Until a few months back, I did ALL my deliveries/waybills myself.
I live in Lagos, and if you know the city, you’d know how extremely stressful it is to commute in Lagos. Sometimes, I’d have to go for 3 deliveries in a day; at different parts of town.
The stress!!!!!!!
My reasons for not using delivery guys all those times include, but are not limited to the following:
1. People buy by sight – getting interested by merely seeing the product. Indeed, I have had occasions when a customer placed an order for 2 t-shirts and ended up buying 10. This would not have been possible if I had used a dispatch person, sent off with just the 2 pieces the customer ordered.
2. Many people say I am persuasive in a firm way( I dont even know what that means exactly ). All I know is that often, I try to explain what I do with as much passion as I can muster. Take, for instance, a prospective customer is about to drop a wonderful tee. I could just say; ‘don’t leave that one.’
Or, ‘that material is so good, you will enjoy it better than all the rest you have chosen.’
Works like magic?
Not quite. It’s not like I deliberately set out to deceive, like some of our Igbo traders who would wilfully tell a potential customer that ‘the shoe go expand with time’, or ‘ah the cloth na your size’ – when it clearly is not.
For me, I like to think of myself as a guide. Experience has a way of teaching someone, and I have had almost 3 years experience on the job. So, trust me when I say I know a good tee/material when I see one.
3. Some people will tell you they wear an L size, when actually what fits is an M. To avoid plenty talk and double delivery fees, I’d do the delivery, just as the customer ‘directed’.
4. I ALWAYS carry with me at least 30 t-shirts, just in case a customer changes his/her mind just before purchase.
So, I like to think of myself as offering a ‘convenience’ service.
No sir/ma, it’s not better to walk into a physical store to buy; I bring the store to your doorsteps!
And by so doing, am giving you options, variety! Afterall, variety, they say, is the spice of life 😉.
Well, for about 4 months now, I’ve had to, very drastically, reduce doing deliveries myself.
I now outsource.
And it has made my life easier sha, because I found a way around my fears listed in numbers 1-4.
Though I still bring the store to your doorsteps, I do not do so all by myself 😁.
I still do a few deliveries, especially around my locality and also, there are some customers that will call and say, ‘Precious, I want to change my wardrobe’
Like the one I was going for in these pictures.
The 1% of the 1%😋
I answer them myself because no delivery company can do justice cha cha.
The third picture was how full it was when I was leaving the house: I had goods(tshirts, polos, shirts and shorts) worth N115,000 inside that small bag.
My premium customer did justice!
And so soon – and very soon – I just might be going for deliveries in my Benz.
For now, I’m just fine, ‘flying’ okada.