The Postal Service has taken big steps in recent years to connect with Spanish-speaking customers.
One such stride is the development of a Spanish-speaking sales team.
“Since customers often feel more comfortable and confident when communicating in their native language, having Spanish-speaking reps allows us to reach a broader customer base, both locally and internationally,” said Carla Kemmache, a senior inside sales representative for Southern Area.
Upgrading the phone system and customer relationship management software was crucial to the effort, according to Jason Johnson, the Postal Service’s director of inside sales.
“Early on, if we received a Spanish-speaking call, we would call any sales rep we knew to help us through the conversation,” he said.
Now, he said, “we made it seamless.” Callers can choose Spanish as a menu option, and the call is routed to a Spanish-speaking rep.
The Postal Service has been running Spanish-language holiday commercials for several years, and USPS Operation Santa’s how-to video now has captions in Spanish.
Additionally, usps.com users can choose to view the website in Spanish, and during National Hispanic Heritage Month — held each year from Sept. 15 to Oct. 15 — the site highlights stamp releases like Piñatas!, a playful take on the Mexican party favorite.
The Postal Inspection Service, too, has published a large amount of Spanish-language content, including a press kit, public service videos, brochures and a postal fraud page on the organization’s website.
Nicolas Benrey, a USPS acting senior business service network specialist and native of Colombia, hosted a Spanish-language radio show in Lexington, KY, when he was a customer relations coordinator. It was called “Un Correo Para Ti,” or “The Post Office for You.”
Benrey ended the show at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic but remains a big believer in outreach to the Hispanic community.
“It is vital that the Postal Service explores innovative ways to teach them about USPS products and targets this group heavily for business opportunities,” he said. “While the U.S. Mail system may come as second nature to most Americans, for Latinos it is something they are not very familiar with.”
