A new postmaster in town

Warden postmaster strives for excellent customer service

WARDEN - At 6:30 a.m. Tyce Cutler comes into the Warden Post Office to start his day.

"The mail usually gets here at about seven o'clock," he said. "It comes out of Wenatchee, there's a distribution center and the trucks bring the mail up here. The first thing we do is get the truck unloaded, break down all the mail and start sorting through it."

Cutler, who recently became Warden's postmaster, then helps sort it between the two rural carriers and the post office boxes, he said. The sorting is usually done by 10:30 a.m.

And that's the beginning of his day.

He has worked for the postal service for about 10 years. For nine of those, he worked as a part-time floater, stationed in Omak, Wash. He became the postmaster of Carlton, Wash., about a year ago.

"Relocating down here was a dream come true," he said. "I love to hunt and fish, especially ducks and geese, so locating down here opportunities to fish and especially to hunt ducks and geese was a dream come true."

The Warden Post Office is larger than his last position, he said. In Carlton, he was a one-man show. Here he has two clerks and two rural carriers.

"This community is a little bit bigger than the community I was in," he said. "It gives me the opportunity to expand my horizons, become more knowledgeable about disparate aspects of running an office … This office has a reputation for having excellent customer service, and I want to make sure that continues."

He also wants to get to know the business community in the area, to see how he can serve them, he said. Unlike most parts of the government, the postal service doesn't receive money from the government. He wants to educate and reach out to potential customers.

"There's a significant Hispanic community here, and I see that as a challenge," Cutler said. "I took Spanish for two years in high school, but I'm not proficient in that, so I'm working on being proficient."

Before Cutler joined the postal service, he worked as an accountant for 25 years. He stopped because he wanted a job that would give him a chance to interact with people, he said.

"I'm a people person," he said. "I just got tired of sitting at a desk punching numbers all the time and wanted to get involved in a little more proactive approach in dealing with people on a day-to-day basis."

Coming from an accounting background lends itself well to being the postmaster, he said. Beyond the day-to-day activities of getting the mail to his customers, he also keeps track of the financial aspects of the Warden post office.

"There's a lot of financial reporting and tracking what's going on a day-to-day, week-to-week, month-to-month and annual basis," he said. "But first and foremost is customer service."