White Papers

December 13, 2017 (RARC-WP-18-003)

• The Postal Service could make the delivery survey more representative of the general population and validate the survey’s scale to ensure its accuracy.

• Survey results showed dissatisfaction is highest among small and medium business customers, centralized delivery recipients, and 25-34 year olds.

• Customers most frequently commented on misdelivery, delivery time, delivery location, and parcel safety or condition.

• Field management uses survey responses to troubleshoot local problems. A headquarters review would address systemic concerns through macro changes to policies and procedures.

Delivery has been the cornerstone of the U.S. Postal Service since its founding in 1775. For nearly two and a half centuries, mail carriers have connected friends and family, businesses and consumers. Tracking customer satisfaction with delivery helps the Postal Service understand how it is performing in one of its core competencies and gives it the opportunity to gather feedback on what its customers want. However, customer satisfaction with aspects of delivery remained flat or decreased since FY 2015. To understand customer satisfaction over time and identify opportunities for improvement, the U.S. Postal Service Office of the Inspector General (OIG) reviewed the Delivery Survey using four approaches:

• Examining answers to satisfaction rating questions,

• Analyzing answers to open-ended questions, commonly called verbatims,

• Interviewing managers at the local and headquarters level to understand how surveys are being used, and

• Enlisting an expert on ways to optimize the survey going forward.

Our research confirmed that the Delivery Survey provides the Postal Service with valuable customer feedback. But adjustments to the survey and how it is used could help the Postal Service improve the customer’s delivery experience.