Couple of points here:
1. My friend was pulled up in front of the BM on a completely different matter, to be issued with an
informal written reprimand. Unless there is a technicality I do not understand, surely something is
either informal and off the record
or it is written down, in the records and therefore formal. Anyway he stood his ground, refused to sign the paper and the BM dropped the matter. Seems some confusion between an informal chat and a formal warning procedure to me.
2. This business about the mandatory conversation really annoys me. For one thing reciting all that lot fifty times a day is soul destroying and produces little in the way of results, leaving aside the fact we were supposedly not getting into the hard sell. I am fortunate in being able to relate to customers and can get the information I need much quicker. "Anything specially valuable or important?" usually gets a description of the contents and I can take it from there. Anything valuable/important I am more than happy to advise them accordingly. If it's not, move on to the next customer. Perhaps relating to people and acting accordingly is something beyond the comprehension of senior managers
3. Has anybody bothered to train the customers with the correct conversation? As noted above somebody putting an item on the scales and saying "Nothing important, second class" really screws up the mandatory script. What do you do then? Say "OK", "Do you want it there tomorrow?" or check it's really nothing valuable?
4. The point about 'conning' those who do not speak English well is well taken, but it has to be said that the large Polish community here come in asking for "Register" without any prompting if they are sending any documents to e.g. DVLA. I suspect they are used to a system that may not be quite as reliable as ours?
