My wife and I found ourselves at three United States Post Offices this afternoon (on a Sunday), attempting to mail two letters.  After 30 minutes and about $12.75 in gas burned we stopped trying.  It was irritating really, we had the envelopes, the content, the addresses written correctly, but because it wasn't a weekday we couldn't buy stamps.  It wasn't that the stamp machines were down or sold out; the post offices simply don't sell stamps on the weekend.

These post offices also open at 8:00AM and close at 5:00PM Monday through Friday, meaning that if you work those hours you're in trouble.  Lunch...nope, they're closed between noon and 2PM.

It is obviously clear that they don't give a flip about their customers.  We all have post office horror stories we can share I'm sure, but not providing the basic tool to complete your transaction is maddening.  It would be like picking up your new Chevy and finding out it didn't have wheels, or filling your cart at the grocery store and finding out they had no way of checking you out.

We do this in healthcare of course, and it is just as maddening to our customers as it was with me today at the post office.  Maybe we have to postpone a procedure because the supplies we needed were not ordered, or we've decided that a process needs to be changed without asking one single "real" customer.

Before you make your next big decision that will impact anything a customer will touch, see, or smell, please ask them for their input.  Asking your co-workers or others in your organization won't cut it.  Find some customers.......ask them.........and treat their feedback like gold nuggets.