Most postal customers in Switzerland still want to receive their mail on paper in future, accordingto a survey by Swiss Post.
Seven out of ten private customers, for example, would like to continue receiving businesscorrespondence such as invoices and salary statements in written form, the survey among 1,600individuals and business customers showed.
The studies show that physical communication between senders and recipients continues toenjoy great popularity and that letters and promotional mailings have a greater impact thanelectronic mail. These results prove that despite new digital media the letter has a bright futureowing to its stronger impact. Swiss Post said it is thus convinced that the letter business willremain a strong pillar of the company in the long term.
The majority of individuals surveyed would like to continue receiving business correspondencein paper form in future. For example, 76 per cent of respondents would choose to have theirreminders on paper, 71 per cent were in favour of paper invoices and 67 per cent would like toreceive their salary statements in paper form. Misgivings remain with regard to the security ofdata transmitted electronically, and customers appreciate the higher perceived value, bindingnature and simple archiving associated with letters.
There is also higher acceptance of physical advertising, according to the survey. Themajority of individuals surveyed (62 per cent) feel that postal advertising addresses thempersonally whereas only 23 per cent of respondents believe this to be the case with e-mailadvertising. At the same time, 58 per cent of those questioned admitted to opening promotionalletter mailings more frequently than if they had been sent by e-mail. Moreover, 68 per cent ofrespondents consider a company that sends physical promotional mailings to be reputable, whereasonly 27 per cent believe this of companies that advertise via e-mail.
In the field of business correspondence – such as invoices or reminders – postal mailingscontinue to dominate heavily: 97 per cent of companies surveyed send their correspondence by post.The high level of attention and impact was quoted as the greatest benefit of physical mailings. Asimilar picture can be seen in the case of promotional mailings: 62 per cent of companies believethat customers are more likely to read the content of a physical mailing than its electroniccounterpart. Only 3 per cent believe the opposite to be true with regard to e-mails.
Swiss Post stressed that the letter market remains a strong pillar of business. Last year itdelivered 2.37 billion addressed letters. After the decline in volumes had already begun to slowsignificantly last year, the number of addressed items has even increased slightly in the firsthalf of 2011.
Swiss Post said it will continue to make huge investments in the letter business, furtheroptimising its services, making its processes as efficient as possible and exploiting new potentialfor growth. This also includes developing innovative solutions and services at the interfacebetween the physical and electronic world.
The survey was carried out in autumn 2010 and summer 2011 by market research institutes GfKSwitzerland AG and Polyquest AG.
