The fifth edition of Poste Italiane’s Multistakeholder Forum kicked off with the first of the four focus groups planned. The Forum boasts a diverse programme of meetings with customers, associations, investors, suppliers and partners to continue the discussion on sustainability, exchanging ideas and projects to develop shared values. It will therefore constitute a direct dialogue with stakeholders, which will culminate in the closing event with speeches by top executives and a debate with senior representatives of relevant companies and institutions.
Customer Experience and Innovation
The first focus group of the Multistakeholder Forum was dedicated to the Customer Experience and Innovation and featured speeches by Marcello Grosso, Head of Sustainable Development, Group Risk and Compliance – Corporate Affairs, and Laura Furlan, Head of Corporate Market and Public Administration, followed by a voting session in which stakeholders expressed their approval ratings on a series of statements related to the pillars of the Company’s strategic plan. “It is an important event,” said Grosso speaking of the Multistakeholder Forum, “a moment for the company to share its objectives and priorities in order to continue developing its business and ESG strategy. The way we involve our stakeholders has evolved precisely to gather needs more comprehensively and turn them into concrete actions. When framing the topic of the sustainability strategy, the starting point is listening to stakeholders, with the aim of creating shared value, developing the business and ensuring compliance with Poste’s ESG objectives.” The Group’s Head of Sustainable Development, Risk and Compliance explained that, “As Poste is a large-scale and complex entity, the strategy is the result of an analytical and precise process, structured on eight pillars. Today, we are focusing on customer experience and innovation, which are key elements in our path to sustainable development. The approved business plan once again puts the customer and customer satisfaction at the centre.”
Customer satisfaction
Achieving objectives, according to Grosso, “always comes through customer satisfaction. And we are confident that, if we improve the stakeholder experience, we will definitely reach our goal.” The customer experience is achieved with the tool of innovation, which is fundamental for the sustainability strategy. “We can set clear objectives, which we report on in our integrated report,” Grosso continued during the focus group, “which, in turn, is a moment of sharing with stakeholders. With this tool, we make stakeholders part of the pathway that we build together with them.”
The value of reach
According to Laura Furlan, listening is the number one and happens every day as well as “in extraordinary moments like this, when we ask stakeholders to help us understand the most important drivers. We have been talking about customer satisfaction for years,” continues the MIPA Manager of Poste Italiane, “but it does change over time, and it requires different interventions. For example, a function was created last year that groups together initiatives in this area, namely DTO, digital, technology and operations, the process development and the technologies that support these processes.” Talking about customer experience means improving a very important asset for Poste Italiane over time, “such as our reach. It is something we take for granted but, today, it becomes relevant and strategic for the company, customers and partners. It should be noted that 94% of Italians are less than 5 minutes away from a Poste point, a fact that becomes unique and distinctive to us.”
The SPID boom
On the subject of innovation, Furlan emphasises the importance of digital identity: “Many citizens have registered over the past few months and during lockdown, reaching 25 million national identities, over 20 of which were issued by Poste Italiane. We believe that, for the developments that this area can have, the diffusion of digital technology becomes an important asset for us and for the country. Let’s think about what developments are ahead of us, calculating that digital identity can be extended from individual to professional. And we will move forward from here, because the digital world is going through a major acceleration. We have developed so many services in retail, and the challenge now is to extend them to the many businesses going digital. Ours is a Company that gets transformed along the way, with a lot of energy and drive to innovate,” concludes Furlan.
