East Tennessee State University Named ‘Mail Center of the Year’

In the Fall of 2014, the staff of East Tennessee State University (ETSU) Postal Services assessed the current status of the operation and determined it needed to be modernized. Postal Services embarked on an aggressive plan to totally revamp the entire department. Its success in doing this earned the operation the Mail Center of the Year award from the In-plant Printing and Mailing Association (IPMA). Director of Postal and Passport Services Don McCarty accepted the award during the IPMA conference in Pittsburgh last month.

Don McCarty (center) accepts East Tennessee State University's IPMA Mail Center of the Year award.

“We are extremely excited to win such a prestigious national award from such a distinguished association as IPMA,” remarks McCarty. “It is very gratifying to be recognized for all the hard work, problem-solving solutions and improvements accomplished by the entire staff over the last couple of years.”

To carry out its plan, Postal Services created metrics to measure the department’s overall performance, focusing on cost reduction, eliminating unnecessary procedures, improving the overall appearance and functionality of the workspace and creating a postal education program for all employees. Once the metrics were established, the department’s six employees and eight student workers were able to devise and implement numerous solutions.

To reduce wait times at its service window, Postal Services installed the Telezygology Intelligent Package Delivery System (intelligent lockers) and a Pitney Bowes self-service mailing kiosk. These two systems let customers pick up and mail packages 24 hours a day, seven days a week. This also significantly reduced the line at the service window and freed up clerks to help in other areas.

Don McCarty accepts his in-plant's award at the IPMA 2017 conference.

Postal Services added a Shiprite Point of Sale system to provide more accurate, faster and professional service for customers. It added the ability to process customs forms and international packages.

Postal Services worked with vendors to design an integrated service, product display and storage area that allowed for more than four times the previous work and display area and provided customers with a professional environment, allowing them to choose from more than 40 free USPS boxes and envelopes.

Improvements were made to the overall functionality and appearance of the 8,500 post office boxes. They were repainted, renumbered and relabeled. The Post Office Box Manager Program was redesigned to add features such as forwarding, First Class mail notification and reporting.

After reviewing data on mail sorting times, the operation reconfigured the sorting section to significantly cut the time needed to sort all the mail into the P.O. boxes. Changes were made to the existing package tracking system to meet the needs for mail forwarding, holds and outbound tracking. This system was integrated with the P.O. box manager program, which streamlined processing.

After improving its services and seeing a significant increase in efficiency, the department realized it would be able to offer additional services and increase customer access hours without having to increase staffing or hours of operation. The department added the ability to process all addresses with Lorton Data address management software for ZIP+4 processing and “move update” verification. Postal Services began providing tabbing, folding and inserting at no additional cost to departments. A website was developed to let faculty and staff request bulk mailings, which drastically reduced the outsourcing of these mailings, saving the school more than $150,000 in the first full year of implementation.

In 2016, Postal Services opened up a Passport Acceptance Office to service university staff, faculty, students and the public. It handles passport fees and photos. In addition to being a very popular service, it has provided additional revenue for the department.

The Postal Services website was redesigned to include “how to” videos to show customers some of the most requested procedures and to provide answers to frequently asked questions.

When the department realized that students were only using a correct mailing address 27% of the time, it instituted a comprehensive information campaign to improve the addressing. In one semester, student addressing improved to a correct mailing address 96% of the time.

Another significant area of improvement was in the training and education of the employees. Postal Services created quizzes and training guides that encompassed all the areas of postal operations. Since the number of student workers increased from two to 10, more training was required and each student worker was given additional responsibilities. The additions of these thoroughly trained student workers were instrumental to the overall improvement of the entire ETSU Postal Services department.