Kel Smith, man about Virden, dropped by the Empire-Advance office last week to share a letter he got from Canada Post’s Manager of Customer Experience in Ottawa. It was in response to his complaint to the crown corporation.
I’m not sure what words Smith used in his letter about the removal of Virden post office’s bulletin board. But knowing him, they were well-reasoned and polite words.
And they worked.
The customer experience manager at Canada Post’s head office wrote him back to say:
“I was very sorry to learn of residents’ disappointment when the bulletin board was removed to make room for parcel lockers. The article you enclosed from the Empire-Advance was very helpful in making public sentiment known to us.
“I am pleased to confirm that your bulletin board is back.”
“Arrangements have been made to install an easel that can be used for community announcements of the kind mentioned in the article – obituaries, lost and found, special events, meetings and the like.”
The easel is now stationed in the lock box lobby and the notices have returned.
It’s a good feeling to know that one person in a small town can persuade a big, far-away corporation to do the right thing.
But there’s another lesson here and it’s about the impact a physical letter still can have where emails or online messages may be ignored.
Ink on paper does still have a certain weight, literally and figuratively.
And maybe Canada Post has an understandable inclination to anything that arrives with a stamp on it.
Either way, well done Kel Smith. And thank you Canada Post for doing the right thing.
