i dont care

Post by **TrueBlueTerrier** » 22 Sep 2007, 07:20

Oh sid - I think you may have stumbled across their plan. In sales jobs I have done in the past the person doing the approach gets the bonus/share/credit for the sale, it has never been the office or team. Perhaps and this is only a suggestion, part of the theory behind it is (and no I don't think you would find an official document or statement proving it) an attempt to seperate the chaff from the wheat. In other words that those who enjoying the selling get upset and frustrated at those who do not, or are not as good as those who do. Now this would be in no way intentional but just from body language and day to day dealing with each other the "chaff" would feel isolated and under pressure, they would then have a choice of either entering wholeheartedly into the sales culture, leaving, or staying on and accepting the unintentional pressure from their colleagues.

Now if they set up a system of rewarding those who do the sales, and not rewarding those who do not, this would still put pressure on those not into the sales culture, but would be of a less pervasive nature and could be more useful in getting these individual's into a selling mode and therefore would be more approachable to change.

I think it all comes down to the people at the top wanting to force change through and drag the workforce kicking and screaming behind them (after all they know best don't they), rather than informing and bringing in the changes with the agreement of the unions and workforce as a whole.

As Howard Schultz said

Our mission statement about treating people with respect and dignity is not just words but a creed we live by every day. You can't expect your employees to exceed the expectations of your customers if you don't exceed the employees' expectations of management.

axeman · Post by **axeman** » 22 Sep 2007, 13:18

yes talk about the products but please don't do it when i'm in the que otherwise we i'm standing there getting pisse* off
waiting whilst the que grows ever bigger .... what hapened to the earlier guide lines of service where the quick service was king ?? a backward move if ever there was one

armani · Post by **armani** » 23 Sep 2007, 11:57

TBT, there has been rumour of doing like you have said above. Going towards an individual bonus scheme. However that got the Union rather excited. The fight back was, what if the (chaff, in your statement) not so good person did initially mention the product but the customer came back at another time and got the (wheat, in your statement) good clerk, all the credit goes to the good one because the customer just happened to go for it that day and not on the previous ocassion.

Plus, what I've found to be the case is the people that are more reluctant to do the introducing are the people that are reasonably well off, i.e. their spouse has a good income and they don't really need to bonus. So they will be happy to do the bare minimum. I think that would just be playing in to their hands. Its a no win situation unless every member of the team is doing the role that is asked of them. Introducing products to as many customers as possible. That way there should be no wheat/chaff scenario and all the staff know that each of their colleagues are making a genuine attempt to introduce products. And that each one has worked for their bonus, should they get one. Having that type of environment also reduces unnecessary pressure.

armani · Post by **armani** » 23 Sep 2007, 12:05

axeman wrote:yes talk about the products but please don't do it when i'm in the que otherwise we i'm standing there getting pisse* off
waiting whilst the que grows ever bigger .... what hapened to the earlier guide lines of service where the quick service was king ?? a backward move if ever there was one

Customers told us they would appreciate us telling them about products that could save them money, make them money, and/or give them peace of mind. So we listened and started doing so. If done correctly it can add as little as 15 secs to your time at the counter.

Official quick service stopped around 6yrs ago. Long gone are the times of managers standing about with stop watches.
Change is good, no doubt you will be of the ''if its not broke don't fix it'' brigade. Are you still using horse and cart and candle power because theres no need to change.

Quick service doesn't make you money i'm afraid, especially now that the Post Office is a shop of choice not necessity.

Post by **POSTMAN** » 23 Sep 2007, 13:15

Primark wrote:If done correctly it can add as little as 15 secs to your time at the counter.

Primark unveiled!!! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N72tTM-Ur4A

axeman · Post by **axeman** » 23 Sep 2007, 13:22

oh 'aramni' i guess you'd be at home in steptoes yard loads of things in there to offer your 'customers'. They now watch over you with other things in mind though don't they. By your own addmision so we here even big j says it too ,come on 'our people' get selling

to there tune don't you

armani · Post by **armani** » 23 Sep 2007, 13:47

axeman wrote:oh 'aramni' i guess you'd be at home in steptoes yard loads of things in there to offer your 'customers'. They now watch over you with other things in mind though don't they. By your own addmision so we here even big j says it too ,come on 'our people' get selling to there tune don't you

Are you hung over this morning?

I can't make any sense of that statement

Post by **bigjames** » 23 Sep 2007, 20:30

armani wrote:
axeman wrote:yes talk about the products but please don't do it when i'm in the que otherwise we i'm standing there getting pisse* off
waiting whilst the que grows ever bigger .... what hapened to the earlier guide lines of service where the quick service was king ?? a backward move if ever there was one
Customers told us they would appreciate us telling them about products that could save them money, make them money, and/or give them peace of mind. So we listened and started doing so. If done correctly it can add as little as 15 secs to your time at the counter.

Official quick service stopped around 6yrs ago. Long gone are the times of managers standing about with stop watches.
Change is good, no doubt you will be of the ''if its not broke don't fix it'' brigade. Are you still using horse and cart and candle power because theres no need to change.

Quick service doesn't make you money i'm afraid, especially now that the Post Office is a shop of choice not necessity.

You do have to be mindful of the queue length and the length of time it takes to get through that queue. Customers don't like to queue in a Post Office, largely because they can't always do their business elsewhere. Those who voice complaints about the length of the queue will often go and queue at other outlets with poorer service and keep silent. Why? Because they had the choice about going in there in the first place. Also the public's perception of time in a queue is nearly always distorted. If you ask them how long they have been in a queue they nearly always think it is at least 5-10 minutes longer than they really have. There should be a healthy balance between quick service and sales. Some times of the day or week often have to be written off because of the size of the queue and the types of customers in that queue. Also it is easier to have a meaningful conversation that may lead to a sale if it is quieter. That is not to say that when it is busy that customers should be denied the right to hear about our products, you just have to do it in a way that does not impact on service.

Also don't be fooled into thinking that queuing times are ignored, because if you have enough complaints from the public (or your local MP as happened to me!) the Service and Efficiency Team will be jumping all over you.

Post by **TrueBlueTerrier** » 23 Sep 2007, 20:35

Thanks for that post James - its nice to know in a perverted way that its the same at POL sometimes. Damned if you do and damned if you don't.