Postal Service?

There are some places where people expect long lines and subpar service. So when Katherine Chan approaches customers waiting at the post office on Thousand Oaks Boulevard, they are often startled.

Could that package use a little more tape? Chan is wrapping it before she is asked. Need to address an envelope to London? She will help write it down. Can’t work the stamp machine? She will teach you.

A banner hanging above the front door promises that each customer will be served in five minutes or less. To meet that goal, Chan wanders the line, pulling out customers whose mailing needs could slow it down.

The services that Chan provides and her efficiency shock some customers. When Chan pulls them from the line, they often look back longingly as if they have surrendered something precious.

With Chan’s help, they may never return to the throng.

“We try to help solve the problems before they get to the window,” said Chan, who has worked for post offices in the east county for eight years. “We don’t want people going back and forth, back and forth to the window.”

Chan does not handle money. That is left to the window clerks, who receive the mail and send it on its way.

But until a customer reaches the window, Chan is there, clipboard in hand.

“The customers like the idea of having someone give them direction,” said Chan’s supervisor, Yvonne Gustafson. “She’s our key player in the process.”

If the approach being tried in Thousand Oaks and a few other post offices around Southern California proves as successful as it appears, it might be extended to post offices nationwide.

Accustomed to standing around and waiting at the post office, many customers cannot believe the five-minute guarantee is a promise Chan and her colleagues intend to keep.

“I’m highly impressed with the speed,” said Thomas Hecht, who works in Thousand Oaks. “They held up their end of the bargain.”