I just wanted to buy a stamp.
Stopped by the post office early this morning — why, yes, I was mailing my tax return — and needed a stamp. I even had a pocketful of quarters to make it easier.
See that stamp machine in the picture? They didn’t have one of those. They didn’t have a simple scale, either. They had an Automated Postal Center, which works like an ATM and which, no doubt, is great if you need to mail a pillow or a lawnmower or a bucket of live fish to someplace interesting. Lots of options, is what I’m saying.
Too many options. Menu after menu. Way too much to read and navigate.
- Priority Mail? No.
- Needs insurance? No.
- Anything hazardous in the package? No.
- Irregular shape? No.
- Specifically which zip code is it going to? Shouldn’t matter — it’s just domestic First Class mail . . . but it looks like I have to enter it anyway.
- Can it fit a big address label like the one we’re showing you on the screen? No.
Et cetera.
Oh, and my quarters were useless, because the machine doesn’t take cash.
Oh, and I had to buy an extra stamp, because I only needed 59¢ of postage, but the minimum order on the machine is $1.
My complaint isn’t that the thing has so many menus. There will be somebody who does need to ship a balalaika to Kazakhstan, insured, with a computer-printed address label, in the middle of the night — and the APC will be useful to them.
My complaint is that the very first screen didn’t have “Send standard First Class letter” as an option.
One button to push, the machine figures weight and postage, and you’re on your way.
It’s easy to make fun of the Post Office. But now turn your gaze upon yourself: what are you doing that leaves your customers shaking their heads and saying “I just wanted to buy a stamp”?
~
Image by lorenzo montagna, used under a Creative Commons license.
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Interesting. But why would you expect the USPS to make anything easy? They’re a government agency wound up in bureaucracy that is slowly running it into the ground.
Phew! I feel better now!! ;-)
Sad thing is, the USPS is run independently now — I mean, it’s still part of the government, but it’s supposed to fund itself — and it’s clear that they’re trying.
If I *did* need to send a registered letter or something, the APC would be a great help, especially outside of counter hours, or when there’s a long line — as is often the case at that post office.
They just haven’t thought through the whole equation of the APC’s offerings yet. They’re treating sending the balalaika to Kazakhstan as equally likely to sending a first-class letter from Austin to Baltimore.
This is a great post on many levels. Partly because you’ve pulled a great truth out of a simple experience. And partly because you used ‘balalaika’ and ‘Khazakstan’
Thank you, Russ. I always want my writing to work on different levels. ;)
…great post.
The story was about the Post Office, but the point was about our businesses. Very deft touch.
—v
Also: To add to the distraction – do you know how difficult it is to send the balalaika back from Khazakstan?!
Tim – I think those of use that organize information architectures for online experiences can learn a great deal from this, particularly when we are trying to manage a lot of information or serve a large customer base. Sometimes it’s easy to loose sight of the most basic use cases that in some ways form the foundation for the offering in the first place.
Oh – and I always carry stamps so next time you need one let me know and I’ll bring it on over :-)
I love the APC when I’m mailing out the cra…. stuff I’ve offloaded on ebay, but the fact that it won’t take cash or change is ridiculous. The USPS would rather pay a fee on every single transaction that equip the machine with a coin acceptor? What does that run? 25¢ on a $1 transaction? Mind-boggling.
It gives me warm fuzzies about the coming government-run health care.
The APC is located outside of the secured post office area, and that’s probably why it’s credit card only; no need for security surveillance for the cash (be it a petty amount) that would be residing in the machine. Additionally, the post office would have to have someone or a service come to pick up the cash, deposit cash, etc.; maintenance and security considerations that are eliminated by dealing w/ just credit cards. Cash is soooo passe, anyway.
I do think that the options flow could be more user-friendly and more efficient.
Sorry, just wanted to wrap up my thought above…
Keep in mind, also, the machine also steps you through those questions not to be 100% helpful, but also to upsell you, since it is intended to be a revenue generator.
So what may seem on the surface should be a simple task may have a myriad of reasons why it’s executed in such a kludgy manner.
Thanks for the kind words, Vincent. And I don’t even want to *think* about the return postage . . .
Natanya — I like what you say about basic use cases. It seems to me that the best designs accommodate that use case *and* have the headroom to do much more for power users or users with particular needs.
H. Georg — You’re right that it’s located outside the secured area, but (a) the old stamp machines (and there isn’t one at that P.O. anymore were also located there, and they took coins and bills, and (b) the APC is built like an ATM — it must be highly secure . . . or they could make it so. I do take your point about maintenance costs & fuss.
And you’ve really come to the nub of the issue when you talk about upselling. A major issue I face with *lots* of systems is the persistent effort to upsell in a way that degrades the experience and actually makes me *less* likely to buy more.
The companies that consistently win and sustain their advantage figure this out for their customers. The more “suited to function” your product, the more delighted your customers will be. A recent example is Apple and the iphone. Did Apple invent touchscreens? No …smartphones? Nope …portable browsers? nah. Not even the portable MP3 player (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_audio_player). The secret sauce is making it so intuitive that people just fall in love with it (and yes, some really hot marketing hype doesn’t hurt). :-)
Good point, Paul. The smart outfits figure out how their offerings fit into the needs — spoken and unspoken — of their users. I definitely believe that the USPS has optimized its stamp machines on one or two dimensions, instead of across the several (simple) dimensions that reflect customer needs.
Great post, this happened to me also, all I needed was to mail a bill. I came prepared with a few quarters like usual and no stamp machine at all! Not even the credit card kind with a annoying to navigate and the window was already closed.
I dont know why they got rid of the machines they were great, ours took cash and change and worked like a vending machine A2 C5 etc. very easy and convenient.
I ended up going to a upscale hotel down the street and asking if they had stamps, they said they get this all the time, and put my envelope with the outgoing mail. Who would have thought it, unable to get a stamp at the PO. If I have to take time off work to wait in line to mail something I’m never using USPS again.