This week on Mailin' It, we're sitting down with Jakki Krage Strako, USPS Chief Commerce and Business Solutions Officer, to introduce the new USPS Connect program - helping businesses meet today's e-commerce expectations.
We'll discuss how USPS Connect™ is addressing the growing consumer demand for quick package delivery through same day and next day local delivery options, helping Main Street to stand out in a big business market. We’ll also touch on the rollout of USPS Connect™ Regional and how large volume shippers are plugging into USPS’s extensive delivery network to ship far, fast, and smart.
Dale Parsan:
Hi, everybody. Welcome to this episode of “Mailin’ It!” the official podcast of the United States Postal Service. I'm your co-host Dale Parson
Yasmine DiGiulio:
And I'm Yasmine DiGiulio. I'm looking forward to our episode today. It’s all about the Postal Service’s new approach to the commercial package delivery marketplace and how we're improving our fast and affordable delivery options for more businesses and customers through our new USPS Connect offering.
Dale Parsan:
I'm sure this is no surprise, but more and more small and mid-size businesses - you know, the kinds that you see on Main Streets across the country - they've turned to offering their products online in order to compete with large e-commerce websites. A big part of being able to compete with these retailers is the ability to rapidly ship items to their customers at competitive costs.
Yasmine DiGiulio:
That's right Dale. Even though it might take only a few minutes to drive or walk over to a local store to pick up what you need, a lot of people are still head to leave their homes thanks to the pandemic. Local stores don't wanna lose those sales to e-commerce sites, but many of them don't have the staffing or budget they need to ship a lot of what they sell.
Dale Parsan:
Here with us to talk about how USPS Connect is trying to solve the Main Street E-commerce dilemma is this episode’s guest, Jakki Krage Strako - the Postal Service’s Chief Commerce and Business Solutions. Officer. Welcome to Maillin’ It! Jakki!
Jakki Krage Strako:
Thanks for having me.
Dale Parsan:
To kick things off, Jakki, please tell us a little bit about what you do with the Postal Service and your involvement with the USPS Connect program.
Jakki Krage Strako:
I would love to. I was very, very excited when the Postmaster General created this new role. So it is the Chief Commerce and Business Solutions role. And really the key part of that is solutions. I have four groups and the best resources of the organization are on my team I like to say. So we have one group that is all about the business development. It's working with our customers, understanding their business inside and out, understanding their priorities, and then making sure we have the relationship so that we can help them solve the problems and, and, and make sure their priorities are met through our solutions. Next is my solutions group and that's what they do. It's all about solutions. So these folks know our network, know our assets, know where our equipment is, know where our facilities are and they know how to best leverage the power of the Postal Service. So I've got a great group of people there that manage our products, our, our shipping products, they also manage our product strategy and then they do our customer onboarding and they also do those customized solutions for our customers. Now we have to have solutions. We have to have something to build those solutions on top of, and that's why I have a transportation group. And I also have our facilities group. So it is on the, you know, on the back of those assets, whether it's a facility or our transportation to connect our facilities, those are the products if you will, that we're building our solutions on top of.
Dale Parsan:
How does the USPS Connect program work into your organization?
Jakki Krage Strako:
So if you wanna think of USPS Connect as really an umbrella for all of the shipping services that the Postal Service has to offer. So we've got this huge network. We go to 161 million addresses, six – and some locations - seven days a week. Upstream from all of those delivery points are post offices. Upstream from those are our plants. And then those plants are connected by our transportation. So the solution that a customer needs is really unique to the customer. So if think of USPS Connect, it is our way of creating simple buckets of solutions that customers can leverage. So if a customer is located all across the country and they wanna reach somebody all across the country, they would wanna leverage our USPS Connect national solution. An example might be I am gonna ship to somebody, my buyer, um, who's maybe on the other part of, of, of the states. So I am going to leverage a national solution from the Postal Service, which is typically our First Class Package, it's our Priority, or it's our retail ground or commercial ground product. So that would be an example of a national solution. We also have USPS Connect regional. So if I'm a business that the majority of my customers are in a tight geographic area, maybe a state may be a county. I would be able to take my packages to the local plant, drop it right at that local plant, and I could get next day service to my customers in my county, in my state, for example. So that's our regional solution. So it's really a confined geographic space with, with direct entry to the Postal Service. Then we also have USPS Connect Local, which is an awesome solution for our Main Street for our businesses is serving a local community. So USPS Connect Local is all about the business, trying to reach their customers who are maybe in their zip code or maybe in their town. So those customers can bring their, their package to our facility or have their carrier pick it up on the route and we'll get that delivered next day to their customer within that zip code range or within that city. The last… Best for last, right? USPS Connect Returns. So everybody wants their package shipped and it wants everybody wants it to be the perfect size or the perfect texture or the perfect, what have you, but sometimes the size doesn't work and it needs to get returned. So we do have a great return solution as well. And this is a solution, whether it's for local or whether it's for national it's to get whatever was delivered back to the sender, you know, back to who did the original shipping. So that solution, you know, as I look at it from a consumer perspective, we're best positioned to be the return shipper. We are at everybody's home, six days a week, or business, six days a week in some location, seven, our carriers can pick up a return on the route, bring it back, and, uh, we can get it back in, uh, record time to, to the shipper. So that's really the umbrella. So for most of our customers, they might not need one solution. They might need solutions from all of those. So that's where our awesome business solutions team comes into play. We've got our business development team, they know the customer, they understand what they're trying to solve. And then our solutions team knows this network. And once we understand the customer's priorities, we can apply the knowledge we have internally to solve that problem for them or that opportunity for them.
Yasmine DiGiulio:
So Jakki, how does the USPS Connect suite of offerings that you just mentioned… How does it differ from what we already offer?
Jakki Krage Strako:
Sure. So I'll start with USPS Connect Local. So in the past, we have allowed the really, really, really big shippers to inject volume directly into our delivery units. And we deliver those the next day or same day in some situations. With USPS Connect Local, we are giving that same level of access and that same next day delivery or same day delivery to the smaller businesses. So if I am a smaller business and wanna reach people within my community, last year, year before that I would've leveraged a Postal Service full network product. Now we have this brand new product offering out there where I can access that same day or next day delivery at a very affordable price that reflects the fact that I am going to drop it off at my Post Office and it's only going to be, be, you know, delivered to zip codes or addresses served by my Post Office. So it's gonna get a same day or next day delivery. And it's going to be at a price point that we've never been able to offer to our local customers, the local merchants, trying to reach those local customers.
Dale Parsan:
So Jakki, so the reason we're able to do this is because we're circumventing a lot of that… A lot of those pieces of mail that have to go through the plants, correct?
Jakki Krage Strako:
Correct. Correct. So we're able to reflect in our price as well as our service commitment. The fact that it's the carrier on his or her route is going to pick up that package or the customer's going to drop it off at our local post office. And it will stay in the local post office, the great staff there will sort it to the right route, and then they will get it out on the, the appropriate carrier's route either the same day or the next day, depending upon what time it arrives into our post office.
Dale Parsan:
It seems like the Connect Local program allows businesses, small businesses and midsize businesses to have a better relationship with their end consumers.
Jakki Krage Strako:
Absolutely. You know, there's a lot of competition if I'm a business on Main Street and I offer, you know, Jakki’s cute socks or, you know, other merchandise, you know, somebody may be able to buy that merchandise elsewhere. They could go online. And a lot of, a lot of, uh, consumers go online. If they see if they can't get it in one to two days, they move on to, uh, you know, a different, um, you know, platform or different retailer that can provide it in that one to two days. So local businesses have been, you know, at a, a strategic disadvantage that they couldn't have that one and two day reach. So with this solution, it's a next day and same day reach. So, uh, if a customer needs something or wants something that quickly, that Main Street business now has that opportunity to flip that product around, to get it to their, their consumer with, you know, same day or next day. And again, for the business, it's a great price. It's gonna be, it's gonna be much less than what they were paying for, you know, a priority or a first class package in the past.
Yasmine DiGiulio:
But what about residential customers? So someone like me or Dale who typically just receives packages, um, at our homes, is there a benefit to us?
Jakki Krage Strako:
I see a huge benefit as a consumer. So number one, a lot of people wanna support their local businesses and support their communities. So number one, there's a huge benefit there because it, it allows the consumer to support and still meet their own needs. If they need something the next day, you can still get that and achieve your goal of helping the, the local business. So that's huge. And then it, you know, it's just the, the, the selfish benefit. I wanna order something. I want it the next day. I can do it. I can order, um, from a business on Main Street and get it the next day. So it it's a great, great benefit. And two, some of the small businesses pass on the cost of the shipping to, the consumer. And in this case, it would be a much, better rate than typically would've been available in the past.
Yasmine DiGiulio:
Would the USPS Connect Return solution make it easier for me to return the things that don't fit me in my online shopping sprees?
Jakki Krage Strako:
Absolutely. So with USPS Returns, anything that you buy online that shipped to you, you usually go online or, or get on a help desk and let the, the, uh, retailer know that you need to make the return. And what we have enabled is through electronic means, or you can drop it off at our post office, but you can through our website, schedule the carrier to come and pick up that return for you. So whether you are able to produce the label at home and then apply it to the package and your carrier's there every day, sometimes seven days a week. So your carrier can pick it up as she or he are, are doing their route, and they get it right back into the network. We do scans as it's going through, and a lot of companies will start your refund once the scan is accepted that we've got it in our possession. So it saves you a trip going to, you know, hunt to find the place to do the, the return. You can just do it right from home. If you are out and about, and you wanna use our returns, you can go into one of our retail or post office locations. You can at that same scan there and get that on its way. Uh, we also have services, you know, some folks don't have printers in their home anymore. So sometimes, you know, we have customers that wanna do a return and we also offer a service where the retailer can have the customer provided with a QR code. And then they go into our post office with that QR code. They're able to print - we're able to print for them, um, the return label, um, the prepaid postage by the retailer, it gets affixed to the packaging and off it goes. So we're super convenient for returns. I'm
Yasmine DiGiulio:
I’m one of those printer-less people. So that does sound very convenient for me.
Dale Parsan:
So the business side of my brain is, is on fire right now, because as you're describing national, regional, and local, to me, I'm, I'm thinking from a business perspective growth. And I wonder if you could talk a little bit more about how the Connect program has positioned the Postal Service to work with these small and mid-size businesses to grow.
Jakki Krage Strako:
Absolutely. So it's a great, great question. When, um, when I look at it from the small businesses perspective, it's a growth pattern. So our hope is by leveraging our shipping, as well as our mail, that we really have what it takes to support small businesses growth. So if I take some who starts out, maybe using our USPS Connect Local, they, you know, maybe have, um, you know, a retail business where they're selling, um, you know, Jakki's coffee mugs, or, you know, something unique. Maybe they're a local artist in the community and, and they're, you know, producing jewelry. So we offer the USPS Connect. So the Local allows them to connect with their customers and their local community. People who maybe know their brick and mortar, or maybe if it's the, the, the local jeweler, the artist, um, maybe she or he does art fairs in the summertime and, and people get to know their products. So, um, we with local Connect are able to get their product to the customer the next day. As they grow, and as people outside their community learn more about them, we can help with mail so that they can effectively market to a different and bigger zip code base. So mail is a huge, huge benefit that we offer. We have this great, Every Door Direct marketing mail product, and a great website for small businesses. They can go on line. They can see, you know, if they're trying to reach a certain age group, if they're trying to reach a certain demographic, we've got this great tool online that really helps them pinpoint who they wanna market to. Who's their potential, potential customer that they wanna get out to. So we offer that. So in this example, if it's Jakki's jewelry, and I start to get a bigger and bigger, um, following and people interested in buying my products, regional solutions might be where I need to go next. So let's say originally, I just had people in my town that were buying my, my great jewelry. Well, now, as I start to grow with that great mail product, I start to grow and maybe I need to reach people in communities, you know, 50, 100, 150 miles around me. So now what I can do instead of packaging everything up, uh, at the end of the day, and dropping at my local post office for next day delivery, I can create at all these boxes and I can go to my local plant and I can drop off, you know, 300, 400 packages at my local plant. And again, access a great price point, because all of the zip codes served outta my local plant, I'm gonna drop it at my local plant and get a very high percentage of that volume delivered the next day. So we are really geared with the Connect program for small businesses - start local and as they grow to a regional customer base, we've got a regional solution as they grow even bigger, we've got more solutions. We also have, you know, that national solution that exists right now. So if I I'm a smaller customer and I have a lot of my customers that are just local, great use USPS Connect Local. But if I have a few customers on the coast, if I'm located in Chicago, I've got customers on the coast, I can leverage our awesome Priority, our First Class package product, and it's gonna get home across the country. So it's that mixed solution. So regardless of where the customer is, uh, for the business, we, we can definitely get there.
Yasmine DiGiulio:
So how is USPS Connect being introduced and, and being rolled out? Are we doing pilots? Are we getting feedback from customers?
Jakki Krage Strako:
Yes. And yes. So pilots absolutely. The USPS Connect Local, I think is a great story to tell. So we started very, uh, strategically in Texas and we did a slow rollout and we did it very consciously. We were changing operations. We were changing marketing, we were changing sales. We were changing communications overall. So we really needed to take our time. We spent a lot of time talking to customers, sales and marketing were out there talking to customers, understanding their needs, explaining to them the USPS Connect Local offering, getting their feedback. Our IT folks were along this journey with us. And we were changing our, our, uh, Click and Ship application, which is the portal through which customers are paying for their label and creating their shipping label and scheduling carrier pickups, for example. So all along this journey, we had a lot of groups working together, collecting the customer feedback and making tweaks and improvements. So that as we launched the national launch, we had all this feedback from consumers, as well as from the business owners themselves. So really proud of how we did it. And I believe we nailed all of the lessons learned so that we, we have a great product offering out there, and it's an easy way to engage with us, a very customer friendly approach.
Dale Parsan:
What are some of, what are some examples of, of feedback that you're hearing from the local post offices themselves… Our boots on the ground in the area?
Jakki Krage Strako:
The, the employees are loving it. The, the feedback I've gotten is that the carriers especially, and the, the clerks who work at sales associates, who work in our post offices, they want the businesses on their route to succeed. And they also, they also serve, you know, uh, the consumers in their community and they wanna connect the two. So it's been really exciting. We've got an employee, uh, we call it an employee engagement lead generation program. And the number of leads that our carriers and our postmasters and our clerks have turned in for potential customers to leverage our Connect has been phenomenal. So there's nobody better to serve the local community, the local business than the carrier on the route.
Dale Parsan:
That's fantastic to hear.
Yasmine DiGiulio:
So what will the rollout of the USPS Connects look like? Will it just be available nationwide right away?
Jakki Krage Strako:
So we are going to be doing it state by state. So we are going to be moving across the country. So in February we'll be announcing, uh, the order that we're gonna be going in. But as I talked about, it's a big change for us. It's something new and different. So we wanna make sure that we're very, uh, strategic about how we do the rollout so that we have time for our employees to get trained and well versed in our operations so we can nail it out of the gate for our customers.
Yasmine DiGiulio:
You know, all this reminds me a lot of the conversation that we had with Postmaster General Lewis DeJoy several weeks ago, in which he shared his Delivering for America vision and strategic plan with us. Can you talk about how USPS Connect is part of that strategic vision?
Jakki Krage Strako:
Absolutely. So within the delivering for America plan, um, there are a lot of initiatives, as you know. So our initiatives within my team really rely on all of the other initiatives throughout the organization. So the network redesign work that's going, on the investment in people, the investment in technology, the investment in our facilities and our infrastructure that all supports what we're trying to do as a team. And our role as a team is to understand our customers inside and out, understand their business, and then take a big step back from that. And look at our network. Nobody knows the Postal Services network better than we do, and to really come up with some great solutions for our customers so that they can win. We can't do any of that without the right assets on which to build. So everything that our colleagues are doing across the organization to execute on Delivering for America is enabling us to create these great solutions at the right price and with the right service and the right visibility for our customers.
Dale Parsan:
So Jakki, let's say I was representing “Jakki's Mugs” or “Jakki's Popcorn.” What I'm hearing right now is a great opportunity through Connect Local, but from my perspective, as an owner, would I be entering into some sort of contract where there's minimum thresholds and I've gotta, I've gotta meet certain requirements to be able to access this? Or is it more of just the Postal Service… Is it just positioning themselves with open arms “Hey, come to us, we can help you.”
Jakki Krage Strako:
Great question. So for USPS Connect Local, it's a really simple agreement, no contract, no minimums, anything like that, it's a simple agreement. And then you're set. So we've got great... We call it published pricing. So once you have that agreement, the prices is set - you know what it is. We have another great feature within USPS Connect: You're running a small business. You don't have time to really think about what size box do I need? How much does it weigh? What dimension? So we wanna make this simple and easy for the small business. So we've got a couple of great offerings with USPS Connect. We've got something that's called a flat rate USPS Connect box. So basically if it fits it ships and it's one price. So that's a great thing. You don't have to worry about going out and buying boxes and packaging material and all that good stuff. We provide those boxes. So if you've got a USPS Connect agreement for Local, you can go onto our site. You can order packaging that will be shipped to you. We will deliver that packaging to you. And then, you know, this is how much I'm gonna pay anything that fits in this box. My carrier will pick it up. Off it goes, great. Um, we also have the same thing for poly bags. So if I have something that isn't big and boxy, we've got a lesser priced, if it fits into a poly bag, um, then that we've got a price for that too. And it's a little less than what that flat rate box is. So it, it's a great opportunity to make things convenient and easy to ship and do business with us.
Yasmine DiGiulio:
So once the program is available nationwide, what's the best way for a small business to get started with USPS Connect. Is it just as simple as going onto our website or talking to their local post office?
Jakki Krage Strako:
Either one. Our carriers know the businesses on their route. So the carriers will all have information about USPS Connect with them. Uh, we also have a great website, so yes, you can go online to the US Postal Service website and you can type in USPS Connect, get all sorts of information, whether it's about Returns, whether it's Local, whether it's Regional or whether it's National. We have great information out there. And there's also, you know, the local postmaster, a wealth of knowledge, they can also help. And then our sales representative. So there's a way to go online. And if you wanna connect, fill out some information, we can connect you to a sales representative as well. But always good to start local. Talk to your carrier.
Dale Parsan:
Great, Jakki, it sounds to me like the Connect suite is bringing a lot of flexibility to small and mid-size businesses. Thank you so much for joining us today to talk to us a little bit more about these offerings.
Jakki Krage Strako:
Thank you for having me. And I would like to say thanks to the 640,000 men and women of the Postal Service who make this happen, who make it easy for us to sell the great solutions that we have for customers.
Dale Parsan:
All right, everybody it's time for Did You Know… A segment in each episode where Yasmine and I share historical or cultural facts about the Postal Service.
Yasmine DiGiulio:
It's a chance for us to shed some light on parts of the Postal Service and its history that most people probably have never heard of.
Dale Parsan:
In honor of Black History Month, we thought we'd talk about a couple of firsts for African Americans at the Postal Service. I'll go first. Yasmine, did you know the first known appointment of an African American to a federal office came in 1863. That's when Boston postmaster, John Palfrey appointed William Cooper Nell as a clerk at the Boston post office.
Yasmine DiGiulio:
I didn't!
Dale Parsan:
Nell is best known as an activist for equal schools in the Boston area. And for his role in Boston underground railroad. He helped coordinate money, clothing and housing for fugitive slaves escaping the south before the civil war. Nell was also the first published African American historian, having authored The Colored Patriots of the American Revolution in 1855. That same year he helped get a state law passed in Massachusetts prohibiting racial discrimination in public school admissions.
Yasmine DiGiulio:
So less than a decade later, he added another first to his resume - this time with the Postal Service?
Dale Parsan:
That's right. The Postal Service was barred by federal law from hiring African Americans as mail carriers between 1803 and March of 1865 – one month before the civil war officially ended.
Yasmine DiGiulio:
Wait, I thought you said Nell was appointed in 1863.
Dale Parsan:
True, but Nell was a clerk, not a mail carrier. So the prohibition didn't apply to him. He was the first of several African American clerks that postmaster Palfrey appointed between 1863 and 1867. The Postal Service hired more than 800 African American workers during the 1800’s. And more than 200 of them held the title of postmaster.
Yasmine DiGiulio:
Do we know much about Nell's experience working for the Postal Service?
Dale Parsan:
Not a whole lot. We do know from an 1873 letter that Nell wrote to abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison, that Nell spent at least part of his tenure with the Postal Service working the night shift from roughly 11:00 PM to 5:30 AM. Nell knew Garrison from years earlier when Nell was an apprentice printer for Garrison's newspaper, The Liberator. That experience helped spark Nell's lifelong interest for activism for the rights of African Americans in the North and against slavery in the South. Nell worked as a clerk at the Boston post office until his death in 1874. What interesting nugget of Postal Service history have you got for us Yasmine?
Yasmine DiGiulio:
May Did You Know fact is about the first African American woman known to have carried mail on a star route for the Postal Service.
Dale Parsan:
Very cool. What's a star route.
Yasmine DiGiulio:
I'm glad you asked, Dale. Star route was a term for a mail transportation route served by a private contractor. Since the 1970s, they've been known as highway contract routes, but back in 1895, they were still known as star routes. And that's when Mary Fields carried mail on the star route in Montana. Fields was born into slavery and not a lot is known about her early life. What we do know is that beginning when she was around 60 years old, she earned the nickname “Stage Coach Mary” for not only carrying mail via horse-drawn wagon, but also protecting that mail from thieves, wildlife, and the harsh Northern Montana weather.
Dale Parsan:
That sounds like an extremely dangerous job.
Yasmine DiGiulio:
It was. When carry mail, she was known to carry both a rifle and a revolver. Stage Coach Mary spent eight years carrying mail as a star route carrier before retiring in Cascade, Montana, where she lived until her death in 1914. Mary Field and William Cooper Nell’s legacy continues to this day, African Americans account for more than 27% of the US Postal Services workforce. That's about 177,000 workers.
Dale Parsan:
We'll talk more about inclusiveness at the Postal Service in upcoming episodes, but I think it's fair to say that for much of the 20th century, the Postal Service was an important pathway to the middle class for many African Americans. Well, that's a wrap for another episode of Mailn’ It!
Yasmine DiGiulio:
So Dale, what did you think about our conversation with Jakki today?
Dale Parsan:
I thought it was fantastic. What really sticks out to me is how the Connect program fosters a stronger relationship between the Postal Service and businesses to help them not just deliver to their end customers today, but provide them with solutions as they grow. What about you?
Yasmine DiGiulio:
I agree. You know, I was really impressed with USPS performance during the holiday season, and I'm really excited to see how the infrastructure and technology investments that Jakki was telling us about as part of Connect is gonna help businesses grow and reach their customers quickly. I'm also looking forward to taking advantage of that easy-to-use return service. Well, that does it for this episode. Don't forget to subscribe to Mailin’ It wherever you get your podcast to make sure you don't miss the next episode. And follow along on Instagram @USPostalService, Twitter @USPS and on Facebook for the latest postal news.