Memorandum from a regional supervisor of post office

[moni77]

The following appeared in a memorandum from a regional supervisor of post office operatio ns. "During a two-week study of postal operations, the Presto City post office handled about twice as many items as the Lento City post office, even though the cities are about the same size. Moreover, customer satisfaction appears to be higher in Prest o City, since the study found fewer complaints regarding the Presto City post office. Therefore, the postmasters at these two offices should exchange assignments: the Presto City postmaster will solve the problems of inefficiency and customer dissatisfaction at the Lento City office while the Lento City postmaster learns first -hand the superior methods of Presto City." Discuss how well reasoned . . . Etc.

My response:
In this arguement the author concludes based on a two week study that the postmasters of the Presto City post office and the Lento City post office should exchange assignmets. The conclusion is based on the fact that a higher number of items were handled by the Presto City post office than the Lento City post office, and on the fact that customer satisfaction is higher in Presto City because of the fewer number of complaints. This arguement is unconvincing for several reasons.



First of all, the authr doesn't provide any evidence to prove his reliance on the two weeks study. It might be that the company from the City of Presto realized the study. In this case the results are not accurate as the company might have favored the Presto City's post office. However, even if the results were accurate the two week period it's not representative. Moreover, the author relies on a study of two weeks, when maybe all the companies in the Presto City were in vacation, which could explain the fewer number of items handled by its post office, although the two cities have the same size of the population.

Secondly, another flaw in the author's line of reasoning is that he assumes that fewer complaints can be translated in higher interest in customer satisfaction. It is possible that the population in Presto City are not interested in improving the service levels of the post office even if they are not satisfied with those services.

Thirdly, the author goes further and propose that the postmasters of the two post offices should exchange assignments. He assumes that the Presto City postamster will be able to resolve the problems of the Lento City post office. He doesn't cite any reason to believe that the problems of the two post offices are the same or that the same solution will have the same effect.

In conclusion, to convice me the author would have to provide a lot more reasons and evidence like the ones presented above. Without this additional information, I am not conviced that the Presto City post offices is more efficient than the Lento City post office.