Samoa Post prioritizing SPS for its international customers

As COVID-19 restrictions are easing in some areas, operators are looking at ways to show customers that SPS takes priority over other postal services and compares favourably to competitors’ similar services.

Samoa Post elected to concentrate on SPS so that customers in Samoa could still send and receive international items. This decision paid off, customers chose SPS as their priority product for express items sent from Samoa during the state of emergency. As a result, revenues are up: in August there was a 43% increase compared to August 2019.

Like many operators, Samoa Post had to re-think transport routes so it used the weekly repatriation flight to its transport hub in New Zealand for its international SPS. As soon as the repatriation flights resumed, Samoa Post activated promotional activities and used social media to instantaneously inform the public on the resumption of services.

Marketing of SPS was important to differentiate SPS relative to other services and against competitors. Samoa Post publicized that SPS items could be sent and worked to recoup customers' confidence in the SPS service. Operational staff took part in online training so when SPS restarted they were familiar with the new SPS customer care system, i-Care and up to date on the latest SPS regulations. During this recovery period, as transport around the world is still in flux, Samoa Post communicated honestly to its customers that delivery standards cannot be guaranteed due to international flight restrictions.

Customers in Samoa already receive an excellent SPS service. In the last two years, Samoa Post has received recognition for its SPS performance (silver awards in 2018 and 2019) and customer care (2018 and 2019). The recovery work during 2020 to prioritize SPS, will help ensure e-commerce customers in Samoa can continue to send cross-border items and be connected internationally.