As part of the “La Poste 2030, committed to you” strategic plan, La Poste group has created the Consumer and Digital Branch (BGPN) in 2021, with the aim of achieving customer satisfaction. To achieve this goal, it announced on June 28 an investment of €800 million between now and 2025 to modernize its omnichannel distribution network, expand its territorial presence and accelerate its digital transformation.
In its strategic plan “La Poste 2030, committed to you”, La Poste group expressed its ambition to be, by 2030, “the leading European platform for links and exchanges, human and digital, green and citizen.”
Headed by Nathalie Collin, Deputy CEO of La Poste Group, the Consumer and Digital
The Consumer and Digital Division is responsible for the omnichannel distribution of the group’s offerings. It brings together the La Poste Network, the Consumer business unit of the Service Mail Parcels branch and the Digital branch.
It has 50,000 postal workers, including 40,000 serving private and business customers and 10,000 working on the group’s digital transformation and development, and will generate sales of €6.7 billion in 2021.
Postal workers and their working conditions have not been forgotten in this ambitious development and transformation plan: two social agreements have been signed and the Group plans to recruit 2,400 people over three years.
Nathalie Collin states:
”
This unprecedented investment plan in our multi-activity network, with a focus on banking, marks a new stage in our development strategy. It demonstrates the profound evolution of our group in the service of our ambition to create a powerful omnichannel distributor serving individuals, professionals and small communities. Together with the 50,000 postal workers in the branch, we want to raise the quality of service we provide to our customers to the highest standards in the market.
An €800 million investment plan
Of the €800 million that La Poste plans to invest between now and 2025 in modernizing its omnichannel distribution network, €500 million will be devoted to renovating post offices and €300 million to digital transformation.
500 million to modernize the multi-activity network with a focus on banking.
By the end of 2027, all post offices will have been renovated, including 600 offices in
2022. The sales and banking advice areas, dedicated to the general public and to professionals, will be modernized, the computer equipment renewed, and new outfits are planned for the employees. To strengthen customer support, expert advisors will be able to join the teams of account managers and banking advisors, if necessary.
Improved services and reception procedures
La Poste has announced various innovations:
- The 20,000 postal workers in contact with customers are equipped with new smartphones, the “Smarteo “, with the aim of making the customer experience more fluid.
- New automated machines and digital terminals will be deployed in commercial areas between now and 2025, including 700 from 2022. Users will be able to weigh and stamp mail or parcels, buy envelopes and pre-stamped packaging, check their accounts or print out a bank account statement.
- New furniture inviting customers to discover La Poste Mobile’s telephone service will also be deployed in 400 post offices by 2025.
- New Duo lockers in sales areas, designed for the deposit and collection of Colissimo mail.
Expanding the territorial presence and diversifying the proximity network
La Poste’s network is organized around 35,000 points of service:
- 17,000 physical contact points with more than 7,000 post offices and nearly 10,000 public or private partners.
- La Poste also offers its customers more than 18,000 other points of access to its postal services: 16,000 Pickup relays in local shops, 700 Pickup consignments in high-traffic areas (SNCF, department stores, etc.) and 1,800 areas dedicated to professionals.
To expand and diversify its distribution network, La Poste is targeting 40,000 service points by 2025. To achieve this goal, it will expand its partnerships with major retailers and tobacconists. Its network of Pickup lockers will also increase from 700 to 2,000 lockers by 2023.
The 1,350 letter carriers and women who greet customers for part of their working day at the post office and spend the rest of their time delivering parcels and mail in rural areas will be increased to 2,000 by the end of 2023.
Simplifying and optimizing the customer experience
300 million euros will be invested by La Poste to ” strengthen omnichannelity and synergies between the post office network and its digital ecosystem built around the laposte.fr website and the La Poste mobile application.”
The consumer and digital branch aims to offer a simple and fluid customer experience, regardless of the point of entry used.
In 2021, laposte.fr counted nearly 1 million unique visitors every day and accumulated 1 billion visits over the entire year. It intends to continue developing its online offerings and deploy new digital services:
- On the laposte.fr website and its App: a locator lists the 35,000 La Poste service points and provides information on their
service points and provides information on their opening hours, geographical location and
and the services offered. It will be possible to make an appointment with a customer
customer service representative will be possible at the beginning of the school year. - A Google listing of service points and updated opening hours will make it possible to
opening hours in real time to improve responses to the more than 136
million queries per month on the search engine. - A parcel tracking from laposte.fr and the application that becomes multi-operator:
the customer can follow step by step the routing of his shipment, whether it is delivered by
La Poste, its subsidiaries (Chronopost, DPD France) or by another carrier (TNT,
UPS, DHL, Fedex…). - The La Poste application also offers 2 new innovative and practical features
practical features:
– The scan function: users can now scan their tracked letters, registered letters and parcels
registered letters and parcels to track them;
– A tool for measuring objects and surfaces in augmented reality. Free of charge and
free and without advertising, this tool allows to measure an object in order to find the right
packaging or send it from its mailbox.
In addition, La Poste is deploying videoconferencing to all La Banque Postale advisors to facilitate the customer experience.
All of its offerings are planned to be available by 2025.
Stamping mail with a digital stamp
La Poste relied on the AI expertise of its subsidiary Probayes, acquired in 2016, for this digital stamp, which will enable mail weighing less than 20 grams and destined for France to be franked from one’s smartphone in real time, at any time. Purchased on the La Poste app, it comes in the form of an 8-character single-use alphanumeric code to be written in pen on an envelope. The service will be available during 2023.
La Poste is committed to social and digital inclusion
For several years, La Poste has been working to provide concrete solutions for digital inclusion through partnerships and collaboration with associations:
- La Poste supports people who are far from the digital world through the intervention of
mediators in priority city neighborhoods. - It facilitates the lives of residents and their online administrative procedures
in 382 post offices with the France Services label. In addition, it is helping senior citizens learn how to use digital technology with the
Ardoiz tablet. - As part of France Relance, this year it is deploying 100 France Services digital advisors in post offices located in areas particularly affected by illiteracy (priority districts or rural areas). Their role is to identify the digital fragility of the people concerned and to organize digital initiation workshops.
- In partnership with La Banque des Territoires, La Poste is developing “L’ Étape
In partnership with La Banque des Territoires, La Poste is developing “L’Étape Numérique”, offering workshops and training in digital technology for the general public and businesses in its post offices. Ten or so Digital Stages have already been launched and around 100 post offices will be equipped with one over the next two years.
Translated from Le groupe La Poste investit 800 millions d’euros dans sa « Branche Grand Public et Numérique »
