In an article posted by “The Consumerist” on September 21, 2008, it stated in part :

Postal employees have been ordered to upsell pricey express or priority mail services to anyone sending anything more than a letter, according to an anonymous tipster. The directive comes straight from Washington to help combat the Post Office’s $1.1 billion operating deficit. To avoid the upsell, specifically ask if there is a cheaper way to ship your package.

Here is some additional information on the issue submitted by a PostalReporter.com reader:

Mystery Shop Offices,

Attached is a 5 page comparison chart that shows the current mystery shop questions compared to the FY 09 requirements that will take effect October 1st, 2008.

Realistically there are very few changes to the program that we have not already been coaching, teaching, training, and should have been enforcing for the last 3 years.

I’ve outlined below some of the most noticeable evaluation changes, please print a copy of this message and the attached report and use this for the next 3 weeks mandatory Retail Standup Talks.  Keep in mind many of the requirements aren’t changing such as the associate needing to offer Express & Priority and explain features of both, suggesting Insurance and Delcon and explaining both, etc.  the below highlights are in addition to the current practices.

Mystery Shopper FY 09 Highlights/Enhancements:

*   Express MUST be offered & explained first, pause and then recommend Priority Mail (you’ll loose 10 points if Express is not offered 1st)

*   You MUST say Express comes with Insurance and Tracking

*   You MUST NOT suggest Parcel Post (if the associate suggests PP you will loose 7 points)

*   You can NO LONGER offer to explain the Special Services, every Special Service that is offered must be explained

*   Now you must explain features of EVERY additional item you offer for purchase: example

(“do you need any stamps today, we have a new Classic Car series that just came out this week”, “would you like a book of the Forever stamps they are valued at a 1 oz letter rate no matter what the price maybe”  “do you need any shipping supplies for the upcoming holidays”, “would you be interesting in learning about our PO Box rentals, they provide added protection and security for your mail”etc.)

That’s it……these are the biggest differences…..the only thing we haven’t previously required the associates to do was explain the additional item for purchase; the rest of the changes are minor tweaking of what we’ve already been doing.

The upcoming year is going to be lean and mean, we no longer can be complacent with our requirements your associates performance and productivity are being measured like never before and ultimately it’s up to the local management to ensure compliance.

We’ve got to mentally change our/their perception of what we are being paid to do. If employees feel these position requirements are too difficult for them to perform they need to consider a change in their career path, the window position requirements are going to continue to get more demanding just like the rest of the organization.

Mystery Shopper Evaluation Changes FY-09(PDF)