6.3.02 @ 12:02AM
Whatever happened to organizations that under-promised and over-performed?
"When I got here, we tried to make rapid change very quickly." A
gem from literature's Mrs. Malaprop? Nope. It is the excuse offered
by Ms. Sherryl Hobbs Newman, director of the District of Columbia
Department of Motor Vehicles, for hours-long waits endured by D.C.
citizens to have driver's and auto licenses renewed.
Over at the United States Postal Service, the money-losing
government monopoly that is digging itself a deeper hole every
year, new statistics show that its ballyhooed Priority Mail, at
$3.50 a pop, takes longer to reach its destination than ordinary
First Class mail at 34 cents an ounce. The USPS touts Priority Mail
as a fast (two-to-three day delivery) alternative to First Class.
Yet one of its websites (postcalc.usps.gov) shows that both
First Class and Priority Mail from Chicago to Washington, D.C. can
be expected to take two days.
Whatever happened to organizations that under-promised and
over-performed? Nowadays it always seems to be the other way
around. Then, when the high expectations aren't fulfilled, there
are excuses, excuses.
In the case of the D.C. motor vehicle office, slow service was
legendary in the days of Mayor-for-Life (not quite, as it turned
out) Marion Barry. In 1984, when she set out to re-register a
California car in the District, my wife was advised by friends to
"take a sleeping bag and a good book." It wasn't quite that bad,
but it was an all-day excursion. For years the local government
blamed poor service on antiquated computers and not enough money to
replace them.
All that was taken care of soon after businesslike Mayor Anthony
Williams took office. The DMV installed $19 million-worth of new
computers. Waiting time dropped dramatically, averaging for much of
last year the 30 minutes the department promoted as its goal. Alas,
this year it is back to the bad old days. One lifelong resident
left in disgust after waiting in vain four-and-a-half hours
recently to get her auto license renewed. She had gone to the
department because -- like thousands of others -- it had not sent
out renewal-by-mail notices before her license expired.
The other day it was revealed that from 1991-98 the department
double-charged $17.8 million in traffic fines. Although a 1998
audit spotted this problem, the department is just now -- nearly
four years later -- getting around to sending refund notices to
21,000 people.
Who's to blame? The new computers! Mayor Williams is nonchalant
about it: "Yeah, you have lines right now...sometimes because there
are computer glitches," he says. Come election day, he should tell
that to the folks who wait an average of three hours in his DMV
lines.
The Postal Service has a different excuse. It blames the slow
Priority Mail service on post-September 11 security measures
requiring passenger plane cargo -- such as mail packages -- to be
screened. Very handy, but it doesn't explain why Priority Mail
performance has declined steadily since 1999.
Last summer, for example, we spent several weeks at our retreat
on the Northern California coast. We arranged for office colleagues
and family each to send us a weekly Priority Mail packet of bills
and letters. Delivery time ran from six to 10 days, averaging
eight. By contrast, both Federal Express and United Parcel Service
promise -- and deliver -- second-day service to this rural
location.
These are only two of the latest examples of deplorable consumer
service. Such failings never seem to be the fault of human beings.
Rather, they are caused by computer "glitches" or third-party
regulations -- as if these were Acts of God and no one was
possessed of the training or intelligence to adjust for such
things. Computers and regulations, after all, do not materialize
from thin air.
Like the double-billed traffic tickets, there always seems to be
enough time and money to correct the problem. That being the case,
why wasn't somebody paying attention early on, to catch the problem
and correct it before it became a multi-million-dollar mistake?
There is a sign in the window of the general store in the
village near our California place which reads: "We guarantee fast
service, no matter how long it takes." Unlike the Postal Service
and the D.C. motor vehicle office, they were kidding.
topics:
Business
