The U.S. Postal Service failed to fully achieve any of the four goals it had set down for its performance last year, and fell short of seven out of eight performance indicators for delivering high-quality services. That’s the assessment of the Postal Regulatory Commission, which gave the Postal Service incomplete in “excellent customer experience” for lack of sufficient data.
High-quality services have only one determinant—percentage of deliveries made on time—and overnight presort First Class Mail was the lone class in which USPS exceeded its goal with a tally of 97%. One of its poorest performances came in Standard Mail, where the Postal Service delivered on time only 86% of the time and undershot its goal by nearly five percentage points. Three-to-five day mail fell short of its mark by more than seven points with 88% of deliveries made within that incredibly flexible time frame.
Confusion in assessing customer experience stemmed in part from a change in the measurement systems used to gauge customer satisfaction. Back in 2013 USPS keyed in on two areas of dissatisfaction—incomplete problem resolution and repeat complaints—and set targets of 90 and 50% levels, respectively, for 2014. But the new metrics did not include numeric evaluation of these areas, and when the PRC asked the Postal Service for such an assessment, it came back with a finding that fewer than 21% of customers were satisfied with problem resolution.
The Postal Service only partially achieved its goal to sustain controllable income. Among other reasons, the commission cited additional work hours from Sunday package delivery, failure to capture all the expected savings of Phase One of the network rationalization plan, and a delay in the implementation of Phase Two. Labor costs—including unexpected hiring and work hour stretches—were also blamed for the shortfalls in on-time delivery.
The PRC urged Postal Service executives to establish performance measures for each strategic initiative it has in place while reporting on its performance. Strategic initiatives are temporary projects aimed at helping USPS achieve its goals. For instance, optimizing network operations and building a world-class package platform were 2014 strategic initiatives aimed at attaining service goals. Yet, because of their temporary status, strategic initiatives don’t often link up with broader goals set down for performance measurement, the commission maintained.
