Royal Mail's misguided and confrontational philosophy

[DavidCbusiness]

I should point out that I use ONLY Royal Mail for my outgoing business deliveries and have done so for nearly 10 years. RM’s service is by far the best, the prices are reasonable ad I feel I can (generally) trust them as an organisation. I am an avid supporter of Royal Mail (and my local Post Office) and I spend thousands of pounds each year with the PO and RM.

Despite my support for them, I am endlessley baffled by Royal Mail’s business philosophy. Their bizarre approach HAS to come from the top down and explains in part why RM has lost money for such a long time.

RM appear to consider customers as an adversary or an enemy in almost everything they do; they are entrenched in 1970’s thinking. Look into anything RM does in detail and you will see that’s how it works: typical examples include Royal Mail’s online Postcode Finder – you can only look up a very few postcodes each day before their website locks you out. Their reasoning? “We have to do that to stop big corporations downloading the whole postcode database”
1) Just how big a problem would that actually be? Just make it public, which the postcode database already is!
2) Couldn’t you isolate the few abusers and stop them? How hard would that be? 10 minutes looking at IP addresses would sort that out.
3) Why are you punishing ALL your customers because you’re scared of a few people using a paltry few gigabytes?

No, says Royal Mail, we must make things difficult for everyone because we think that the (publicly available) postcode database must be protected so we can make money from it.
I doubt they’ve made anything significant from it in years – RM, please publish your profits from selling postcode info… I bet you won’t tell us though.

Junk mail delivery: To even try and reduce the spam that RM puts through your door (a “service” from which they make a handsome profit) they make you download a form, fill it in and post it to an unnecessarily complex freepost address. They hide this opt-out option as well as they can, and give out misleading and off-putting information regarding the Government leaflets you may not receive, all plainly done to dissuade people from using the opt-out service.

Next, Royal Mail’s phone numbers are all 0845 or other similar numbers that require the person dialling them to pay a fee, rather than straightforward geographical numbers. I was told recently by an RM phone operator that this was done specifically to reduce RM’s costs.

RM constantly thinks and acts as though its customers were the problem. Until Royal Mail can change its philosophy it has no hope of success.

Royal Mail is institutionally incapable of accepting opinions or comments from employees or customers. As an organisation, RM ticks all the failure boxes – without its pseudo-monopoly it would have fallen apart decades ago. RM management are hopelessly entrenched and the best thing they can do for the service is to resign. This was true in 1980, and it’s equally true now. The problem is, as always, VESTED INTERESTS.

[blackbooks]

I could rant on in full agreement with you - for hours... Both as a past and present business customer and as a postie for the last year. Yes you are right and it only the tip of the iceberg.

RM management is absolutely hopeless. The very top have at least got an idea how big the problem is: and there are a few good local Delivery Office Managers who spent their lives dealing with stupid and often contradictory messages landing on them from above. The middle though.... god help us!

[TrueBlueTerrier]

I would like to pick a fault with with your post David, if I find one I will.

On the serious side, I recognise every single statement and position in your post and I think most on here would agree with you.

[oypostie]

RM appear to consider customers as an adversary or an enemy in almost everything they do

Don't worry. They regard their staff the same way

[fishtank]

I could pick a few faults.
On the PAF.
If you believe in Open Data that's fine but somebody has to pay for maintaining and updating that data and while Royal Mail have to maintain it they are entitled to protect it's integrity and commercial viability.
The exact figures are as you say vague but the estimate is around £20million to maintain set against revenues of around £22million.
Open source it and the costs remain but the revenue doesn't.

Junk mail.
First of all there is no such thing,it's advertising mail,customers pay to send it,why should Royal Mail go out of it's way to make it easy for recipients to opt out of receiving it,that would be commercial suicide.
You don't see ITV offering a service to skip the ads during the X Factor do you?
They would be laughed out of business.

Royal Mail's 0845 numbers.
You were told they are to save on costs because that's exactly what they are for...like any other major business.
And this is in my opinion the crux of your problem,like most people you don't want Royal Mail to be a business concerned with cost cutting and business models and the bottom line...

You want Royal Mail to be a service,so do i but the battle was lost years ago,to be honest it wasn't much of a battle more a case of if you want a service you'll have to pay for it.
Pay for it?...our survey said no thanks.

[jessicarabbit]

Ft for king of England. The most knowledgable and well reasoned poster on this site. Hits the nail on the head with virtually every post.

[borders]

spot on Fish as usual people dont get the fact that much of the profitable side of the business has been handed over and to add insult to injury these leeches want a piggy back aswell. it aint a public service no more, the price of stamps etc will go up and the terms and conditions of the workers [ whats left of us] will go down.
i go to a business and the boss there was chuffed that RM had lost its monopoly and in the same sentence was moaning at the price increase in stamps. perhaps we need one public service run at a fair price for the good and benefit of everyone ??

[Dee Plish]

DavidC's line, "Royal Mail is institutionally incapable of accepting opinions or comments from employees or customers." is the perfect summary of the business. But as we who work for RM have known for years - in it's current state it is not there to serve customers, or benefit from the on the job experience of many responsible employees - it exists to serve the interests of its management and its management alone. Nothing else matters. Government after government has allowed this to happen to a point where this culture is institutionalised from the top levels of management to the bottom. From "Business Efficiency" (chortle) to the Consignia fiasco, to the almost childish World Class Mail project and the inherent bullying and harrasment within Royal Mail.

North Korea springs to mind.... or should that be Courier

[DavidCbusiness]

I could pick a few faults.
On the PAF.
If you believe in Open Data that's fine but somebody has to pay for maintaining and updating that data and while Royal Mail have to maintain it they are entitled to protect it's integrity and commercial viability.
The exact figures are as you say vague but the estimate is around £20million to maintain set against revenues of around £22million.
Open source it and the costs remain but the revenue doesn't.

Junk mail.
First of all there is no such thing,it's advertising mail,customers pay to send it,why should Royal Mail go out of it's way to make it easy for recipients to opt out of receiving it,that would be commercial suicide.
You don't see ITV offering a service to skip the ads during the X Factor do you?
They would be laughed out of business.

Royal Mail's 0845 numbers.
You were told they are to save on costs because that's exactly what they are for...like any other major business.
And this is in my opinion the crux of your problem,like most people you don't want Royal Mail to be a business concerned with cost cutting and business models and the bottom line...

You want Royal Mail to be a service,so do i but the battle was lost years ago,to be honest it wasn't much of a battle more a case of if you want a service you'll have to pay for it.
Pay for it?...our survey said no thanks.

Dear fishtank, thank you for your comments. I don’t think you follow my drift entirely.

My original post title complains about RM’s underlying business philosophy, not prices, not the service, please read what I actually wrote rather than what you think I wrote. Also, borders and jessicarabbit, please understand I am absolutely not a leech and I resent the blinkered implication; I am perfectly willing to pay, and to pay more than at present. If I was told “we can fix all those problems but postage costs have to rise 25%” I would say DO IT NOW! But that won’t happen and it won’t fix it either, because the problem lies with entrenched top (and some middle) management philosophy. Referencing the various reactionary knee-jerk comments to my post, I say Q.E.D. and "the prosecution rests" - you are part of the problem.

Postcode database: That’s the old story of “the cost of doing business” again. If BT don’t maintain their phone lines they have NO LANDLINE BUSINESS. If customers were charged the true cost of installing lines, very few people would have a landline phone. So, BT invests in hardware and thinks long-term.
RM (sensibly) chose to start using postcodes long ago to make life easier for themselves, not us. One result of that choice was that a database must be created and maintained. Just how many hundred postcodes change in a month? How hard can it be? Also, how on earth can RM make £20m selling the database – I do not accept that figure without solid accounting evidence.

Junk Mail: Of course RM has to aim to make a profit and delivering leaflets is one way to help. Again, I don’t have a problem with that; I have a problem with how they take the sneaky approach and make the opt-out very difficult by essentially being petty and childish and “hiding” the required information and also misleading customers! And while we're on the subject, ITV is a lousy example: ITV is a FREE SERVICE, the only cost being the ads.. Royal Mail is a PAID-FOR SERVCE.

0845 / 0870 numbers suck. If you run a business, there are costs. See above and deal with it, the rest of us have to. Having a real geographical telephone number is one of those costs. Clawing back money from callers placed on hold for lengthy periods of time by forcing them to pay lo-call premium phone rates is simply tacky practice. See business philosophy, again.

All this boils down to – does RM want to deliver postal services or not? If not, simply pack it in and stop whining about how your business failure is the fault of others! If so, start thinking differently about customers and just maybe you'll do better.

You are completely wrong about what I want. I want Royal Mail to be a lean, successful, profit-making organisation that delivers a great service. What I DON'T want it to be is a cheesy, wasteful, arrogant, self-obsessed nonsense of a business. That benefits nobody. I need Royal Mail to succeed for the benefit of all, despite the best efforts of some to ensure it lives in the past and fails.

Either way, don’t blame us!

[fishtank]

If not, simply pack it in and stop whining about how your business failure is the fault of others! If so, start thinking differently about customers and just maybe you'll do better.

Either way, don’t blame us!

I'm going to take a wild stab in the dark DavidCbusiness and assume you attended The Future of UK Postal Services conference in London yesterday and decided to get busy with the keyboard.
I think it would have been good forum manners to have stated your position beforehand.
Since you've basically copy&pasted your original points i won't bother to answer them again individually apart from the balance sheet for the PAF for 2005/6 disclosed an income of £18million, 8.6% of which was profit.
£20 million was an educated guess on my part since it hasn't been disclosed since.

[DavidCbusiness]

If not, simply pack it in and stop whining about how your business failure is the fault of others! If so, start thinking differently about customers and just maybe you'll do better.

Either way, don’t blame us!

I'm going to take a wild stab in the dark DavidCbusiness and assume you attended The Future of UK Postal Services conference in London yesterday and decided to get busy with the keyboard.
I think it would have been good forum manners to have stated your position beforehand.
Since you've basically copy&pasted your original points i won't bother to answer them again individually apart from the balance sheet for the PAF for 2005/6 disclosed an income of £18million, 8.6% of which was profit.
£20 million was an educated guess on my part since it hasn't been disclosed since.

No, I didn't attend, or even know about it. Again, you assume incorrectly. I am a business customer, and that is all. I will happily supply my business details, web addresses and phone number to anyone who asks. It would be good manners not to make things up about me when you know nothing about me. How dare you. Also, I did not "copy and paste" my original comments, I addressed a few of the bland, blasé, presumptious points you tried unsuccessfully to raise. It appears too that you fall into the way of thinking that is assuring RM's continuing failure. If you are a part of RM management, do us all a favour and take early retirement. Tomorrow.

[fishtank]

No, I didn't attend, or even know about it. Again, you assume incorrectly. I am a business customer, and that is all. It would be good manners not to make things up about me when you know nothing about me. How dare you. Also, I did not "copy and paste" my original comments, I addressed a few of the bland, blasé, presumptious points you tried unsuccessfully to raise. It appears too that you fall into the way of thinking that is assuring RM's continuing failure. If you are a part of RM management, do us all a favour and take early retirement. Tomorrow.

I can't be bothered getting involved in an argument with someone who clearly has an agenda they are unwilling to disclose.
If you want to vent your spleen try looking for the real targets who placed Royal Mail in a position where profit comes before service.
Some examples might be...

Successive Governments from the early eighties until the present day who used RM as a cash cow syphoning off profits as well as pension contributions and failing to invest in the business.

Other Mail operators who were allowed by the early and flawed implementation of an EU Directive to undercut Royal Mail's contracts knowing full well they could cream off a profit by simply dumping these contracts back into the Royal Mail delivery network at a heavily discounted price forcing Royal Mail to deliver at a loss.

Business customers who despite bleating about the need for a strong Royal Mail went scampering off to those other mail operators because there was savings to be had.

As they say you can't have it all ways.

[fishtank]

And one more thing......
Continually editing your posts is also poor forum manners.

[DavidCbusiness]

And one more thing......
Continually editing your posts is also poor forum manners.

Is that the best you can do? Being wrong and failing to back down consistutes staggeringly bad forum manners. You were blatantly wrong, you offered no apology. Do not presume to lecture me on manners.

Clearly you have no logical arguments to put forward and are trying to duck the results of your totally inaccurate assumptions about me, so given your limited imagination you have resorted to attacking me instead.

Weak, very weak. And oddly typical of RM's way of going about management.

I'm drawing a line under this as you're apparently one of those who are the problem so continuing this "discussion" would be as useful as trying to talk someone out of their religion.

[clashcityrocker]

Ft for king of England.

Do you fancy the job big man?