How much does a sale cost

[PostalOfficer]

So the BM and an FS are away sitting an exam about selling financial products. The BM was explaining only last week how many "observations" he has to do on the FSS's and talk to them afterwards and write it all down. Not to mention key-sellers' meetings.

All this takes man-hours, equals money.

Then add on all the conference calls and calls we have to make to several 3-letter acronyms every time we sell anything. What do they do with this info.?

Is the expense of all this outweighing any commission we make on the sales?

Now I'm old enough to remember in the old 'inefficient' days that if a customer came in and said they wanted to buy some NSC's or open a NSB account, they filled in a form, passed it over with the money and we gave them a receipt. Job done. It never occured to us to run into the Postmaster's office shouting "I've sold some NSC's". He would have looked incredulous and asked me to go back on the counter. Neither would he have made 2 phone calls to the area manager saying what I had done.

And another thing. I've been here for 30 years and I have to be vetted to operate the AEI machine! I can check driving licences written on bits of paper, handle money and see endless confidential details of my customers. None of that matters, but I have to be vetted for this one transaction. You'd have though after all this time they would have noticed if I had any court appearances for forgery, theft and money laundering! Sorry folks, I'm starting to rant Get's it off my chest though

[billyhayes]

I wouldn't say that was a rant at all. Bang on the money if anything.
I never really thought about all the running about trying to get praise before. All parties, be it staff and managers can be guilty of it at times.
The clerks who are compelled to run around finding the manager telling them,
"Look sir boss sir, I just sold x x x x, look LOOK!"
They then spend 5 minutes discussing the whole thing with anyone who's in earshot. Suddenly customer privacy and integrity go out the window while they spout everything the customer just discussed with them.
I think to myself, is it equally important for me to go and say,
"I just served a portion of customers you felt didn't warrant your attention because puppy needed a treat"
I like to see myself as someone who keeps it on the down-low when it comes to this. Usually they come to me and look in the till and ask "oh did you get such and such." I'm like, yeah. "oh, better go phone someone."
Why do they need to know further up the chain, straight away? Surely all this info/data is available at the press of a button? Ie sales reports etc.
Constant updates... still gotta fill the day with something.

A need to show that they are doing the job.
Looking for approval.
Fear is what drives these actions.
I've just realized what makes me "proud." I take pride in the fact that I know when to just shut the f**k up and get on with it.

PS PostalOfficer, THAT'S a rant!

[simjan]

couldn't agree more

[The BFO]

I am not worthy in the presence of the above posts – absolutely spot on. What a culture we have created these days. Exactly the same thing happens in our office, the Financial Specialist sells something and then goes and discusses it with the two Managers whilst the rest of us slog away serving customers.

I was proud on Monday afternoon. Whilst the FS twiddled on his laptop, the Assistant Branch Manager took a colleague off one end of the counter to do some ‘coaching’, the Branch Manager took someone off the other end of the counter to discuss Travel Money sales, another colleague was doing a Cash Declaration, and someone was doing a large Business Deposit. This left me serving an EBay customer with a stationary queue of around 15 people. In a voice loud enough for the entire office, including customers, to hear I asked the Branch Manager why we had 8 people on duty and effectively only me serving.

Bloody useless.

[claire1.9]

Just like in our office, bums on seats as my manager calls it when there are massive queues yet they will take us off the counter for midday up date when they are queuing out of the door. Bums on seats only matters when they want it to.

[onlyanother30years]

Too many brown tongues!!!

Now that's a fact !!!!!

[billyhayes]

Too many brown tongues!!!

Now that's a fact !!!!!

Indeed it is.

[kathleen1]

We had a senior manager from Wales on tuesday all day, the FS, ABM, plus the BM coaching most of us on life insurance (yawn) again so work out the wage bill for all of them all day a good few hundred pounds, and guess what? we didn't get one life sale. No wonder we run at a loss its not rocket science do the maths, no other business would do this but the sad thing is the counter staff who work very hard get the blame, i haven't got a crystal ball but soon enough this will be a thing of the past hopefully with all the managers who are a waste of space going out the door with the sales module.

[PostalOfficer]

I was proud on Monday afternoon. Whilst the FS twiddled on his laptop, the Assistant Branch Manager took a colleague off one end of the counter to do some ‘coaching’, the Branch Manager took someone off the other end of the counter to discuss Travel Money sales, another colleague was doing a Cash Declaration, and someone was doing a large Business Deposit. This left me serving an EBay customer with a stationary queue of around 15 people. In a voice loud enough for the entire office, including customers, to hear I asked the Branch Manager why we had 8 people on duty and effectively only me serving.

Our last 'proper manager would have noticed this and quickly got a couple of staff back working, but that bit of the job has gone now. Having said that, your colleague would have been doing a cash dec. AFTER closing time back in them days.

There again, being rather poor at selling I have to make the most of the few sales I do, just so they don't think I'm totally useless Goes against the grain though as I am not one for boasting. [Some of my successes have been inconventional to say the least. Cross selling from a travel insurance to a HomePhone has never been suggested by the experts!! And the best yet "Don't suppose you want a mortgage?", "Well actually my daughter is looking for one!".]

[The BFO]

We had a senior manager from Wales on tuesday all day, the FS, ABM, plus the BM coaching most of us on life insurance (yawn) again so work out the wage bill for all of them all day a good few hundred pounds, and guess what? we didn't get one life sale. No wonder we run at a loss its not rocket science do the maths, no other business would do this but the sad thing is the counter staff who work very hard get the blame, i haven't got a crystal ball but soon enough this will be a thing of the past hopefully with all the managers who are a waste of space going out the door with the sales module.

A visit to my local Sub Postmaster to collect a parcel yesterday amused me. I asked her how many Life Insurance she had sold since we introduced the product. ‘Oh no’, she replied. ‘We don’t sell those, it only alienates our customers’. Given that she is a one person operation I took ‘we’ to mean Sub Postmasters more generally.

[Blue8]

It's funny how it's always the clerks fault when we don't get the sales. Why is it never down to the coaching Yawn Yawn
How many times do they think we need to be told what to say and how to say it in a way that dosen't work.

The warm ups are the biggest demotivator for me, we know what our job is and we may need 10 Travel insurance sales but if we don't have 10 customers that want travel insurance it aint gonna happen, and to told every morning, Don't forget to say thanks for waiting and do you want a ZZZZZZZZZZZ sorry fell asleep.

I've said it before good products sell themselves how many conversations have been had on Index Linked Certificates...........NONE......they are selling themselves!!!!!!!

[claire1.9]

I like you, your not getting paid enough for your thinking. Us counter clerk are worth our weight in gold. We have got more commom sense that all the management in the Post Office. Think of all the millions it woud save them.

[Blue8]

You mean to say I'm not being negative?

[The BFO]

Here’s a question you might like to ask of your Branch Manager to make a change from the norm on Monday morning: ‘If we achieve our Income Target for Post Office Financial Services plus Life Assurance at the end of the year, will this pay the Financial Specialist Staff Costs in this office?’

It won’t in ours - by a long way.

[FinancialSpecialist]

I agree with the above, in that there is too much of a desperation culture now of reporting and seeking praise on each and every sale, and certainly discussing private customer conversations is non compliant and in fact a breach of data protection as well as good manners.

In response to the last question about hitting financial services targets justifying staff wages - if POL was to hit all of its financial services targets this would heavily boost the business. Where the disparity, or confusion comes is in the income factors which each office/FS receives. For example, anyone who believes that POL only receives £44 + £20 FS income for each life sale is deluded. The true value must be roughly ten times this, and an additional payment would likely be received for each year the customer maintains their payments. Large savings balances allow the business to lend through mortgages and credit cards, etc. and each time a customer's Instant Saver or Growth Bond reverts to 0.1% the business in quids in.

So while the income is only paid once for the office, POL will keep receiving benefits for these sales, and therefore if an office hits their financial services targets then they are making a very valuable contribution to the business and to their office. What Financial Specialists should be doing is ensuring that they are getting customers to come back in to review their products, so they in turn and keep the branch income afloat by getting new sales once the initial bonus period is over, or once a customer's circumstances have changed. This would take pressure off the counter and off the office as a whole.