Consumer Focus report shows post office Locals are failing

[TrueBlueTerrier]

Consumer Focus report shows post office Locals are failing, says CWU

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CWU welcomes findings in the new report (Open all hours?) by postal watchdog Consumer Focus which show the shortcomings of the controversial Locals model for post offices. However, the UK's biggest postal union says it is unfortunate that the report doesn't examine the financial realities of running a post office as this leaves postmasters in the dark.

CWU general secretary Billy Hayes, said: "The Consumer Focus report confirms our concerns that the Locals model threatens the post office network and the services which communities rely on. The report draws attention to the failings of the model, but we are less optimistic that it can be made to work than the watchdog. The lack of proof that financially the model is viable for postmasters is disappointing as it leaves this central question unanswered.

" 0High quality post office services are unlikely to be delivered by a retailer whose primary focus is the quick and efficient sale of his or her retail products - whether that's petrol, cigarettes or groceries. Their eye will be on the bottom line and staff costs will be crucial to this, especially with the ambition of longer opening hours.

"Our postmaster members are concerned at the economic viability of the Locals model which will ultimately determine whether it works or not and with it how many post offices survive this major disruption to the network. Ultimately it could lead to significant closures or wholesale dumbing-down of post office services."

The Consumer Focus report - Open all hours? - says that "significant ongoing improvements are needed if consumers are to benefit from these changes, with emphasis on driving up service standards and the consistency and reliability of service provision - and to make improvements to the privacy, branch layout and product range on offer."

The Locals model means using retail outlets like petrol stations and convenience stores to provide minimal post office services from existing cash desks instead of having separate facilities which are more private and expert.

CWU is the largest union in the postal sector representing postmasters and Post Office staff along with drivers, delivery, sorting and support staff.

Read the Consumer Focus report in full: [url]Open all hours?[/url]

Do you work for the Post Office? The CWU has a newly established Postmasters branch dedicated to representing your best interests and standing up to POL and the government. Join us now for just £8.13 p.m by contacting postmasters@cwu.org or 0208 971 7325.

[TrueBlueTerrier]

Local postal model 'must improve'

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A new model of providing postal services in stores or petrol stations should be improved after research revealed problems such as inaccurate product and pricing advice, according to a consumer group.

Consumer Focus said the so-called Post Office Locals, which are increasingly being opened, have potential benefits such as longer opening hours and greater convenience.

But a study, based on mystery shopping at over 100 branches trialling the model, found that more than one in six customers could not access a service which should have been available, privacy was often found to be poor, while cash payments could not be made in some cases.

Mike O'Connor, chief executive of Consumer Focus, said: "Changes are needed to put the post office network on a more sustainable financial footing. Communities rely on their local post office, so everything possible must be done to make sure that all elements of Post Office Locals are working well for customers, given the planned national roll out of such major changes.

"This report shows a mixed picture and that further work is needed to make sure the millions of customers who will be affected receive a good quality and reliable service. Some aspects of the new locals model could be great news for consumers. Everyone will welcome longer opening hours, but they would also expect most core post office services to be available."

Communication Workers Union leader Billy Hayes said: "The report confirms our concerns that the locals model threatens the post office network and the services which communities rely on. The report draws attention to the failings of the model, but we are less optimistic that it can be made to work than the watchdog. The lack of proof that financially the model is viable for postmasters is disappointing as it leaves this central question unanswered.

"High quality post office services are unlikely to be delivered by a retailer whose primary focus is the quick and efficient sale of his or her retail products - whether that's petrol, cigarettes or groceries. Their eye will be on the bottom line and staff costs will be crucial to this, especially with the ambition of longer opening hours."

A Post Office spokesman said: "We welcome this report and its acknowledgement that Post Office Local style branches offer many positives for improving the customer experience, with greater convenience and extended opening hours, which were welcomed by the vast majority of consumers.

"With the local pilot ongoing, there are some improvements we can make but as the report highlights, we are already addressing some of these issues. The local format remains an important part of a significant overall investment programme to sustain and modernise the post office network and to grow the business."

Shadow postal affairs minister Ian Murray said: "I fear that the roll-out of the Post Office local model may be being rushed without giving full consideration on the impact to consumers. Some aspects of the local model are very welcome but the rush to short-term cost reduction in the local model may lead to longer term decline of the network and we must ensure Post Office Limited use the Consumer Focus research to make changes for the better."

[TrueBlueTerrier]

Open all hours? – Consumer experience of, and service standards in, Post Office Locals

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Published: 11 May 2012

The Post Office network is about to begin the largest set of planned branch changes in its history. From summer 2012, more than half the network will convert to new operating formats – and one in five subpostoffices will convert into a totally new operating model, a Post Office Local (PO Local). For millions of consumers this means their local post office service will undergo major changes.

Network Transformation stands to deliver welcome improvements and investment in post offices, and if it is successful, will help to secure a sustainable and accessible network that meets consumers’ needs.

However, Network Transformation inevitably necessitates significant changes in post office provision – and carries considerable risks as well as opportunities. For Network Transformation to succeed, as we want it to, Post Office Ltd (POL) will need to demonstrate that the PO Local model is ready for wider rollout – and commit to ongoing improvements as the programme gets underway.

Our research explores the consumer experience of, and service standards in, PO Local pilot branches – and aims to drive improvements that may be necessary prior to and during rollout. Our findings show that significant ongoing improvements are needed if consumers are to benefit from these changes, with emphasis on driving up service standards and the consistency and reliability of service provision – and to make improvements to the privacy, branch layout and product range on offer.

[TrueBlueTerrier]

Consumer watchdog sets out moves needed to make post office changes work better for customers

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Published: 11 May 2012


Consumer Focus is calling for improvements to the new Post Office Local (PO Local) model, if it is to work better for consumers. The call comes as a new report from the watchdog – ‘Open all hours’ – shows that while the new model has potential benefits, there are unresolved problems which need to be addressed, if consumers are to get the full benefits which major changes to the UK’s post office network can deliver.

From summer 2012, the Post Office’s Network Transformation will see one in five sub-post offices convert to the PO Local model as part of the largest set of planned changes in the Post Office’s history. Most sub-post offices currently operate as part of a small shop, but have a separate post office counter with dedicated staff. The Locals model will see post office services delivered by trained shop staff from the main counter of retail outlets such as convenience stores or petrol stations, rather than from a separate dedicated post office area.

Many post offices are economically unsustainable, so Consumer Focus recognises a new approach is needed. With around 2,000 PO Local conversions, these changes provide a major opportunity for improvements. The watchdog’s report shows that PO Locals offers many positives for customers with greater convenience and extended opening hours, which were welcomed by the vast majority of consumers (eight out of ten of those surveyed).1 However, based on customer research and mystery shopping at 105 branches currently trialling the model, the research also shows a number of areas which must be addressed if the new model is to meet consumers’ needs and deliver a consistent and reliable service.

The current trials are intended to identify areas which need attention as the Locals model develops and Consumer Focus has carried out this research to assist Post Office Limited in this endeavour and we recognise that it is taking action on some our findings. We will continue to monitor and report to consumers on its actions.

Key findings from Consumer Focus’s research showed improvements are needed in PO Locals on:

Advice – Consumer Focus mystery shopping showed widespread evidence of inconsistent, and often inaccurate, product and pricing advice.2 For example, second class postage was sold correctly in only one in five visits3; large or heavy parcels were refused in a quarter of cases; and in two-thirds of cases, researchers were sold Special Delivery without staff asking the questions necessary to determine if it was the most suitable and suitably priced product.4

Product availability – More than one in six customers (17 per cent) were told they couldn’t access a service which actually should have been available.5 Not every consumer expected to access all post office services at their PO Local outlet. However, for a significant number of those surveyed, some of the services they said they needed and which are currently available across the network, wouldn’t be available at most PO Locals. These include Local Collect services (52 per cent).6 Although 75 per cent of customers said their perception of the knowledge of counter assistants was good, this mystery shopping show there appears to be a significant problem.

Privacy – Over a third of users (34 per cent) found the privacy available in a PO Local to be poor. Of all Locals users asked, 41 per cent said the privacy was worse than in sub-post offices. Almost one in five (19 per cent) also said they were reluctant, because of concerns over the perceived unreliability of staff, to undertake high-value, personal or confidential transactions at PO Locals.

Consistency of service – The report outlines problems with the reliability of the service at many branches, such as trained staff being unavailable or the demands of the associated business taking priority. Mystery shoppers also reported that PO Locals were not always open when scheduled, particularly during extended hours.

Cash withdrawals – The research also found some PO Locals were capping the cash or benefits a consumer can withdraw, or were unable to make any cash payments. In branches that do not receive cash supplies from Post Office Limited (POL), mystery shoppers were unable to withdraw cash in 10 per cent of visits (approximately 33 per cent of the current Locals pilots operate without cash supplies from POL – all sub post-offices receive cash supplies from POL). This poses a potential risk for older and vulnerable consumers, who rely on post offices to access their cash.

Mike O’Connor, Chief Executive of Consumer Focus, said:

‘Changes are needed to put the post office network on a more sustainable financial footing. Communities rely on their local post office, so everything possible must be done to make sure that all elements of Post Office Locals are working well for customers, given the planned national roll out of such major changes. This report shows a mixed picture and that further work is needed to make sure the millions of customers who will be affected receive a good quality and reliable service.

‘Some aspects of the new Locals model could be great news for consumers. Everyone will welcome longer opening hours, but they would also expect most core post office services to be available. With more people buying goods off the internet, it would make so much sense to be able to pick up an undelivered parcel from a PO Local outside usual working hours. That many Locals don’t offer this service is the sort of issue Post Office Limited should focus on, to make this programme the success we all want it to be.

‘We want Post Office Locals to work well. Our concern is that Post Office Limited will be missing a golden opportunity if it does not get the PO Local model right and we hope our findings will help them in this respect. We don’t want to see shortcomings we’ve picked up in pilot branches being replicated across two thousand PO Locals in the future. We do however want to see the advantages and benefits such as convenience and longer opening hours that our research has also identified.’

To improve the PO Local model for consumers, Consumer Focus wants to see measures including:

Post Office Limited (POL) to raise the quality of advice given to customers – including an overhaul of staff training, stricter monitoring, support and compliance processes.

POL to offer a core menu of services in every PO Local branch which is well-communicated to consumers. This should include products consumers want to access which are not currently offered through PO Locals, such as paying paper-based bills, making cash deposits and withdrawals from all accounts, and a full range of parcel services. The Local Collect service7 could build on the convenience of extended opening hours. Given the growth in the parcels market, and reduction in the number of delivery offices as part of Royal Mail’s modernisation programme, expanding parcel services available at PO Locals presents an important opportunity.

POL to address consumer concerns over privacy, the open plan counter and the knock-on impact on confidentiality when undertaking transactions.

POL must offer a reliable service through PO Locals, comparable with other post office models. Longer opening hours are strongly welcomed by consumers and POL must capitalise fully on this key strength. Breaks in the service due to unavailability of trained staff, irregular opening hours, and conflicting business demands, must be tackled. Longer opening hours must also be better communicated in-branch – in over a quarter (29 per cent) of mystery shopping visits opening hours were not seen displayed.

The arrangements for supplying PO Locals with cash must be reviewed, and if necessary, changed.

ENDS

Notes to editors:

Consumer Focus commissioned GfK to undertake two research projects in the 105 locations where PO Locals have been piloted. This included a face-to-face survey of 1,030 adults living in the catchment areas of these 105 branches. Six focus groups were held also across the UK. As part of the research, a mystery shopping exercise was undertaken with 362 visits undertaken (up to four visits to each of the 105 PO Local branches). Mystery shoppers were allocated two out of a total of five scenarios designed to test the quality of product and pricing advice they received – 724 scenarios were tested overall. Fieldwork was carried out in January and February 2012.

Following the Government’s consumer advocacy reforms, Consumer Focus will continue to act in the consumer interest across a wide-range of sectors until our general advocacy role passes to Citizens Advice in April 2013. As part of the reforms, Consumer Focus will establish a new unit to identify and represent consumers’ interests in complex, regulated sectors, including energy and postal issues and, in Scotland, water. Our Annual Plan for 2012-13 is available online.

In the research, 81 per cent of users and 79 per cent of non-users said that extended opening hours at PO Locals would be useful to them. Over three-quarters (77 per cent) had visited a PO Local during extended opening hours. One in seven (15 per cent) said they now use the PO Local primarily during extended opening hours. Use of PO Locals during extended opening hours is higher among those in full-time work (84 per cent).

As part of the mystery shopping exercise, at each branch the researchers completed two of five scenarios to assess the quality of pricing and product advice of core PO Local products and services. The scenarios assessed were: posting a large letter; posting an item that should be sent by Special Delivery; posting a large parcel (over 6kg); enquiring about the availability of travel money and making a cash withdrawal. Visits were spread across the opening hours of PO Locals and in all 724 scenarios were undertaken across 105 pilot PO Local branches.

Consumer Focus mystery shoppers were correctly sold postage for a Second Class Large Letter in just 21 per cent of PO Local visits – this dropped to 15 per cent during extended opening hours. The scenario was to send a large, flat A4 envelope, with counter staff told the item was not urgent – the correct advice would have a second class large letter stamp (58 pence when research was conducted). Two-thirds of mystery shoppers were advised to buy more expensive postage than they needed and five per cent were actually charged less than they should have been. Previous research conducted by the watchdog found that in High Street, Crown and franchised branches, mystery shoppers were told the correct postage for a First and Second Class large letter in 99 per cent of cases.

Post Office staff should ask when an item needs to arrive, its contents and value, before they can correctly identify whether Special Delivery is the right product to meet the customers’ needs. Although Special Delivery was the right product for this scenario, there is a significant price difference if the wrong product is sold – Special Delivery is now £5.90 (£5.45 when the research was conducted, before the recent price rises.) In comparison, a first class stamp is 60p (46p before the recent price rises.)

Services which customers could not access included: parcels over 6kg and core services such as Special Delivery, cash withdrawals and electronic bill payments.

Services not offered through PO Locals, but users say they would need to use at their post office branch

po local report.png

Base: all users (807)

PO Locals offer a core range of post office services. They typically will not offer the above services. Most of these services are available in all 11,600 post offices, including sub-post offices. The exceptions are car tax payments, on demand currency, and DVLA or passport applications – which are only available in larger post offices – between 2,500 and 4,500 branches depending on the service.

Please note – a small number of Locals do provide the Local Collect service and it is not a service precluded from the model. Cash withdrawals or deposit can be made if a bank card is used but not without a bank card, e.g. a passbook could not be used. Paper-bill payments can also be processed if there is a bar code on the bill.
The Local Collect service gives customers the option to pay a small fee for undelivered parcels or signed for mail to be redelivered to their local Post Office, rather than having to collect this from a delivery office or wait in for redelivery at home. As most PO Locals will offer extended opening hours having a parcel delivered to a local branch could provide a more convenient option for consumers to pick up undelivered mail.

[TrueBlueTerrier]

Two-thirds of customers over-charged at new wave of post offices http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/ ... fices.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Failure to win the DVLA contract could lead to widespread closures, the NFSP has warned

Consumer Focus found that new PO Locals are providing poor service, charge incorrectly for stamps and are seeking to limit cash withdrawals.

The Post Office is planning to replace one in five post offices with new PO Locals in nearby shops and garages from this summer.

The new branches will stay open for longer than conventional sub-post offices, and cost less to run.

However a ‘mystery shopping’ study of the PO Locals, which have been so far opened at 105 locations across the country, painted a picture of poor customer service.

Consumer Focus found “widespread evidence of inconsistent and often inaccurate product and pricing advice”.

Customers were sold incorrect second class postage for a non-urgent large flat A4 envelope, when they should have been charged 58p for a second class stamp.

Two-thirds of customers were advised to buy more expensive postage than they needed – and five per cent were charged less than they should have been.

In other instances, most customers were sold special delivery stamps even though they were not asked if it was the most suitable and well priced product.

A “significant number” of customers found that the range of services they needed were not available at the PO Local branches.

A third of the customers in the survey also found that privacy in the branches was “poor” and 41 per cent said it was worse than in existing sub-post offices.

This survey also confirmed fears that the PO Locals, which do not have the security of existing sub-post offices, might run out of money.

Consumer Focus found “some PO Locals were capping the cash or benefits a customer can withdraw, or were unable to make any cash payments”.

It added: “This poses a potential risk for older and vulnerable customers, who rely on post offices to access their cash.”

Consumer Focus called on the Post Office to overhaul staff training at the new PO Locals and be clearer about the limited services they can offer.

It also suggested that people should be able to pick up parcels from the PO Locals outside normal office hours.

Mike O’Connor, chief executive of Consumer Focus, said: “We want Post Office Locals to work well. Our concern is that Post Office Limited will be missing a golden opportunity if it does not get the PO Local model right and we hope our findings will help them in this respect.

“We don’t want to see shortcomings we’ve picked up in pilot branches being replicated across two thousand PO Locals in the future. We do however want to see the advantages and benefits such as convenience and longer opening hours that our research has also identified.”

Last night a Post Office spokesman said: “Post Office Limited welcomes research that helps it further develop Local style branches for the benefit of its customers.

“With the Local pilot ongoing, there are some improvements we can make but as the Report highlights, we are already addressing some of these issues.

“The Local format remains an important part of a significant overall investment programme to sustain and modernise the Post Office network and to grow the business.

“It is encouraging that Consumer Focus recognises that Network Transformation stands to deliver improvement and investment in the Post Office network.”

[nibbler]

i have another thread where you can clearly get an idea of my distast for the awful company that is ther post office.

in this one i just wanted to add that i am giving my notice and the post office can go whistle .

i warn everyone i can about the local model , not only is it unworkable its shamefull that subpostmasters have to subsidise the P O .

its cost me to have the model, a great deal of time effort and money


in 2 years on commision i am lucky if i have made 100 pounds ,,,,,,,,, in 2 years , yet the cost of running it and the cost of convberting it into a post office will never be paid back.


i will give some examples


i dont give money to people , if they want cash they must spend a 5 pounds and i will give them cash back from the shop.

why should i give people cash, i get like 14 p per cash withdrawl but to get more cash i then have to drive 10 miles to the bank to get more money, so to give people money costs me a great deal more than i make!!!!!!


i dont care whatsoever if people use the post office , i make 1p per 100 stamps sold. infact i direct people to other offices as they get a salary for doing exactly the same job. why should i even care


and in truth after the way PO has treated myself i dont care , i am counting down the days till i give my notice and then the 3 months till they remove all their crap ,


also i would like to point out that there is no support network or help , owning a post office local means your on your own and the only time the PO contacts you is to threaten you with breach of contract

not to help , oh no never to help

like my field change advisor, how that man has a job let alone ties his own shoelaces is beyond me. yet he is on salary , while a badly trained monkey could acomplish more and with more pride to .


PLEASE IF YOU ARE THINKING OF TAKING ON A POST OFFICE LOCAL ,,,,,,,,,,, DONT . do the research and talk to other subpostmasters