MCA survey finds 68% of large bulk mailers rate Maltapost service positively

A survey by the Malta Communications Authority has found 68% of large bulk mailers rate the overall quality of postal services provided by MaltaPost as very good, while 48% of those interviewed claim to have seen an improvement in the services currently provided.

The survey consisted of face-to-face interviews with a total of 40 organisations carried out between January and February 2012, in order to gauge organisations' perceptions and satisfaction levels with regard to the bulk-mail service, amongst other postal services provided by MaltaPost.

The bulk mail service refers to postal articles consisting of 50 items or more.

Results indicate that the majority of organisations (29 organisations) using the bulk mail service do so every week; eight of which send between 5,000-10,000 addressed letters per batch while 5 organisations send more than 10,000 addressed letters each week.

The survey also shows that 30% of participating organisations claim to have increased the number of addressed letters they sent using the bulk mail services. The vast majority of these organisations operate in the financial intermediation, real estate & rent, and business activities sector.

On the other hand, 25% of participating organisations claim to have decreased the number of addressed letters they sent and resorted to other alternatives, namely email and eCommerce, whilst the remaining 45% of all organisations say the number of letters sent has remained relatively the same over the past twelve months.

"Despite the onset of new technologies that facilitate communication, this survey shows that postal services remain popular, particularly amongst the business community," MCA chairman Philip Micallef said. "It is evident that electronic communications and postal services can, or more importantly should, work in tandem with each other for an efficient business operation. Both sets of services have proven to be indispensable in their own individual way."

With regard to price levels, 61% of participating organisations say that the prices of the bulk mail services are reasonable. Additionally, 48% of all surveyed organisations claim to be highly satisfied with such services. In fact, the majority of large bulk mailers claim to have used only MaltaPost's postal services with the remaining 18% having used both MaltaPost and alternative postal service providers.

As for other services offered by MaltaPost, namely collection and delivery of parcels and collection and delivery of registered mail, the majority of interviewed organisations claim to generally be satisfied with these services and are confident that such postal articles are delivered safely.

Notwithstanding this, 33% of all organisations interviewed claim to have lodged a formal complaint with MaltaPost about a particular aspect of the postal services. The most mentioned complaints refer to loss and delay of postal articles and post office operation hours.