Turn Down The Hustle: Empowering Online T-Shirt Sellers

40 | Porch Pick-Up Sign [TDTH Challenge #7]

• Sun Kissed Virtual Assistant • Episode 40

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This episode explores how implementing porch pickup can streamline your small business while enhancing customer experience. You’ll learn practical strategies to take the plunge and set your business apart, along with addressing safety considerations when inviting customers to your home. 

• Simplifying logistics through porch pickup opportunities 
• Enhancing client satisfaction with efficient order retrieval 
• Essential safety protocols for successful porch pickup 
• Importance of clear communication and set boundaries 
• Unique tips to personalize the porch pickup experience 

Until the next challenge, keep turning down the hustle.


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Speaker 1:

Now, y'all know I'm all about finding ways to simplify things. I mean, come on, it's the Turn Down the Hustle podcast but I'm not willing to simplify things at the expense of a great customer experience. If you've ever felt like you're spending too much time coordinating meetups, if you've sold something random around your house on Facebook Marketplace, you know what I'm talking about the back and forth trying to figure out what's the best place to meet and which time works for them, or answering the same when can I pick this up? Is my item ready? Where can I pick it up? Those messages if you're having to answer them over and over again, then this challenge may be for you.

Speaker 1:

For you, Porch pickup can transform your small business when it comes to saving time and energy. This also can increase customer satisfaction, because they can get access to their orders a lot faster than waiting to coordinate a time to meet you. However, before you just throw out a sign that says pickup here, let's make sure that you set up your porch the right way, so it's safe, offers a smooth pickup and actually is helpful for your business. For the full, deep dive on how to set up your porch pickup effectively, I want you to go back and listen to episode 15 of this podcast.

Speaker 2:

I want you to go back and listen to episode 15 of this podcast. You're listening to Turn Down the Hustle, the podcast dedicated to transforming how you run your creative online t-shirt business by working smarter, not harder, so you can spend more time with your why, people and passions that matter most in your life. So throw on your favorite graphic tee and turn up the heat. Press, because it's time to turn down the hustle. Here's your host digital the hustle. Here's your host digital marketer. Cold brew lover, t-shirt maker, freckled hype girl and owner of Sunkist. Virtual Assistant, amy.

Speaker 1:

I covered everything from safety considerations to customer communication strategies to make this process work for you. So let's dive right in. When you're thinking about deciding if porch pickup makes sense for your business, some things I want you to think about. Some questions would be does this actually save you time or is it just adding more to your plate? Are you not actually meeting up with people? You ship all of your orders, so now, if you add porch pickup, maybe it's not something that's helpful for your business, for whatever reason. The next question are you comfortable with people coming to your house? Yes, whenever you ship something to them, your address is on the return label, but it's a little bit different of them having your address or googling it versus them showing up to your doorstep. Also, think about having extra security measures in place, whatever that might be for you. I highly recommend, if you don't have a doorbell camera, that you don't offer this service at this time, just to try to protect against porch pirates. Not saying doorbell cameras will keep them from stealing anything, but at least you would have proof that a porch pirate took your orders.

Speaker 1:

Next, set up clear communication and pickup instructions. So if you use Shopify, there is an option for local like pickup. However, if you think about who's probably using Shopify, think of more like boutique owners who maybe have a storefront. So of course they don't mind putting their full address for display, even if somebody hasn't purchased yet, so they can decide is this somewhere I want to pick up? Now, me personally, I don't feel comfortable with just displaying my address on my website like that as a home-based business. What I recommend you do is you put in a dummy address. You could say so it's a placeholder for that local pickup and say it's near Windy City High School, a couple blocks south, something like that. So you give them a geo-ref so they know if that's close to where they want to pick up and then they don't have to charge any shipping. But then whenever their order comes through and it's ready for pickup, then you send them your actual address. You can create a copy-paste message you can send to customers when their order is ready. You can also include this on the confirmation email whenever their order is ready for pickup, to include your address with all of the instructions.

Speaker 1:

Also, the main point of this episode was to get a porch pickup sign made. You can get this at Office Depot or other local print shops. The reason why I recommend you get a porch pickup sign is this is going to make it easier for people to find your house again, increasing the customer experience. Now you don't have to put it down by your mailbox, so then everybody knows there's goods on her porch that I can grab. You can put it more in an obscure place.

Speaker 1:

If you go to episode 15 in the show notes, I give an example of some pickup ideas. I had it near some bushes so you'd have to be looking for it to really notice it. I wouldn't say it was like stop here, get your attention, like a billboard, but it would give reassurance to the customers that they are in the right place. Sometimes I found, before I had this sign out, I would get messages. I would see on my ring camera the customer just sitting in their car and they would message confirm your door has this or your house has this. They didn't want to get up and just walk up to somebody's random door and be wrong. They wanted to know they had the right house.

Speaker 1:

I talked about having a ring camera for extra security measures in place for your products. But what about safety? A doorbell camera is great if you're worried about the safety aspect Also. When thinking about safety, if anybody is coming when it's maybe not light out for whatever reason because once you provide your address you can push your pickup times I guess you could pull the orders inside or lock the box. But you want to make sure that if they are coming where it's maybe not full daylight, that the pathway is lit so it's safe. And then if you have maybe a step up on your porch having that lit to make sure they don't trip or anything like that. However, I do recommend you set up clear boundaries. This is not a 24-hour stop and shop come whenever you want. At 2 am I had a customer come before really late and the dogs barked and that definitely startled me. I recommend you make sure they know when they can and can't pick up.

Speaker 1:

Okay, shifting into some of my favorite parts of porch pickup so you can really enhance the customer experience by playing on the season, so you can swap out your seasonal decor to make that area feel really fun and inviting. And who knows, it might just give your customers an excuse to order again just because they want to see how you have it decorated now, like that could be a very exciting thing. Also, think about the ones that maybe are running from a long day of work or hustling to kids. Practice. Anything like that snack bowl can not only dupul as a nice treat for your UPS FedEx drivers, but also think about those who have, maybe, kids in the car. Think about going to the bank and how you'd get a sucker or maybe an energy bar, I don't know. Something small goes a long way for that customer experience.

Speaker 1:

Also, in episode 15 I posted a picture of this, but I had a secure payment drop box. So some customers. I had one customer. She only wrote me checks and I didn't want her to leave that under a mat or anything like that, and I also didn't want to lose her business. So what I did was I got that secure payment Dropbox and I affixed it to my house so you couldn't just rip it off, and it had a key, so if somebody does drop off cash or checks, you can have it actually secure. Now, when it comes to them actually picking up from your porch, think about creating that designated pickup post in your Facebook group or page. You can get graphics like this in any of my content calendars included.

Speaker 1:

Also, you can tag customers when their order is ready, in addition to getting that your order is ready for pickup email, so they have a reference point to check back on. Because sometimes I can't remember the specifics, but I do remember I had an instance where I think I marked an order fulfilled but I hadn't set it out outside. I don't know if I did it before bed, like I marked it was done, but I didn't actually set it in the box. Which lesson learned don't mark it fulfilled until you actually set it out there. But a customer came and it wasn't ready yet. And then that's where I started using the Facebook post and told them like hey, confirming your item is ready for pickup. And I also told them how many bags they had.

Speaker 1:

Sometimes customers would do duplicate orders and they would assume maybe it was all in one bag. And then they leave and they're like, oh my gosh, the shirt's missing. And I'm like, shoot, I should have told you you actually had two different bags in there. And then I would delete their comment whenever they picked up those items. I personally never had an experience where people were taking other people's items. If anything, it was the opposite, where some customers never came and got their items, which is a whole different thing. But creating that centralized porch pickup area and then redirecting them.

Speaker 1:

The key takeaway is with that porch pickup sign, that can alleviate a lot of those back and forth messages. So if you're dabbling on whether or not you're going to partake in this challenge, I highly recommend. If you're dabbling on whether or not you're going to participate in this challenge, I highly recommend. If you're spending way too much time coordinating meetups or times or you're just getting stuck with items or frustrated customers and you feel comfortable with porch pickup, I highly recommend you take the time to get it set up Less messaging, fewer meetups and no more leaving the house multiple times to meet up with people. Customers love those fast pickups without the hassle of maybe paying for shipping or waiting to meet you if they're local. Now remember porch pickup isn't for everyone, but if it does make sense for your business, it will help you turn down the hustle. Treat this episode like your quick start guide, but if you want to dive in deeper, go listen to episode 15.

Speaker 1:

And I asked my community about their experience with porch pickup and here's what a few of them have shared. Jesse says I don't have porch pickup, but I offer pickup at the local coffee shop. I'm really curious to pick Jesse's brain on this. I want to know more. Are all of the orders behind the coffee shop desk? Are they in front of the counter? And also, how did you formulate this relationship with that coffee shop owner to set up this local porch pickup setup, which is great for the coffee shop owner as well, because now it's bringing people into their shop? So this person I won't say their name, but he or she says I'm not able to offer porch pickup because I'm not supposed to be running a business out of my house.

Speaker 1:

Hoa, president, lives at the front of my neighborhood. Yeah, that would be a reason to not offer porch pickup to raise any eyebrows of what's going on. Daiquiri said I don't offer porch pickup but I do offer local pickup at a public spot, so meeting up for Daiquiri does work. And then Carol said I don't offer porch pickup because I live about 10 miles out of town. So again, even with an episode all about porch pickup, my community so far is saying yeah, that's not really something I personally offer and that is okay. It's all about what works for you. Make sure that it's convenient for you without adding extra stress to your business. I would love to know after you're done listening to this episode. You can submit fan mail through the podcast, or you can make a post and tag my business, let me know. Do you already offer porch pickup or is it something you're thinking about adding? Until the next challenge, keep turning down the hustle.

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