Human Resources in the Courier Service industry

Here we go. But we need to be careful not to give away too many nuggets to our competitors. A-1 Courier has had great success with the drivers and office staff we’ve hired over the years.

With regard to the office staff, we’re very careful and only hire people that have that unique way about them that is 100% nice. You can usually tell when people have an edge to them. When interviewing and asking questions, sometimes probing questions, it gets pretty easy to see if they’re the type whose feathers can be ruffled. The key is to ask specific questions.

Two of those questions we like to ask are, “Who was your favorite supervisor in the past,” and “who was your least favorite supervisor,” and why? (That might be more than two questions…)

When people answer, for example, that their worst supervisor doesn’t really exist because they’ve liked everyone they’ve worked under, well, that can be good…or it can be evasive. That’s why the interview process is one to be done carefully. We have some books in our library that help with that process.

Another item we’re very careful about is only hiring order takers that can prove to type 50 words per minute. This way, when you call us – or not you – but your staff member, that speaks very fast…we’ll be fine. One thing to admit is that our system goes in a certain order, but when you have the ability to type 50 plus words per minute, we have the flexibility to go in the order you want, and since you’ve called us, when you can call anyone, we need to provide the best courier service in Los Angeles.

Our order takers have guidelines that we think are great suggestions, if you might be interested. If you’re a competitor and you’re reading this, it’s a trick. You should not follow our suggestions. Humor aside, we’re in the service business, so we need to constantly be aware that we’re selling the type of courier service that you’ll remember and always be able to count on. 

When you call A-1 Courier we must outperform other messenger services in Los Angeles and Orange County. And it’s fun for us to take on that challenge. Now, if we were selling a product, and the product was the best on the market, we wouldn’t worry too much about the level of service you get, or how we answer the phone for example. But we don’t have that kind of leeway. And who does? Because, if you’re selling the best exercise equipment ever invented, it will only be the best till the next great discovery comes along.

Getting back to human resources, at A-1 Courier, our drivers are personally hired and trained by our founder, and it seems to work best this way. If there’s a rapport and trust with the top person at a company that’s a good start. After that, it’s ideal to have open lines of communication with all supervisors and co-workers. 

And finally, if you want to avoid any problems with employees, besides being nice and respectful all of the time, we highly recommend getting books on the subject and becoming well versed in the challenges of human resources.