organisational structure and the
importance of training and development process for employees.
● This led to lack of accountability and explanation from their employees, and customer
complaints were often met with generic responses further degrading the company’s
service process.

2. What type of service failures were reported against Sing Post by Ang Mo Kio
resident? What kind of customer was he? What kind of customer ire did the brand
Sing Post face post the Mo Kio incident? What does it tell you about the type of
customers in the fold of Sing Post? Should it concern them?

● Poorly Executed Service was reported by a resident of Ang Mo Kio. He had found stacks
of unopened letters (30-40) in a trash can. These letters also included letters from the
government agencies such as the Land Transport Authority andCommunity Health
Assistance Scheme.
● He was an “Activist” as he used a third party (which was social media) to express his
dissatisfaction.
● The customer response was a mix of people who were concerned about the heavy
workload of the employees and people who narrated personal anecdotes of similar
tastes. One such incident was that a customer was unable to obtain the address of the
main office as the customer service function had been outsourced to India.
● The above is sufficient to establish the fact that a majority of the customers were
“Activists” as they voice their grievances on social media. This should concern the
company as Negative Word of Mouth would affect their future business. Dissatisfied
customers result in poor bottom lines.
3. What were the various other service failures in Sing post? Comment on the
process gaps leading to these failures.

● Undistributed flyers: A small business owner who had paid S$7,000 for the distribution
of advertising flyers, contacted SingPost to enquire about the status of his order and was
sent photos showing the successful distribution of his flyers in various mailboxes.
However, the photos were later proven to have been digitally manipulated. Only one
flyer was delivered and they made it look like they had delivered all the flyers. After
being found guilty, the staff was held responsible for the deed. Gap: The lack of formal
process to ensure if all the deliveries have been completed successfully and verification
of status report of the deliveries. Tracking system for this needs to be in place.
● Forged Recipients’ signatures and Valuable parcels left on doorstep: One user
claimed that valuable parcels had been left outside the door, apparently having been
signed for, despite the signature not belonging to any family members. Gap: Batching
Sorting of parcels (color coded or otherwise) based on the value associated with it.
Values and ethics need to be embedded in employee training and development
programmes.
● False failed delivery notes: A user captured a SingPost worker on video leaving
regular mail together with a failed delivery slip, despite not carrying any parcels. Gap:
There was an error during sorting due to which employee was not carrying the parcel
which needs to be minimised or eliminated. Values and ethics need to be embedded in
employee training and development programmes.
● Leaving Failed Delivery Notifications without Waiting: A video seemed to show the
worker at the customer’s door for only a few seconds, leaving a missed-delivery notice,
and going back to his vehicle before the customer could answer the door. When
confronted, the worker claimed he waited more than 20 minutes. Gap: The company did
not have a [proper protocol in place which ensures sufficient waiting time for the
recipient to answer the door.

4. Comment on Sing Post’s handling of employee driven failures. Do you

agree with what Sing Post had done to handle these issues? How should
Sing Post should handle such failures?
Singpost apologised on their Facebook page for the service outage and pledged to improve
their service quality. Because of the rapid rise of e-commerce, they announced quick actions
such as a wide evaluation of its postal operation, which aimed at resolving the most serious
difficulties within 3–6 months.

The following are some of the company's actions:

● To meet increased delivery volumes, an additional 100 personnel were hired, as well as
parcel collecting counters and worker post offices.
● Worked with Government agencies, Union of Telecom employees in Singapore to
upgrade worker’s skills to alleviate workload.
● Singpost has also modified its employee salary structure, with better pay for successful
deliveries of trackable items to customers' doorsteps as an incentive. Employees that
worked extra hours were also paid overtime.
 ● On weekdays, the mail delivery shift was extended to ensure that the mail arrives at the
customer's location on time.

In addition, they use new technology and infrastructure to increase their service quality.

This is a great development in that Singpost recognised its service failure and attempted to
reclaim the trust it had lost. However, it is only a band-aid, not a long-term treatment. The
solution is a six-month short-term plan that includes pledges, plans, and apologies, among other
things. Customers, on the other hand, are waiting for the plans to be implemented. Individuals
may say that "its short-term measure is adequate" when the Singpost is already implementing
such measures to improve service quality and when concerns are resolved and minimised.

It is beneficial to the firm to implement immediate solutions to situations that require urgent
attention.

However, this remedy is not limited to what the corporation will do. A little goes a long way
toward making a whole. To put it another way, to reach the top of the ladder, one must begin at
the bottom and work their way up. It also necessitates a long travel or long-term strategy for
completing the task.

5. Did Sing Post have a service recovery plan? Comment on how the
company reacted to a series of failures – in the light of your understanding
of failure and recovery strategy.
● No, they didn't have a service recovery plan. This is evident from the fact that from
2014, which was the time when they were awarded with a special mention for
Outstanding Workplace for Mature Employees, to 2017, which was the time when things
started to go south, the company had no plan for service recovery.
● The company had Issued Public apology on its Facebook page after several
service lapses.
● Announced dismissal of employees involved in the negative incidents.
● Finally, it began its Review and changes in operational processes.: The measures
were aimed at solving the most pressing issues within three to six months. Workload
was the main issue which they attempted to resolve by initially adding 100 employees.
Also, remuneration was added for the workers along with fixed salaries on successful
deliveries of trackable items to the customer’s doorstep. Mail delivery shifts would also
be extended to weekday evenings and Saturdays to reduce missed deliveries. Those
workers who volunteered for the new shifts would receive overtime pay. The company
also planned to work with government agencies and the Union of Telecoms Employees
of Singapore to upgrade worker skills and alleviate the large workloads.

6. While the case mentions that SingPost was one of the Best employers,
yet employees poured out their woes as the incident involving one of their
own went public. From your understanding of Employee roles in services,
can you explain this anomaly?
SingPost was awarded the Special Mention for Outstanding Workplace for Mature Employees
in 2014. The incidents regarding companies employees being dissatisfied were captured from
2017 onwards. Hence, it can be concluded that during 2014-2017. The company was not
working to enhance the Employee satisfaction.

Employees play a big role in services. The service profit chain tells us that happy employees
lead to happy customers which create a strong business.

7. What changes needed to be instituted by SingPost to reinstate customer

confidence? What changes needed to be instituted by SingPost to smoothen
service operations to prevent future failures? - Suggestions to be given in the
light of Sing Post’s ambition to become the last mile delivery partner for e-comm
companies - 3-yr transformation plan.

A7) To reinstate the customer confidence, the following changes need to be made:

1) Enable Service Recovery- This involves compensating and apologizing for the current
issues. Hiring more workers, paying for overtime, creating an SOP for all workers and
monitoring them regularly.
2) Make it easier for customers to give feedback- This will allow the company to assess
whether the actions taken are working or not.

Changes required for smoothening services to avoid future failures:

1) Assess Reasons for Failures: Some common reasons are Shortage of workers, lack of
motivation among employees due to non-transparent pay structure etc.
2) Fixing the points of Failure: This involves hiring more workers and establishing a
transparent pay structure, using technology to avoid service lapses etc.

8. Two main learnings from this case.

1) The first is about the Service Profit Chain- Happy employees would lead to happy
customers which would create a strong business.
2) The second is about performance monitoring :The company should install a
Feedback Loop for its employees. This feedback from its customers should regularly be
taken into account. Also, if things go wrong and there is a dissatisfied customer , the
company should understand that these are sensitive matters and hence, should be
handled carefully and fairly. Another thing that adds weight to this argument is the fact
that from 2014, which was the time when they were awarded with a special
mention for Outstanding Workplace for Mature Employees, to 2017, which was the
time when things started to go south, the company didn’t install any feedback system to
work on service recovery