Top Tips for Managing Your Mail During Postal Strikes
With the wave of postal
strikes set to continue throughout October,
your business needs to be well prepared to
cope with a slow and delayed postal service..
Strikes have been
confirmed from midday Thursday 4th
October to midday Saturday 6th
October, and from 3am Monday 8th
October to 3am Wednesday 10th
October; with a rolling programme of strikes
from the 15th October.
To help you get through
the disruption, the Better Payment Practice
Group (BPPG) has come up with some top tips
to make you less reliant on post:
- Advise customers
that you wish to be paid directly into
your bank account. You can do this in
advance by letter or during a strike by
e-mail, by providing your bank account
details and giving each customer a
reference number so you can identify
their payment on your statements.
- Ask customers who
regularly place orders to set up a
standing order with their bank to pay
you a specified amount each month to
cover goods purchased.
- Consider offering
an incentive to firms that agree to pay
by direct debit, perhaps a one off
bonus, or a discount, but be careful to
cost any discount or bonus offered.
- Ask your bank for
paying in books on your account and give
them to customers so that they can pay
their invoices at their bank. Remember,
you can fax or email invoices to the
customer instead of posting them, and
always provide a reference number to
help reconcile statements.
- Personal visits to
customers located near you to deliver
invoices and collect payment can also
work well. There is no need to
antagonise the customer by arriving
unannounced and asking to be paid. All
it takes is a quick phone call to
explain the situation and to agree the
method of payment. If cash payment is
involved, a proper receipt must be
provided for security reasons and to
ensure no misunderstandings occur.
- If you need to use
a courier company to visit customers to
collect payments, it may be wise to set
up such a facility now, as in the event
of postal disruption, you may find these
companies are swamped with enquiries and
you may be left disappointed.
- Consider if a
different approach is needed for large
customers with high value orders as
opposed to smaller customers who
regularly order small amounts of goods.
The Royal Mail
helplines will be operating, but will be
extremely busy: 08457 740 740 and 08457 950
950
For more information on deciding which
postal delivery company is suitable
for your business, visit our free article “Sending
Business Post” here.
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