About PostNet

PostNet SA (Pty) Ltd delivers efficient business solutions with their courier, copy and print, digital, stationery and mailbox services. PostNet is SA’s largest privately owned counter network in the document and parcel industry and trades across over 278 owner-managed retail stores, which serve an excess of 55,000 ‘walk-in’ customers per day, countrywide.

PostNet Southern Africa franchises needed one communication system to serve regular internal communications to all associated branches as well as external campaigns to clients. The challenge was to cater for different types of communications for their franchises and clients, while accurately and efficiently managing data for thousands of customers. The franchisor account is primarily used for communicating to staff, third party service providers and for testing franchisee communications. Email communications range from staff training to service provider notifications and tests.

Franchisees and branches are responsible for client communications, which are used to update account holders using a variety of PostNet services, including mailbox rentals. Such client campaigns revolve around general notices, alerts and updates on mailbox expirations and renewals, services affected by strike action, promotional campaigns and incentives.

PostNet uses Everlytic’s Enterprise package architecture to manage their email and SMS communications to staff, service providers and clients.

Each franchisee is linked to PostNet’s head office as an independent brand. The head office is responsible for purchasing and allocating quota to each of the 278 branches. This parent-child structure allows PostNet head office to maintain control over the allocation quota and ensuring that bigger branches can be allocated the required quota for their needs.

Everlytic’s flexible multi-tenant architecture together with authentication, security and access protocols means each of the 278 branches manage their related client communications independent of the head office. Application Program Interface (API) integration ensures that data between head office and its branches are regularly, accurately and efficiently synced and updated.

With regards to PostNet’s head office using their Everlytic account for testing email campaigns sent by individual branches to clients, the tests largely extend to email footers in client communications. PostNet’s email footer tracks link clicks to their website, social shares, unsubscribes, profile updates and forwards-to-friends by subscribers.

“We found that Everlytic could be used to both, manage our national database and communicate to that database. A lot of companies specialised in one or the other, but Everlytic could do both equally well”

– Pieter Strydom, Digital Manager for PostNet Southern Africa

Everlytic met PostNet’s primary objectives:

• Easily build PostNet’s national database in line with industry best practice, the Consumer Protection and Protection of Personal Information (POPI) Acts.
• Actively manage the health of PostNet’s national database with automated unsubscribe, opt-out and bounce tracking.
• Effectively communicate to the national database.

PostNet required a secure, adaptable system that could integrate with their Customer Relationship Manager (CRM) system and match their franchisor-franchisee
model. ‘’Everlytic met our security issues hands down, with different levels of security measures in place to ensure our data is not compromised. The Everlytic system is reliably secure,’’ says Strydom.

In addition to traditional communication using flyers and brochures, PostNet was looking to transition to digital communications. ‘’Everlytic is both consumer and user friendly and because we were able to integrate with their Enterprise Architecture, the transition to digital has been uncumbersome,’’ says Strydom.

PostNet benefits from using Everlytic:

• Everlytic’s API Integration talks to PostNet’s CRM to automatically synchronise data, thus ensuring the data is the same at both branch and head office level.
• Adaptable Everlytic architecture matches PostNet’s franchisor-franchisee needs in terms of quota allocation from head office to regional branches, whilst allowing each branch to communicate with clients independently of head office.
• Everlytic’s interface is user friendly and convenient, saving time on training and implementation.