A recently released report has suggested that consumers are going to start shunning post offices and the services that they offer, adding that the whole post office service could ‘go the way of Woolworths’. The report raises concerns that the Post Office Service is offering poor products, poor service, and poor accessibility due to branch closures, and that this will lead to more and more people shunning the post office altogether sending what has become a national institution the same way as Woolworths.
The data came from the results of a fourteen month study that was carried out into post office use, and the results were published by an academic at the University of Chichester, Dr David Cooper. West Sussex County Council commissioned the study. In his report Dr Cooper said that urgent action needed to be taken with regards to improving the post office service in order to stop it from being degraded to the point of no return.
As part of the study hundreds of businesses and residents within the catchments areas were surveyed. It was found that around thirty six post offices in the area closed last year alone. The closure of branches has resulted in the queues in remaining post office branches becoming far longer, and this was something that was highlighted by the consumer watchdog group Consumer Focus.
Research also involved carrying out mystery shopping exercised in over four hundred post office throughout the country, and it was found that around 20 percent of consumers now have to wait longer than ten minutes to get served at the Post Office. With more and more services becoming available online many people that used to use the Post Office regularly may decide against having to travel further and queue longer, and may ditch the Post Office and use online facilities instead.
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