Chelsea stamps their mark with Royal Mail
9 July 2007
Chelsea Building Society and Royal Mail work together to cut costs
When Martyn Baldwin, Administration Services Controller at Chelsea Building Society's head office in Cheltenham started to review the way deliveries were made to Chelsea's branch network, he didn't think it would result in a new service from Royal Mail. But as a result of his suggestions, Martyn has not only improved the service Chelsea offers to customers and staff, but has provided Royal Mail with new suggestions to improve upon their one stop solution, which they are now marketing to other companies.
Like other financial organisations, Chelsea, the UK's 6th largest building society, receives a constant stream of deliveries and collections at its branches across the country. Martyn, who amongst a variety of other responsibilities heads up the post delivery service at Chelsea, looked at the daily disruptions and how this impacted on customers and staff. He started talks with Royal Mail and suggested ways in which he thought they could work with Chelsea to streamline and improve the process.
Royal Mail found this consultative model to be more effective than anything they already have in place. Consequently they are reviewing the potential to develop concepts conceived from the consultant for Chelsea and then out to other financial services organisations - all of this resulting from Martyn's suggestions. The new service, called Branch Direct, offers a delivery and collection service from Head Office and branches outside of normal business hours, which allows branch staff to be uninterrupted. Items transported via this system include;
- Customers' cheques
- Corporate cheques
- Stationery items
- Marketing literature, posters and Point of Sale items
- Variety of electronic items
- Confidential waste for destruction
- Branch to branch and branch to Head Office correspondence
'We constantly look at ways to improve the efficiency of the service provided to our branches, and we felt that our previous system meant unnecessary time wasting for branch staff and potential interruptions when dealing with our customers' said Martyn. 'In consultation with Royal Mail we are continually looking at ways to improve mail delivery and collections into the branch network and Head Office. I am continually striving for a service that provides a complete end to end solution for mail and one that doesn't impact negatively on customer service or staff. With this new improved service we have been able to make a positive impact on the branch, allowing one simple collection and drop off of all items and we even managed to save some money. I'm delighted to think that I have been able to make a positive difference to Chelsea processes, and in turn given Royal Mail a model they can use to help others.'
'With the increase in customer identification fraud, this system offers complete peace of mind', commented Richard Downend from Royal Mail. 'Financial organisations can now be confident that with one single provider, all of their confidential customer information can be dealt with in a very safe and controlled fashion. It's a credit to Martyn that with his in depth knowledge and ideas we have been able to come up with a package that is more effective for Chelsea and one that might be of assistance to other financial service companies'.
To celebrate Martyn's success in assisting Royal Mail, they have presented him with a limited edition framed stamp collection.
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Notes
- Chelsea is the 6th largest building society in the UK with assets of £11bn
