Today we’d like to introduce you to Jeff Ballantyne.
So, before we jump into specific questions about the business, why don’t you give us some details about you and your story.
My father, David Ballantyne, started Parcel Room in 1985, I took over the business in 1991. When I took over Parcel Room, it was a nice quiet little Mom & Pop operations which was just fine with me as I was coming out of the construction industry and needed to slow down. I kept Parcel Room small and quiet for a few years until I felt bored and needed to do more. I took Parcel Room to record sales, not only for us but for our entire industry. We soon became of the top ten shippers for UPS, then for FedEx. We added DHL and grew our Postal and Freight Services.
As my father taught me over the years that the business was only as good as its people. Customer service is the key, He taught me to solve a customer’s problem, charge fairly for the goods and services. What became our store motto is “Think like a customer, work like a professional”. We try to put ourselves into the customer’s shoes in any given circumstance.
What should I expect to happen in this situation if it was me? We continue to put ourselves into the customer’s position whenever possible.
We learned that many time visitors to the area couldn’t buy something simply because they couldn’t get it home safely. We teamed up with many local retailers and offered packaging and shipping. We soon became the leader in packaging and shipping in our area. We now serve most of the art galleries and artists in the seacoast and surrounding areas. We are the official shipper for the NHADA (New Hampshire Antiques Dealers Association show.
We specialize in the hard to pack and ship, art, antiques, furniture and even heavy equipment. We ship to Domestic and International destinations both by air freight and via ocean. We’ll Make It Go Away!
Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Staffing and space has been two of our biggest challenges. We work hard to make it look simple and easy to properly pack and ship. It isn’t easy, it isn’t rocket science but it is engineering. Our new staff usually require 4-6 months in training to have the basic concepts, usually by the time they have been with us a full year they are fairly well versed in the main points.
Training is ongoing as our industry is constantly changing. To be able to offer our customers the best pricing to meet the situation on this shipment they (the staff) have to be aware of all the reasons why. Staff that have been with us for 5 or 6 years are amazed how much has changed since they joined the team. We currently have 8 people on staff, ranging from first week to 21 years in the business.
Space has the twin issue to staffing, as we grow the business we must grow the space. Our location has been within the same mall since day one. We opened the store with @ 750 square feet. Our first expansion grew to 1400 square feet. We now are in 3100 square feet and find we need to grow again to keep up to our ever expanding customer base and services offered. We are one of two pack and ship stores that have an automated box making machine on site. A machine that we couldn’t live without now.
Over the years, we found that the largest issue isn’t “Can we pack and ship that multi-million dollar Monet”, the issue is how can we do it safely at a reasonable cost. Anything can be packages and shipped if you throw enough money at it. The secret is to be able to safely and properly pack and ship items and do this affordably and professionally.
Please tell us about Parcel Room.
We are known for our packaging and shipping abilities. Our customer trust us with their family treasures as well as with high valued art, antiques and equipment. We ship everything from urgent next day documents to huge centrifuges being shipped to Germany. We perfected the ways to pack and ship art and paintings, antiques are shipped almost daily from our store. And when the items are too large or fragile for the small package carriers (UPS, FedEx, DHL) we also use freight carriers. As time progressed we learned from the carriers how they damaged items. We learned to use our techniques to avoid damages, we offer our customer several levels or a range to choose from in the services. We offer customer options to save money and they do more, or have us take care of it all when possible. As an example, when we ship large pieces of furniture we can offer customers full service that includes pickup, packaging, insurance, delivery, inside delivery and even to have items unpacked and set in place. For many customers, they don’t need all the extras so they request the ones they need. If a customer has a very limited budget then we suggest that they bring the item in, we properly package it and then ship to the nearest terminal so it can be picked up (instead of being delivered.)
Our slogan is “We’ll Make It Go Away!”
Do you look back particularly fondly on any memories from childhood?
I think spending time at our family cottage, we were lucky to have a cottage in an area that provided a completely safe environment for kids to roam safely from sun up to sun down. Entire summers were spent playing outside with friends, biking, swimming, and water skiing. As I grew up I discovered how much the cottage meant to me and to my family, it remains a treasure piece of our family history.
Contact Info:
- Address: 1465 Woodbury Ave.,
Portsmouth, NH 03801 - Website: www.parcelroom.com
- Phone: 6034314205
- Email: Jeff@ParcelRoom.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/parcelroom/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/parcelroom
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/parcelroom
- Other: https://www.google.com/#q=parcel+room&lrd=0x89e2c064325dbdff:0x182fa2f4ef990f95,1,
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