'Private' post office a big hit in Madurai

MADURAI: After trying out about half a dozen business ventures that failed to yield results, 50-year-old P Murugan of Pethaniyapuram was apprehensive when he started a franchisee outlet of the postal department in 2007. Four years later, his outlet, popularly called the ‘private post office,' the second-of-its-kind in Tamil Nadu, has turned out to be a hit with the people.
The outlet has over 1,000 customers in and around Pethaniyapuram and is all set for expansion. "Initially, the people were a tad suspicious and did not accept us. But we soon won their confidence as we treat them as our boss rather than customers. With the singular focus of customer satisfaction, we offer several door-to-door services. For example, if an elderly person has a recurring deposit with us, we go to his or her house and collect the deposit amount, making an entry in their passbook and thereby eliminating their trouble of travelling to the post office," Murugan said.
With about 200 customers who run a recurring deposit account and over 600 persons paying electricity bills, the postal outlet makes a turnover of Rs 3 lakh every month. The Indian Postal Service gave the franchisee to five such outlets in Tamil Nadu in 2007. However, only two continue service now, the other one being in Chennai. The franchisee outlets offer counter services alone, while delivery of post would be handled by the post offices.
"The franchisee outlet was a part of our efforts to reach out to more customers and serve people in every nook and corner. The success of this outlet will also attract more people to opt for franchisees," said a postal department official. "The private post office accepts electricity bill payments till 8 pm everyday. This is a great boon for households where husband and wife work as they can pay the bill while returning from office," says K Kumaran, a customer. The number of customers will soon be increased as the outlet is likely to be upgraded to the status of a branch office.
Now, Murugan plans to introduce booking of air, railway and bus tickets. "The postal department plans to install an integrated software that will allow customers to book air, train and bus tickets at the franchisee outlet," Murugan said. "Once the software is installed, customers can track the status of registered post if it fails to reach the addressee on time," he added.