How Bad Are The Queues And Staffing Levels In Your Office...

[billyhayes]

...And Do They Impact On Your "Sales"?

Whether you work in a 'crown' office or 'flagshit' office or WH Smiffs.

Monday and Tuesday mornings we will have a full(ish) counter, 8 or 9 on.
We generally have between a 15-20 minute queue in our gaff during the 'end of month' period, and this is when we are on an average of 4 or 5 staff on the counter.
Sometimes more, sometimes less, but 5 on is a good day for us.

The best bit in all this.. is what sort of a mug-middle-manager thinks anyone can sell credit cards etc to someone who has just queued behind scum who either;
smells of piss
reeks of booze
is a smackhead
(or a combination of all three)

..is just beyond me. You cant even get a conversation started with them to pass them over to an FSS. They just want serving as quick as possible and to get the f##k out. End of.

Putting in sofas , introducing ticket machines, "meeting and greeting" , removing the counter glass, "encouraging" people not to queue.. all this does not alter the fact that these same people will still come in all at the same time.. as they have since time began.

The old dear knows "I was first in the door, I queued up outside for 30 minutes before you opened, I don't need a ticket to be served, I was first."

The giro scum ponders "TICKET!? FFAARRKING TICKET!!?? Don't need no ffaarkking ticket to cash me giro, just give me, me ffaarrking money you c##t!"

The normal customer will ruminate "Well, I used to queue for 20 minutes, now they have taken the queueing system out and put these sofas in, I shall now sit for 20 minutes rather than stand. Hurrah!"

[simjan]

pressure on staff to sell is unbelivable, now want a fss plus a meeter greeter in our office, with only 3 on counter, plus manager standing behind, customers are getting more and more annoyed for having to queue. having to ask are you paying by card, push special delivery to every customer, mobile top up and then add on eighter credit card, savings etc. You can feel eyes looking at you thinking will you hurry up! We understand we have to sell to survive but we are putting more and more people off coming in in the first place. At the rate the staff are being moved on to the customer side, there will soon be more staff on public side, than on the counter side.

[bigjames]

Our queue is often 50-60 people long, and regularly into the street. The recent duty review took 2 Full Time and 1 Part Time off the counter to be FSS's and not content with that we lost 2 more Full Time for 'Loss of Business'. At peak times 40+ minutes in the queue is not unusual, with customers still being served up to and past 30 minutes after we shut. This does impact on sales for sure, but most of the team do not give up - they keep having the conversations and we have had some good results. However, it does not take away the fact that we have too few people serving too many customers. It is not unusual for me to have to pull my FSS's back onto our side of the counter because the queue is getting aggressive, and we have even had our window cleaner accosted by an irate customer wanting to know why he wasn't on the counter serving! We tell all of the team to get one of us managers if anyone complains, because they shouldn't have to take that level of flak for something so far out of their control, and we generally give them the customer service leaflet and implore them to complain officially, because unless customers actually make their voice heard the business will not acknowledge that there is a problem.

[axeman]

And what sort of stress levels do you have ? i'd tell you to get stuf*ed at my finishing time and so should the staff you have. If you can't or wont tell your area manager or cluster manager that the position your'e in is untenable then you aren't much of a manager or you don't give a sh*t about those who work under your regime

[billyhayes]

Hmm, there is a flip side to that coin axeman. Managers at my office, in the past, have stuck their necks out and have 'been moved sideways' for speaking against the company line.

See, me and other staff in the office who do speak up know that we are, shall we say, 'bullet-proof'. Area managers come down cock a deaff'n but we still rant and rave knowing that they can't touch us for it. If they did it would be like admitting that there MUST be a problem, that the whole office feels the need to steam off at them.

It lets us vent off but our office management have to keep schtum, otherwise it'll be bye bye for them. They may even take it out on the husband/wife and kids. I s**t you not.

Anyways, that is a bad situation to be in. Gone 18:00 and still serving is not where I'd want to be. 17:40 at the latest in our gaff if you are unlucky.

If I were you bigjames I would (discreetly) suggest to your office cwu rep to get in touch with the area rep to see if there is any truth in the myth that BOSA has a 'spirit of the agreement' that customers will be served after 17:30. Because let us all be clear that overtime IS NOT CUMPULSORY. Can I ask, how many staff would you have on at 17:30 and roughly how many customers would you have in the queue at that time? The only other thing you could do is shut the doors at say, 17:15 pull in the queue if its outside, then you should finish serving at about 17:30. To cover yourself, suggest this also to cwu rep as when your BDM comes barking you can say "sorry, cwu have actioned this as their members don't/won't do overtime."

Lets be honest here, if I were at your office and I could see I would be serving til 6 I would declare cash bang on 17.30, log out, till away, "see you tomorrow, guv." You have the defence of 'I can't physically make them stay, what do you want me to do? Bar the way?' It only takes one to start it and it'll spread like wildfire.

[bigjames]

We've discussed this before in a previous post - but we don't currently have an office rep, and I have little faith in the next level up; plenty of rhetoric, but little in the way of sensible/practical advice or support. Saying that the CMA have even less to say on the matter, so it is difficult to see a way forward without some sort of direct action. As a manager I am often accused of being negative and inflexible because I speak up, particularly with regard to this kind of thing, but I do need a job, so there is only so far I will go.
We have heard a whisper that someone has realised that the 'model' used to create our duties is flawed for offices of our type, and there is a possibilty of some duties back - which would be a great help - watch this space!!

[bigjames]

And what sort of stress levels do you have ? i'd tell you to get stuf*ed at my finishing time and so should the staff you have. If you can't or wont tell your area manager or cluster manager that the position your'e in is untenable then you aren't much of a manager or you don't give a sh*t about those who work under your regime

[bigjames]

And what sort of stress levels do you have ? i'd tell you to get stuf*ed at my finishing time and so should the staff you have. If you can't or wont tell your area manager or cluster manager that the position your'e in is untenable then you aren't much of a manager or you don't give a sh*t about those who work under your regime

Whoops! missed my reply off my last go - don't know what happened there!

In essence it is hard to argue with your sentiments Axeman, my team feel strongly about many things, but are dedicated to giving the customers as good a service as they can, and if that means they stay after their time - they will, and claim the time back, as per the standard practice.

As for your other comments; If you speak to my Area Manager she will tell you that I have highlighted the problem from Day 1. With regard to what sort of manager I am, and how much I care about my team I suggest you look up a few of my other posts on this forum for a wider view of my opinions. If you still think the same - what the hell! everyone is entitled to their opinion, but how many people like me actually come on this forum and are prepared to sensibly debate any of these issues?

[axeman]

I think if you closed on time your manager would soon get the bigger picture (people waiting would soon complain) and realise that your staff are not to be taken for granted at any cost. Surely you must have an average of length of time to serve each customer ? just close your doors at an early enough time to service those before your due finishing time

[billyhayes]

[bigjames]

I think if you closed on time your manager would soon get the bigger picture (people waiting would soon complain) and realise that your staff are not to be taken for granted at any cost. Surely you must have an average of length of time to serve each customer ? just close your doors at an early enough time to service those before your due finishing time

I love the idea! However it could prove almost impossible to implement in practice, and would mean our closing time would vary on an almost daily basis! I'll float the concept and see what comes back!!

We do actually close on time every day, the problem is the number of people that are still in the building once the door is shut. Mind you there is a new thread starting elsewhere about later closing times for Christmas which will provide a short-term solution because it takes weeks for the public to realise we have changed opening times!