Postal delivery not just a service

By Dan Nakaso
Advertiser Staff Writer

Frank Santos, the new Honolulu postmaster, has spent most of his working life as a civil service postal employee, but his heart beats with the rhythm of a businessman and entrepreneur.

Santos

So Santos, 52, knows a few things about the frustrations of businesspeople and the need to provide good customer service.

It's that kind of attitude that Santos now brings to the largest postal area in Hawai'i, one that is responsible for delivering more than 940,000 pieces of mail every day to 173,620 addresses from Hawai'i Kai to Aloha Stadium — half of all of the routes on O'ahu.

Santos oversees 709 people and has been trying to impart a message to them:

"We need to run our operation like a business," Santos said. "And I want our employees to run it like it's their own business."

In his office at the main post office near Honolulu Airport, Santos hung a series of management and motivational posters, such as one that reads: "It takes months to find a customer ... Seconds to lose one."

When he speaks, Santos slips into phrases such as "the customer is always first" and "every one of our employees are salespeople."

Santos took over as Honolulu postmaster this month and immediately became responsible for the installation of nine new automated postal centers — in the downtown, airport, Ala Moana Center, 'Aina Haina, Mo'ili'ili, Makiki, Wai'alae-Kahala, Waikiki and Hawai'i Kai post offices. They represent half of all of the automated postal centers going up around the district and will allow customers to buy stamps and mail packages 24 hours a day, without having to stand in line.

Santos is also trying to get more customers to take advantage of the Postal Service's "click and ship" program that lets them buy stamps online and then have postal workers pick up packages at their home or office — for free.

Behind the counter of the main post office last week, Santos nodded his head toward a line of customers that stretched out beyond the post office's doors. He then pointed to a cart that overflowed with packages that had been processed and awaited shipment.

"Every one of those packages could have been picked up from their homes," Santos said. "You really don't need to come to the post office anymore."

For the busy holiday season, Santos wants to cut the wait at post offices to under five minutes by having more people use the click-and-ship program and by designating workers at post offices to help customers use the automated postal centers.

"Five minutes is a tough task to accomplish," Santos said. "But this Christmas, our expectations are high."

Santos wasn't quite sure what direction his life would take after he got out of the Navy at age 25 as an electronics technician. He and his wife Gene had three children — they later added a fourth — and were running the Menehune Saimin restaurant in Waimea, Kaua'i, at night.

In the day, Santos held a part-time job at the Kalaheo Post Office 15 miles from his home in Kekaha. He and Gene continued to run their businesses as Santos worked his way up through post offices on Kaua'i and got his first management position running the Waikiki station in 1989.

The move to the Waikiki post office was a culture shock for Santos. "There's such a large number of people in such a small geographic area," he said.

Santos kept moving through postal service management jobs as he attended Kaua'i Community College, the University of Hawai'i and UH-West O'ahu, and continues to pursue a bachelor's degree at Hawai'i Pacific University.

He's also a student of management and motivational philosophies, and his office holds a couple of piles of books bearing titles such as "The Key to Great Leadership," "Empowered Teams" and "Wisdom for Winning."

For the past eight years, Santos held the title of Honolulu district manager of post office operations and essentially served as postmaster while that job was vacant, said his boss, Edward Broglio, who manages the district.

"What helps Frank is that he has great credibility," Broglio said. "He's been doing a fantastic job for a long time."

Santos, like postmasters all over, worries about the loss of business to competitors such as UPS and Federal Express, and to the Internet, fax machines and automatic banking withdrawals to pay bills.

But he also always worries about the people who rely on good mail service in the Honolulu delivery area.

"Our challenge is to make things more convenient and easier for our customers," Santos said. "These are the values we live by."

Reach Dan Nakaso at dnakaso@honoluluadvertiser.com or at 525-8085.