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Australia Post ‘enlists help of crisis specialist’ amid ongoing backlash

Jun 18, 2019

Australia Post has enlisted help of crisis specialist Sue Cato as the company battles with a string of complaints. Source: Getty

Australia Post has reportedly enlisted the help of a crisis management specialist to rescue the company from its downward spiral, following a spate of customer service scandals and ongoing backlash across the country.

The postal delivery service’s CEO Christine Holgate has welcomed former AMP boss Catherine Brenner’s crisis specialist Sue Cato to the team in hopes of saving the company from further turmoil, The Australian reports.

According to the news outlet, Cato – who is reportedly regarded as one of the most experienced advisers in corporate Australia – will be somewhat of a lifeline for Australia Post, which has battled with a spate of scandals in the past.

Things have become so challenging that The Australian reports the company is “slipping into the red” and is “currently crawling with cost-cutting consultants” from advisory and investment firm KordaMentha. So is it enough?

Just in the past year, Australia Post has come under fire for everything from delivering parcels to the wrong addresses and taking packages on a whirlwind tour of the country instead of sending them directly to the recipient, to posties even captured peeing off the balcony of Australians’ homes.

Late last year, one disgruntled grandma announced her plans to boycott the company over Christmas after experiencing a terrible parcel mix up which saw her package from the US containing vital supplements and vitamins for herself and her husband be delivered to house a few streets away.

After a messy mix-up with Australia Post, Mandy Hickman is travelling thousands of kilometres to make sure they don't ruin her grand-kid's Christmas. #9ACA l WATCH THE FULL STORY: https://t.co/NLA32NEsz4 pic.twitter.com/EOvX7tq0XV

— A Current Affair (@ACurrentAffair9) December 6, 2018

Appearing on Channel Nine’s A Current Affair in December, Mandy Hickman claimed her and a neighbour’s parcels were delivered to each other’s addresses. But to make things worse, while Australia Post claimed her parcel was definitely at the other address, the owner of the property claimed they did not have it – leaving Mandy without vital medication and hundreds of dollars out of pocket.

Meanwhile, in July last year, Australia Post received a brunt of criticism as frustrated customers complained their parcels had gone from Queensland to Victoria and then Western Australia before chucking a U-turn and heading to the address on the parcel.

It begs the question, is enough being done to improve the quality of the service? And will instilling the help of Cato make any difference to both the company’s financial position and Australians’ opinions of it?

The act of simply rifling through the complaints from Aussies could take some time, with Australia Post recording a massive 1.1 million complaints during the financial year from 2016-17.

In March of last year, The Postal Industry Ombudsman released a report that detailed the shortcomings of Australia’s postal service for the last financial year with findings indicating a mass of problems that had arisen because of an increased number of Australian customers buying goods online.

“While the scale of Australia Post’s operations needs to be borne in mind to put complaint numbers into perspective, the fact that more than 1 million people have complained, is cause for concern,” Commonwealth Ombudsman Michael Manthrope explained at the time.

Back then Manthrope explained some action was being taken independently by Australia Post to improve the customer experience however, the complaints have only continued since then.