The contours of the Post Office of tomorrow are becoming clearer. After having expressed its desire to open its offices to partners to stabilize its network, the yellow giant announced on Tuesday morning that it had signed with a first partner company, the health insurer Sympany.
In future, it will be possible to choose a new health insurance from a post office. Sympany staff will indeed be present in eight subsidiaries of the yellow giant from September, notably in Geneva, Lausanne and Bienne. And in 90 offices, employees of the Post will be able to make appointments on behalf of the company.
La Poste explained to the press on Tuesday morning that it wanted to transform its subsidiaries into service delivery centers. She says she is in discussion with a dozen other partners in different sectors: insurance, health, banks or even public administration. These partners will pay a fixed sum to the subsidiary concerned as well as a variable contribution according to their sales.
win-win
This strategic choice by La Poste is explained by the fall in volumes in the context of payments, but also letters. And the increase in parcel deliveries caused by the explosion of online sales cannot compensate for this shortfall.
For partner companies, benefiting from these offices costs much less than opening their own branch. Sympany thus hopes to find new customers at lower cost, particularly in French-speaking Switzerland, where it is not yet present.
Alternative to all-digital
With this orientation, a risk related to the brand identity of the Post could arise. However, the yellow giant claims to go in the direction of the general interest: with this development, the population would see their daily life facilitated, he believes, with several services in the same place. Especially for people who refuse to do all their formalities digitally, and who prefer to benefit from human contact.
Finally, it also underlines that this option makes it possible to maintain decentralized jobs.
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