It's the upsell that I mind

My local post office is managed by an enterprising Indian family. One of their number is a very pretty young lady who attracted a lot of attention when she first appeared behind the counter. These days, the locals try to avoid being served by her.

One day recently, I heard the reason why. She was serving a pensioner, a man in his late 70s, and I heard him say, in a rather exasperated tone, “No, please, no selling. I don’t want any of that.”

If you buy a stamp from her, she asks if you’d like a mobile phone top-up. If you want to post a packet she tries to get you to take the most expensive option. It’s always upsell, upsell, upsell.

It’s the same when I order stationery on the phone. “We have a special offer this week for paper. We are offering 75 million reams for only 20p!” or some such pitch. It’s relentless.

Macdonalds are famous for their upsell: “Would like fries with that?” Starbucks ask “Medium or large?” when you order a coffee. Waitrose may price something at £3.55, but offer 2 for £5.

What really causes the offence is the self-centred focus. It comes across as pressure to spend more than you intended. And it’s so unnecessary.

Upselling is good. It helps the vendor and it could help the customer too. All it takes is a little thought and training in customer care.

The key question to address is, how does it benefit the customer? The girl in the post office could ask if there is anything else she could help with, or if it is important to guarantee delivery by the next morning. The stationery supplier could ask if I would like to save money on any of my regular purchases such as paper, Starbucks could say, “If you are planning to stay for a while, would you prefer a large cup?”

Some of their scripts are close to the right wording, but the staff haven’t been properly trained to understand how to put it across. Result? Strained relations instead of a developing relationship.

If you have a specific problem in customer care, I’d be happy to offer you my take on it, without fee. Just drop a line to admin@pkpcommunicators.com.