Seeing double

The city of Meridian is one of Idaho's fastest-growing cities. Centrally located in the most populated area of the state, it is an important hub leading into the Boise Metro area. Last year a new carrier annex was added to help with the need for more carrier space.

This year, to help ease the lines at the retail counter, the Meridian Post Office has just added a "twin" Automated Postal Center (APC).

Last year, some customers took the time to report how happy they were with APCs.

Here’s a sampling:
"I love the APC in the Post Office. It made holiday mailing so easy!"
"I like the new APC. It’s easy to use and eliminates the need to wait in long lines at holiday time."
"I love the Automated Postal Center. It’s always open, and there’s no line. I come after work — 10:30 p.m. — mail all my packages and buy stamps using my debit card. It’s so easy."

This holiday season Meridian customers will have double the convenience with two APCs.

Nationally, the Postal Service is promoting increased use of APCs to reduce the wait time in line and to introduce more customers to the 24/7 convenience of APCs .

"Customer satisfaction surveys reveal that 91 percent of residential customers have never used an APC," VP and Consumer Advocate Delores Killette said. "So there’s a terrific upside to reaching out to more of our customers. First-time users tell us that they appreciated the employee showing them how to use the APC as they moved from ‘scared’ nonusers to ‘frequent’ APC users.

Killette urges postal employees to introduce more customers to the convenience of APCs.

Perhaps they’ll have a holiday experience like this one — "It’s Christmastime and very busy, but the line moved quickly. Employees were friendly and helpful. I used the APC to mail a package and an employee even checked to see if I needed help. Awesome!"