Customer Service: How NOT of do it

Aahh! The joy of dealing with a company that is concerned about it’s customers. It turns you into a dedicated and loyal customer. Of all the companies where I spend my dollars, one that does not fall into this category is the U.S. Postal Service.

Let me explain.

I am in a customer-driven business. I must make my customer happy/satisfied. Failure to do so will be lost business and if that happens enough, I go under. This is simple Marketing 101.

The aberration of Marketing 101 is, if you are big enough or if you are a monopoly, you not only don’t have to obey the rules, you can flip them off along with your customers.

Might I illustrate?

There are some very good employees of the good ol’ USPS. Especially the carriers. Most of the ones I have contact with are hard working, caring and sincerely want to please and serve. Our primary carrier, for example, Curtis, is a Gulf War vet and always asks about our son in Iraq. He goes out of his way to help us, even coming back by to pick up packages later in the day. He’s actually given us his cell phone number so we can call him if needed. Curtis is THE reason we’ve continued to put up with a lot of mess from the USPS.

Yesterday, however, was the straw that broke the camel’s back. I can’t take it no more! (yes, I do know that is improper English)

We spend more than $800 per month in shipping at the post office, almost $10,000 per year! There are companies that spend a whole lot more than we do; but, in my book, that is a lot of money. Yet, we are treated like dehydrated dog turds.

We are insulted, belittled, smirked at, treated as though we are an enormous bother and even robbed (yep, robbed — they make us pay extra postage when it is absolutely not necessary and refuse to mail our package if we don’t pay).

The result? We’ve shifted at least half of our business to UPS and DHL and will try to shift another quarter, or more, over the coming months. Will the USPS care, or even notice? Nope.

We will do everything in our power from this point forward to not use the USPS. It’s just too hard to deal with stupid! As Forest Gump stated: “Stupid is as stupid does.”