What Should I Have Done Differently - October 5, 2011

Willingness to learn from mistakes is an important trait to successful living.  At least that’s how I feel.  So, I was eager to learn from my Express Mail mistake and find out what I should have done differently to reach the desired outcomes I had for the birthday shipment I had mailed to Jen.

So first thing on Wednesday morning, I headed back to the Gateway Post Office to find the answer.  What should I have done differently?

I doubt I need to repeat my three desired outcomes, you’ve got them in mind.

I doubt I need to define how far from these desired outcomes the reality of the mailing experience was.

I think I have been clear; just as I was in asking and researching and determining this was the USPS’s best choice for me.  Express Mail was assured to me as the way to ship and attain  my desired outcomes.

But, when my turn in line came at the window of the USPS - I shared what my desired outcomes were and what the reality was that I experienced.  The clerk had no suggestions for me as to how to achieve my desired outcomes.  I shared that it was the advice of the USPS that the Express Mail option would meet those desires and it had not happened.  The clerk’s response was unimpressive.  She reminded me that sometimes things just don’t work.  She then sought out a supervisor to give me some more advice.  His advice was even less impressive.  He talked about how unprofessional and slow and ineffective the customs agency is and so the postal service can never guarantee effectiveness with international mail. I was appalled at his throwing custom officials under the bus. Deaf ears...... no response of what I should have done differently or why this method (Express Mail) was recommended to me or why nothing had happened as I had been told it would!

I left the post office discouraged and disappointed.  This was the same post office window  where a clerk had told me, “It doesn’t get any better than we have it here in the U.S.”  And now  instead I learn  we have no control over the mail or how or when it gets delivered.

My how a tone can change!  I don’t really feel like the expectations of product and service from the USPS should be similar to buying a used car, but so has gone my experiences.

So, I am still searching for some sort of understanding about how to choose sending and mailing to Jen with some sort of dependability and matching results with desired outcomes.

If the measurable effectiveness of our customer service is reflective of our state as  a nation,
we are in trouble!

I close with this tone of humor, yet the painful truth is: Americans are forced to waste ginormous amounts of time, energy, and money on poor customer service and dealing with customer service representatives.  Often we are left in numerous computer menu choices, unending recorded responses, and left circling with unheard questions, errors and shortcomings.  We receive no explanations and no hope for a different outcome next time. The USPS is not alone at this level of effectiveness;  unfortunately as Americans we face these same failures  and attitudes with cell phone companies, internet service providers, credit card companies, health insurance companies,  Fed Ex, UPS....  the list goes on. 

Whoever it is that learns how to change this course and pattern will win the game, save our economy, restore civility and maybe even bring about world peace and cure hunger!

Let the “space race” for improved customer service begin!