THE SUBPOSTMASTER - JUNE ISSUE

NFSP Interview
HIGHLY TRAINED AND
READY TO ADVISE
POSTMASTERS
For this edition, Members’ Editor Jon Follenfant
spoke to Central Operations Director Mel Park,
who is responsible for the operation of the Branch
Support Centre at Post Office Ltd’s headquarters
in London
Post Office Ltd
Central Operations
Director Mel Park
“Changes to
recruitment
and training has
enabled advisors
to provide
accurate
advice”
T
he Branch Support Centre
(BSC), otherwise known as
the HelpLine, fields more
than 4,000 calls a week
and over 200,000 calls a year from
post offices across the network.
An average call takes nine minutes,
and some can last for more than an
hour.
Over the years that I have had my
office, I have often wondered how
the BSC works, so last month I had
the opportunity to meet Mel.
We started our conversation by
discussing the fact that some
postmasters have referred to the BSC
as the ‘Hell line’ because of the time
taken to answer calls and the
variability of advice given.
Mel joined Post Office Ltd (PO)
from Boots in October 2022, where
she had managed the retailer’s
much larger help function, and was
quick to challenge this assertion. She
believes that changes that have been
put in place to the recruitment and
training of advisors has enabled
them to answer calls promptly
and provide accurate and
timely advice.
In day-to-day charge
of the BSC is Trevor
Ward. He is assisted
by three managers
who supervise the
recruitment, training,
quality control and
operation of the 48
advisors, seven
performance coaches and
nine complaint handlers on the Issue
Resolution Team.
In addition, there are 15 advisors
who predominantly work from home
dealing with Pick Up & Drop Off
(PUDO) issues.
The BSC is separate to other
10 The SubPostmaster June 2024