USPS: Not the Right Root Cause

Star-Telegram | 03/01/2007 | Long time, no see: Post offices hide their clocks

I can only imagine the discussion behind this move by the US Postal Service:

• Manager 1: “Customers are complaining the lines are too long.”
• Manager 2: “OK, then take the clocks off the walls.”
• Manager 1: “Sir, but people have watches, they'll still know how long they're waiting.”
• Manager 2: “TAKE DOWN THE CLOCKS!”

My local post office always has brutal lines and I try to “level load” by going at off peak times when I can. Thank goodness for their automated postage machine!

The article has experts who'll make my point for me:

A customer-service expert at Texas A&M University questioned the wisdom of taking down lobby clocks.

“It's silly,” said Leonard Berry, a professor who holds the M.B. Zale Chair in Retailing and Marketing Leadership.

Another expert chimes in:

“Perhaps I am jaded,” said Dzugan, president of Rapport Online. “I think removing the clocks as a remedy to keeping customers in line is right up there with the recorded message, ‘Your call is important to us' played over and over on the phone while waiting for ‘customer service.'”

Yet another says:

“If you distract people from thinking about, or paying attention to, time passing, they perceive that it's less,” Baker said. “But if I was running the post office, I would actually try to reduce the waiting time.”

What do the customers think?

“It's always long here,” groused Al Cunningham, 49, of Fort Worth, who became an insurance adjuster after working 10 years for the post office.

When told that the clock was removed to coax customers to focus more attention on signs and service, Cunningham said: “That's bull. Look, do you see any sense of urgency?”

Nicely put, Al. Maybe the USPS can follow the lead of the Canadian and Japanese postal services, to use lean to drive REAL improvement. Hopefully, part of that lean effort would be a “root cause problem solving” training that would lead to, as Baker said, “actually improve the waiting time.”

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