THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, November 11, 1994 TAG: 9411090143
SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON PAGE: 03B EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY GARY EDWARDS, CORRESPONDENT
LENGTH: Medium: 85 lines
At 5:30 a.m., Janie Roberts starts her shift at the Bayside Post Office by sorting about 8,000 pieces of mail.
At 9:30, she heaves a 35-pound sack over her shoulder and starts an 11.5 mile trek, delivering the letters and packages on her route. Roberts has worked for the postal service for nine years, the past three at Bayside.
``Most people don't realize we have to sort our own mail. Lots of times, new carriers show up for their first day and ask if their bag is ready to go,'' she said.
If new employees have misconceptions about the job, those pale when compared to the public's ideas of what goes on. Face it, what many customers talk about is that the check never arrives on time, that the mail is always late. It seems commonplace to criticize the postal system.
Postal employee George Moen and his superiors at the post office know that customer satisfaction is the name of the game in the austere '90s, even for a government behemoth. They wanted to do something to involve the customers.
The result is the Customer Advisory Council, or CAC in postal acronym-speak. Fran Sansone works as the coordinator for CAC in Virginia Beach. The CAC has been on-line at Bayside for three months.
The numbers that the postal employees deal with daily are staggering. Consider: Roberts and her 35 fellow carriers deliver mail to almost 20,000 households in the 23455 zip code.
``And growing,'' said Moen, a 23-year employee and station manager at Bayside. ``Probably another 300 houses coming at Cypress Point and that many or more at Church Point.''
The Customer Advisory Council has been up and running throughout the postal system for 15 years. Midlothian, a suburb of Richmond, is the model for CACs.
``Theirs is not the oldest, but it is the longest continuously running CAC,'' said Sansone. There are thousands of the councils, she said.
The Bayside group has eight citizen volunteers. They meet regularly to discuss postal operations, make recommendations to improve service and make the postal employees more aware of the community's opinions.
``The CAC is able to reach residents more easily than an employee is,'' said Moen. ``It is a diverse population that we serve. There's military, self-employed business people, a college (Virginia Wesleyan), retirees, the gamut of the population.''
He spoke of some of the issues that have come up:
``Getting mail on time; longer hours of operation; direction signs for the parking lot; installing a public telephone and public restrooms.''
Some recommendations were obviously less serious in nature:
``One customer recommended that we serve food,'' he said.
The recommendations cover three areas, said Sansone, a 16-year postal employee, ``Delivery, window-service and box-service. We didn't want the council to become a frivolous, soap-box forum.''
It hasn't. In fact, Bayside was rated highly in a recent customer-satisfaction survey.
``Ninety-four percent of our residents rated us good or better,'' said Moen. The survey used a one to 10 continuum, with 10 being excellent.
To bolster the CAC, Bayside held an open house last month. More than 100 people attended. They were given a tour of the year-old facility, shown how mail is handled from pick-up through processing and delivery.
Jose Alvarez has lived in the Bayside borough for eight years and has served on the Customer Advisory Council from its inception. He received an application from the Bayside Post Office asking for volunteer members for the council and responded with interest.
``I admit I had a more or less negative attitude at first,'' said Alvarez, a senior chief in the Navy.``But most of the people I've talked to have said, `Leave things the way they are.' ''
Alvarez said the council has opened his eyes, especially since attending a workshop in Richmond last month. ``I understand the system and what the people here have to do better.'' MEMO: To make suggestions for the council, write CAC, P.O. Box 55117, Virginia
Beach, Va., 23455-9998.
ILLUSTRATION: Staff photo by CHARLIE MEADS
Senior Chief Joe Alvarez is a member of the Customer Advisory
Council at the Bayside Post Office. Fran Sansone coordinates the
program in Virginia Beach. George Moen is manager of customer
services at Bayside.
by CNB