A New Era for the USPS:
A Customer-Centric Approach

Bell and Howell is a company founded on the principle that the customer always comes first. We strive to provide the best customer service in the industry, making sure that we are doing everything we can to help our customers’ operations run as smoothly as possible.

Great customer service is, of course, something that everyone wants, but not something they always get. In this tough economy, unfortunately, we have seen other companies reduce or cut their dedication to customer service and sadly that includes the USPS. However, this New Year is showing great promise as the USPS begins to show signs of improving their approach and response to their true customers – the mailing industry.

I recently attended the February Mailers’ Technical Advisory Committee (MTAC) meeting. What a changed environment! In the few months since assuming the position, Postmaster General Pat Donahoe has made sweeping changes, with the goal of creating a kinder, easier, customer- and market-focused organization. These changes are very much welcomed and noticeable.

Providing great customer service is about listening to the customer, and the Postal Service is finally listening. For example, when the USPS implemented Full Service ACS^™ it promised that the service would be provided free of charge, but mailers were charged fees for 40 – 60 percent of each mailing. Donahoe recently announced that beginning March 1, many of these charges will be reimbursed and that charges will from now on be assessed based on the Intelligent Mail^® barcode read rate (see the February 21 eBulletin for more information). Another example is the organization’s decision to hold off on requiring mailers to use the Intelligent Mail barcode, which was previously expected to be implemented in May 2011. Many mailers were unhappy with this requirement, so the USPS decided to hold off on announcing an implementation date until it can demonstrate the barcode’s full value to the industry (see the February 28 eBulletin for more information). Overall, these changes (and many others) show that the USPS is transitioning from a forced approach – one where mandates are set and little heed is paid to customer feedback – to a mailing-made-easy approach.

Welcome to our side, USPS. It’s about time you shifted gears to a customer-centric approach. We here at BCC understand the incredible value of simply being there for the customer and doing everything we can to help. We have live support (including a 24/7 option) where calls are answered by technicians who are experts in BCC’s products, USPS regulations and more. Whether a customer is having difficulty with our software, trouble deciphering how to make sure a mailing job is compliant, or problems with equipment on the production line, we encourage them to call us because we will do everything we can to solve these issues, regardless of whether they are related to BCC’s products or services. We also have our Customer Portal, where customers can view information, order services, and read technical tips on BCC solutions, plus it houses our user forums, where customers can interact with and seek advice from peers and BCC’s in-house experts. All of these services were designed following our core philosophy of listening to the customer and doing what we can to make their jobs easier.

We are excited that the USPS has finally recognized something we at BCC learned a long time ago: that an organization’s success is directly tied to their customers’ success and happiness. Now that the USPS is beginning to understand a customer-centric approach, we can both ask, "How can we help?"

Chris Lien

President