Q4 Insure

[dueforparole]

Hello I've been lurking about the forums for a while but what I heard at work today about Q4 Insure just had to be mentioned.

As we know the focus of Q4 Insure is getting 1 million valid data captures/quotes/sales throughout the network in this quarter , but whatever POL muppet signed this off has apparently pledged this with a compensatory clause if will fail to hit the target.

How much is the penalty for failure you ask..... £6,000,000 apparently , said POL muppet should be shot for agreeing to such a daft deal if true.

/farewell 2010-11 pay rise

[The BFO]

The whole thing beggars belief – but we should no longer be surprised surely? As I write this I am preparing for the onslaught today, short of staff, FS wandering around wide-eyed in an office full of people like a rabbit in a field of foxes.
On Monday we shall no doubt be told that what we have done is not enough.

By way of punishment, I’m not sure shooting would be appropriate. But I do think the Goollies should come off, and I mean right off.

[billyhayes]

Isn't it obvious!? POL are using this Q4 pledge/penalty to hoodwink us. Has anyone actually seen this so called agreement?

It doesn't exist! And if it does show it to us. Or even better, someone from HQ get a copy and email it to all 373 crowns.

They will obviously come up short and use that as the main thrust of their argument that there is no scope for a payrise this year.

My recommendation... As we are coming out of what was effectively a 3 year pay freeze, lobby CWU HQ for strikes.

There are 3 certainties in life people... There is no santa claus, there are no Weapons of Mass Destruction in Iraq and there was NO contract!

Believe what you SEE, not what you're TOLD.

Fu ck them, before they fu ck you!

[Running Man]

Q4 Insure? Without a shadow of doubt the worst, ill conceived, flawed and pointless 'campaign' we have ever undertaken in Post Office Ltd. A campaign that has bullied our Crown Office teams into harassing customers to provide their personal details on the basis that he or she might win £500 and may, eventually, insure their car or home with us.
The current figures speak for themselves. We are eight weeks into a twelve week campaign and have barely 20% of the quotes we allegedly require yet Focus TV seems to be flaunting this achievement as a success!
Data Capture? This element of the campaign has been extended into week one of the new financial year to ensure that our worn out, frustrated and harassed teams can hit the magical figure of one million data captures for the 'Campaign'. (How many of these 'captured' customers are our own staff and their families, the details of which have only been entered to make the figures look good?).
Billy makes the great point "believe what you see, not what you are told" and I believe that whatever the truth is this campaign proves beyond reasonable doubt that our current leadership is leading us into the abyss.
Billy's point gives us a no win situation.
If we are indeed being lied to about this campaign then what does that say about the leadership of POL and what else are they prepared to lie about?
If they are in fact telling us the truth about this campaign then how on earth have these people allowed our business to be in this totally ridiculous situation? Did nobody see this iceberg on the horizon? Again, what does this say about our leadership?
The Q4 Insure Campaign has proved conclusively for me that we are all doomed. Our business is sunk thanks to Alan Cook and Company and the sooner they announce the 2011 Crown Office closures and dish out the EVR then the better because I firmly believe that we are all wasting our time trying to make our offices succeed.

[The BFO]

Isn’t it all a load of bollocks?

[goggins69]

I am pleased to read that other branches are also expected to bully their customers into giving their details. I thought it was just ours.

[The BFO]

How many of these 'captured' customers are our own staff and their families, the details of which have only been entered to make the figures look good?)

A colleague of mine in another office curiously has a cluster of Data Captures around his home. He lives over twenty miles from work.

What a merry jape...

[Running Man]

Doesn't that go to prove the pointlessness of this entire exercise?
That branch is probably receiving praise, as no doubt many others are, for increasing the penetration rate of data captures to car tax and/or bill payments, when a lot of the data seems to have been gathered by questionnable means.
I hope that we can agree that although bullying seems to be a strong word to use in relation to obtaining the necessary information from our customers, the sad fact is that is the way a lot of our counter staff feel at the moment.
Those of us with a lot of experience know just how easy it is to push our more senior customers into agreeing to something that they don't necessarily agree to or want to do.
I can't help but wonder how many of the data captures relate to such customers who have no intention of buying insurance from us but fancy a chance of winning £500; again emphasising how worthless a lot of this tiresome campaign is.
Did I say tiresome? I meant to say extremely tedious, mind-numbing and soul destroying!
Roll on 2011.

[PostalOfficer]

As above: (a) what idiot signed this and (b) having signed it why was it as late as Christmas before they noticed we were so far behind? And (c) why weren't we trying to do this 3 years ago when we actually had a lot more MVL customers.

Our MVL figures have plummeted this year. The boss likes quoting penetrations rates e.g."we did 40 MVLs yesterday, so you should have done 30 data captures".

Let's try to break the 40 down:
Say 20 are motor dealers
10 are Polish and don't speak English
6 are LGVs, mopeds and historic vehicles that we don't insure anyway.
The other 4 said "no thanks" or wouldn't leave phone number, so it's invalid anyway.

Don't worry, it's not just you in your office. It's the same at Rorke's Drift BO where I worked before being attached to Horizon Online. Having had the oppurtunity to visit offices of varying sizes, they are all in the same boat. And two of them have put in referals for customers who want insurance urgently and the customer has not been contacted. That's what happens to the precious data when we've collected it!

[counter man]

And (c) why weren't we trying to do this 3 years ago when we actually had a lot more MVL customers.

I think we were.....but as now there was this school of thought that " im not here to sell!"...........not much has changed then...

[The BFO]

Did we not a few years back have a Data Capture exercise offering customers a house as first prize?
And did not some tosser lose the data?
Or did I dream that?

[PostalOfficer]

And (c) why weren't we trying to do this 3 years ago when we actually had a lot more MVL customers.

I think we were.....but as now there was this school of thought that " im not here to sell!"...........not much has changed then...

Either that or at the time we were supposed to be selling life insurance, HomePhone or some other 'product of the month'.

[kitkat]

As of this weeks conference call it seems they've given up trying to get the impossible out of us.
Back to following the sales model ,we're not to worry about data captures and must make the most of the opportunities in front of us................Yawn!
So does this mean we have to pay the £6000000 fine? Bang goes any chance of a pay rise

[counter man]

And two of them have put in referals for customers who want insurance urgently and the customer has not been contacted. That's what happens to the precious data when we've collected it!

We were told by our manager that the data capture is only for those whos renewal was more than 60 days away. Less than that and we do a quote, either in branch, on the pod or phone, or ask the customer to get a quote at home....making sure they put in out office code.

Data capture is for those who say..." oh its not due until November!", so we dont have to rely on them coming to us for a quote.