According to the Associated Press , PMG Donahoe is going to ease the requirement for retail associates and window personnel to ask so many questions.
Some questions will still be needed for security reasons, such as the contents of a parcel. But, according to the report, clerks will no longer have to run through the laundry list of questions about return receipts, insurance or other special services.
What do you think? Is this a good thing? Leave a comment here.
21 comments:
As a customer I think it's a good thing. However, there seems to be some confusion in the field offices about the new policy. I found the following on a blog site.
"I have just one more confusing issue from "Postal Management". The Retail Digest, which has it's origins from USPS Retail Division, in its Jan. 18, 2011 release states that National Manager, Greg Graves, says that retail associates no longer are required to use the "perfect transaction" method which required retail associates to ask customers scripted questions to match products and services to specific customer needs. However, the district manager in Charlotte, Fields, is telling his station managers and post masters to continue the required dictated questions to our customers. Who is correct? I have been instructed to follow the guidelines that are published in the Retail Digest and to sign off to acknowledge my compliance with the instructions that are published in this digest. Something is wrong here. Anyone know if Fields is correct to order me to continue with the scripted garbage to our customers or comply with the orders from the National Manager of Customer Service Operations which will help to reduce the wait-in-line time that our customers have to experience and to reduce the absurd appearance that I give to customers with the same questions every time that I serve them? Help!"
Retail Associates are smart, intelligent and have a great sense of understanding of our surroundings. Most of our clients repeatedly frequent our stores and we are well aware of what their mailing habits are. This robotic speach of asking 20 questions is absurd! The hazard question is just laughable. Does the public realize that perfume and shaving cream are hazardous! NO!
It's about time the Postal Service allow it's Retail Associates to do our jobs professionally without being graded on 20 questions.
I say finally they are getting it!! I see no purpose in asking someone with a flat if there is anything liquid, fragile or perishable or even hazardous when it is pretty apparent that there isn't. I always ask my customers if they need certified or delivery confirmation or on parcels insurance. I say THANK YOU! PMg Donahoe!!
Praise the Lord!!!
I am so very pleased those questions won't be required! It makes the clerks sound like robots.
Finally the new PMG sees daylight.. It's about time. It was dumb when they started all the questions about everything except hazard or dangerous, which if someone was going to mail something like that they would not tell them anyway, but it is the law so they have to ask.
I agree - all the questions took time and made the line long. Here is another thought -- get rid of the Mystery shopper or RCE program and go with a survery on the receipts. The Mystery shopper is biased - they dont want us to get 100% all the time or they are out of a job. The survey is from our very own customers - not someone paid to do the job. Give some of the old postal products away as gifts - give our own customers a chance to say how well we did or how bad we did. How much do we pay for the mystery shopper anyway?? Save money and get rid of them!!!
That sound you hear is the collective shouts of "Hooray" from our customers. To be graded on a wait in line time and then hobble clerks with 20 questions was a set up for failure from the very beginning. I agree with the previous post who said to also eliminate the Mystery Shopper altogether and go with surveys on the receipts. The MShopper cost went to a private company and we can put that savings to better use. I am cautiously optimistic that PMG Donahue will continue on the path of customer service by listening to them. Customers have been asking for the forever stamps in coils since they were first introduced and Donahue finally made that a reality. Kudos to the new PMG! Keep listening to your customers but also your clerks.
I agree with having our customers go on line and complete a survey rating us, and I fully agree with getting rid of most of those questions our customers know what they want and the retail clerks can pick up when a customer has questions. Thank You
I'm not a window clerk but helped out in the lobby at Christmas. I found that the customers welcomed those questions because most of them didn't know what Delivery Confirmation was, or how the insurance worked. I'm sure the window clerks know which customers don't need to be asked, and it's good that they will have a choice now.
Completing a customer satisfaction survey on-line (using a special code from their POS receipts) could also inform managers of who their most talented retail employees are. I believe our whole system needs simplified--from trying to train employees to scan 10 different barcodes 4 different ways, to lessening the regulations so customers can better understand them (and new employees too!) and making movement to meet the customer's needs like Forever coils. BMEU forms remind me of filling out a 1040 form for the IRS!! Come on! We're moving in the right direction but there is so much more to do. Keep listening to the employees and the customers. That is what we are all about.
When McDonalds no longer asks if I want to upsize then I guess it will be okay for the USPS to not offer our version of upsizing. Customers need to know what services we have. Cluttering the lobby with posters is not the way to go.
I say it's about time!! The scripts were ridiculous...is it really necessary to ask a customer who is buying one book of stamps if they would like to rent a PO Box today?? I mean, really. Our SSA's are intelligent adults who can judge for themselves what services the customer might want/need and offer it without sounding like a robot.
I also agree with getting rid of the mystery shopper program. Why pay for this program when we can get better, unbiased responses from our real customers by way of a survey?
unfortuately, these days some of the questions still need to be asked, but maybe not so spedifically. The postal service has an obligation to ask about type of mailing just like the obligations that airports have in checking passengers and their suitcases--and that takes a long time also. But the best feedback I guess will come from the customers and the window clerks themselves.
Is common sense really going to prevail? Asking someone if they would like Express Mail when all they want is a stamp is stupid. Informing the customer about our services that are available is good.
I am all in favor of doing away with the questions if it is a known customer but there are still people that need to be asked if they want certified or delivery confirmation. And they are right, what person is going to say yes to packaging hazardous material? Also, the wait time in line isn't just because clerks ask all the questions. What about explaining the customs form to a customer that doesn't understand English very well or how about he customer that can't make up their mind what stamps thy want. Should we tell them to hurry up and make a choice so we can get the line down. Don't be so quick to blame the clerk. Where is the supervisor or postmaster when 5 of the 10 people in line just want to pick something up? They are cutting back on staff and asking clerks to do more which, as someone else says, sets us up for failure from the get go. Give us more flexibility and do away with the redundant paperwork for mgrs and supv so they can be out front helping. One person can't be in 3 places at once. Obviously, there is no quick solution but the first step is to get rid of the slow pokes that feel entitled to be here and not really put forth any effort. You have standards for carriers, why not clerks? Oh yeah, that would require someone to watch them and encourage them to do the right thing. So few ruin it for so many.
You are kidding right? You think fewer questions is going to get more people to come to the post office? Think again!!!!! It might make it less like going to the dentist if they aren't asked so many questions but the really issue isn't the clerks all the time. How about customers that don't know what they want or how to fill out a form? What about the person that doesn't have anything better to do and comes to the post office to visit? We make it so easy to not come to the post office if you really don't want to (on line postage, carrier pick up, stamps by mail). From the customers that I have heard complain about the wait time in line it is because there aren't enough window clerks or the ones that are there are slugs (you have to watch the post to see if they are even moving). Do away with the mystery shop and go to a phone survey on their experience.
I was a window clerk when the aviation security questions and other scripted questions were initially mandated. I quickly found a way to ask them in an expeditious manner that did not sound robotic and sincerely believe that most of them need to be asked, unless it's a known customer. However, most of the window clerks hated the entire process and will be happy with the change. It's a good step for Donahoe -- who started as a clerk -- to reach out to his clerks in this manner. I don't have a problem with the Mystery Shopper program and believe it provides a more balanced assessment than an on-line poll, since unhappy customers are 9 times more likely to respond than happy ones. Wait time in line does affect revenues, as -- if the line is too long -- people will look in the door, then turn around and leave, without being served. I have a radical approach to wait time in line: put more than 1 clerk out there when there are more than 3 people in line, just like the supermarkets do. In a busy station, the sorriest clerk in the world more than pays for the cost of having him/her at the window, and it is false economy to think that it benefits USPS to have only 1 clerk at the window when customers are having to wait too long in line.
I agree with rotating the number of clerks to keep lines at a minimum.
I recently participated in a field audit and watched the mechanics of this in action. When the line expanded, one of the clerks called for assistance. When the rush was over, the additional clerk went to other duties.
Seamless to the customers, how every operation should work.
Yes having additional clerks come to the window during busy times, but there are bad apples every where. How about the clerk that will stay up to the window when there isn't but two people in the line. I do wished there was a way to weed out the slackers and make it to where we have just the most efficient helping our customers. As for the customers that just want to come in and talk there are ways to let them know you are busy.
I am in agreement with doing away with all the questions. We know our customers and do not want to burden them every time with the same questions. Keep selling without the question. Mystery Shoppers should go away and do survey with cutomers over the mail!
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