USPS Office of Inspector General

Companies devote an enormous amount of money and attention crafting a distinctive corporate personality so that consumers have positive thoughts or feelings when seeing the company name or logo.

Labor Day marks the unofficial end of summer. Before you know it, pumpkin spice lattes will be on the menu. (What?! They already are?)

But before we gear up for pennant races, fall elections, and a new TV season, let’s take one more summer-like day to relax and recognize the social and economic achievements of American workers. Labor Day “constitutes a yearly national tribute to the contributions workers have made to the strength, prosperity, and well-being of our country,” according to the U.S. Department of Labor.

No matter the industry, it’s always better to address the root cause of a problem than put a Band-Aid on the symptom.

We find data analytics — which includes data mining, risk assessments, and predictive analytics — lets us find the most effective ways to detect fraud, waste, and mismanagement at the U.S. Postal Service. Data analytics allows us to synthesize data in ways that get to the very core of a problem or inefficiency, so we can then identify possible solutions.

From the consumer’s perspective, the best possible result of calling customer service is a short conversation that resolves the issue. From a business’s standpoint, preventing that call in the first place is the ultimate goal.

Of course, no product or service is perfect, so customer service will always be a part of a business model. Improving that experience is key to satisfying and retaining customers. The goal, it seems, would be to make customer service efficient and responsive.

Nearly a decade since its rollout, the Flats Sequencing System (FSS) — the football-field sized sorting machines for flats mail — is still falling short of expectations. At its inception, stakeholders were optimistic FSS would improve productivity and reduce the U.S. Postal Service’s costs for handling flats mail.