Background

Coronavirus: customer contact is taking place more online

Due to the coronavirus, most consultations at PostFinance are taking place by telephone or through live support via e-finance and the website. This is a huge challenge for customer advisors. What is Swiss Post doing to protect customers and employees? How are employees dealing with the current situation?

Sandra Gonseth29.04.2020

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Philipp Merkt, Head of Consulting & Sales, Bern/Valais Region

“With regard to the granting of Covid-19 loans, we have processed almost 8,000 applications within five days thanks to our incredible team and by working extra shifts. That’s a remarkable achievement! Like everyone else, I’ve had to reorganize things with my family. We all have to get used to the new daily routine of working from home and home-schooling to protect other people. I find it upsetting that grandparents cannot see their grandchildren.”

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At PostFinance, around 10% of customers are still visiting branches. All other consultations are taking place by telephone or through live support via e-finance and the website. This physical distance presents a huge challenge for customer advisors.

All customer zones are currently closed, which means branches are no longer accessible to walk-in customers. Customer advisors are nevertheless available for personal meetings or consultations. We are focusing on ensuring provision of the universal service and maintaining systemically important functions.

TWINT is enjoying a boom in growth

The usage figures for the TWINT payment app have shown extraordinary growth, as much more shopping is taking place online due to shop closures. Using cash for payment at supermarket checkouts is also advised against. With the temporary lifting of the lending ban by the Federal Council, PostFinance has recently also been able to provide its business customers with loans of up to 500,000 Swiss francs.