Communication Strategies Of Australia Post Company

Australia Post Company Overview

The global business community has since the past experienced rapid in the mode of conducting business activities. Balmer (2012) describes that such changes necessitate new strategies for communication or rather effective business communication for the achievement of goals and objectives of the company or organization. Business communication can, therefore, be described as the sharing of information between individuals within and outside an organization and usually carried out for the benefit of the organization or company. In most cases most business communication or effective business communication defines most organizations, resulting in effective marketing campaigns as well as productive business interpersonal relationships among coworkers and creating a successful customer service resolution. It is also important in the development of an organization as it helps managers perform the most basic management functions such as planning, organizing, motivating and controlling and therefore it is considered to be the building block of any organization as analyzed by Tang, Gallagher, and Bie, (2015, p. 89). The report is therefore aimed at outlining and giving an analysis of the communication strategies used by the Australia Post Company in conducting its business operations.

Australia Post is a telecommunication corporation company that is found in Australia. It is known to be a government-owned organization or entity that operates under the telecommunication industry and provides postal services in Australia as well as its overseas territories. With the headquarters at Melbourne City, the organization has over 4400 other metropolitan retail outlets as well as 250 retail outlets in the remote and rural areas of Australia. Globally known as the Australian Postal Corporation, the company operates as a self-funded business of enterprise under the Australian Government as the primary sole shareholder. According to McMillan (2017), Australia Post is responsible for providing parcel and mail services, sending and receiving of payments, identity check responsibilities, as well as travel and passport services. The company operates in Hong Kong and employs over 36000 people as of 30^TH July 2016.

The company has over 100 years of operation in this industry since its foundation in 1911 and started. Over the years of its operations, Georgakis and Molloy (2016) denote that the company has achieved a great milestone and success in this high technology industry most of which is attributed to its effective communication channels and relationships with its clients and customers. The company was the first telecommunication company to begin the provision of the mailing and communication services used in government offices as well as in educational facilities and large businesses. A great success in the company operations has also been attributed to its ability to adjust and adapt to changes in the computer and technology industry, which distinguishes the company from its competitors facing financial instabilities.

The Importance of Business Communication in Organizations

As seen from above description, communication is a critical function in an organization and should be communicated purposefully focusing on the results and relations in order to generate solid results with multiple audiences as analyzed by Gopaldas (2014, p. 8). The use of non-electronic communication channels involves the distribution of messages usually in form of letters, business flow charts, and invoices and even through verbal communication between the employees. The use of these channels is becoming unpopular but they provide an alternative to the electronic communications channels. As a business company, Australia Post has different audiences with different communication needs which must be catered for.  For effective communication, the company ensures that its communication takes into account the audience requirements and will tailor the information with regard to age, gender, ethnicity, specials needs as well as accessibility requirements of its audience.

Australia Post Company has employed the use business reports and flow charts in communicating sensitive information such as the firm’s profitability margins to its top managers, directors, and shareholders. Its internal communication has also been based on the workforce enablement program which has improved the internal verbal interactions and communication among the employees as it communicates and shares the values and practices of the company with its employees. The company ensures that the non-electronic methods used are guided by the principles of openness, inclusivity, two ways, results driven as well as the principle of using multiple channels in communication.

Openness in communication ensures that all members of the organization are free to share feedback, ideas as well as criticisms at every level a culture that builds an environment of trust and foundation of success. The company also advocates inclusivity in its non-electronic communication channel as it ensures that all members are involved in decision making as employee involvement is a key factor and it affects the employee satisfaction and success in the business. Its clients and customers are well fed with business information through the company written business information sources such as business newspapers, bi-weekly letters, and magazines as well as the periodic business newsletters which communicate the emerging issues and developments in the company.

Electronic communication involves the use of technology to communicate or distribute messages to an audience. Such communication can either be through mobile devices, video conferencing, and social media or through the use of electronic media according to Gopaldas (2014, p. 6). In 2015, Australia Post Company faced a major challenge on how to inform her members on the innovative changes the company has undertaken which are designed to strengthen their client relationships as many of Australia Post employees were not in their offices on daily basis. At times the company used messaging services as well as emails and bi-weekly letters which were not so much effective and reliable, the company implemented a “county twitter” as a new channel which will make information more shareable and reachable as well as keeping the employees updated as analyzed in a business report by Barnes, (2010).

The Communication Strategies Employed by Australia Post Company

The use of social media platforms has been and can be said to be the most influential and effective means of communication employed by Australia Post. The company due to its nature of conducting business has embraced the use of social media and network platforms to share company information, knowledge, take decisions and share creative and innovative ideas by setting blog posts (Flanigan & Obermier 2016, p. 5). Although the company does not have a corporate blog or Twitter account a move that has been seen to make the IBM members the main corporate bloggers as well as twitter ID by Adam Christensen, a social media communication expert at Australia Post Corporation.

In the year 2010, the Australia Post social media statistics provided that the company had 17000 internal blogs and more than 100000 employees were using the internal blogs. The report also provides that there are 53000 members on social blue which is Australia Post Facebook site for her members and 200000 other were said to use the LinkedIn platform to obtain or share company information. The statistics also provided that the company had over 50000 members in alum networks whereas over 500000 participants are found to use the company crowd-sourcing jams.  The company has developed its social network platforms as it believes that her members act as the voice of the company and therefore argue that the company brand is shaped largely by the interactions the company has with its customers as provided by Crews and Stitt-Gohdes (2013, p. 65). The crowdsourcing was able to identify 10 best incubator business with the company funded to a tune of $100 million and the company was able to generate total revenue of $100 billion with a 44.1% gross profit margin in the same year. Such statics show that the company mostly relies on social media platforms as well as websites to communicate and interact with its customers.

This analysis is aimed at providing the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities as well as the potential threats that the company may be facing or may face in future. The organization since its foundation has existed as an extensive network company with established infrastructure facilities, technological systems and transportation that are all coordinated to provide a competitive edge of service delivery. However, Smaill (2017) points out that the consolidation with the logistics industry and parcel networks as well as intense competition from other organizations can be strategized to increase pricing pressures, an aspect that can have a great impact on the profitability and market share of the company.

Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats (SWOT) Analysis

Hewlett Packard (HP) Company is one of the main competitors of the IBM Company. The company has over 1 billion customers in 178 countries worldwide. Unlike the Australia Post Company which most of the communication strategies is based on the social network platforms, the HP Company uses a digital communication content management designed to provide its customers with the right information at the right time and in the right way. It has also adopted an approach of content globalization which has enabled the company to reduce its management as well as operation costs, lead to increased customer satisfaction and increased company revenues. Such developments were necessitated by the fact that corporate messaging and branding was becoming inconsistent across the regions and led to increased confusion among the customers. There was also a challenge in coordinating product release across all nations which required the synchronization of all the company multiple websites in multiple languages.

The company, therefore, developed a multi-lingual web publishing which was designed to address the issues of regionalization of the company content information, the translation of the information to different languages and localization of the content into the relevant practices, interest and cultural practices of the people. The HP content management infrastructure has been reported to serve over 13000 sales and marketing users and some of the. The content globalization communication initiative has led to reduced factory cost per new product by 56%. The number of customer’s specific products catalogs has also been reported to increase by 1000% in about 18 months since its implementation whereas the sales efficiency has also reported increasing to a range of 10% to 15% due to simplified access to the content. The content globalization has also reduced the content management infrastructure by 30% due to consolidation and centralization of the business content and information. The company’s content localization initiative has also led to increased cost savings by the enterprise translation architecture of greater than $ 3.5 million annually as well as increased efficiency from automated workflows.

On the other hand, Sun Microsystems Company has also provided competition to Australia Post Company as they offer other differentiated products. The company unlike the other two described above uses a variety of communication channels in promoting their client and customer relationships as well as in carrying out its operations. The company employs the use of electronic sourcing in reaching its customers and addressing their wants and needs (Chengkun 2016, p. 54). The electronic communication sourcing is considered to open to the company suppliers and its internal teams. On addressing the needs of its customers and clients, the company also employs the use of organization blogs and human voice in enhancing its communication efficiency. The organization web blogs offer a unique channel for developing and maintaining the relationships between the company or organization and the general public.

Competitor Analysis

The use of conversational human voice initiative by the company has been successful as it invites clients and customers to conversations which are open to discussions and it’s interesting as it also creates a sense of humor. It also provides links to company competitors and tries to communicate relational commitment by demonstrating that they are committed to maintaining relationships as analyzed by Dyrud (2011).

With the advancement in technology, it is advisable that the company aims at focusing on the modernization of its infrastructure. Such a strategy will enable the organization to enhance its customer satisfaction which will at the end improve its brand positioning and the future growth prospects. In effecting the strategy, it is recommended that the company equips its post office networks using new electronic point of sale adopted as counter terminals, receipt printers, cheque readers, cash drawers, and label printers. These are tools and equipment that have been specifically designed to be used in the modern retail environment as pointed out by Meyer (2017, p. 8). The company also needs to launch the use of digital camera services that are fostered with extended identity services and mail capabilities in all its post offices. When effectively adopted, it will be essential in helping the company to expand its services to the Australian market and beyond.

From the above analysis, it can be concluded that the company has a relatively effective communication strategy as compared to her competitors as its use of social media platform and complete freedom for its clients and customers to be the corporate bloggers and twitter ID gives them a platform to effectively share their concerns as well as ideas. Such sovereignty gives the customers satisfaction and a sense of belonging and that they are part of the organization practices. However, due to the increased competition, the company needs to improve in the areas of localization of the business content as well as ensuring that the content can effectively be translated into different languages across the globe as this will improve their communication efficiency in addressing their customers’ needs and wants.

Conclusion

Due to its large number of employees the company can also develop an internal communication strategy that will cater for the needs and support their employees need in different regions. There is also a need to focus on improving their feedback communication strategies as different clients and customers have different needs and sometimes relying on social media feedback may not be effective in delivering the desired feedback. The company can also integrate all the other communication channels and not entirely rely on the social network platforms, it can also adopt the use of electronic sourcing and developing websites centered on meeting specific customer needs instead of having one social platform.

References

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