CUSTOMERS HAVE OUR NUMBER--more than 57 million customers

CUSTOMER FOCUS


CUSTOMERS HAVE OUR NUMBER

CALL CENTERS HANDLE MILLIONS OF CONTACTS EACH YEAR



Agents at the Convergys call center in Denver, CO.



Last year, more than 57 million customers picked up the phone and dialed one of the Postal Service’s toll-free numbers — such as 800-ASK-USPS.



Those calls are answered at call centers managed by Convergys Corporation, a USPS vendor since 2003.



Convergys’ USPS operations are located in Denver, CO; Orem, UT; and Jacksonville, NC. Additionally, Convergys manages an Internet customer care center in Columbia, MD, that provides technical support for usps.com and Web Tools. The number and geographic spread of the call centers is by design, in case of natural disaster or power interruption.



The number of staff at the call centers varies, depending on call volume, and is currently about 1,000 agents. The contact centers don’t just answer the phone. Last year, they also responded to 1.3 million e-mails and handled the new “live chat” feature of usps.com. The centers also receive calls from other sources, such as Track and Confirm inquiries (800-222-1811), 800-STAMP24, employee unscheduled leave, U.S. Postal Inspection Service inquiries, and TTY for deaf and hard-of-hearing customers.



“We handle a broad spectrum of customer inquiries, from simple requests such as prices and ZIP Code lookups, to more complex complaints, change of address concerns, and the international inquiry process,” said Don Nichols, acting manager, Corporate Customer Contact. “From purchasing stamps over the phone, to assisting customers printing Click-N-Ship postage — it’s very broad.”



Nichols has been involved with customer contact activities since shortly after the first national call center opened in 1996. He’s seen a lot of change. “Initially, our mandate was to provide consistent, accurate and efficient customer service and relieve Post Offices of that burden,” he said. “In the future, we’ll be collecting and analyzing much more data from a variety of sources to drive improvements in the customer’s experience with the Postal Service.”



Having customers talk to an agent instead of a local Post Office is saving USPS more than 1 million workhours a year. Add to that the 34 million calls that were automatically handled by the Integrated Voice Response system last year and the savings balloon to more than 2.8 million workhours each year.

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