Examples of how our Virtual PA services could support a Same-day Courier Service
The Scenario
An independent courier business with a national network of drivers who work on a membership basis - Customers can book online or over the phone for parcel/item collection and delivery on a chosen date and time, with vehicles from a motorbike up to a 4m length XLWB van. The nature of the items and customers varies hugely, with bookings being made 24/7 for urgent same-day as well as pre-booked future jobs. Drivers call in regarding available and in progress jobs, and potential and current membership queries.
Business Challenges:
To provide their same-day services, this business needs a team that can handle sales and customer service at every step, from initial enquiry through to managing the delivery of items. Finding the right employees and training them takes time which the business does not have due to its fast paced nature, and hiring employees will increase overheads in this highly price competitive market.
With bookings being made 24/7, often for urgent parcels, this company needs a flexible and reliable team to cover phone-lines for out of hours queries from customers and drivers. No matter which colleague a customer reaches, they need to know how to make a booking or solve an issue quickly. With traditional staffing solutions employees would only be trained on one area of the business, leading to lack of communication and potentially business damaging mistakes. An in-house team often demands typical working hours, which could lead to lost business.
As well as dealing with customers, there are potential and current drivers requiring membership admin support via phone and email, processing of invoices for completed jobs and liaising with drivers about available jobs to negotiate fees and confirm job details. With an increased number of people working independently in the UK, this business needs a team that can be scaled up with speed – there’s no time to waste dealing with hiring, on-boarding and HR matters.
The involved and exacting nature of the business requires daily admin and management of incoming jobs and company inboxes without any downtime. This company cannot afford for employee holiday or sickness to affect their services as they would lose repeat customers.
In the current economic climate and price competitive nature of courier services, the expenditures on office space, equipment and their hidden follow-up costs would affect service prices negatively and potentially lose business.
Our Solutions:
Our Business Assistants have been supporting small businesses for over 20 years across a variety of sectors, meaning we have the right employees ready and waiting to take on any task in sales, customer service and admin. Our pre-built model of working means you can get set up with minimal impact to business, and our teams take the time to learn about your business so that we become experts for you and your clients.
Every team member is highly trained on their bespoke sales and booking management software, as well as specific processes for courier work such as hazardous items, liaising between customers and drivers, ensuring invoices and payments are being received prior to jobs taking place.
Our teams are able to work flexible hours to meet the needs of your customers and business. Each of the Business Assistants are trained on all aspects of the process to keep jobs and enquiries moving forward, rather than customers being bounced from department to department as with traditional staffing methods. Our meticulous recording of actions taken by our operators creates a reliable paper trail for any issues with completed jobs.
Our teams can provide member support over the phone and via email to drivers, helping win new memberships and carry out admin tasks to save management time and hassle. We handle the dispatching of welcome packs via post to improve drivers’ experience, and take on invoice tasks and queries.
Outcomes:
For a courier service, having a real person at the end of a phone for customers as much as possible helps win business by providing an expert to answer their queries, and make the booking process easier for those with accessibility issues.
Our ready to use, team task-sharing way of working instantly saves you time that would have been spent searching for employees and offices, as well as money spent on set up costs. This allowed our courier service to meet customer demand quickly while getting value for admin and customer service employees compared with hiring an in-house team.
Having well managed inboxes and keeping accurate records of conversations between drivers, customer and ourselves provides our client with valuable insight into their specific business habits. They can use this data to grow their business, tailoring their online advertising to save money and improve their reach.
When drivers are kept satisfied with membership support it makes the courier work more efficient for customers and the company. There is also increased passive revenue as more drivers were likely to stay as paid members. This allowed management to take a step back from the day-to-day running of the business and have the financial resources to focus on new areas of growth.
Having one team handle all forms of sales and customer service, communicating with drivers for work and membership support and complete daily admin tasks creates a professional and knowledgeable impression to customers, and they have a reliable, named point of contact regarding their booking.
Our Virtual Assistant team can handle all aspects of sales, business administration and customer service for your small business, no matter the size or sector. With our highly customisable service we can cover as much or as little of the day-to-day working as you would like, either on a permanent basis as a better alternative to an in-house team, or on a temporary or ad-hoc basis to support you when you need it most.
For more examples of the tasks our friendly teams can take on with ease, take a look at our Virtual Assistant service page, or to discuss your specific needs you can contact us, or call us on 020 3303 3303.