Forums: Discussions for entrepreneurs and small business.

I think that is your biggest barrier.  I`ll give you the persepective of a potential customer in business.  For someone who`s rushing to the nearest shipping anything, including the post office, to be able to drop off any orders or communications to a trusted party as quickly as possible, the highest priority is proximity.  I`m sure you`ve already covered a good location for your UPS store, but many people will go to a Mailboxes Etc. or a mom-and-pop shipping store where UPS is also offered if it`s closer. 

I`m not sure if you`re already doing this but the three things you should emphasize to become distinct are to a) Do local-level advertising to break the Kinko`s misconception and differentiate from other shipping stores b) offer small businesses a standing account if they have significant shipping volume and c) offer some kind of efficient pickup tracking.  I`m sure you`ve heard your fair share of complaints from both business and residential customers about having to wait anywhere from 10 to 4 for just one pickup.

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"Forget inspirational quotes to keep you going. If by doing what you do, you get an hour every day to relax, be with the ones you love in comfort without doing wrong, then it is all worth it." -Anon.

This is great! I think I`ll change the text in my literature to read...

"At The UPS Store on Thousand Oaks Drive, we hire only relatively competent staff to make sure your business needs are taken care of in a sort of professional manner."

Thanks for the feedback. I think you did hit on a good point though in that not everybody is looking for "World Class Customer Service". Most people just want to get the job done quick & get out. We`re all busy after all.

very interesting. the direction of advice regarding deempasizing customer service goes totally against our general advice and our personal experience as small business operators.

i LOVE the personal attention and service i received at the The UPS Store location i use in birmingham, MI. they packaged up a very valuable framed photograph for me recently and the the TLC i felt like i was getting as i put the artwork in their hands was very important to me. i felt like they were really taking care of me.

true, small business operators want to get things done efficiently, but they also are very much driven by relationships and familiar faces they interact with in their hometowns. that`s not to say that the Target level of service (basically, minimal) is a bad thing - when it comes to a no-brainer transaction like buying more Method Soap, that`s fine.

but i don`t look at The UPS Store solely as a shipping house. if i want to get a small run of flyers color copied and i need a little advice on how to do it the best way, a little handholding, then that`s when the customer service factor becomes critical. and that`s a huge opportunity for Peter at his store.

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Rich Sloan , Co-Founder, Chief Startupologist, StartupNation

Rich,

Hi, I know all about the shipping industry, and when it comes to shipping across the united states you can`t beat ups or even fedEx but for local shipping you look into small private courier services, for the most part when it comes to local shipping most of the time they are faster and cheaper. I own a delivery service in socal and we always under cut ups and fedex prices for shipping, and usually the more you have to ship the cheaper it gets. I hope this helps you.

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Corporate Delivery Service