Late on the afternoon of Monday, February 5, I was waiting in line at the Westhampton Branch of the United States Postal Service(USPS). I needed to express mail a document to Mebane, North Carolina. Mebane is 172 miles from Richmond.
With my envelope properly addressed, a clerk directed me to fill out another address label. This extra step allowed my document to fit inside a USPS envelope. I paid the $30.45 that guaranteed my document would arrive in Mebane by 6 p.m. on Tuesday, February 6. If the document wasn’t delivered by that time, I was promised a refund.
Tracking the document’s journey, I knew on the evening of February 6 that the 6 p.m. delivery deadline wasn’t met.
A postal employee in Mebane confirmed to me at 10:44 a.m. on Wednesday, February 7 that the document had arrived about 16 hours late. In truth, I wasn’t surprised.
On Wednesday afternoon, I went back to the Westhampton Post Office to report the failed delivery. Despite having my receipt, I was required to fill out another form. My refund was payed in cash rather than simply transferring the amount back to my debit card.
While waiting in line on Monday and Wednesday, I overheard multiple customer comments related to past frustrations with the USPS. This discontentment was grounded in delivery challenges.
One gentleman stated it took 17 days for his Richmond mailing to reach Greenville, South Carolina. Another lady referenced a simple mailing to Henrico County. Her mailing never arrived.
These delivery problems create a lack of trust in the system designed to meet our needs. It isn’t good when consumers lose trust.
On these two visits, I sensed that customers, myself included, are more impatient. A few customers waited for several minutes. Eventually, they gave up, and walked out displeased.
When I made my first visit on Monday afternoon, there was only one postal clerk working the counter. She apologized, and stated that a second clerk would appear within the next five minutes. It was probably longer than five minutes, but a second clerk did arrive.
The impatience surfaces in other ways. Sharing their frustrations, waiting customers whisper to each other, “I can’t believe this is taking so long.” Sometimes, grunts or groans of dissatisfaction are exhorted over the pace of transactions.
If customers are impatient and dissatisfied, I can only imagine how postal clerks might feel. Following USPS required regulations while attempting to meet the needs of a restless and irritated public is tough work. I wonder how many times during a shift a postal clerk asks if a package contains anything liquid, fragile, perishable, or potentially hazardous?
Additionally, I question if the daily operations of the USPS are carefully thought out. While I was waiting on Wednesday afternoon, customers who wanted to pay in cash had to move away from the clerk who only accepted debit and credit cards.
Just like public education, I’m sure everyone has ideas on how to improve the USPS.
For this weary system with multiple challenges here are some thoughts:
Stop selling junk in your post offices that have nothing to do with the mail.
Improve your automated technology for consumer use. Ensure that the technology always works. Make these systems so user friendly that even a knucklehead like myself can use it.
Sit down and listen to your most irritated customers. And while your listening, what might be learned from talking with Amazon, UPS, and FEDEX?
When something goes wrong, determine the reason, and fix it immediately. Then overnight express the invoice to Congress.
Go ahead, get it over with, and raise the price of a letter stamp to one dollar.
Stop delivering the mail on Saturday, and my friend, Jim Crowder, believes delivering the mail every other day is worthy of consideration too.
There have been times in our neighborhood when the mail has arrived after 9 p.m. I’m sorry, but that’s not safe for the carriers. Do not allow your carriers to deliver mail after sundown. This isn’t good for morale. I sense USPS morale is already at the bottom of a ten bushel canvas mail cart.
And speaking of morale, what is your employee development plan? How do you help employees learn, improve, and grow? Might a development plan be a means for improving employee confidence and customer service?
Finally, talk and listen to your employees. Often really good ideas come from the people in the trenches who ask a zillion times during their careers—does your package contain anything liquid, fragile, perishable, or potentially hazardous?
I appreciate the patient USPS employees who assisted me.
Yet, I feel the USPS is acutely fragile in an already hazardous environment.
Without urgent and wise interventions, it will perish.
might be baloney 