SingPost launches MyPostman campaign for Singaporeans to get to know their postman and provide direct feedback on postal services

Earlier today (18 Nov), Singapore Post (SingPost) officially launched its MyPostman campaign islandwide, encouraging households and businesses across Singapore to get to know the postman serving them, while providing a platform for direct feedback and ratings on postal services. The nation roll-out comes after a successful trial held between 16 July and 16 September 2019 in Yishun and Bukit Timah. According to SingPost, the trial, which covered over 130,000 households served by 80 postmen, saw an overwhelming support by residents. Over the two-month period, about 1,000 ratings were achieved, with an average score of 4.5 stars out of a maximum of 5, given to the postmen.

As part of the campaign, close to 2 million sets of fridge magnets will be distributed to every residential household and business unit across Singapore in phases from now until the end of the year. The set of colourful fridge magnets will contain information on the MyPostman.sg website, as well as a QR code that users can scan using their mobile devices to access the website. Since the start of this month, households have been receiving their fridge magnets, as the campaign rolls out to more districts across Singapore progressively. Residents can access the website and key in their postal code to find out the postman serving their area. Additionally, residents can also provide feedback, words of encouragement, or rate the service they have received. To be launched in phases from now until the end of the year, the detailed roll-out dates are as follow:

MyPostman was conceived earlier this year to establish a better bond between residents and their postman, as well as to build a better understanding of Singapore’s postal workforce and to elevate SingPost’s level of service. The concept behind the campaign lends its roots from Singapore’s kampung days, where residents were deeply acquainted with their postmen - whom they typically interact on a daily basis whenever mail was delivered. “The campaign was designed to build stronger bonds between the community and their postmen, and the trial has shown us so," said Mr Robin Goh, Group Chief Brand & Communications Officer at SingPost. “The positive feedback from the residents have also helped in boosting the morale of our workforce and bolster the pride they take in being part of the Singapore postal workforce,” he added. SingPost encountered heavy criticism for its poor service standards early this year Despite the fact that SingPost is seemingly ending the year on a good note with this newly introduced campaign that managed to garner a positive response by Singaporeans during its trial phase, let us not forget how 2019 started off for SingPost. As the year kicked-off, SingPost had been receiving plenty of attention from the public, but for all the wrong reasons. On 10 January, a massage parlour owner said SingPost had failed to fulfil their end of a commercial agreement when they failed to deliver on the promised service of printing and distributing 65,000 flyers to homes and businesses around the island. The business owner had apparently paid $7,000 for SingPost’s printing and distributing service. Not only did SingPost fail to do the job, the owner of the massage parlour, Mr Johnson Tan, said that SingPost had even tried to fool him into thinking that the services had indeed been carried out when in fact it was not. If that is not bad enough, the company had also been receiving myriad of complaints from Singaporeans after their postmen left delivery-failure notice in their doorsteps even though someone was at home to receive the parcel. In response, SingPost took to their Facebook page on 14 January to apologise for the inconvenience that they had caused to the public, adding that they will look into the matter and further improve their services. While SingPost can be commended for having an apologetic character, it didn't help that their services took a turn for the worse after that. On 28 January, Facebook user Alyce Kathlyn took to Facebook to post eight photos, showing unopened letters and packages discarded in a public dustbin at Ang Mo Kio. She claimed that the postman had discarded the letters and parcels in the bin. Following SingPost's investigation into the matter, a postman serving areas in Ang Mo Kio was arrested on 29 January. SingPost also apologised "unreservedly" to the residents who were victims of the incident. Subsequently, the Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA) announced on 7 February that it will impose a financial penalty of S$100,000 on SingPost for its failure to meet the postal Quality of Service (QoS) standards for delivery of local basic letters and registered mail on nine events in 2017. Moreover, on 29 March, the IMDA once again imposed a financial penalty of $300,000 on SingPost; this time, however, for not meeting the postal QoS standards for delivery of local basic letters, registered basic letters, and international basic letters in 2018.