Here’s a game for you: Ask a friend (not in the mailing business) who the Postmaster General is. Easy one, right? Louis DeJoy. He’s all over the news. Next, ask them to name the previous Postmaster General. Give them some hints – it was the first female PMG ever. Served for five years. They will have a blank look on their face – most people don’t even know there was a PMG before DeJoy. (It was Megan Brennan. You knew that, right?) OK, give them a bonus questions – Name ANY former Postmaster General. If they’re smart, they may guess Ben Franklin (which would be correct), or maybe Wilford Brimley?
The moral of the story is that before General DeJoy, the Postal Service didn’t exist to most people, or at least they didn’t much care, least of all the media. Folks weren’t picketing for the Postal Service to get a $25 billion subsidy. There surely is a Postal Service today, and most of the publicity has been bad.
At SnailWorks, we watch the comings and goings of millions of pieces of mail every day. Yes, First-Class Mail delivered a little slowly for a couple months (about .5 days on average), but there has been no collapse of service. Of course, the Postal Service has always had its service issues – it’s a huge organization with a complex mission. And anyone who delivers billions of anything is going to have some doozies. And those are the exceptions, the anecdotes, that the media loves to report on.
At SnailWorks, we have the benefit of seeing how mail delivers for a vast array of clients, and we can see that delivery is proceeding pretty much normally. As a SnailWorks customer you have the benefit of watching your own mail – or your customers’ – deliver. You know how long delivery is taking, so you can play the important role of being an authoritative source for your customers.
Here are some ways you can play that role and help your customers and the industry:
- Track your mail (you knew I was going to say that). If you’re not following how long delivery is taking, you’re just making guesses;
- Pay attention to your tracking reports. If you’re a reseller, look at how your customers’ mail is preforming. Share your insights with them before they ask;
- Steer your clients to reliable media accounts of mail delivery. The New York Times has an excellent record they’re keeping on First-Class Mail delivery, using SnailWorks data. You can see it here: https://www.nytimes.com/section/upshot . It’s running weekly until the election;
- Consider a webinar for your customers to let them know that it’s OK to mail. Webinars are very easy in the age of Zoom. If you don’t like doing webinars, we can do one for you for free. Just get a few clients together. You can see our presentation deck here.
So, help your clients feel good about mailing. It really is OK!