How to beat the postal strike

Original article: http://www.homebusinessnetwork.co.uk/node/645

For the last three years, Post and Packing Warehouse (P&P) has supported a growing number of home workers and home based businesses with an outsourced mail room solution.

Director Samantha Anderson explains: “We originally set the company up to provide an independent post office for the new residential and commercial development of Kings Hill in Kent. Many new developments lack a post office, and we established P&P to fill that gap. And while we continue to offer an ‘over the counter’ service, selling stamps, and sending parcels all over the world, it is our small business customers that have really latched on to our services. We are supporting a number of SMEs and micro businesses – particularly online retailers, with a whole host of services, from mail order fulfilment, secure storage facilities through to courier and ‘traditional’ mail services.”

Samantha believes much of the success is due to its ability to adapt to the growing SME and home based business market. “When we first set up P&P, we anticipated that we would be supporting the local community in Kings Hill. We quickly realised that technology, and more specifically the internet, were challenging our preconceptions of ‘community’.

“For many of our clients, their immediate business community and client base isn’t located in Kent, or even the UK. The internet has opened up a whole new virtual environment in which to work. I still get excited about the global reach some of the smallest businesses have. And I don’t think I am the only one. While the recession has not been without its challenges, from our perspective it does appear to have encouraged a growing number of people to turn their back on corporate life and start new businesses from spare rooms and sheds across the UK.”

Samantha believes that the key success factor for many of her clients is their sense of customer service. “It’s a universal trait among our small business customers. They genuinely strive to provide a better, more individual service for their clients. We understand that, and try to support their reputation by doing the little things that make a difference. For example, we have a very experienced small team who manage mail order fulfilment. Goods are kept in a clean, safe and secure environment.

“Stock levels are monitored through our online ‘web depot’ technology which allows us our customers to log on and create dispatches, run reports, view consignments and notify us of deliveries. One of our team even has a packaging diploma from the Institute of Packaging! We make sure everything is well presented and arrives on time, in good order. It’s not just our reputation; it’s also our client’s.”