The Director of Post at the Ministry of Communications, Mr Nicolas Derry, has urged staff members of Ghana Post to enhance its relationship with its customers.

He said that approach would go a long way to grow the company’s revenue, adding that “the survival of the postal service depends on how well we handle our customers.”

Mr Derry stated this in Accra when he spoke at the opening ceremony of a one-week Universal Postal Union EMS Conference for Anglophone countries in Africa. He said no company could grow its income if it could not enhance its relationship with its valued customers.

The conference which was organised by the Ghana Postal Company brought together representatives of the Anglophone countries.

They included Nigeria, Botswana, Ethiopia, Liberia, Malawi, Kenya, Namibia, Ethiopia, Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Sierra Leone and Ghana.

Participants would be trained to use the Express Mail Service (EMS), Co-operative Internet Based Inquiry System (IBIS), also known as the Rugby Global Customer Service System (GCSS).

The IBIS links more than 250 call centres from about 180 posts in over 175 countries and changes the way international enquiris are handled.

It enhances the quality of enquiry data, decreases the duration of enquiry and triggers pro-activeness in customer services.

These developments also allow postal operators to become more competitive, improve and standardise customer service for all cross-border products, provide better quality service and reduce the workload of customer care agents and report management.

Mr Derry stated that the postal system in Ghana currently faced a lot of challenges, which included poor infrastructure, low adaptation of new technology and stiff competition among other postal services.

To this effect, he said the government was supporting the Ghana Post to modernise its services in order to remain a very important organisation in the lives of Ghanaians.

Among these services, he said, was the construction of a 780-kilometre fibre-optic Information and Communications Technology (ICT) backbone infrastructure on the eastern corridor of Ghana which, when completed, would provide broadband infrastructure to over 120 towns and communities along the route.

He, therefore, urged the participants to take advantage of the workshop to acquire the skills, knowledge and attitudes to improve the level of customer experience of EMS clients in their respective countries.

The General Manager of EMS of Ghana Post, Mr Bernard Atta Sonno, said in order to enhance the customer service experience of its clients, there was the need to improve the quality of customer service among other services, to match customer needs.