Since its separation from Royal Mail Group in 2012, the Post Office has modernised over 7000 branches, providing an extra 200,000 opening hours for customers to access its services. You’ve probably noticed that thousands of Post Office branches now open from early in the morning until later in the evening. It is also the largest retail network open on Sundays with over 4000 branches open seven days a week.
In recognition of the transformation, the Post Office’s network transformation programme has received the Customer Service Award at the 2017 World Post and Parcel Awards 2017.
The World Post and Parcel Awards, which are judged by a panel of global mail experts, aim to recognise and promote excellence for organisations operating in mail markets across the globe. The Customer Service Award recognised the Post Office’s achievements in delivering the biggest transformation programme in UK retail history, improving services for customers and communities all over the UK.
“The Award recognises the pace and unprecedented scale of the changes achieved across the Post Office business. It’s a tribute to all the people in our network who are working hard to make services better for customers and ensure our branches thrive, not only for today’s customers, but for future generations too.”
– Kevin Gilliland, Post Office Chief Executive, Retail
As someone who ran their eBay business visiting the Post Office on a daily basis for almost a decade I’m familiar with the queues that used to form in the afternoon with eBay sellers keen to despatch their parcels. Today with self service machines, Drop & Go and a host of other measures, today it’s infinitely quicker and more convenient for small sellers who still use the Post Office.
4 Responses
The counters can be open 24 hours, but what good is that if the last collection goes at 5pm?
We’ve also seen some very poorly trained staff in our “new” WH Smiths post office.
So I go out of town to a small one where they still know how to do the job.
And there isn’t a 20 minute wait either.
We lost a five window high street post office which had been there since 1901.
It now lies empty and is a target for fly posters and vandals.
The new office has two windows and the travel window chips in when no-one is using it. There isn’t any parking either.
According to the former manager, they lost the equivalent of 150 years of counter experience when most of the staff left when the post office moved.
The longest serving in the new place is three years, the rest less than a year.
The queues often snake right round the WH Smiths branch.
No auto machines here!
It’s nothing more than corporate vandalism.
And they get an award for THAT ???
An award for customer service eh! Not here in London! They have electric fans behind the counter in hot weather but none for the customers…they disappear for dinner between 1 & 2pm the exact time everyone else
goes to dinner which results in a queue of 30 odd people waiting for 2 counters instead of full capacity of 6 counters which causes arguments & people walking out. Two weeks ago a worker tried to charge me for a large parcel instead of a small parcel. I showed her the tube fits diagonally in the example small parcel on the counter but she insisted that is is not allowed to be measured diagonally! I had to get the manager to prove my point. This woman has been working at the same PO for over three years so should know better. They still try to sell special delivery even if someone asks how much it is to send a letter! They give the price for special delivery over signed or 1st class. It’s infuriating & holds up the queue every time & it’s normally me who interjects to let the customer know they have the option of using signed delivery or a 65p stamp depending what’s in the letter just to speed up the process. They prey on people who don’t know how much it should cost like foreigners on holiday, immigrants, old folk etc. If that’s good customer service then I’m a hatstand.