On a trip to the post office this morning, feelings of the dis-satisfaction I in general feel about customer service once again reared its head. It often seems that the person serving you most concerned about selling you more, rather than what you need or even want. Often this is done in ways that are less than transparent. To illustrate this point, I would like to share my trip to the post office this morning.
I arrived at my local post office this morning to mail a birthday present to my sister-in-law. I was surprised that there was absolutely no line, which of course put me into a very good mood.
When I arrived at the counter, the lady instantly put my package on the scale and asked “Is two-three days ok?” and showed me priority mail packaging tape.
I sort of stumbled thinking is this my most economical option? She quickly jumped at my hesitation and ask “or would you like it over-night?”.
At this point, my brain was racing. I want the cheapest option, so I said “No! No! 3 days is okay.”
She then punched a bunch of buttons and up on the screen came my total, $20 and some odd cents. A this point, I looked and said, “Is this the cheapest way to go?”.
She then responded, “No, you can go parcel post, but it will take 6 days.”
This was the option I wanted along, so of course I agreed to the parcel post service.
At the risk of sounding like a grandmother, I have to say, I remember the day when I would bring my package to the post office counter. The service agent behind the desk would take the package, weigh it and show me all the options and prices for mailing that package on a little screen. It was a pleasent experience for me as I like to always see my options.
This system seems to be replaced with a system that causes me more stress. Because my options are not layed out for me in a straight-forward manner, I must be dilegent enough to remember to ask for the parcel post option. Perhaps this doesn’t seem like a big deal, but consider this the next time you are at a resturant and after ordering your meal the waitress asks “Do you want to add an order of bacon with that?”, or you’re at the drive through and the attendent asks “Do you want to Biggie size that?”, why aren’t they asking “Would you like to kid’s size that?”