Is that your Rolex?

Last week was a bit tumultuous: riots and stolen, looted goods on the increase.

That makes life a little more interesting for us  providers of same day courier services.  We don’t deliver stolen goods and we have to do some due diligence before we take bookings to deliver high value goods. On Monday we get a phone call “hello, can you deliver a Rolex Oyster, approx value £15k?”

“Of course we can. Is it your watch?”

“no”

“well who does the watch belong to?”

“Why do you need to know?”

“We are not allowed to deliver stolen goods and therefore we need to know that you or the person we are delivering the watch to actually owns it”

“Great to see you are doing your due diligence and checking us out, this is xxx Police force and we have recovered a Rolex and as it’s a high value item so we can’t send it by a parcel courier. Yes, the item was stolen, it’s now being returned. You are the first courier company that has asked us any questions…”

Well we delivered the Rolex, the owner was thrilled to have it returned and we’re thrilled to be delivering good news. If we hadn’t of asked some questions we could have been in serious trouble.  Part of the reason we are so good at what we do is we take the time to make sure our staff and business are protected.

Have you had to take extra precautions due to the riots?

Sarah

A while back I participated in a transport survey over on LinkedIn.

The results have just come back and I thought I’d share them here, they make  interesting reading.

Encouraging public transport use is the top answer as you can see, I wonder how that will impact long haul deliveries? Some creative thought is needed here, what about long haul deliveries being able to take passengers? Would that make delivery transport become part of public transport and offset some of the high costs of delivery? This is theory, or creative thought taking place here.

What I have found particularly interesting is the demographics of the survey, all the participants are aged 30+

Has transport reached a point where it is so “unsexy” and so regulated that the younger generation doesn’t want to work in it?

What do you think? Can we solve future transport problems without the input of the generation who they will inflicted upon?

Sarah

is that most marketers don’t listen.
It’s true.

Do you recall a few months back I blogged about the term “haulage”? and how I get a slew of calls relating to selling me something? Because when people search for the term “haulage” rather than the term same day courier (which we wish to be found for), they are looking to sell me a fuel card rather than build a relationship or even understand what our services offer!

I have found over the years I have had similar experiences with marketers; they don’t listen to what your business is about in order to market it.

For example, I recently attended a networking event and got chatting to a marketing expert. When the marketing expert heard what we did he promptly informed me I was missing a very big marketing trick.

“Go on” I asked, curious to what the response would be.

“You need to sign write your vans and advertise on them”
Why would I want to do that I replied, we do confidential deliveries” I replied
“You need to do it so you get more business” came the reply back
“But how do we keep our customers reputation, and deliver in confidence if people know who we are?”
“Oh my is that the time… I have to rush…” gulps wine and rushes off!

Each business, including a courier business has different needs. They reach different customers. We deliver, quietly and confidently for our clients. You may not notice us as we drive sedately past you on the motorway, and that’s the way our customers like it.

My biggest lesson in marketing is not just listening to customers and potential customers; but hearing what they have to say.

In many cases advertising on vehicles is the right choice for a courier service, but it’s not for all of us. We deliver time sensitive freight and commercial products, quietly and swiftly so you can get on with business. How we market ourselves doesn’t impact on our customers requirements.

Sarah

PS This is an entry into the JupiterJasper Marketing lesson blogging competition http://bit.ly/lpyv7p, go take a look.