How we managed the coronavirus pandemic in terms of operation and sales

How did operation and sales work during the coronavirus crisis?

 

David: We handled record volumes of shipments under very unusual conditions. Fatigue, exhaustion, worries about the days to come, but also the determination to manage it … Those were the feelings we experienced. The figures finally showed that we did an excellent job. We managed record monthly and daily volumes without prior preparation, although preparation is something we naturally do, for example, for the pre-Christmas season. We normally prepare for seasonal volumes for several months. We implemented extraordinary measures from day to day, based on the current situation. We had to respond quickly and adapt.

Petr: Operation responded perfectly to the development of the situation. Our responses were quick and perfectly adequate. That’s why operation deserves great praise. If I remember correctly, PPL had to increase the number of couriers within three weeks from about 1,300 to about 1,600, which was incredible.

 

Did sales change its strategy after the pandemic started? How did the situation develop?

 

Petr: Of course, changes and new decisions came from day to day. The decisions came from the company’s management. As capacity increased continuously, we had to manage primarily the biggest customers. In the first phase, in addition to standard goods, we transported face masks and medical supplies; in the second phase, we often transported health food supplements and sportswear and equipment. Suppliers, i.e. our customers, were not prepared for a significant jump in consumer interest, and neither were we, both in terms of product packaging and forecasting (volume estimates). Inputs to our system were therefore often complicated. It happened that shipments arrived poorly packed, broken, and in unannounced volumes and times. Dispatching was quite complicated, but both PPL and end customers had to deal with it. Once again, I’d like to praise our operation. They simply handled all the complications that kept coming perfectly.

David: The first days were really hectic. But sales responded quickly, so we gradually got synchronized very well over time and started sharing information about what wasn’t working. That was especially true for big customers. They began to overwhelm us with volumes we didn’t have capacity for. After a few days, we managed to adjust the volumes, but that wasn’t enough due to the increased dispatching volumes by small and medium-sized customers. There are really a lot of such customers, and managing their volumes is complicated. So our depots began to accept volumes exceeding the network capacity.

Petr: At about the third or fourth weekend from the beginning of the pandemic, we started to ship on Saturdays, which was difficult, but it greatly relieved the whole network. We managed to agree with big clients that they wouldn’t give us all the parcels ordered by their customers over the weekend on Monday, but that they would divide them into the following days so that we could handle their volumes better. That agreement helped us a lot.

 

What were the beginnings like when the first series of emergency measures began to arrive?

 

David: Extraordinary decisions and orders from our company’s management came quickly and sometimes in larger numbers. The whole crisis team commented on each of them, proceeding prudently and in a coordinated manner. It was also thanks to timely communication that it was possible to prevent any serious collapse.

Petr: The fact that our customers include suppliers of medical supplies helped us equip our staff and our operations with the necessary hygiene and infection control products. This is how the Security department got very good contacts from us. For example, our good customer, Vaše Dedra, but also many others helped us. Despite the initial complications, we managed to equip our employees and operations with the necessary preventive protective equipment relatively soon. Many Czech companies didn’t succeed in such a short time.

 

We have talked about what caused the biggest problems to operation. What was the biggest challenge for sales?

 

Petr: Definitely managing forecasts and dealing with shipment suppliers. During the pandemic, our telesales colleagues in the sales department created a second PPL call centre. Our sales people were constantly on the phone, dealing with collections and backlogs or answering when the recipients could expect their parcels to be delivered. It was also good training for us for working with the internal shipment management system. And it was a big challenge for us not to turn away from the set strategy, namely acquisition, which we succeeded in!

 

Did the sales people help with operation during the pandemic?

 

Petr: The sales people had a lot of their own work to do during the coronavirus pandemic, because all personal meetings were cancelled in a short time and their meetings were moved to phones. So maybe the sales people weren’t seen on deliveries, but there were definitely a lot of them who, in addition to their work, helped operation, for example, with unloading parcels. Nevertheless, we offered help to every depot.

 

How did the pandemic change PPL? What will be different and new from now on?

 

David: We identified our vulnerabilities, such as the central sorting hub, as well as how important and fragile the operation of the central dispatching department was. I consider both to be important findings. We will definitely improve some mechanisms to be able to work better with increasing capacity and changing the ratios of B2B and B2C shipments in our network.

Petr: We are definitely more experienced now in processing a large amount of important data and working with the quality of labels. We found that we had a large number of labels among customers that were harder to identify in operation. So with regard to sales, we will definitely focus more on working with data together with our IT department. Indeed, some things accelerated with the coronavirus. We are preparing new products, such as the second wave of “network reuse” and evening delivery. We continue to focus on the quality of shipments, on working with atypical shipments, on parcel dimensions and the method of packaging. However, the overall quality of our services is influenced not only by products, but also by labels, data and IT.

 

What will happen at PPL if the coronavirus strikes hard again in the autumn?

 

Petr: We would better manage forecasting for the big customers. The problem is that the large number of small and medium-sized customers simply can’t be controlled. If the coronavirus strikes again this year, the situation will be a little different, because many companies are already struggling with a slowdown in the economy. We would certainly see a significant increase in parcels in our network again, but definitely not as massive as it was in the spring.

David: If the coronavirus strikes a second time, I’ll take a holiday ... (laughs). But now seriously: services are not something we can produce and store in advance. So again, it would certainly not be completely without problems, but I believe that we would be able to handle some things better, because we have experienced the situation.