Delivering Trouble

Purolator is the company that was awarded the Vancouver 2010 Olympics contract to deliver tickets purchased to events. A pretty nice sized contract which gets them a huge amount of exposure (not that they needed it) to people in all works of life. Owners, employees, and every other type of person who no doubt will have something shipped at some point in their life. Now, i'm not saying that if every person had a good experience with Purolator they would all only use this company in the future for their shipping needs.

It's more the opposite side of the coin, i'm guessing anyone that has a negative experience with the process will be extremely unlikely to use Purolator in the future if given a choice. And, from what i've heard so far, there is a lot of negativity around the process. Purolator doesn't seem to have nailed the logistical aspect of this major project. The tickets were put in people's names and the majority marked down their home address to have the tickets delivered to - Purolator delivers during the day, when the majority of these people are at work and therefore not at their home address. People then have to make their way to Purolator's shipping centres to pick up the tickets that they missed delivery of, and you have to have something that matches your name to the address on the tickets (many people will have moved). You have a time limit of 6 days before the tickets are shipped back to VANOC at which point you are unable to collect and will no doubt have to undergo the process all over again.

These time limits and Purolator's hours have led to large lineups at their shipping centres and angry customers who have been turned away because their stores stop serving people at exactly their close time. People are also arriving at the stores and finding that they put down a different address than where they currently live and don't have the proper documents to pick up the tickets. They are being turned away.

Here's a couple of ideas Purolator:

1. Extend you hours slightly so people getting off work have more chance to make it to your store. 7pm is too early a closing time.

2. Write on the little note you leave saying "Sorry we missed you" that people need to ensure they have something that proves they live at the address listed on the tickets.

3. Have more people working on weekends so that your customers can get through the lineups in a somewhat reasonable timeframe.

Winning a big contract is one thing but having the foresight to see the exposure you get as a result is another. Make sure you are prepared to do the job when you are going out to thousands and thousands of potential customers.