By Kenneth L. Hardin

Back in the mid 2000s, I had the opportunity to be trained in the Disney customer service model and eventually became a trainer at several hospitals where I was employed. After nearly two decades since first completing the training, I still recall it being the gold standard and the best of the many other customer service schools of thought. I also became certified in like the Ritz-Carlton, Pacific Institute, Studer Firestarter and the Language of Caring models. What I specifically liked about the Disney course was the attention it paid to assessing and providing you tangible action steps to improve your organization’s commitment to offering quality service, helping you provide a consistent service experience that a customer could depend on and how to be proactive in identifying service failures and turning them into opportunities to build strong customer relationships for increased retention and growth.

The one that resonated with me the most, and which I still place high priority on today, is to ensure that the physical look doesn’t detract from your overall mission. In the training, we learned the importance, because as they taught, if the customer sees a failure before you, they may determine that your entire organization runs as poorly. I was a patient satisfaction director at a two-hospital system in Kansas and Missouri a few years back, and I recall going into the surgery waiting room. The room was arranged beautifully with live green plants throughout. I noticed in one area of the waiting room in full view of patients coming in for surgery, many  of the plants had turned brown and were wilted. I took the surgical services director out to the area and asked him what he thought the first and lasting impression of a patient who was coming in to have major life-altering surgery would be if they saw the dead plants? I asked him if he thought they might wonder if they would suffer the same sad fate as the foliage. The plants were immediately replaced. I take this same strong approach to my veterans business at times irritating the volunteers with my unyielding approach to ensuring the physical environment remains visually perfect.

I wish someone would send the leadership of the main post office here down to Walt Disney World and pay for them to go through that course. Every time I go to the main location, I leave irritated, annoyed and truly disgusted. This isn’t the first or second time I’ve publicly called out the postal service here or tried to bring attention to the dismal atmosphere and compromised level of service they offer. Two years ago, after being contacted by external customers regarding the inadequate level of service and from employees about the harsh working conditions, undelivered mail and a postmaster who continually threatened and harassed employees to the point where some put in for transfers while others quit or suffered in silence. I reached out to U.S. Sen. Ted Budd and N.C. State Sen. Carl Ford for assistance. I also enlisted reporters from this paper as well as from Spectrum News and WSOC-TV, who all covered the concerns. Budd went to the U.S. postal leadership in Washington, D.C., and Ford reached out to state postal leadership in Raleigh. The postmaster was reassigned to another state, which was disappointing because we simply shipped our trash to another region of this country.

The main post office isn’t a safe location, especially for women. I’ve personally seen homeless males intimidate women, often cornering them as they try to walk into the building. As soon as you park and head down the sidewalk towards the entrance, they flock towards you like vultures begging for money. There are some that will even approach your vehicle window and pressure you into giving money before you can put the car in park. This happened to me on the sweltering hot afternoon of June 22 as I pulled into a parking slot. A homeless gentleman approached my truck window and asked for money. I asked him a series of questions including if he had visited the Rowan Helping Ministries or talked to the city’s homeless liaison officer. He acknowledged that he had done both but tried to brush past those questions with criticism of each. I asked him where he was from and why he was here. He stated he was from Tampa,  Florida, but didn’t provide a discernible response why he was here. He said he was sleeping in a tent in the woods behind Chick-Fil-A. He again asked for money but I refused, instead giving him two bottles of water and some crackers I had in my vehicle. I watched as he sat on the brick flower bed stopping other patrons who uncomfortably reached into their pockets and handed him paper money.

What troubled me further and had me looking down on the post office leadership was a site I saw as I exited my vehicle to go into the post office last Monday. On and beside the brick flower bed where the homeless have taken up residence, was a wine bottle and a pile of leftover food and trash articles. I thought back to the training from Mickey Mouse’s house all those years ago and said to myself, I don’t know how much longer I’ll continue being a postal customer here.

Kenneth L. (Kenny) Hardin is a member of the National Association of Black Journalists.