The post office network 2001 - 2008

From the rural and urban network…

Between 2001 and 2008, Swiss Post aligned itself more closely with current customer behaviour. On 18 January 2001, the first major reorganization of the post office network began. It focused on both the rural network and that in Switzerland’s 17 largest towns and cities. In many places, conventional post offices were transformed into innovative forms such as the home delivery service (“post on the doorstep”) and agencies (“Swiss Post in shops”) – or were managed in accordance with new principles. Closures with no replacement remained the exception, although the number of branches declined from 3,400 to 2,500.

More than four years later, on 1 May 2005, both projects came to an end. However, it soon became clear that these measures would not be sufficient. The decline in postal business continued – often even in villages and urban areas where the population was growing. Further action was therefore required. In other words, transformation of the sales network had turned into an ongoing task.

… to Ymago

It was against this background that Swiss Post launched Ymago in late 2003. The name of this new project comes from the Latin word ‘imago’ (image), and represents the philosophy behind the process: initial images and perceptions led to unconventional ideas for the future.

The slogans “Solutions through dialogue” and “Serving the customer” also played an important role. Right from the start there was an ongoing open and professional dialogue with all Swiss Post’s stakeholders, as there had been in the rural and urban network projects. These stakeholders included customers, employees, local and cantonal authorities and interest groups (trade associations, consumer organizations, the two umbrella organizations – the municipal association (Schweizerischer Gemeindeverband) and the city association (Schweizerischer Städteverband) – and trade unions), as well as the media. The Ymago project was completed on 31 December 2008.