Day Sixteen: Post Office Adventures

So I went to the Post Office yesterday…the Saturday before Christmas and Hanukah… to send a package to my little brother. While I am amazed that the Post Office exists at all, I mean I spend less than 50 cents and  my letter is usually delivered to the exact person it needs to go to in a whole other part of the country. The back-of-the-house of the Post Office has to be an amazing operation that I would love to see. The challenge is that the Post Office forgets that it is also a retail outlet.  So while my post office usually looks something like this:

Yesterday it was more like this:

The problem was, no one had thought about how increased volume would affect the ability to offer a decent experience. We are talking about the Post Office during the Holidays, I am not deranged enough to think that the experience is going to be good. The experience could be less of a hassle though.

For instance, the increased volume meant that there was no clear delineation between the people who were in line to use the automated machines and the people who were waiting for counter service. The two lines combined into a confusing jumble.

One of the automated machines was broken, and it was unclear what services you could use the machine for. I knew that my package was a no-go for the machines because it was too big, but the guy behind me in line asked if he could buy stamps for Europe and Canada at the machine. I honestly didn’t know and there was no way to tell. In interacting with any government agency, there is a fear that you will wait in this crazy long line only to find out that you are in the wrong line, or missing some asinine piece of paper work (Massachusetts RMV I am talking to you!) This means that when in doubt, you wait for human service.

On top of that, the interface on the automated machines was confusing. Customers using the automated machines were taking much longer than those standing in line. There was an employee standing around in the lobby area, but she wasn’t helping with the machines or answering questions about which line you should be in.

As I waited in line, I realized that almost everyone around me required different services. Sure there were a bunch of people who were just sending holiday packages, but there were also people getting money orders, setting up PO boxes, and trying to get passports. One customer was shipping a gigantic prototype to China…it had to be repackaged 3 times to meet weight requirements.

 

Unfortunately there was no triage happening. It took just as long to get a roll of stamps as it did to ship 20 packages to different countries. Taking cues from other industries could help the Post Office improve their retail offering. The check-in process at the airport is similar to using the Post Office: lots of people with varying needs, the availability of kiosks to reduce the number human to human interactions, and even crowd control challenges…however the airlines do a much better job of serving their customers. They setup separate counters for different needs like: first class, international flights, and even checked bag drop off. They have staff dedicated to help customers use the kiosks and they control lines almost as well as Disney. Side note: You know your service SUCKS when you would rather be checking in to a flight.

Part of the problem is sheer inefficiency. After standing in line for over an hour I approached my teller- “Hi I would like to ship this package priority, there is nothing liquid, fragile, perishable, or hazardous. I do not need signature confirmation or insurance…and I don’t need stamps.”

She seriously responded:

“Is there anything liquid…”

“ Nope”

“Perishable? “

“Nope”

“Fragile?....”

“Nope”

“Hazardous? “

“Nope”

“Do you need signature confirmation or insurance?”

Good lord lady…”NO!”

“How about stamps…do you need any stamps to day? “

“No Ma’am!”

As I was leaving the guy behind me in line gave me a high five for being so fast (despite the inefficiencies) because nothing brings New Englanders together more than hating the Yankees and finding ways to reduce human to human contact.

As I was walking away, and thanking the baby Jesus that the experience was over, a Post Master yelled out to the line:

“We will be shutting down for a half hour for lunch…you are welcome to stay in line, but we won’t be serving anyone for at least 30 minutes”

I got out of there as quickly as I could in hopes of avoiding some sort of stampede-riot.

So what could have made this experience better?

Way-finding and Crowd Control- Making self-service options clear and delineating two separate lines would have gone a long way to managing the number of people in line.

Triage- This term is most commonly used in Emergency Rooms. It is the administrator’s job to understand the severity of each case and create a plan to serve each patient in an appropriate order. Triage doesn’t happen in the Post Office, customers have needs that vary from incredibly simple to fulfill (I need to buy a roll of stamps) to very complicated (I need to apply for a Passport). Putting both of those customers in the same line is frustrating and inefficient. The post office could have utilized the same number of employees in a more efficient way. Instead of wandering around, the employee in the lobby could have been helping people through self serve or making sure that customers were in the appropriate line. Also, there was a counter that wasn’t being used, that counter could have been used for simple transactions like stamps and domestic packages freeing up the other three tellers to handle more complicated tasks.

Efficiency- Adding information while customers are in line could be an effective way to speed up the process at the counter. This could mean offering FAQ’s or explaining why you will be asked specific questions when you are sending a package. Offering in line signage could speed the whole process along. Also, making the interface more usable will increase the number of users who can complete their Post Office tasks alone. Oh and don’t take an all employee lunch break at the same time…obvi.

So this is a quick pass at 3 big changes you could make to improve the customer experience at the Post Office. Imagine the improvements that could be made with a full-scale research and service design project! The problem is I don’t think that the Post Office really cares if they offer a good customer experience. In their eyes the customer doesn’t really have other options, so they will put up with just about anything. Government agencies offer by far the worst customer experience…well except for maybe Best Buy, but I am not really hopeful that this will ever improve.

Do you think there is hope for improving customer experience in government agencies?