Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe, the CEO of USPS, is working to make the Postal Service profitable again. This week, he said two key changes - permanently ending Saturday mail delivery and reforming the organization’s retirement structure – would get the job done.
I haven’t examined the General’s numbers. For purposes of this piece, I fully take him at his word.
But there is one area the Postal Service could definitely tweak to help improve the bottom line: enhancing the customer’s experience. I don’t know the ins and outs of the stamp and shipping business, but I can tell you my personal observations and relate the war stories told to me by many friends and family members.
Customer service at the Post Office: It’s not good.
Maybe there is a reason for what I’m about to say, but it seems the neighborhood Post Office always employs a two on/two empty approach at the counter. This is especially true during the lunch hour when many Americans are trying to mail a package, pick up a registered letter or seek some other specialized postal service.
I think we’ve all conceded the practice of buying first class stamps at the counter.
Now, I’m not trying to begrudge the hard-working postal clerks their lunch hour. They deserve that as much as the next person. What I’ve never understood, though, is why there can’t be some sort of relief help – some of those persons from ‘back in the back’ – staff members who rotate in during breaks and lunch hours to keep those windows open and the lines moving.
Long queues don’t just exist from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Unless you go very early or very late in the day, it seems like a lengthy wait is an all day thing.
On a recent visit, I found the predicted ‘line out the door’ and there was also a crowd forming at the self-service kiosk that is supposed to relieve the crush. There is very little instruction about how to use the kiosk. It’s like you were supposed to be born with some innate ability to operate the machine. Invariably, some persons will come in with armfuls of packages, see the long line and try to use the kiosk.
That’s when things tend to back up. They’ve never used the kiosk. They find the instructions hard to follow and it takes them a long time to make their purchase.
One fellow was kind of chirping at the elderly lady in the front of the line at the kiosk during my recent visit. “Can’t ya get that thing to work?” he quipped. Meanwhile, a diverse collection of onlookers watched. The growing throng featuring me, a stylish soccer mom and a young lady who had just finished a workout in some near-by gym waiting behind the comic and the elderly lady.
Indeed, the lady up front was having a hard time following the instructions. But, once she finished and moved on, the quipper didn’t have much better luck. Some of us in the line couldn’t help but chuckle at seeing our comedian now struggling with the kiosk. Our mirth turned to concern when he got frustrated and decided to kick the kiosk.
It was a fairly forceful kick, too.
Just then, the soccer mom said, “Ay now!” (as if to say, “Don’t break the machine and ruin it for the rest of us.”). The comic, now all out of humor, was muttering something as he stormed off to get into the long line for full service. He, too, had fallen prey to the confusing machine.
I’ve never had any trouble operating the kiosk but I’ve seen plenty of people who do and that tells me the Postal Service needs to somehow simply the self-service instructions…or include some sort of ‘how to use’ manual with the machinery.
That would be another positive step, along with increasing the number of open full service windows. But, customer service seems to have become anathema to those running the company.
It would seem to me to be a simple business model would be boost the customer service and profits would increase; a sort of ‘if you improve it, they will come’ model.
In the meantime, I’m all for cutting out the Saturday delivery even if it means I would see less of the postman on our street. He’s a nice guy – efficient and hard-working – and an ambassador for good customer service.
JG
Originally posted 8/17/2013
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