A. Public Perceptions, Customer Outreach and Mailer Liaison

    1. Customer Feedback Analysis
The Postal Service uses a variety of methods to communicate with customers about our services, products, policies and personnel. The aggregated data from these sources allow us to formally integrate the voice of the individual consumer into our business practices and provide feedback to operations where we can take action, respond and improve. In 2001, the number of customer contacts through traditional methods of communications (i.e., letters, phone calls, customer walk-ins) decreased. The number of customer inquiries via Internet, an alternative customer communication vehicle, increased 40 percent.

The Postal Service logged 254,200 customer contacts during 2001, an approximate 5 percent decrease. Of these, 3 percent were compliments, 2 percent were general information requests and 95 percent were service issues. The volume of Internet inquiries skyrocketed, reaching 159,804 e-mails – 68,779 over last year.

The increase in internet customer contacts occurred in all ten Postal Service areas.