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Right on schedule

Online tool helps boost passport revenue

Photo of passports
The Retail Customer Appointment Scheduler tool allows customers to schedule their passport application appointments at more than 3,700 participating Post Offices.

The Postal Service’s new online scheduling tool is helping the organization grow its passport business.

The Retail Customer Appointment Scheduler (RCAS) allows customers to schedule their passport application appointments at more than 3,700 participating Post Offices.

Since the tool’s introduction last October, USPS has processed 6.2 million passport applications. Passport application and photo services have generated more than $244 million in revenue, an 18 percent increase from the same period a year ago.

“The increases in volume we are seeing are due to the Retail Customer Appointment Scheduler’s ability to allow customers to schedule an appointment at a time and location convenient to them,” said Kathleen Schultz-Miner, a senior retail services specialist at USPS headquarters in Washington, DC.

The RCAS tool guides users through four simple steps, allowing them to choose a day, time and location, and to provide their personal information. The tool is part of the Postal Service’s broader efforts to deliver excellent customer experiences, a core business strategy.

Employees like the RCAS tool, too.

“It’s a great tool for us in the office,” said Lynn Curley, a retail associate at the Sterling Heights, MI, Post Office, where passport revenue is up 33 percent so far this fiscal year. “It frees up my time to complete the passport process with customers at the window.”

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