Point Clear Postmaster Sissy Hawkins started helping the company B & B Pecans with their shipping about 12 years ago. Regularly, B & B sends out 60-70 boxes a day; during their busy season (late October through mid December), that total rises to around 1400 packages each day that they send to customers across the globe.
For years, Sissy has been dedicated to providing B & B Pecans with the best possible service. Although Point Clear is a one-person office and Sissy has to do everything herself, she still would pick up packages for B & B at their store on her lunch breaks, and she would pick up their packages on Sundays when the Post Office was closed just so that she could have them ready for processing when she came in early at 3am Monday morning, hours before her shift officially started,.
But B & B started using UPS during their busy season because UPS gave them a computer upon which to print their labels and placed a shipping container on their lot that they would come and empty daily.
This is where Fairhope Rural Carrier Hollie Thomas entered the picture. She had just heard a talk from
Business Solutions Specialist Karen Lane about Rural Reach, where rural carriers submit leads when they see companies using our competitors.
While on her route, Hollie had noticed that B & B Pecans was using UPS and how busy that company was. She was already a firm believer in the value of our service and that employees should know as much as possible about what we offer so that we can reach out to our customers (or potential customers). “Employees should educate themselves so that they will know what to explain to our customers,” Hollie said. “We are all post offices on wheels.”Listening to Karen Lane reinforced this idea, and not long afterwards, Hollie submitted a lead about B & B Pecans to Karen.
Karen took it from there. She approached B & B, talked to them about Click-n-Ship, and helped them download the Eagle Eye (a rate comparison program) program from Stamps.com. She asked them to try it for a month, and when minor difficulties have arisen, has tried to get them immediately resolved.
Sissy Hawkins, the Postal employee that B & B has known the longest and trusts the most, is still assisting B & B. “I’ll take care of B & B come hell or high water, no matter what,” Hawkins says.
