Stores Meet Customer Needs Offering More Than Pack and Ship
(FRISCO, TX) (June 20, 2013) — Postal Connections of America (PCA), a national retail chain of neighborhood service centers, is experiencing dramatic sales growth by delivering what is rarely found these days: incomparable customer service. PCA’s chain of 47 stores saw an 8.2 percent same -store sales increase during the first quarter of 2013 over 2012. The chain credits its sales gains to a focus on personalized service and new, and often hard to find, products and services added to the franchise store’s traditional pack and ship activities.
“We know exceptional customer service is rare but that is what sets us apart from our competitors and enables us to attract a loyal following,” says Jim Bowe, Lancaster PA Postal Connections franchisee and nationally a top PCA sales store. “We’re in business to deliver personalized solutions for customers—no matter the challenge they present to us.”
The Lancaster store’s sales are approaching one million dollars in gross sales in 2013. “If you think Postal Connections is just a pack and ship store, you miss that we are all that and so much more,” explains Bowe.
For Bowe, one of the most challenging customer requests came this spring when Dutch Wonderland, the owner of a C.P. Huntington Train weighing 35,000 lbs., required the locomotive—complete with an engine car and three passenger cars—to be shipped from Silver Springs, FL and delivered to its amusement park in Lancaster, PA. Bowe immediately accepted the daunting shipping task, had the train properly loaded and secured for shipping and then supervised the flat-bed truck transport of the train to its final destination.
“Our business strategy has produced dramatic sales gains and that is very gratifying,” said Fred Morache, PCA franchisor and owner. “Our franchisees are introducing new services and products such as printing, inkjet cartridge filling, freight, and a unique buy-back program of digital media such as movies, music and video games as well as printed textbooks,” says Morache. Sales are particularly good in Pennsylvania, New York City, Oregon, Wisconsin, Michigan, and North Carolina and current franchisees are expanding by opening multiple stores. “Our emphasis on exemplary customer service has paid off,” Morache added. “We believe it’s easier today to find products than it is to find the service that makes things worth purchasing,” he added.
One of PCA’s newest revenue generators is Media Trader, a unique and proprietary software that enables customers to sell old movies, music (on CD’s & DVD’s), video games and text books for cash. The PCA store in Bend, OR, operated by Pete Pierce, has found substantial success with this program and leads the franchise chain in Media Trader sales. With Media Trader, Pierce obtains the customer’s items and then re-sells them for a profit to create a revenue stream for the customer and the store. In an age where items such as text books and videos are constantly being updated, using Media Trader to recycle valuable legacy content and books provides another service for customers. The Bend OR, PCA store was awarded the top sales store in the U.S. at the Annual Franchisee Conference in Orlando FL in 2012.
For PCA Operator Roger Young of York, PA, his unique mix of services includes refurbishing ink cartridges, document shredding, an online ink cartridge store and handling all delivery needs for a nearby auction house that deals in antiquities shipped worldwide. “Offering a wider range of products and services than my competitors attracts more regular pack and ship customer to my store because they get everything they need at one location,” explains Young. “We are a one-stop shop for our customers.” First quarter 2013 gross sales were up 10% over 2012 for the York, PA store.
Kevin Papula, a PCA owner in Mechanicsburg, PA since 2009, believes his customer service duties go beyond the walls of his store and offers local hospitalized patients bedside notary service. His store’s service offerings also include U-Haul rentals of trucks, trailers and car dollies and trailer exchanges. “As a small business, we have a leg up on our larger counterparts because we can move more quickly to adjust our services to new opportunity,” says Papula. During the first four months of the 2013 the Mechanicsburg store has had a 20.6% increase in gross sales over 2012.
For PCA Operator Vanita Kumar of Lansdowne, VA, the service solution for a longtime customer whose constant international travel prevented him from opening his mail in a timely fashion was to offer to open it for him. “We obtained the customer’s written permission to open his mail and make PDFs of everything, except junk mail, and then send him his mail electronically,” she explains. “The customer is delighted with the solution and can now handle his personal mail in a very timely manner.” The Lansdowne PCA store during the first four months of 2103 has had an 8.1% sales increase over 2012.
The Postal Connections of America store operated by Jim Bowe, and his wife Elizabeth, is located at 1653 Lititz Pike, Lancaster, PA 17601. Phone: 717-399-9076. Their second store is located at 3151 Cape Horn Road, Red Lion, PA 17356. Phone: 717-246-3570. The PCA store operated by Roger Young is located at 1211 Pauline Drive, York, PA 17402. Phone: 717-718-1773. The PCA stored operated by Kevin Papula is located at 5231 Simpson Ferry Road, Mechanicsburg, PA 17050. Phone: 717-766-0335. The PCA store operated by Vanita Kumar, and her husband Neil, is located at 19309 Winmeade Drive, Lansdowne, VA 20176.
About Postal Connections of America:
Postal Connections is a growing franchise chain of postal, shipping and business services stores, with its newest stores in Orland Park IL, Vero Beach FL, and Modesto CA. Stores operate to make life easier for people on-the-go and small businesses by offering shipping alternatives, packaging, freight, printing and copies, mail receiving, inkjet, toner and laser cartridges, notary, fax, and a unique variety of online buying and selling services.
Postal Connections of America is a network of 50franchise stores nationwide and is a sister-chain with 20 iSold It on eBay stores. The franchises are headquartered in Frisco, TX and can be found at www.postalconnections.com and www.877isoldit.com or call 1-800 POSTALS (767-8257).
