Delivery and Pickup Services
Mail provides a vital, daily connection between American businesses and households, and the Postal Service‘s 290,000 carriers make that connection a reality. Carriers are the only service providers who make house calls six days per week. Efforts to improve delivery service are focused on ensuring consistent delivery times, eliminating misdelivered mail, and making more customers aware of free carrier pickup services.
Specific data-driven strategies are reducing the incidence of misdelivery and improving delivery-time consistency. For example, data from Mail History Tracking System reports alert delivery managers to missorted mail, first identified in the processing system. When the mail arrives at the delivery unit, carriers are alerted to manually correct sorting errors in advance of delivery. Automated equipment and software are being upgraded to recognize and correct missorted mail in process. Automating delivery point sequencing of mail also drives delivery time consistency.
One aspect of customer service is convenience. There is nothing more convenient than leaving letters and prepaid packages for the carrier to pick up. This provides customers the ability to do all the business of mailing without leaving their homes or offices. The Postal Service will continue to make customers aware of this free service and will explore additional options to add customer convenience.
Continue to Enhance Customer Access
Even without counting pickup services, customers now have more ways and places to do business with the Postal Service than ever before. Mailing has never been as quick, easy, or convenient. Business hours at many Post Offices have been expanded to include evenings and Saturdays. Stamps are now sold at more than 51,000 supermarkets, drug stores, and convenience stores. The Postal Service will continue to improve service quality and consistency at Post Offices, while simultaneously reaching out to customers where they live, work, and shop.
Many customers are still unaware that they can perform most of their postal business online. The Postal Service will continue to raise awareness of the many choices available. At usps.com, customers can buy postage (and choose from a wider variety of stamps than are available at most Post Offices), look up ZIP Codes or verify addresses, submit a change of address, or learn about direct mail and other business services. Since November, customers may also search online for Post Office boxes available to rent in their area.
Many still find it most convenient to mail from their neighborhood Post Office. To improve their experience, the Postal Service will continue to enhance the quality and consistency of product information, the availability of forms and supplies, and the scheduling of employees to better match customer demand. Retail transaction data are being used to better match Post Office services, hours of operation, and staffing schedules with local customer needs. Mystery Shopper surveys will continue to be used to ensure that service meets customer expectations. The surveys focus on waiting time, mail acceptance procedures, employee product knowledge, product information and displays, and facility conditions.
Technology continues to offer new ways to meet customer needs. The Automated Postal Center (APC) offers a customer-friendly self-service option and is frequently available after hours and on weekends. APCs are handling about 20 percent of possible transactions at APC sites. The Postal Service is exploring how to better integrate the self-service APC with the full-service retail counter, and is drawing from other retailer‘s experience by examining a variety of assisted-checkout technologies. The Postal Service is also evaluating strategic partnership opportunities for kiosks capable of printing on-demand postage, dispensing other postal products, and providing complementary government services.