The Australia Post philatelic customer sales and service team plays a vital role in ensuring all collectors’ questions and queries are answered and their product needs met. The office is a hive of activity with 11 dedicated customer service operators helping a vast number of collectors on a daily basis.
We were lucky enough to speak to three of the staff members, Kerry, Amy and Biz, and get the low down on the day to day activities of this important department.
Ladies tell us how long you have been working at Australia Post
Amy – I joined Australia Post seven years ago, and have always worked in customer facing roles. In Mid 2013 I moved to the philatelic area.
Biz – I have been working in the philatelic team for about ten months now, having moved over from the consumer team.
Kerry – It has been nine years since I started at Australia Post but I have been working with philatelic customers since June 2015.
What do you like about working in this (the philatelic) area?
Biz – There is always so much going on, but the diversity of the products makes things interesting, and all of our collectors are very polite and grateful for the help we give them.
Amy – Our customers are so passionate about their collections I think they appreciate someone taking the time to help them obtain something they really want and is of real importance to them.
Kerry – And for some of our customers we might be the only person they have spoken to all day, so there is a real sense of trust, community and connection with many of the people we speak to. Our role is to ensure all our collector’s receive the help and advice they need, and the products they want. It’s very rewarding knowing you are helping people who view the products as such a special commodity.
What are the main things you receive calls about?
Amy – We deal with all sorts of queries, from taking orders, answering questions about new releases and information featured in the Bulletin, and supporting our 1400 standing order customers.
Biz – We also handle online shop queries and postmarking requests.
Kerry – And a lot of the time we try to help collectors find out where, if they can’t get the products they need directly from Australia Post, they might be able to find them.
So it sounds like you get pretty busy?
Amy – Yes, we definitely do! We can take anything up to 50 calls a day, and with 11 of us in the team that adds up to a lot of phone calls. As soon as the Bulletin reaches people’s letter boxes we know we are going to be busy. Or when limited edition products come out, then everyone needs to jump on the phones to ensure the collectors can get in quick.
Kerry – Especially when the annual collectable Impressions catalogue comes out. We had a lot of positive feedback on the new online registration system introduced last year, and the ballot approach which allowed everyone equal opportunity to purchase particular products.
Biz – Some of our collectors don’t have access to the internet and prefer to speak to someone in person about their queries.
Amy – There are a lot of customers we talk to on a regular basis. Some of whom I have been dealing with for such a long time I can recognise them instantly as soon as they say hello. And you get to know what they collect and what they will want too, which makes it easier to help them.
Kerry – We get collectors from all over Australia, especially rural and regional areas. But also a lot of international customers too.
What do you think have been the most popular stamp issues to date?
Amy – The recent Decimal Currency PNC sold out extremely quickly, I think collectors really liked the historical and commemorative theme of this release.
Biz – We have also had a lot of people signing up for the free Decimal Currency minisheet offer. I think it was a really great way to engage people. And Lunar New Year was also really popular this year.
Kerry – The WWI issues have also been very sought after, and anything to do with the Queen is also popular, especially now she is celebrating her 90th birthday.
Amy – The Our Solar System collection from last year’s Stamp Collecting Month was very well received, especially the limited edition products. Anything that has something slightly different in the product range is always sought after by our customers.
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