• Accessibility of post office branches across Northern Ireland for consumers with disabilities.

• Post office environment in terms of signage, presentation and layout of premises

• Quality of service provided during a typical post office visit

The findings of this study show considerable improvements in accessibility at many post office branches across Northern Ireland since a similar survey undertaken by our predecessor organisation, Postwatch (Northern Ireland), in 2004. However, the research also found that further progress and action is required to further improve access and reduce obstacles for consumers with disabilities.

In addition, the report demonstrates that the external and interior post office environment across a number of branches, especially the smaller rural post offices, could be significantly better. We believe this illustrates the clear need for investment across the post office network throughout Northern Ireland to deliver a modern consumer friendly environment that will help secure their presence and develop the vital social and economic role the post office plays in the community. In addition, financial support from the Northern Ireland Executive in the form of a Post Office Development Fund would be a welcome step.

The study recorded high levels of satisfaction with the overall quality of service provided during a typical post office visit. This is particularly the case for Crown post offices. These are welcomed developments. However, closer analysis illustrates areas where improvements should be made. Some of these include, action to tackle lengthy queuing times and for Post Office Limited to evaluate the effectiveness of staff training to ensure it is correctly aligned with the different post office operating models.

This report has identified the aspects of the network where improvements are required to ensure it fully meets consumers’ needs and expectations. To deliver these improvements we have suggested a package of recommendations we believe should be considered and implemented.

Key recommendations from Consumer Focus Post include:

• The Northern Ireland Executive should introduce a Post Office Diversification Fund similar to those which already exist in Scotland and Wales. This would help provide capital investment and improvements in service, especially in rural areas.

• Post Office Limited should effectively monitor and review queuing times of consumers particularly in their busiest branches. Use of effective queue management systems and more counter access at peak times is needed.

• Regular and consistent training programmes should be conducted for all counter staff regardless of post office type to further improve the service offered throughout the entire branch network. This will represent an important commitment in the future of the network.

• Post Office Limited should continue to undertake biennial disability audits, at each post office premises throughout Northern Ireland and information on their Branch Access Guide website is regularly updated.

• Signage or symbols displaying services available to consumers with disabilities should be clearly displayed at the point of entry to each post office branch.

Enquiry Offices are an essential element of Royal Mail’s delivery network. In Northern Ireland, Royal Mail has 71 Enquiry offices, 27 of which are located within Royal Mail’s main Delivery Offices and 44 are Sub-Delivery Offices which usually operate from a post office branch. They provide a facility that is open to the public, from which consumers can collect undelivered items of mail, for example, surcharged items, items requiring a signature and items too large for normal letter box delivery.

Consumers typically recognise Royal Mail’s failed delivery attempt by the presence of a ‘While you were out’ card. These cards inform the consumer of the address of the Enquiry Office from which they can collect their mail item, as well as offering them a number of alternative delivery options, such as redelivery on an another day or to an different address, or for a fee of £1.50, to a local post office (Local Collect).

Although Enquiry Offices are widely dispersed throughout Northern Ireland, the number of Enquiry Offices in each county varies; in some instances quite significantly. Most noticeable is the low level of offices in County Armagh and Belfast. Furthermore, in rural areas, where the distances to Enquiry Offices are often greater, consumers can typically face detriment in terms of both the cost and inconvenience of retrieving their mail item. The additional travel will also have a negative environmental impact. There is also wide variation and inconsistency in Enquiry Office opening hours across Northern Ireland which can cause confusion for consumers.

Research undertaken by our predecessor body, Postwatch Northern Ireland, in 2008 indicated a significant level of dissatisfaction experienced by consumers who used Royal Mail’s Enquiry Office facilities. This survey revealed that inconvenient opening hours and difficulty in getting through to Enquiry Offices by telephone were among the main concerns for Northern Ireland postal consumers. Following on from these findings, Consumer Focus Post decided to commission further research in early 2010 to explore the consumer’s experience of Royal Mail’s Enquiry Offices, and in particular, how the current delivery practices employed by Royal Mail are meeting the needs of today’s postal consumer in Northern Ireland.

In March 2010 we published our research findings regarding the standard cross-border mail service to and from the Irish Republic and made a number of recommendations about how that service can, and should, be improved.

This report describes a parallel piece of research into the performance of the First Class mail service between Northern Ireland and Great Britain. We chose to study First Class rather than Second Class mail because it is the service which consumers are likely to use for time-critical items and for which they are consequently paying a price premium. Both this research and the crossborder research were carried out for us by Ipsos MORI. The full report Improving First Class mail services between Northern Ireland and Great Britain can be downloaded below.

This introduction to the Ipsos MORI report:

• explains the context of the research
• discusses the main findings from the Ipsos MORI research
• outlines our conclusions based on that research
• makes recommendations to consumers, in the light of these conclusions, about how to obtain value for money in the way they use the postal services
• makes recommendations to Royal Mail and Postcomm on improving the mail service and the relevant performance monitoring statistics which are published under the terms of Royal Mail’s licence

By publishing this introduction and the full Ipsos MORI report, we hope to stimulate discussion among Northern Ireland’s social and business users and other stakeholders about the postal services they need and the postal services which are currently provided by Royal Mail under its licence issued by the Regulator, Postcomm. This is of particular importance in a year when all aspects of the Universal Postal Obligation (USO) operated by Royal Mail are under review.

The full research report is also available: Ipsos MORI: Improving First Class mail services between Northern Ireland and Great Britain

In May 2007, following a national public consultation, the Government announced the closure of up to 2,500 post office branches across the United Kingdom under the Network Change Programme, with approximately 500 of these to be replaced by Outreach services. The intention was that the programme would be a key component in a strategy to help stabilise the network following a substantial reduction of business at many branches, by concentrating that business in a smaller number of branches with an assured future. At the same time the programme would ensure that good accessibility for consumers to post office services would be maintained, with a set of accessibility criteria established to which the programme was required to conform.

The concept of Outreach service was adopted for the programme in rural areas of low population density and where low transaction levels meant it was difficult to justify a full-time conventional branch. Outreach was designed to ensure that the accessibility criteria were adhered to in such areas, with a range of formats providing a suite of key products, but at reduced service levels and incurring significantly less cost to Post Office Limited (POL) than a traditional post office.

Outreach services can be provided in four different formats:

• Partner service – A local business runs a post office service from their premises, for example a shop, mainly during the course of normal business hours, under the supervision of a nearby ‘core’ subpostmaster
• Hosted service – A subpostmaster from a nearby core post office visits a community at fixed times and provides a service from a ‘host’ location, such as a village or community hall, or shop
• Mobile service – A subpostmaster from a nearby core post office visits a location in a vehicle fitted with a post office counter and equipment, at fixed times and for a set period of time each week
• Home delivery service – A subpostmaster from a nearby core post office branch offers a limited service to registered customers, at the door, or at a local ‘drop-in session’ at a designated place

The Network Change Programme effectively reached completion by the end of 2008. Within Northern Ireland the programme involved the outright closure of 38 branches and the replacement of 54 others with Outreach services. This resulted in a post office network in Northern Ireland at December 2008 comprising 441 conventional branches and 58 Outreach services (including four earlier pilot Outreach services).

While the programme was underway, an unplanned, forced closure at one location (Kircubbin, Co Down) resulted in POL introducing a pilot for a new format similar to Outreach, called PO Essentials. This format is akin to Partner service, but it is stand-alone, without supervision of a core subpostmaster and with a slightly different operational structure.

Since the research was carried out two additional PO Essential branches have been opened to replace unplanned closures at conventional post offices and there have been a small number of adjustments in services at Outreach locations. A full list of Outreach and PO Essential branches in Northern Ireland at time of publication is attached.

The Network Change Programme met with strong resistance in many communities in Northern Ireland. Along with resistance to post office closures generally, much criticism was made regarding the likely impact of the closure of a community’s conventional branch and its replacement by an Outreach service. Consumer Focus Post made it a priority to carry out an evaluation of the impact of Outreach on those communities where it was introduced, and if necessary, to campaign publicly for changes so that services provided better meet the needs of consumers.

This report summarises the findings of research commissioned by Consumer Focus Post, and carried out by Millward Brown Ulster, between September and October 2009. It evaluates the range of Outreach formats introduced across Northern Ireland, and includes some findings regarding the PO Essentials pilot established within the timeframe of the Network Change Programme.

This report reaches conclusions about each Outreach type individually, and about Outreaches generally, and goes on to make recommendations to tackle a number of important shortcomings in the formats revealed by the research.

The full research report is also available: Evaluating Outreach Services in Northern Ireland – Research report by Millward Brown

The Research report prepared for Consumer Focus Post by Ipsos MORI Improving mail services is also available.

The key objectives for the research included the following:

• To establish current customer usage in relation to
  • Post Office Services
  • Postal/Mail Service
• To capture attitudes in relation to changes in the postal sector and identify what is of most importance to the postal consumer
• To probe perceptions and personal experience of how postal operators are meeting the needs of the postal consumer
• To identify the current awareness of the consumer representation and postal complaints system