SECOND EDITION BUSINESS PRINCIPLES

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LV, Issue 17237, 17 April 1930, Page 8

SECOND EDITION BUSINESS PRINCIPLES

THE TELEPHONE SERVICE .NEW COMMERCIAL BRANCH MANY INNOVATIONS. (Tor Press Association,) WJOI.LI.NtiTON. this day. The fallowing official communication has been issued by Sir Joseph Ward, as I'osi master-General: — ' 'The application ol" business pi in ciplcs lo Slate enterprise is about to he further extended in Ihe Post and Telegraph Department by the esfnb lishmcnt of a commercial branch. Al the ontsel of activities the commercial brnncfi will be confined 1.0 the telephone service. Broadly, the functions ol the branch will be the promoting of a more extensive use of the telephone, fostering arid maintaining cordial relations between the department and the sections of the community which it serves, and the planning and promoting of healthy well-balanced developments of the telephone service to ensure it> continuance as a self-support-ing unit. ••The department, in carrying out these functions of personal contact with subscribers and prospective subscribers, will play a most: important part. The commercial branch will make a close study of the telephone requirements of all classes of the community. Business agents v. ill seek out and supply prospective subscribers with full particulars of the various classes of telephone services available, and will'assist generally in erecting a class (jf service best suited to individual requirements. Subscribers will be fully informed also of I lie extensive toll facilities that exist. for communicating with subscribers in distant towns, of the various auxiliary services, miscellaneous items of equipment which the department ha.s to offer in the shape of automatic and semi-aul omal ic inter-community systems, extension telephones, extension bells, loud sounding gongs, etc., together with the terms and conditions under which such services may be obtained. In short, salesmanship will largely supplant the method of 'order taking' that prevailed in the past in the execution of these plans. "The closest competition will exist between the commercial and engineering staffs, .so Ihat the utmost promptitude and satisfaction will be given in regard to installation work, and Ilia! additional requirements in plant nil! be 1 .tide a vaila Lie a ! ', he pivper 1 i me. .MONTHLY RENTALS, "Willi a view to making more attractive Ihe terms under which telephone service may lie obtained, a system is being introduced under which new as well as existing subscribers may, if they so desire, pay their telephone rental monthly- in advance, instead of half-yearly in advance as at present. Subscribers who elect to pay monthly will receive on or about a certain date each month a combined rental and toll account, the effect of which will be that the duo daf'e of payment of rental and toll fees will coincide, I lie rental being paid one month in advance with the preceding month's toll fees. It is expected that the system of monthly payments will bring the. telephone services within the reach of thousands of residents who find it inconvenient to pay half yearly. It. is not unlikely also that this method of payment will appeal to a large number of existing subscribers. A. schedule of rates lor monthly payments is now being prepared. "It also has been arranged to extend during flu' summer n'mnths Sunday and holiday exchange attendance af a number of seaside and tour is! resorts such as Las I-bourne, Pieton, Ilelensville, Akaroa, and Queenslown, which on Sundays and holidays have a largo community interest with an important city or centre nearby, and which in the pa.st have had only very limited attendance during week-ends.

"Oilier innovations will bo introduced from l hue to time with a, view to giving more personal services, further popularising the telephone us a means of communication, and enabling subscribers generally to obtain the greatest possible benofit from their telephone installations.