Sunday, January 16, 2011

Football Playoff Season

I got a great reminder of how much I love our service last weekend when I had a gathering of friends watching the Jets-Colts game.  Just about halftime, with the Jets looking horrible, we ran out of salsa and were low on drinks.  Luckily, I live in our service area and, with a few quick clicks, we got some more Tostitos, some salsa, and enough drinks to satisfy the group.   All before halftime was over.

The Jets then came out and dominated the 2nd half to win the game.

I don't MaxDelivery want to take credit for the victory, but it sure was a lifesaver for the party.

Enjoy the games!

Friday, January 07, 2011

Snowstorm aftermath

As the snow comes down again today, it obviously makes me think about the recent blizzard that brought the city to a standstill.  We tried to brave the storm for as long as we could, switching from bicycles to subways and walking, but had to close for the day when the subways went kaput.  To all of our customers who needed a hot chocolate or some milk that day, i can only apologize and say that we kept going as long as we possibly could.

Before we shut down, we had delivered every order successfully and had done our best to provide you with as accurate a time estimate as we could.  Were we perfect that day?  No.  But, we communicated as best we could with our customers whenever we had an issue so they could know what was going on.

I was forwarded a link from one of the other grocery delivery services today with a letter from their CEO about the same storm and realized that, for some reason, they just don't seem to understand good service.  The letter starts out discussing the storm and how it caused late orders, cancellations, and, for some reason I did not understand, late responses to phone calls.  But, it then goes on to say that winter is a busy time of year and, as a result, customers should expect to have to work harder to get their daily needs met.

To me, my job is to look for those trends in business, including our "busy times", and to put additional staff or structures in place so that we can continue to give top quality service through those times.  If I see a spike in expected order volume (as happens every winter), we bring on more people, add more inventory, and prepare for it.  What we don't do is write a letter to our customers asking them to bear the burden of our internal issues.  We don't expect you to have to worry about our problems...we are supposed to worry about your problems and find ways to service you.  A service such as ours should have one goal - to make your life easier.

Thursday, January 06, 2011

Feedback

We just ran a periodic survey that we offer to some of our customers to give us some feedback on how we are doing, what we are doing well, and what we are not.  It's always a scary experience to ask questions designed to get people to rip holes in the service that you put your blood, sweat and tears into, but it's also about the best way for me to adjust what we are doing in the company.

The latest results (though they are still coming in) are somewhat in line with previous results.  Namely, many people generally love the service, but are having trouble moving us from their occasional source for quick items to a daily part of their lives.

Some of the particulars brought up is that we need to stock more in the way of meats and poultry, watch certain product lines prices (e.g. for some reason, we had an issue where our eggs were overpriced), and make sure that we don't stock out as often.   There are many other insights in there and I take this feedback very seriously.

Most of what was brought up was being worked on already and, for the others, I've added it to our list of new initiatives to roll out.

So, if you were one of the people who responded to the survey...THANK YOU.  If not, please always feel free to let me know what you would like to see different and I'll work to make it happen ASAP if we can.

Wednesday, January 05, 2011

New Years Resolutions

Happy 2011!  It's a brand new year and a time for making resolutions and thinking about changes.

For me, the most obvious resolution is that I will start keeping up with this blog more often.  I had taken a few months off for some business initiatives and for some family emergencies which unfortunately occurred.

But, it's a new year now.  Time to look forward.

So, what do we have going on at MaxDelivery in the coming months?  A lot of new things are in the pipeline which should make MaxDelivery even better for our customers.  Some of the things in the pipeline include:
* New site design - You should be seeing this in beta form in the coming month.  I think you will love the new site.
* Added toys and quick gifts - We've recently added some toys and quick gifts to make it easier to pick up those last minute items for kids and others.
* New reusable bags - we've expanded the use of reusable bags to cut out waste from our process and have redesigned the bags to look more chic in case you want to use them for things around town.

Happy new year to all and I look forward to a great 2011!