Calls to post office answered in Denver

Calls to the Sisters Post Office are now being routed to a center in Colorado. The U.S. Postal Service says the new system is intended to increase customer satisfaction.

But it is a big change from small town service, at least in rural Oregon. One of the first things a caller has to do, after dialing the new 800 number (1-800-275-8777, or 1-800-ASK-USPS) is decide if the call should continue in English.

According to U.S. Postal Service spokesman Robin Wright in Colorado, the new system is designed to improve service, and "free up employees to do what they are more trained to do."

About half the customers calling post offices either receive a busy signal or hang up because the phone was not answered properly, according to Wright. The new system will also be able to provide information seven days a week, 24 hours a day, he said.

It is possible to be routed to the local post office, but customers can't call in directly. It took one reporter an average of five minutes on hold to reach an operator who could route a call on Friday, December 12.

Shannon Sproat has worked at the Sisters Post Office for 13 years. She said the new phone system has "helped us tremendously."

She said that answering questions about zip codes and rate information can be time-consuming, and prevents employees from "putting up the mail or working the counter."

Sproat said that some customers have been quite pleased with the change, others are disappointed. "They feel we are losing the small time atmosphere," she said. "Sometimes it is difficult for a small community to realize the postal service is a large, national corporation."

According to Wright, calls to the post office are now being routed to a company called Teletech Corp., in Denver, Colorado. All of the medium-size and larger post offices in Oregon have been converted to the new system. The conversion began last June, with the goal to convert 10 offices per week.

The Camp Sherman Post Office is too small for the project, and there postmaster Jon Sheldahl still picks up the phone when it rings.

Teletech will handle 36 million calls from Oregon, Washington, California, Idaho, Nevada, Alaska, and Hawaii. The company was awarded a $65 million contract to provide the service on September 15, 1996. A 73,000-square-foot facility was constructed to house the operation, which will employ 1,200 people, according to Wright.

Within 18 months there will be six national centers, and the program will be completed.

Wright said the program will not save the postal service any money, but is being undertaken simply to improve service.