Swiss Post’s Contact Center is always a hive of activity: 100,000 telephone enquiries a month, 30,000 written requests, 9,500 customer responses and 1,800 searches for missing parcels or consignments. The waiting time on the telephone is around 45 seconds, e-mails are answered within 8 hours and letters within a few days. Swiss Post’s social media channels are also popular: there are around 3,500 enquiries a month and the number is rising. Customers receive an answer within 2.5 hours. But these are simply the facts and figures. Real-life stories often lie behind Contact Center enquiries.

Ravenous dog

“I couldn’t help but smile when I was dealing with the contact forms. One read: “My consignment is ready at the collection point. My dog has eaten the collection note. How can I pick up the parcel without a collection code?” I obviously took the matter seriously and dealt with it appropriately.”

Emotional stories

“The sister of a customer living in London sent him a parcel from Switzerland just before Christmas. He missed it as he was already on the way home. Then came the tragic part – the sister passed away on New Year’s Eve. Back in London the man had actually received a collection note in his private letter box, but the parcel had nevertheless been returned to the sender in Switzerland in the meantime. As the apartment had already been vacated, it could no longer be delivered. But the parcel had great sentimental value for the customer. The Customer Support Officer put all wheels in motion and found the parcel.”

True or false?

“A customer called and said that she’d sold her car. But the buyer refused to transfer the money to her account. He would only pay in cash. However, the customer did not trust him and was concerned that he wanted to palm counterfeit money off on her. So she wanted to know if she could meet the buyer at a branch operated by Swiss Post to have the authenticity of the money verified at the counter.”

First aid

“A customer contacted us to confirm a standing order. Then all of a sudden she stopped responding. Instead the Customer Support Officer could only hear puffing and panting. She immediately realized that something must have happened to the customer. Had she had a heavy fall, a stroke or even a heart attack? The customer did not answer despite being called many times. So her mother was contacted and asked to check on her daughter. The Customer Support Officer stayed on the line for 20 minutes with the customer without receiving a response. She encouraged the customer and kept telling her that help was on the way. Several days later, the customer sent an e-mail to express her gratitude for the support she had received. She had suffered her first epileptic fit during the call.”

Forgotten cat

“A customer called to check whether she’d left her cat at the branch operated by Swiss Post. She had only noticed when she got to the vet’s waiting room that she had left her cat and cat basket in the lobby. The Customer Support Officer called the branch to check whether the cat was still there. Fortunately it was.”

A mix-up

“A customer accidentally logged in to the demo-version of e-finance and, as a result, saw the account details of our example customer Maria Bernasconi. The customer thought he had accessed a third-party account and wanted to make a complaint about a “breach of data protection.”

A great fright

“The customer contacted us because his parcel was lying under a tree in the garden. He was really annoyed because he’d had to spend a long time looking for it. It turned out that a new, inexperienced mail carrier was doing the deliveries on the round that day. After getting no response when ringing the door, he wanted to leave the parcel in the shed. But before he could get there a large, aggressive dog charged at him. The mail carrier dropped the parcel and fled. Fortunately, he escaped uninjured. The customer later apologized in person to the mail carrier.”

Do you have any humorous or moving stories about times when you’ve got in touch with Swiss Post’s Contact Center? Tell us about them in the comments section.