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U.S. Postal Service Refines Customer Research
The U.S. Postal Service (USPS) has recently launched a new measurement system, Customer Experience Measurement (CEM), which replaces a system in use since the early 1990s.
The USPS has annual revenue of more than $68bn and according to its own stats delivers nearly half the world's mail. A self-supporting government enterprise, if it had been privatised in 2009 it would have ranked 28th in the year's Fortune 500. The service delivers to 150 million residences, businesses and Post Office Boxes.
Like the UK's Royal Mail, whose performance measures have recently made the headlines for the wrong reasons, the USPS has appointed an independent market research firm to conduct work for the new system.
CEM is designed to give a broader understanding of customers' overall experience doing business with USPS, and for the first time allows them to rate the service separately in different areas. There are four specific experiences covered: receiving mail, sending mail, visiting the Post Office and contacting the Postal Service for assistance. Both residential and business customers are included, with a mix of mail and online surveys.
VP and Consumer Advocate Delores J. Killette says CEM 'will help the Postal Service more precisely identify customer needs across all channels and find new ways to provide greater customer service'.
For the last quarter of calendar 2009, the survey found 86.2% of residential customers and 81.3% of small and medium business customers surveyed reporting they were 'very satisfied' or 'mostly satisfied' overall with doing business with the Postal Service.
'These results set the baseline' says Killette. 'Now that we have more specific, actionable information, we will be able to target improvement initiatives and monitor progress.'
Web site: www.usps.com/news .
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