2. Customer Outreach and Mailer Liaison

        a. National Postal Forum (NPF)
National Postal Forums were held in Orlando, FL, and Denver, CO, with over 10,000 business customers and exhibitors attending. Business mailers attended the Forum for information on mailing industry issues, trends and opportunities; to learn about cutting-edge technology; to participate in information-packed business and educational sessions; to have access to Postal Service decision-makers; and for networking opportunities. Today’s Forums provide professionals with ongoing training in a rapidly changing industry, and the opportunity to build on the business partnership between the Postal Service and its customers, to network with industry peers, and to talk directly with postal officials.

“Innovation in the Mail” was the Forum’s theme in 2001. General Sessions provided attendees with insight into the vision, plans and priorities of mailing industry leaders. The Postmaster General outlined the Postal Service’s objectives and priorities for the future. The Deputy Postmaster General and Pitney Bowes Chief Executive Officer reported on the findings of the Mailing Industry Task Force, which they co-chaired. The report focused on three major themes: unifying the industry; making the mail channel more competitive; and responding to customer needs. The Postmaster General and the Chief Executive Office of Federal Express discussed implications of their new alliance. And the Chairman of the Board of Deutsche Post World Net shared his perspective on implications of postal deregulation.

Attendees received information about technology available to improve the value of the mail through numerous sessions, workshops and exhibits. Postal executives, along with industry leaders, led discussion groups that addressed remittance mailers, periodicals mailers, package mailers, and advertising mailers service issues. Postal officers hosted several “Business Builder Strategy Sessions” at each Forum. The sessions featured Postal Service programs and initiatives and customers who have benefited from them. Forum attendees also were offered sessions on address management, how to keep costs and rates low, and avoiding fraud scams. Mail security was particularly emphasized at the Denver Forum.

In all, the Forum’s training and education program offered customers approximately 100 business sessions and workshops at each Forum. These training and education programs were designed around customers’ business processes and categorized as follows: Getting and Keeping Your Customers, Managing Mail Preparation and Acceptance, Distribution and Fulfillment, Mail Center Operations, and Postal Rates and Policy. As part of the Postal Service commitment to continuing education, a Mail Center Professional Certificate Program was offered to those who attend required sessions in specific mail preparation and mailing operations areas. Applicants for this program, who attended the required sessions, received a Mail Center Professional Certificate. To date, approximately 800 individuals have participated in this program. Complementing the Forum’s educational program was the exhibit floor, which featured approximately 290 companies at each Forum. The exhibits displayed the latest in mailing supplies, services, mail automation equipment, software, and computer hardware.

        b. Consumer Advisory Councils
Consumer Advisory Councils (CACs) offer a unique opportunity for the Postal Service to maintain contact with residential customers nationwide. CACs operate at the Post Office level and are made up of a corss-section of community and local postal officials. The Consumer Advocate provides functional guidance and support to our CACs. Based on the results of a 1999 benchmarking study, the Consumer Advocate identified long-range strategies for tying local council activities to the Postal Service's corporate objectives, ensuring that the voice of the consumer is heard at the corporate level.

        c. Postal Customer Council®
Postal Customer Councils (PCCs) are grassroots organizations comprised of businesses that use the mail. They provide networking and educational opportunities to help businesses effectively and efficiently communicate and enhance their relationship with customers and identify prospective customers through the mail. They also provide the Postal Service the opportunity to enhance its working relationship with local businesses and to better identify their needs. In 2001, many PCCs became more active in seeking the participation of small and medium-sized businesses as members since they depend on mail now more than ever to enhance their business strategy. During the year, the 250 local PCCs held over 1,500 total customer meetings.

Keeping Posted, the national PCC newsletter is featured as an insert in our monthly Memo-to-Mailers and now reaches well over 150,000 customer addressees; virtually all of whom are members of PCCs. The newsletter communicates the plans and successes of each PCC thus serving as a “best practices” manual for other PCCs. Complementing the newsletter is the PCCs own website at http://www.usps.com/nationalpcc. The website helps businesses find the location of their closest PCC and enables veteran PCC members to locate informative presentation material for their local meetings.

Providing guidance and assistance to the PCCs is the Postmaster General’s PCC Advisory Committee. This select group of industry leaders and postal executives/managers has many years of experience in the leadership of PCCs. They have provided unique and innovative methods to support PCCs’ needs and to recognize their accomplishments. Among the committee’s innovative ideas is the “Meeting in a Box” series, which provides videotaped material to the PCCs for their local meetings. In addition, this group selects the coveted PCC Leadership Awards. These awards represent the highest honor given by the Postal Service to PCCs and their members. In 2001 the awards were presented at the National Postal Forum in Orlando, FL. Awards were given to the most creative and innovative PCCs in the categories of Best PCC Newsletter, Best PCC Event, Best PCC Co-Chair team, and Best Membership Campaign.

This year the advisory committee launched the first-ever PCC Leadership Conference, held in October at the National Postal Forum in Denver, CO. This half-day event focused on enhancing the leadership skills of the PCC co-chairs and individuals aspiring to PCC leadership. The conference included motivational talks by several Postal Service senior officers and best practices presentations by members of the National PCC Advisory Committee. The conference was attended by postal and industry co-chairs from around the country. Based on their feedback it was judged a complete success and another leadership conference is planned for April, 2002.

Recognizing the capability of the PCC network to communicate important information to customers, the Chief Operating Officer Pat Donahoe and Chief Postal Inspector Ken Weaver called the PCCs to action in October and November to hold meetings and address mail security issues in light of the bio-terrorist attacks on America’s Postal Service. These meetings included the local postal inspector, district manager, postmaster and a postal medical representative. The sessions not only focused on anthrax and general safety best practices, but also reinvigorated customer confidence in the safety of mail.

Customers said they were pleased with the information they received. Additionally, many PCCs are including mailroom security articles in their newsletters and on their websites to reach a broader audience. The PCC network is helping us effectively and efficiently communicate with our customers.

        d. Mailers Technical Advisory Committee (MTAC)
The year resulted in significant accomplishment and progress for one of the mailing industries and Postal Service’s premier resources — the Mailers’ Technical Advisory Committee — commonly referred to as MTAC. Never before has the preparation, processing and delivery of mail been changing so rapidly and this environment has offered many important opportunities for making a positive impact. MTAC’s purpose is to share technical information, advice and recommendations on matters concerning mail related products and services to enhance customer value for mutual benefit of all involved. MTAC membership consists of associations representative of all segments of the mailing industry.

MTAC has a 25-year track record of finding meaningful solutions to the challenges facing both the Postal Service and its customers. This past year was no exception. Work groups brought together dedicated and hard working Postal Service and industry specialists who determined how best to move forward in such areas as PostalOne!, Unit Load Tracking, Maximizing the Value of Planet Code, and Presort Optimization, just to name a few. The MTAC leadership also determined this year that a number of work groups actually completed their mission or are close to it. These include groups such as Bound Printed Matter, Future Flats Strategies, Preparation of Trays on Pallets, Drop Ship Appointment System, and Mail.dat, also just to name a few. Much was accomplished in each of these areas which has enhanced the progress and/or implementation for each of these programs. Other key initiatives such as MERLIN (Mailing Evaluation Readability and Lookup Instrument) and Product Redesign, although not specific MTAC work groups themselves, have been provided this year with significant developmental support by the MTAC membership.

During the challenges of late 2001, MTAC played an important role in maintaining the confidence of key stakeholders in the safety and effectiveness of mail. Members heard from senior Postal Service management at MTAC meetings about what was being done to educate employees and customers about bio-terrorism in the mail and how service had been rapidly restored after the attacks. Expert medical consultants to the Postal Service were made available to MTAC members to discuss the risks related to contracting anthrax in the mail and the effective Postal Service response to the discovery of anthrax. MTAC developed an electronic rapid communications network through which real time information was disseminated on a regular basis after the September 11 terrorism and the October anthrax attacks to provide guidance and to keep mailers informed and focused on facts rather than fears.

        e. Mid-Market
The Mid-Market is a customer segment-driven opportunity to grow Postal Service revenues from the efforts of smaller commercial mailers to acquire and retain customers. One of the key strategies to activate this revenue opportunity is to work with the industry of direct mail service providers — third party intermediaries – to establish and build relationships with the one million Mid-Market customers that the Postal Service cannot reach with personal contacts.

This year the Postal Service engaged in several pilots to test strategies for reaching this market. At the core was an initiative with the Mailing and Fulfillment Service Association to partner on several pilots including seminars targeted to several specific audiences such as marketing executives, and Hispanic businesses.

In March, as part of the National Postal Forum in Orlando, we pioneered an innovative seminar for direct mail service providers about how to grow business in the Mid-Market. In October, we tested a mini-conference strategy with service providers in Denver. Tracking systems established to monitor results suggest that this event will generate almost two million new pieces of ad mail volume — which translates to about $400,000 in new postage from this one small market alone. We anticipate rolling out the marketing model established in this test into several additional markets this year.

Another significant initiative was the development of a new data analysis tool, the Opportunity Index, which uses quantitative criteria to rank the growth potential of prospective customers into four quadrants. This process will enable the development of specific selling strategies and the alignment of selling teams according to customer growth potential. The Index is being tested in two California sales centers.

Additionally, we began to develop performance metrics to track volume, revenue and customer satisfaction in the Mid-Market. Also we completed focus group research among Mid-Market mailers to develop requirements for enhancements to product and pricing features.

        f. Mail Recovery Centers
The Postal Service operates three Mail Recovery Centers (MRCs) in San Francisco, CA; St. Paul, MN; and Atlanta, GA. These facilities are responsible for the final disposition of undeliverable and non-returnable mail. During 2001, they processed approximately 1.7 million parcels and 118 million letters. To better serve customers, the Postal Service uses MRCs as diagnostic tools to pinpoint specific problem areas that affect mail volumes received at our facilities. By communicating these problems to our mailers, they are able to improve their mail preparation and/or packaging. We work closely with mailer organizations to determine ways we can work together to provide better service and reduce operating costs. A direct result of this process was the Expanded Return Program, whereby undeliverable mail items found in company-identifiable packaging are returned in bulk, as postage due to the 35 participating companies. Approximately 445,000 pieces were returned through this program during 2001. Additionally, the Mail Recovery Centers realized a substantial decrease in cycle times and processing work hours through Process Management efforts. The Mail Recovery Program also has initiated various internal functional partnerships with Operations, Delivery Programs, Retail and the Inspection Service, to improve organization efficiency. These will be ongoing initiatives in FY 2002.

        g. Corporate Contact Management
Corporate Contact Management provides postal customers easy toll-free access to a broad range of products and services through 800.ASK.USPS. CCM also handles Domestic Express and Priority Mail tracking and tracing calls on 800.222.1811 and Dinero Seguro or Money Movers calls on 800.ENVIOMX. The overall goal of CCM is to improve customer service and operating efficiency, decrease general information calls to post offices and increase revenue through establishment of an effective national contact-handling infrastructure. Presently, the CCM network, including two centers - located in Denver, CO and Kansas City, KS respond to 64 million phone inquiries from across the nation regarding general information, mailing rates, hours and locations of local postal facilities and service opportunities.

Call center responsibilities were transferred to the Vice President and Consumer Advocate’s office in 2001. The Consumer Affairs office enhanced the program with automated voice recognition technology that answers customer requests for ZIP Codes and post office hours and locations. The Consumer Advocate has outlined a strategic vision for the program that streamlines and consolidates enterprise contact center customer care and leverages CCM infrastructure to support personalized product and service transactions whether by phone, email or Web.