But of course no opportunity to provide any detail. That will become a fun diversion for the toddlers standing in line.

Oh yeah! My kids would have been all over it! Actually the post office has a form you can request to comment on service. But this beleaguered organization had to go invest thousands in that plastic piece of junk! Thanks for letting me vent, aok! I wonder if anyone else has seen it.

Well, maybe they could get a good deal on them from U.S. Postal Service.

Yes, I've seen it. I appreciate when any customer-facing business does surveys, questionnaires, etc., because I think it makes a difference. Especially with bigger items or matters, I always try to give politely honest (and generous, when warranted) feedback. Management wants to know if there are problems and they want to make it quick and easy for customers to give a heads-up alert.

Of course, I appreciate that opportunity as well. But a piece of plastic junk (probably made in China) isn't necessary to get that feedback going. Put some forms on the counter.

My complaint was not about the opportunity to give feedback but rather the method offered customers.

I've seen those in some U.S airport bathrooms, on your way out. Asking about the cleanliness.

OMG...like you want to touch those buttons! LOL....ok, I'll stop ranting now.

I'm seeing them in more places. I think they are a good idea, a way to get fast feedback. More customers will take a second to push a button then to fill out a form.

Happy or not terminals

Yes, I’ve seen them too. Capturing customer feedback is great, but how much value can this method really provide? The skeptic inside of me thinks the results will skew toward people who have had a bad experience. I also question how to convert a “sad face” experience into an action item.

I've seen them in a variety of places.

Save the $$ and hire more workers so we don't have to stand in line for 20 minutes to mail a package.

If each post office has a $100 opinion unit and probably a cheap/simple way to abstract the results (like maybe a $5 SD card), how many workers could they hire and for how long instead of having purchased that?

The Post Office is a business but not everyone looks at it that way. For them or any other business or function involving customers and money, taking the pulse of customers is much more likely to result in more business (or not losing business) that could easily pay for the survey effort. If they need to make changes, including but not limited to hiring more or more energetic people too, the simple survey as an early warning system will highlight a need to dig deeper.

Or, would you be willing to pay more for their services to give them the money to hire more staff? They run a deficit so higher prices would help.

I’m so sick of surveys and questions about service. You’re right it IS a big waste and really kind of an insult to the employees when you think about it. I agree that they have their issues, but I don’t think that’s a way to generate better service. The postal management needs to boost moral, not run it into the freaking ground. Geeze.

at least you didn't see my picture hanging up in there!

It sounds like an up to date way to engage people into giving their opinion. Someone may not want to take the time to do a pen and paper survey or a face to one but smileys are universally recognized and quick and easy. No language barriers. No time wasted.

I'm sure the employees can give themselves positive ratings, so I question the validity of results from such a machine.

Lukki, I think that company surveys are a way that companies get customers to vent about poor service in the survey and then not go on to vent out in the real world. It contains the bad event within the company. The survey can then be flushed.

I would love to see this "tower" at my po. Currently, I have been waiting for 13 DAYS for a piece of mail from my DS. (CT to PA). No one can help because the letter (with a check in it) was not set up for tracking. What's the use of a postage stamp? I guess when we use a stamp, we have to "hope" it arrives at it's destination.

I signed up for Informed Delivery on USPS so I could track the daily scanned mail ready for delivery. Yesterday, it said I had zero mail, but I received 4 pieces of mail. This is a flawed system that a comment tower cannot solve.

I have to wonder at what REAL information is gleaned from them. As mentioned children will go nuts with them. Some people are hyper critical with unattainable standards, others are PollyAnna the glass is always FULL so would not ever consider a sad face...I disagree that surveys give anyone usable data. Too many variables standing in the way.

I haven't seen these towers, but I very rarely go to the PO these days. I'm inclined to think that people in general aren't apt to fill out a written survey form unless they are extremely upset about something. It's a sad truth, I think, that people are more willing to complain than compliment. And the time involved also plays a big part. So much quicker and easier to push a button as you walk by.

I don't understand why anyone would think that touching the buttons on one of these towers would be any worse than touching the handles to open or close the doors, whether the PO or a restroom. I guess I'm just not that 'germaphobic'. Plus I always have paper towels, napkins, or wet wipes of some type in my car.

Rusty

My take on the object (that I have not seen) is that the data it is collecting is meaningless. When you analyze data, you need more info than a happy face or sad face. Add in the attractive button pushing factor for kids and the ability for employees to self rate themselves and the whole thing is a waste of time.

If they get a bunch of frown faces, it will not result in any changes because the data won’t show why the customer had a bad visit.

"I’m so sick of surveys and questions about service. You’re right it IS a big waste and really kind of an insult to the employees when you think about it. "

Employees are paid to do their jobs. I'm perfectly fine with any of them being insulted because of feedback from customers saying they're falling short of expectations. And those who work hard will be happy for the compliments they get.

The Post Office has too many locations to allow for adequate staff supervision (that's another problem, many locations should be closed) and I'm sure any information is better than no information.

Elmer, you are so literal....I can do the math and know what it takes $$ wise to hire an employee; guess we need a facetious emogi to let you know when someone's serious or not. But I suppose if you factor in all the high salary level employees and meetings it takes to come up with something so useless, do the logistics, order, deliver and set up, maybe ONE Post office in the country could have a new employee. I'll just hope it's mine!

I do agree that something like this doesn't provide the real info to make improvements, but can make people feel like they have some venue for input, so they don't actually make real complaints.

My major complaint is that in a year or so hundreds of these will be stockpiled in a warehouse somewhere and will eventually go to a landfill. It took energy, water, materials to make them, and for what?? Nothing.

Unless....unless....joyful, could you send me the name and phone number of the head of your postal service? Or, maybe Mexico!?

Too many technophobes posting. The units were developed by a Finnish start-up and are being used worldwide. They've been growing the company for 9 years already. Below is a profile of the company for those who want to know more about this technology.
https://nickgray.net/happy-or-not/

Elmer = ignore...but doesn’t seem to compute.

Cheer up, lukki. Disagree with my comments, I welcome it. I'm sure you can do so while being more polite by leaving the personal comments out of what you say.