Customer Service Standards -- Postal Service

Customer Service Performance Standards--Postal Service

BACKGROUND

The U.S. Postal Service delivered 166 billion pieces of mail in 1992 and
generated revenues of $46 billion. By volume and revenue, business mail
accounts for the bulk of its business. However, residential mail
delivery and window service in nearly 40,000 offices are the postal
services most visible to the public.

The Postal Service has adopted three goals to put itself on an
increasingly businesslike basis.

--Improve service and customer satisfaction.

--Strengthen commitment to employees.

--Generate revenues above costs.

The Postal Service's commitment to customer service is being driven by
the competitive business environment in document delivery and electronic
information services. There is direct accountability because business
consumers have a choice of service providers, and postal revenues depend
upon customer satisfaction. The Postal Service has instituted a Total
Quality Management program, a central feature of which is the goal to
achieve 100 percent customer satisfaction over the next several years.
Marvin Runyon, the Postmaster General, is committed to improving the
accountability, credibility, and competitiveness of the Postal Service.
In restructuring the Postal Service in 1992, he created a new emphasis
on customer service throughout the organization.

The Postal Service has developed a Customer Satisfaction Index (CSI) to
track satisfaction of residential customers in 170 metropolitan areas.
The CSI measures overall satisfaction levels and more than 35 individual
indicators such as courtesy, waiting time, prompt delivery, and
complaint response. A contractor, Opinion Research Corporation,
administers the CSI quarterly, with responses from an average of
approximately 183,000 customers each quarter.[Endnote 1] The CSI has
been reviewed by the General Accounting Office (GAO) and is considered
to be a statistically valid survey, conducted in a sound and independent
manner.[Endnote 2] The External First Class Measurement System conducted
by Price-Waterhouse measures, in 95 metropolitan areas, the elapsed time
from when a letter is mailed to when it is delivered.[Endnote 3]

The Postal Service recently incorporated the CSI into its employee bonus
system. Absolute ranking in CSI, improvement in CSI, and financial
success are each counted as one third in determining performance
bonuses. Employees represented by two of the Postal Service's major
unions and management are participating in this new bonus system. In
1994, the Postal Service plans to replace its system of individual
objectives and incentives with one in which performance-based rewards
for executives and managers will be linked to organizational and team
success in three areas--financial performance, commitment to employees,
and customer satisfaction (as measured by CSI).

Between August and November 1992, the Postal Service carried out a
large-scale restructuring that eliminated nearly 30,000 positions,
focusing on people who didn't touch the mail. According to GAO, the
restructuring was carried out "without adversely affecting customer
service in the short term. For example, nationally, overnight
First-Class mail delivery performance remained stable during the
restructuring period.''4 Performance and CSI have remained stable or
have improved even after the restructuring.[Endnote 5]

The Postal Service is developing ways to strengthen employee commitment
and productivity. It recently initiated focus groups with employees and
is taking a number of internal steps to improve employee morale.  The
Postal Service is also monitoring employee attitudes toward customer
service, among other topics, through an annual opinion survey. In the
most recent survey, 85 percent of employees indicated that they
understood the impact of their work on customer satisfaction.

NEED FOR CHANGE 
The Postal Service first set service standards for
First-Class mail in 1971. The standards include local delivery
overnight, delivery within two days to contiguous states, and delivery
anywhere in the United States within three days. Today, 84 percent of
First-Class mail is meeting the overnight target for local delivery, 78
percent for two-day delivery, and 82 percent meets the target for third
day long- distance delivery according to Price-Waterhouse, which
conducts evaluations of the Postal Service's performance.[Endnote 6]
However, the delivery standards are not generally known. For example,
until recently First-Class mail standards were buried in the back pages
of the ZIP Code Directory.

Using focus groups and other means of getting customer input, the Postal
Service has identified several additional areas for improving customer
service: shortening waiting times at Post Office counters, increasing
easy access to postal information, improving complaint handling, and
becoming more responsive to the needs of business customers.

Customers in focus groups across the country identified waiting time in
retail lobbies as an issue they care about. In response, the Postal
Service has developed, and is beginning to introduce nationwide a
"service in five minutes'' program. It began in August 1993 with those
offices that can demonstrate that they can provide this level of service
on a consistent basis. Other offices will need to make operational
changes before they are able to participate in the program.

The Postal Service is planning to train front-line employees in the new
"service in five minutes'' program. It has developed "service in five
minutes or less'' door decals and retail counter display cards to be
used in those offices that can satisfy the unit manager and the district
team that they can consistently meet the standard.

Easy access to postal information is a second area of service
improvement. Basic information, such as the price of a stamp, used to
require a trip to the post office or a wait for a telephone
representative. In 1988, the Postal Service introduced an interactive
Postal Answer Line so consumers can get routine information by using a
touch-tone keypad. Although this service is now available to more than
112 million customers in 80 metropolitan areas, it is not well known.
The Postal Service is looking at a number of ways to extend this
service: for rotary-dial customers using voice recognition technology,
for hearing impaired customers who have access to TDD
(Telecommunications Device for Deaf and Hearing Handicapped) equipment,
and for automated ZIP Code information.

Endnotes

1. See U.S. Postal Service, U.S. Postal Service Customer Survey
(Washington, D.C., 1993).

2. See U.S. General Accounting Office, U.S. Postal Service: Tracking
Customer Satisfaction in a Competitive Environment, GAO-GGD-93-4
(Washington, D.C.: U.S. General Accounting Office [GAO], November 1992).

3. Interview with Ann McK. Robinson, U.S. Postal Service, Vice President
and Consumer Advocate.

4. U.S. General Accounting Office, Postal Service:  Restructuring,
Automation, and Ratemaking, GAO/T-GGD- 93-15 (Washington, D.C.: GAO,
March 1993).

5. U.S. Postal Service, "Comprehensive Statement on Postal Operations,
1992,'' Washington, D.C., undated, p. 3.

6. In 1990, the Postal Service revised the localities to which the
standards apply in an effort to set standards that could be met with
greater consistency.  GAO criticized this move saying it actually slowed
delivery of some mail. See U.S. General Accounting Office, Revised
Delivery Standards: Postal Delivery Scores Improved but Service is
Slower, GAO-GGD-93-12 (Washington, D.C.: GAO, November 1992).