USPS

The other day I had to pick up a package at my local Post Office. I showed up 10 mins after they opened on a Saturday morning and then ended up waiting 30 mins for my turn in line. Because I was only the 4th person in line, that meant the people ahead of me each took 10 mins to complete their transactions!

From what I observed, most people were in the line because they had to do things they couldn't normally do on line: pick up a package, mail a package, pick up mail that was on hold.

Of course, typical of the USPS, there were two people on the registers, while the others were in the back sorting mail. While I was in line, I started to brainstorm about some possible usability improvements...

1. Do triage on your customers via a person or signage; route people to where they should be so they can get what they need.
2. Have enough people available to help customers who come in via triage. Study your customer flow and trends and provide for this.
3. Offer more 'ship your package here' kiosks. These allow the customer to ship their own package by themselves, provided they don't need special services (such as COD or someone to sign for the delivery).

I did google USPS usability studies and couldn't find anything that dealt with the physical post office; there were a lot of studies done on the website and ecommerce but nothing about the flow once you enter the post office building.

I would be interested in reading something if you find it...