Post Office - commission paid to counter staff

headache5678

My local post office has difficulty in coping with the large queues of people, most of whom want to send parcels, Signed For and use other similar postal sevices.

Often when I go there, staff seem keen to "upsell" so even if I am very specific and say "please send by first class post and the package contains nothing of value", I am asked the question - "would you like assured delivery by 1pm tomorrow", or more pointedly "would you like it insured" ?

Do Post Office staff get paid sales commission for "upselling" to "meet customer needs" ?

IM

I'd hope so.

dzug1

As far as I know - no. Certainly in smaller offices run by subpostmasters they don't, though the subpostmaster's own remuneration will depend in part on how much business he does.

R&C

I'm a former Post Office employee, I was made redundant roughly 2 years ago when WH Smith took over some offices.

Up until we all had to sell sell sell I loved my job, but due to the selling I really really hated it. It's hard to try to sell car insurance to someone who's just asked for a 1st class stamp... but that's what expected.

We weren't individually commmision based at that time... if we met our targets as an office we'd get a bonus and the manager would get an even bigger one but to be quite honest I'd have gone without the bonus to just enjoy my job again!!

We used to have tally sheets under our mats, we had to mark down every person we'd up-selled to and if your tally sheet wasn't good enough then the manager wasn't best pleased. Our manager used to stand behind you and watch, making sure you were selling properly. There was so much pressure to sell and it became such a miserable place to work!

SplanK

as a customer - it really annoys me when somebody tries to upsell me something when i ask for something specific... or tires to sell me something completly unrelated to what im buying.... IE i want some stamps.. then i get bombarded with questions about home and car insurance!

kitekat

IMO the P.O.is no longer the place it used to be.Our main P.O.started the pressure sales around 9months ago and ita a pain in the neck.I pass by that P.O. to go to a smaller one which dosent have this prob.If i want insurance etc i will go and look for it,i do not like people trying to force it down my neck.

R&C

Same here SplanK, which is why I hated doing it.. I couldn't stand it being done to myself!

Kitekat... Yes you will find that the smaller franchised post offices won't have so much pressure, if any pressure at all, to sell. I worked in a franchised office before an actual Royal Mail PO and it was much friendlier!

dander

It seems to vary a lot from post office to post office - I used to use a central london post office (with hugely long queues!) where they were always upselling - I find it intrusive and makes me less likely to buy. I posted a parcel once and the cashier said "do you have a credit card?" - frankly that is none of the cashier's business! I found I would always go in there with a "don't mess with me" face on - be monosyllabic and non-smiling with the cashiers, would leave out the pleases and thankyou's in an attempt to keep them at a distance and stop them before they started - can't be nice to have customers doing that to you.

My local post office, though, they don't do it - they just use the time to chat to you which makes me feel much more likely to use their other services because I feel they have built up a relationship with me as a person, rather than just treating me as something to try and squeeze money out of me. And, if nothing else, they get the smiles and the pleases and the thank-yous!

AdrianW2

kitekat wrote: »

IMO the P.O.is no longer the place it used to be.

The most obvious difference is that now it's profitable.