The Qatar Postal Services Company (Qatar Post) achieved impressive progress during 2021, continuing to strengthen its internal resources, transform its postal services, enhance the customer experience and improve postal operations. “All these endeavours come within a comprehensive strategy of adopting the latest international standards, applying new technologies and meeting the ever-evolving needs of customers. These achievements came across a variety of levels,” the company said in a statement yesterday.
In terms of customer service, Qatar Post launched an internal call centre to manage and control the quality of its customer services. In particular, this enables customers to communicate directly with Qatar Post employees through the government infrastructure.During 2021, Qatar Post managed to move up the Performance Index to reach third place globally, achieving 96.7%, according to the Universal Postal Union report. This comes as result of achieving 96.90% (initial target was 88%), reaching its highest percentage ever. In addition, Express Mail in Qatar achieved a high-performance evaluation, fifth place worldwide, based on the company’s efforts to improve postal services standards and achieve the highest levels of service quality, exceeding all targets. According to the indicators of the Universal Postal Union, the premium post performance scored 99.82% and 99.53% for outgoing and incoming mail during the period. In the past year, Qatar won membership of the UPU Board of Directors for South Asia and Oceania, following elections held alongside the 27th World Postal Congress in Abidjan, Ivory Coast, from August 9 to 27, 2021. As the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 approaches, Qatar Post has continued its mission to document major events and occasions in Qatar through distinctive issues of postage stamps. Under a co-operation agreement with FIFA, Qatar Post was appointed as the exclusive provider of stamps for the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 and has revealed several stamps for the tournament – the first of which was the official postage stamp for the tournament, distinguished by being the first stamp in the form of Qatar’s map and bearing the official tournament logo. This was followed by a set of World Cup stadium stamps. Moreover, Qatar Post issued the official postage stamp for the FIFA Arab Cup Qatar 2021 hosted by the country. It also issued a new set of classic postage stamps for the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022, which highlight football history from 2010 to 2018 through exquisitely designed stamps featuring the countries that hosted the three previous World Cup tournaments.These issues come as part of Qatar Post’s efforts to design postage stamps that spotlight the rich heritage and long history of Qatar, as well as the Qatari football journey. In addition, they highlight World Cup history and the stadiums that will host the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 matches, plus the opening and closing ceremonies, to support the success of the tournament and help promote it both locally and globally.Likewise, Qatar Post has continued to harness its resources and distinguished associates to support the sports sector in Qatar and internationally. It successfully delivered more than 12,000 fan cards for the 2021 Amir Cup final, and more than 34,000 fan cards for the FIFA Arab Cup Qatar 2021. On the sidelines of the 2021 Arab Cup, a service was launched to collect and return lost items to fans, covering six stadiums with a total of 32 matches and 33 information points.With regard to e-commerce services, several unique Qatar Post products were launched, including PO Box Special Numbers and Connected (Turkey) – a new international shipping service. Qatar Post expanded the delivery of e-commerce items in line with customer need and the growth in this market, both locally and internationally, to help companies increase their business volume and customer base.In 2021, Qatar Post successfully delivered more than 170,000 e-commerce items to customers. Home services exceeded 3,237,184 deliveries, including more than 1,696,000 for Metrash2, 235,000 VIP shipments and 100,000 deliveries of medicines and medical materials to patients. Some 779,000 postal items have been delivered locally and internationally, and 95,000 legal notices for the Qatari court. The volume of foodstuffs, household products and consumer goods deliveries increased from 300 to 800 items per day.Qatar Post is working to create the best possible working environment for its staff through training programmes that enhance their capabilities and provide them with the expertise and skills to perform their work efficiently. It hosted 114 programmes providing 1,550 training days, above its target of 1,300 days. In terms of safety, these efforts have paid off – with more than 2,000 working hours completed without work-related injuries.Thanks to these initiatives, Qatar Post was able to obtain several international recognitions and certifications:? ISO 39001 accreditation for road traffic safety management, confirming its leading position as the first logistics company in Qatar to obtain this international certificate, as well as the first renewal of the international accreditation for the integrated management system.? ISO 9001 for total management quality.? ISO 45001 for occupational health and safety management systems.? ISO 14001, the world’s most popular environmental management system.? The second renewal of the international accreditation ISO 27001 for the security of information systems.? Qatar Post’s consumption of vital resources such as water and electricity decreasing by 10% compared to 2020.As for digital services, Qatar Post has successfully completed a major system integration programme by linking its data and reporting, resource management, postal operations, billing and customer service systems with digital channels. It started to implement the digital archiving system, with the aim of creating an environmentally friendly, paper-free company and reducing the risk of paper documents being lost or damaged, as well as facilitating the process of replacing them safely. It launched a receipt and delivery application with new features such as requests for receipt and delivery through the application, and submission of inquiries via online chat conversations or WhatsApp. This has led to a 20% decrease in incoming calls from customers. In addition, 30,000 new addresses were collected, and 80,000 messages were received.Qatar Post has also integrated some tools and technologies related to business intelligence – to be used in the study and analysis of data on operations, branches and retail locations. Analytical control panels have been established to maximise company resources, focus on cost-reduction, enhance the quality of services and set a strategy for future planning with accurate data informing decisions. This operational area also saw the launch of a shipping API, enabling customers to create and manage orders more effectively, through e-delivery service applications that integrate with e-commerce platforms. Qatar Post developed specialised applications, such as ‘Lost and Found’ during the FIFA Arab Cup. It also provided customers with a cash-on-delivery service, various payment-by-Visa card and contactless bank card options, supported by NFC technology.Faleh al-Nuaimi, chairman and managing director of Qatar Postal Services Company, said: “We are very proud of our achievements at various levels in 2021, which are testament to our efforts to develop our business and improve the quality of our services, which aim to reach the high levels of distinction, diversity and accuracy that our customers expect. These efforts came in line with the objectives of Qatar National Vision 2030, and our ambitious endeavours to become one of the most advanced postal companies and the trusted partner for all. “We are moving forward towards achieving our future goals through a strategy based on several axes, the most important of which are: expanding in digital technology, enhancing our services portfolio and customer experience, helping our human resources reach new levels of efficiency, and boosting our organisational capabilities.“I would like to extend my thanks and gratitude to the Qatar Post team for their efforts and dedication. I am honoured to say that all the accomplishments achieved are the fruit of their efforts and a natural result of their commitment. We hope for more, so that we can establish our company among the ranks of our major international competitors.”