Posted by Charles
When a public service organisation falters as a result either of market change, incompetence or poor leadership, it doesn’t fix what needs fixing, it repudiates its public service ethos and starts wooing the psychopathic private sector. The public service ethos is systemically unbusinesslike, couldn’t run a whelk stall, etc. The private sector exemplifies gleaming, exemplary efficiency. Hello and good morning, Southern Cross.
Royal Mail has been riven with self-doubt for years, and the great British public has not been helpful in enabling it to evolve in an age of email. Take post offices, the public sector equivalent of Woollies. Both inspire affection levels which rival those for guide dogs and lifeboats in the hearts of all those millions of people who never use them yet campaign so tirelessly against their closure.
The Post Office has been trying for years to stem its losses by selling financial products. As far back as 2007 the ill-effects of this were noted.
Now the Post Office has entered into an unholy alliance with another crap business, The Co-operative:
The Post Office® has today launched a new Funeral Benefit Option as part of its Over 50’s Life Coverplan offering customers £250 towards funeral costs, available from today.
The Funeral Benefit Option is a free addition to the Over 50’s Life Cover plan and means that Post Office customers who choose to arrange their funeral through The Co-operative will receive an additional £250 contribution towards the cost from The Co-operative Funeralcare. Using this £250 contribution, and the lump sum from the Post Office Over 50s plan, The Co-operative will help make the funeral arrangements – simplifying matters for family and friends. [Full text here]
When a public sector organisation makes an assault the market share of honest, decent traders and, thereby, damages the best interests of consumers, it can truly said to have lost the plot.
No comment.
Charles – as ever with any CWS funeral based product, I question the transparent side of this – oh yes it looks like a reasonable deal for the punter in the street – the bottom line I’m sure is that funeralcare have increased their prices all round by £250, so they’re not losing anything imho – a prospective purchaser of this plan should take into account the high level of funeralcare prices (when compared to the owner managed firms) and not the least the inferior quality of their vehicles. It also smacks that last year’s very expensive national media advertising campaign isn’t working as well as was anticipated and also it’s another attempt by funeralcare to be pro towards ‘mr and mrs average couple’ in the street, when the truth of the matter is that funeralcare are in 99% of the cases far more expensive than privately owned funeral directors
…………and also if funeralcare spent less time and expense on this sort of thing and constantly fretting over ‘their market share’ maybe the costs could be controlled better instead of passing all of the advertising expenses on to their client. I think not……………..
what chance of funeralcare maintaining a low profile……………? nah no chance………they just have to be shouting from the rooftops all of the time…….simply cannot help themselves, can they?