DHL 1999 Annual Report Download - page 49

Mail
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Sales – Enhanced customer care and greater
responsiveness to customer needs
Our Mail Communication sales operations were re-
organized in 1999.The new sales structure is aimed at sys-
tematically taking Deutsche Post World Net’s aspiration
to market leadership in all fields and turning it into
reality throughout our organization and operations.
Thirty-seven new sales branches and 400 employees
ensure the efficiency of our sales structure, enabling us
to further strengthen contact with our customers.We
have also expanded our network of Direct Marketing
Centers. At 40 sales offices around the country, we
inform companies about the opportunities successful
direct marketing has to offer, covering the entire range
of activities from concept development to campaign
execution.
The recently created Central Key Account Management
business division services major customers in the Mail
Communication area. We systematically geared work
processes,organization,IT support and human resources
to the needs ofthese key accounts and set standing opti-
mization processes into motion in 1999. Our centralized
key account management activities ensure innovative
solutions with customer-specific,tailor-made products
for customer acquisition, customer development and
customer loyalty activities at national and international
levels. These solutions include Deutsche Post World
Net’s entire product range, business solutions for the
classical letter product portfolio, the entire spectrum of
direct-response communication and package solutions
offered in association with our new business segments.
We started a nationwide partnership program for
business customers from the Mail market field with the
launch of our Business Club in early 1999. The club’s
offerings include consultancy and other specialized serv-
ices that revolve around active business promotion
measures, plus concrete activities to foster dialogue be-
tween club members.
Mail Communication and Philately – Campaigns
have a positive impact on private correspondence
volume
By using highly creative,innovative products and direct-
ly approaching various target groups, we were able to
stop the negative trend in the private mail area in 1999
and maintain revenue at 1998 levels.
In the private customer field, we actively promoted
letters as a valuable yet simple and commonplace means
of communication. Using direct marketing, postcard
campaigns and promotional measures at our postal
retail outlets and pinpointed approaches at locations
where target group traffic is high – such as restaurants
and sporting arenas – we were even able to post 43-per-
cent growth in the advertising postcard field. Event-
related campaigns such as Greetings from Space to
mark the start of the new millennium and successful
ideas such as our PLUSBRIEF (pre-paid envelopes) are
generating new interest in letter-writing.
Our successful Letternet pen pal club – which counts
more than 300,000 members – acquaints children and
teenagers with letter-writing.Even our convenience prod-
ucts, such as our postcard service for informing family
and friends of a change of address,helped boost revenue.
Deutsche Post World Net is developing into a full-serv-
ice provider for stamp collectors, offering not only
stamps but also attractive philatelic accessories.We sup-
ply more than one million private and business cus-
tomers, including more than 800,000 collectors who
have standing orders, with stamps, philatelic products
and other items by mail order. Special event-related
philatelic products such as “50 Jahre Bundesrepublik”
(50th Anniversary of the Federal Republic of Ger-
many),“250.Geburtstag Goethe/Weimar” (250th Anni-
versary of the Birth of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe) in
1999 and “10 Jahre Deutsche Wiedervereinigung”
(10th Anniversary of the German Reunification) round
out our broad range of offerings.
Quality – The best transit times in Europe
Within our domestic mail network,95 percent of all let-
ter items are delivered the day after they are mailed – the
best performance among all mail services providers in
Europe.A total of 99 percent of all letters are delivered
to their addressees by the second day after posting. The
level of customer satisfaction with delivery times has
risen in tandem with the level of our delivery perfor-
mance and is already at 1.9 (1 being the best mark).
Deutsche Post World Net received the 1999 German
Project Management Award in October in recognition
of its work in implementing its new letter logistics
system – confirmation of our accomplishments.
Our production system is one of the most modern in
the world.We also ensure that it remains state-of-the-
art by checking and modifying it on an ongoing basis.
We continually raise our level of automation by intro-
ducing new technologies.In the area of mail sorting for
example, we have made headway thanks to the use of
improved OCR (optical character recognition) systems.
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Corporate Division