Is It Full?

Is It Full?

By Chris Fredrickson (edit by Mark Eades)

Don’t they drive you crazy? – The clients who seldom pick up their mail? – I’m sure we all have them. The letters and flyers fill up the box. Almost daily we have to rearrange the pieces to get the new envelopes in. Eventually the mail is slipping out onto the floor, so we bundle it, put it above the boxes, fill out an overflow slip, and it starts all over.

Our worst offender is a physician who is currently on “mommy” leave and uses this as her business address. When she finally shows up, she is always surprised at how much there is. I’ll bet you have heard the comments, too. “It’s probably all junk mail,” they will say. But, surprise – there is always at least one gem there – an invitation for a date now past, a birthday card with a check, a certified letter from the IRS, or a bill that should have gone to their home. “Oh, I wish I had known,” they say. “Maybe next time you should let me know.” ---WE should let THEM know? They’re the ones with the mailbox!

And then there’ the customer who comes in after hours and puts the junk mail back in the box because it was trash to him and there is no wastebasket accessible. However, we have no way of knowing that this really is trash to him, and if he does not handle emptying the trash, the box is still full. Sometimes they will agree to a large box, but it takes arm twisting. “I don’t get that much mail.” They say. They are correct – They don’t get THAT much mail, They just need to come in on a regular basis!

Guess what. There are more than a of us who are guilty of the same kind of transgression. There are many of us who do not regularly monitor our email boxes. Some people have other email addresses they prefer, and they forget to check the others regularly. Some think that emails are being automatically forwarded to their other “address,” but something has gone awry and instead are being sent to some place unknown in the cloud.

Though things have changed will keep on changing there will always be a need to check in on different “boxes.” You never know when a critical request will appear and leaving it unanswered can not only lose a potential order but can create the impression that your store is not interested in their business.

At our store we try to follow a system that checks everything that comes in – both physically and digitally – daily.  With some of those checks it is a twice a day check. The importance to get into a routine to check things can never be underestimated.

So here is a challenge to all of us. First, if you don’t already have a procedure to check your different “boxes” set one up. Second, even if your mail is supposed to be forwarded to another address, check at least a couple of times a week to make certain that nothing is there. Finally, let’s all do “spring cleaning” to delete/remove obsolete messages and then empty the trash.

You are patient with that “mommy” duty doctor and with that “repacker” guy so be patient with yourself but keep on task and you will see that you won’t be driving yourself crazy or a potential customer crazy.