Talking Retail Grocery and product news for independent retailers
The shifts in consumers’ traditional retail patterns have seen a growing trend to shop local and stay local – a trend that emerged during the pandemic and has remained.
As the UK’s largest retail network, Post Office has been focused on asserting its authority in this changing landscape to become vital one-stop shops for local communities.
The rollout of Post Office’s ‘Branch MOTs’ has been vital in achieving this.
The goal of this scheme is to ensure postmasters can not only run successful Post Offices but thriving retail businesses within local communities too.
Some 2,781 branches so far have had a ‘Branch MOT’ since the launch of the scheme in Q4 2022 with the programme having been declared a success with the majority of Postmasters, 60%, saying the reviews have been valuable.
While the scheme has prompted more than 41% of postmasters to make changes following their personalised recommendations. ‘
Overall results from the ‘Branch MOT programme shows potential savings for branches could be at least £12,615 per year based on simple changes to streamline efficiencies and maximise retail opportunities.
This scheme has been recognised as being vital in helping Post Office carve out a valuable and essential space in the retail sector, where face-to-face customer service and ‘local localism’ – a phrase coined by Martin Roberts, group chief retail officer at Post Office – are championed.
Since being appointed in February 2022, Roberts has set about using his extensive experience to transform thousands of Post Offices across the country into one-stop shops for communities.
He has built out Post Office’s in-house retail expertise and launched a number of initiatives, including the development and rollout of Post Office’s ‘Branch MOTs’, which are part of a ‘Commercial Excellence’ programme.
Roberts said: “Branch MOTs are in-depth reviews of our Post Offices. Area managers visit branches and craft high-level recommendations for each branch to enable postmasters to make positive changes, where needed, based on transactional, commercial and product-level data alongside real-world projections such as location, footfall and staffing.
“They let our postmasters know we care about them and creates a sense of family and unity at the heart of Post Office. Well over two thousand visits have been completed with MOTs happening every week and they are helping Postmasters. It’s a privilege to lead a great team of people across the business focused on delivering for Postmasters and our customers.”
“Our postmasters are very heavily involved in the community and so the customer service provided is important to Post Office and is a priority. If you look at some of the big retailers and supermarkets, they’ve pulled away a little bit from the community.
“Our postmasters understand their customers and have often known them for decades allowing them to build trusted relationships and I think that’s where you get lifetime loyalty and I’m a big fan of developing lifetime loyalty. I want communities to thrive.”
