HELL-o again

I've been reading your comments while I’ve been away and I’m really excited to be back and joining the conversation again.

I had no doubt that you would all be busy but playing catch up on my first day left me grabbing the phone and dialling for pizza! Lucky because HELL inadvertently delivered my first blog idea with my order!

HELL is running a clever promotion using a combination of a printed flyer and an eye-catching competition to direct their audience to their website.

What's great about the HELL promotion (besides the timely chance of winning free pizza for a year!) was the classic simplicity of it. I was targeted as an existing customer with a printed direct mail piece that pushed me to their website with a relevant incentive. Once there, I was pointed to their interactive video promo on YouTube.

I was on their website and YouTube page for ages and while I was there I saw all the other cool stuff that they are offering, and noticed that they have a Facebook page and a Twitter account too. Plus everything about the video reinforced the company's values of being fun and kind of wicked!

It just goes to show that a simple flyer to the right person can work to reinforce your business values, push traffic to your site and help update customers on your services. Without the flyer I wouldn't have visited their site that night or maybe anytime soon. This approach could be right for your business - we've said something similar before.

It seems I'm not the only one to appreciate the good job HELL did on this promotion, their customer comments speak for themselves, great feedback for HELL for future promotions.

Next Tuesday (free delivery!) I'll be ordering some of their new churros with my pizza. I can see a lot of pizza in my life over the next few weeks as I get back into the swing of things!

Give it a go yourself, check out our MailBase™ solution to help create your next direct mail piece. And, don’t forget to comment and tell us what you think.

The latest issue of redline™ is out NOW – here’s a peep at what’s inside…

We’ve packed this issue full of useful information, advice and tips for business owners. In particular, we look at how you can power up your business and give your company a boost.

There are articles on how best to generate new business and what approach to take if you’re selling a service rather than a product. There’s practical know-how from our panel of service professionals as well as success stories from Fatso and Geeks on Wheels.

PLUS there are also some great offers and giveaways. Check them out!

And remember subscribing to redline™ is quick, easy and FREE!

Where's my parcel?

We’re always looking for ways to improve our customer service and one of our latest developments is the ability for you to track your parcels via Twitter. It’s very new and we’d love to hear any feedback on it, so please give it a go and let us know what you think.

All you have to do is follow nzposttracking on Twitter (which will follow you back automatically). Then you send a direct message including your parcel tracking number e.g. ‘Watch JB123456789NZ’. You’ll then get a confirmation message and an update when you’re parcel is delivered. You can even give your tracking number a name e.g. new shirt which will mean Twitter will refer to it as that each time you get an update. And when your parcel does arrive you simply direct message with ‘unwatch’ – it’s as easy as that!

So, rather than having to keep asking our website where your parcel is, Twitter will automatically update you each time its status changes. The service is available to anybody with access to Twitter including Twitter website, Twitter desktop and mobile apps, and via text message (free if you’re on the Vodafone network).

So, give it a go and let us know how you get on, we’d really appreciate it.

Yes, some of our prices are changing

It goes without saying that no-one’s going to be overly happy when prices go up, after all who wants to pay more for something? But sometimes it just can’t be avoided and that’s the position we’re in at New Zealand Post right now. Every business person understands the very simple equation that you need to charge people enough for your product to cover the costs involved in producing and delivering it.

And those costs can not only change, but those changes are sometimes out of your control. That’s the economic reality that’s facing us at New Zealand Post. Not only have we seen a decline in the amount of mail being delivered, but we’re delivering it to more mailboxes than ever. That means we’re delivering 20% less mail per mailbox than three years ago. Add in increasing fuel costs and this position is just not sustainable. We’ve already managed to strip out $30million from our costs in the last year, but that still hasn’t been enough to prevent the need for these changes.

And so, we are having to increase some of our prices. For example, from 1 October the RRP for a Standard Post medium letter stamp will go from 50cents to 60 cents (this includes the increase in GST that will apply from then too). Not all our prices are going up, for example the RRP for ParcelPost Postage Included Bags will remain unchanged and the GST increase will be absorbed.

And remember, if you have KiwiStamp postage stamps or Postage Included Envelopes which you’ve bought at the current prices, they can still be used after the increases take place without the need for any additional postage to be added.

Leaflets detailing the changes are being sent to households and box holders next week and we’re writing to our business customers to explain the changes and also to remind people to check that they are using our most cost effective services for them.

You can check out full details of all the upcoming price changes here.

Presenteeism

There is so much in the news at the moment about sick days and absenteeism and the cost it has on businesses. Today I came across a new word 'presenteeism' which apparently refers to the issues that occur when sick employees still turn up to work in the belief that they will either get into some sort of trouble for not being there, or that they are so vital to the running of the business that they cannot be absent.

It's all rather timely as I am currently sitting at home in my slippers, wrapped up warm and surrounded by tissue boxes and hot lemon drinks as I try to fight off flu like symptoms. I'm sure my colleagues are grateful I'm not in the office coughing and spluttering my germs at them!

And funnily enough I've got through just as much work, if not more, as I would have done had I been in the office. Granted, some meetings have had to be shifted around, but with access to my emails there is very little I haven't been able to make progress on.

Hopefully with one day at home, I'll be in a much better position to return to work tomorrow.

How does your business manage when you or your employees are sick - would you prefer people to come in or stay away? Let us know your thoughts and any tips or advice you have on how to handle this situation.

You can also check out this article on presenteeism.