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Improve Service

Customers appreciate their carriers but do not always understand all of the services they offer. The expansion of Click-N-Ship and online Carrier Pickup brought attention to the fact that carriers collect prepaid mail for free. Yet the vast majority of customers still make special trips to a Post Office or collection box. However, in most cases customers can do all the business of mailing without leaving their homes or offices.

Marketing pitches for online bill payment and account management lure potential customers with appeals like "save a trip to the Post Office" or "avoid waiting in line." In fact, no customer should have to go to the Post Office to use the mail, especially First-Class Mail. They need not travel any farther than their mailbox. The Postal Service will continue to make customers aware of this free, convenient service available to everyone. It will also continue to promote services such as Parcel Return Service, a shipper-paid option that takes the hassle out returning items purchased online. And, like stamped First-Class Mail, the service is free when the carrier collects the package at the time of delivery.

usps.com
The Postal Service's award-winning Web site averaged more than 26 million visits per month in 2006. About 35 percent of all non-stamp transactions were conducted online, up more than three percent. PC Postage vendors, eBay, and Click-N-Ship have played a crucial role in increasing the migration online of non-stamp transactions. Internet transactions (Click-N-Ship, eBay, PC Postage), as a percentage of all package services (Internet and POS One retail non-stamp transactions), grew to 36 percent.

Retail Service at Post Offices
In tandem with a number of initiatives to expand and enhance online, self-service, and carrierprovided services, the Postal Service expanded hours at more than 1,400 Post Offices and added new service options through retail and online partners. Even without counting pickup services, which are available every day, to every customer, at every address, customers now have more ways and places to do business with the Postal Service than ever before.

Standardization efforts were expanded in Post Offices to provide more consistency from one location to the next, allowing customers to locate information and services with ease, rather than struggle with a different arrangement of forms, supplies, and information at each office they visit. Strict attention is being paid to having supplies in stock and keeping information current.

The Postal Service initiated the 5-Star Customer Service program to recognize Post Offices with high customer satisfaction scores and to share their approaches with other offices around the country. The program is based upon high ratings from the CSM system and performance in the Mystery Shopper program. Offices that achieve a 5-Star rating display a decal on the entrance door. At year-end, 2,031 Post Offices and 19 performance clusters earned the 5-Star rating.

The Mystery Shopper survey, which audits Post Office retail standardization compliance, was modified in 2006 to more closely model customer expectations. The survey focuses on wait time, package acceptance procedures, product knowledge, signage and posted information, sales skills, and product stocking and display. Results of the survey highlighted many opportunities for improvement &mdash' standardization, product knowledge, and sales skills. Focus groups conducted with retail associates revealed the need for improved communication and localized coaching to increase productivity and customer satisfaction.