Is Bigger Better?

As the President of Box Brothers Companies, I am often in the proverbial hot seat when it comes to issues

with personnel, customers or in the shipping business, matters to do with shipping damage, delays, as well

as all kinds of other issues.   Just part of running a robust and diverse company with multiple locations and a

very strong commitment to our customers, for the last and only 27 years of since our beginning in 1985.

Of course, with hundreds of packages shipped daily from our retail stores, and dozens of LTL shipments

being shipped daily to our crating services, where this week, we will complete and deliver over 100 crates

to our respective customers---there are bound to be some customers or employees who have issues that

go no further than my desk.

It is important today, to be accessible, as that is the one GINOMIS trait that all of the larger well to do firms

have in common, no matter what their industry segment is, that no one in senior management will purposely

engage any of their customers.  Ever.

While there are exceptions, if I were to be able to give out “academy awards for bad service or a Lip Service Award”

(which means they all talk service but do not talk to their customers), one would have to go to American Express, for

having the biggest phone room without any supervisor ever being present, let alone any corporate officer, as that

info is more than top secret, I know cause I tried…..but UPS wins one of those awards, so does Home Depot, and how

about Avis and Hertz and United Airlines, who is supposed employee owned……

On the contrary, when a customer has an issue, they want to take it to as high a place as they can, so they can

communicate how they feel to be one of your customers.   What I do not get, at all, today, is how they all get

away with it.   I think these firms, who undoubtedly use focus groups, but why imitate what you have already,

customers and why are you afraid to speak to them?   Again, why people patronize these firms when they have

options to patronize firms who are smaller and for whom, your purchase means so much more than just about

anything else.

Today, I got a letter sent to me by a customer in the top (upstate) corner of New York.   One of our managers in

the Bay area, received a letter from this customer after our efforts to get her a set of antique chairs, to her remote

residence, was something we undertook for a customer we did not know prior.   This customer was so amazed at how

personable and friendly and committed to get her this small shipment, at a cost less than any van line in America could

or wanted to do………that when she got the chairs—and even though they were purchased online and when she finally

got them---they turned out to not work for the area she intended them to go----she wrote to us that it did not matter

that they chairs would not work as she intended them to, but that our service and our outreach by our manager, Connie.

was so great, it did not matter, cause now, our customer, has a friend in the shipping industry.   A fan too.

I tell this story as it helps define what we do at Box Brothers and why how we do things, makes all the difference to our
customers and that is why each and every one of our customer, rich or poor, small or big, are crucial to our ongoing success,

and I would not have it any other way.   Any one of our daily thousand customers a day, can call me anytime, or any of our

managers, employees or staff, as customer service, the real customer service is alive and well here at Box Brothers, as that

is who we come to work for each and every day, and to the rest of the world, spend your money where it counts as true

value comes when someone cares about you as a customer and your needs, you are not just a footnote on a balance sheet

and you are not just a number.   To us at Box Brothers, you are the reason we are here.   May we help you?

Mark S. Frydman

Box Brothers Corp.

1-800-842-6937

www.boxbros.com

Snowflakes And Moving, No Two Are The Same !!!!

I have been in the transportation (Moving) business for about three decades and what always impressed
me about Professional Moving Services was that they were always based on matching the needs of the customer with the capability of the mover and his equipment.

For example, in moving interstate, all professional movers or the legitimate ones, all charge by actual
weight.   So if a mover comes to your home and does a survey of what is actually moving from the old
location to the new location, he or she can offer a price based on the weight of what is actually moving.
Not for more or less, but based on the items that are moving.   The mover is to get a "light weight" or a weight of his van before he loads your shipment, then after the shipment is loaded, the mover returns to the public scale site to get a "heavy" weight afterwards.   The difference between the two is the actual weight
of your shipment.

Likewise, when the moving firm arranges for the actual mover to show up to do your move to another state, the carrier matches the space in the van with the load that is being picked up, as usually, a mover van or trailer accommodates multiple loads going to the same general area.  So, in essence, if the estimate is correct and the mover has the right amount of space, the system not only works well, but the overall service the customer receives is generally, very, very good.

Why, cause the interstate mover, is his/her own businessman, who owns the truck, employs the help and the mover receives the highest portion of the moving cost, as he is the one doing the move.   If he has a claim, it comes out of his pocket and his earnings, dollar for dollar, up to a certain amount.  What better incentive
could there be for the customer?

The problem with less than adequate service, or a poor move,  is usually, ask me, that a lot of customers tend to confuse purchasing a product vs a service.   Or put another way, a low price may have to do more
with getting a bargain, that does not always materialize into a good deal--sometimes you get what you pay for.

This entire discussion then, leads to the question of why are so many moving customers desiring to move
in a 20 foot container like those being rented to customers by both container firms and movers alike?  For the life of me, I simply do not understand why any person would want to take their own liability for moving
when they do not have to.   When you do it yourself, who else can you blame when something goes wrong?

I know, I know, movers are not that smart and if they can do it, so can I.....goes the mantra.  But this is not
even a fair or intelligent fight.   To move with a container and do it yourself, simply costs as much as having a mover do the whole thing for you.  Yes, it does. 

Just like moving today with a rented truck and you are going over 1000 miles away.   Anyone see the price
of fuel and how many miles per gallon trucks get, especially those in a rental fleet?   I still cannot figure out this "new new math" as I am old enough to have learned the "new math" but I cannot figure out why anyone
would want to move themselves, take full liability on themselves and the risk of injury to themselves, NOT TO OBTAIN ANY SAVINGS.   Besides, there is no one I know that can do a move better than some of the interstate owner operators I have seen in my life.

The older I get, the less things in life make sense to me.  For example, today, there are firms that want you
to rent plastic bins to move with, instead of using cardboard boxes.   Their proponents argue that this is a
"more green approach" to moving......cause you return the bins after you use them....so they are greener than
boxes made of 50% recycled cardboard and paper........and that you only need 20 bins, instead of 60 cardboard boxes.....(get this).....cause you can reuse the bins......lets just think this out.

Say you are moving 10 miles away to your new place and you have a economy car like a Chevy or a Ford
and you pack up 5 bins.   Then you have to carry those bins to your car, and load them into your car, drive
them over there (20 miles total) bring each bin up to the new place and then unpack them, and then load
them back into the car and do it again 5 or 6 times.   How long will this take to move this way and is this not harder on the customer to shlep these containers back and forth and do all the work, not to save any money?  

Please tell me so I can understand this logic as it makes no sense to me and I suggest that every person
who is moving should ask the right questions as none of these modern ways to move are less expensive
or are advantageous to the customer, ask me.