The Lack of Service Systems (bring out the Wanker in me)

Right On Queue

Some times in life I don’t scrub up too well, don’t perform at my best and don’t come across as a really nice bloke. In fact, sometimes I can appear to be a bit of a wanker.

Usually this happens in Post Offices and more specifically in queues at Post Offices. Take today for example, or last week, or perhaps in several days time.

The local Post Office has a stack of good people working for it. The staff are mostly friendly folk, usually helpful and often with smiles on their face (at least at the start of the day). There are also a couple of nice walls displaying different sized bags, boxes, envelopes and such things for purchase and there are even tubs full of things you can buy to entertain yourself whilst standing in the queue, everything from Videos to Stamp Sets to Fishing Rods.

All good except for a few minor points; firstly I am never too sure where I should line up. People sometimes stand in a single queue and then (several hours later) when they get near the serving bench they branch off to whichever server beckons them. Other times people queue in two lines or three and you need to play the Pick the Fastest Moving Line Game. A couple of times there have been so many lines that distinguishing between a line and a mob becomes more than an academic point.

Now I am not against mobs. A few years ago I was in the International Post Office in Beijing and I foolishly stood in what I thought was a line when in fact the line was a throng (a sub-set of a mob). In throngs you push, shove and somehow find your way into the best shouting position to become the next person served. In a queue you wait your turn and proceed in sequence. As soon as I figured out that the Beijing PO was a throng I joined the fray and enjoyed the game.

Now, back to today. To all intents and purposes the Melbourne suburban Post Office I go to looked as if it was operating in lines. The Algorithm seemed to be set and the gradual shuffle forward was starting to happen. However, then a chap not in line (let’s call him: a. Ratbag b. Cunning or c. Just Plain Lucky) managed to get a Trainee to help him out and the Trainee went behind the counter and interrupted the server who then set about responding to the Ratbag and meeting his needs. Thus Ratbag had successfully jumped the queue, stumped the line, and raised my heckles, all in one move.

Some folk would simply stand and wait. Others would get slightly annoyed but realise in a life full of annoyance it is best to let some minor annoying things happen and then simply sigh. And some days I would be with them, I would calm my mind with deeply meditative thoughts, still my muscles with a relaxant, ease my spirit with a Green Tea and simply smile at all the other folk railing at the injustice.

But not today: today was a Camel of a day just looking for a piece of straw with which to break my back. Today was a culmination of too many recent flights on too many planes, too many airport queues and too many Ratbags who had slipped through to the Keeper in an Unsporting Game of Life’s Cricket. Today was the day to make a stand and put my stamp on things.

I would love to say that my complaint and mini lecture on Systems Thinking Approaches to Customer Service was welcomed with a ‘thank you’, a gentle round of applause and a pay cheque for delivering on the spot Professional Development but alas ‘no’. My complaint was greeted with a look of disdain, a volley of ‘explain’ and I was then told to ‘not be so rude’.

Rude?

No raised voice, no pointed finger, no personal attack… just a mini lecture from a very big Soap Box.

Still, I guess Australians in general don’t complain too much about lack of service and lack of systems. We often prefer to stand in silence or whinge after the event. However I did make my stand and state my case and I am proud to say that I am not the least bit concerned that any mail I now wish to post might end up in Timbuktu or the back of Bourke. No, I am more afraid than worried.

Still, any lack of service systems at my Post Office is usually forgiven because the folk who work at the PO are usually fine, friendly and far more patient than me. But it still bugs me that there are certain things that could be done which would help the staff from being on the receiving end of frustrated customers. William Edwards Deming, the founding Father of the Quality movement once said that ‘In 90% of cases where there is error it can be attributed to a Systems Error rather than to the error of a single person. Yet we continue to blame the person.’

So, if my PO had a system for letting people know how they should queue (or a sign saying ‘No Queues allowed – just throngs and mobs. The people who get closest and shout loudest will get served first’) then the staff might not have so many frazzled customers. If Trainees are taught procedure rather than being left to discover it for themselves almost by accident then they might not be on the receiving end of complaints. And if every Post Office had an armed Security Guard looking for and shooting Ratbags trying to jump the queue then a lot of potential grief could be overcome. Unless of course the Postal Offices bring in a System where potential wankers are also shot on sight, then I think I might potentially be in some very big trouble.

Thinking Caps book is available from www.glenncapelli.com