Czech Republic, Austria, Germany and Postal Services Comparison: doc. Ing. Přemysl Průša, Ph.D. in Czech Television ČT ČERNÉ OVCE
Wit the upcoming winter semester, we are pleased to share the information about an interesting broadcasting which took place during the summer months.
On Tuesday, June 20th, 2023, the Deputy Head of the Department of International Business, doc. Ing. Přemysl Průša, Ph.D., an expert in the field of commercial communications, branding, and retail marketing, once again took part in the TV program ČT Černé ovce. The broadcast focused on a comparison of postal services offered in the Czech Republic, Germany and Austria. Identical parcels and envelopes were sent from similar sized cities in each country normally and also using a parcel tracking service.
The crew visited post offices in the German towns of Waldkirchen and Pasov, the Austrian town of Ried im Innkreis and the Czech towns of Prachatice and České Budějovice. In Germany, in addition to traditional post offices, there were also branches within a supermarket or copy center, and in Austria it was possible to use easily accessible self-service zones. In comparison, the Czech offices were less efficient and more chaotic, a big difference being the necessity to fill in the postal receipts, which were not required in Germany and Austria. The Czech Republic was also the worst in terms of price comparison, as sending an ordinary parcel in the form of one parcel and one letter cost CZK 421, while the same parcel cost CZK 344 in Germany and CZK 384 in Austria.
“The German post office is characteristic for its efficiency and what is more important is the high level of digitalisation. Thanks to this level of digitalisation, the processes are speeding up. In Austria, we only saw one branch, but there was an excellent self-service area available round the clock, so from this point of view, the level of service and the availability of services in Austrian branches may be perhaps even better than in Germany. I rate the Czech Post very high in terms of the range of services offered, but what I rate negatively is the efficiency of the sales areas and the efficiency of the sales staff, and also inefficient processes, as this then leads to the customer being confused, not knowing how to react, how to send a parcel or a letter, and this is certainly something that should be fundamentally improved,” doc. Ing. Přemysl Průša, Ph.D., summarizes the results of the comparison.
Doc. Ing. Přemysl Průša, Ph.D., has been working at the Prague University of Economics and Business (formerly at the Department of Retailing and Commercial Communications) since 2005 as an assistant professor, from 2020 as the associate professor. His areas of interest are mainly commercial communications, branding, and retail marketing. He participates in teaching the key obligatory courses in the bachelor programme International Business: Retail Business, Retail Marketing, and Retail Management. He has developed these courses also for teaching in the International Business programme in English. Přemysl Průša also acts as a visiting professor at the University of Northern Colorado, USA, and other universities abroad (in Spain, Ireland, and Austria). In his research activities, Přemysl Průša focuses mainly on branding as well as on CSR, green marketing, and sustainability. He has been active also within several companies dealing with international trade in the area of FMCG.
The complete analysis can be found in the Czech Television Archive HERE.
