Post Office
With a successful seventeen year working relationship and extensive track record of delivering highly successful financial services and retail interiors, Havelock was the natural choice to work in partnership with the Post Office to develop the next concept in Post Office design.
The collaborative partnership with concept design agency IAM Design and the Post Office has created several highly successful branch designs over the years. Using their experience to evolve the concept and introduce leading edge concepts from the retail and retail banking industries, the Havelock design team created two operational prototype branches in Bristol and Doncaster.
The brief encompassed the development and prototyping of new furniture and counters, all of which had to be at the leading edge of DDA compliance to ensure the retail experience was the same for any customer of any ability. The Havelock design team ensured the counters balanced the aesthetic qualities of the original concept with alterations tailored to aid production, installation, maintenance and value engineering. Innovation was key to the success of the prototypes incorporating finishes such as solid surfacing which would provide durability without sacrificing the original design concept or cost targets.
Reflecting the Post Office’s strategy to move further into the financial services arena, Havelock used their considerable experience in the Retail Banking market to create dedicated financial service areas for customers to discuss and purchase financial products. The areas with the use of acrylic screens and dedicated branding are designed to create a shop within a shop. Innovation from the retail banking sector has driven further success of the prototypes.
Elements designed around enhancing the customer experience have been incorporated, such as a dedicated ‘meeter and greeter’ who communicates welcomes customers on arrival and inputs their requirement into an intelligent queue management system. The customer is then able to sit at their leisure in open-plan zones or shop in a dedicated retail area which has been designed to increase customer spend by offering an increased range of products as stationary. Customers are informed of their place in the queue with approximate wait times by a network of flat screen tv’s around the branch.
Customer flow in the branches was further aided with the incorporation of self-service walls, enabling customers to quickly carry out frequent tasks such as parcel processing using a new post and go system. The concept is in the process of being rolled out to more than forty crown offices from 2008. Further opportunity for value engineering.
