I was recently at the Post Office in a rather long line (at least 10 in front of me).

This was the scene at the customer service desks…

You’ll notice there was no shortage of people (on the left), but no one working the counter (on the right). This persisted for at least three minutes.

In a private sector business, if you hoped to stay in business and have people recommend you, you would be well-served to provide outstanding customer service and create an experience that people enjoyed and relied upon.

The Post Office simply serves as a symbol of all government services. There is no accountability. They take their role for granted. They know that no matter what kind of service they provide, people will have to use them to get certain things done.

This is the very nature of bureaucracy. It’s not focused on the end result – a satisfied customer. It’s focused on process that covers everyone’s possible liability and ensures that no one in the process chain is in a position to stick their neck out (which often looks like going above and beyond to help someone).

Government workers know that if their business needs money, they can just tax people to take more to support their work. And this has been happening to the greatest extent ever under the current President and Congress.

Compare this with the legendary stories of the Zappo’s customer service team and you will see the two extremes of customer service. The difference is that without that customer service approach, Zappo’s could be gone any day. Yet no matter how the government behaves, they’ll always be able to take funding from taxpayers with no incentive to serve.