a canadian startup

Tough Decisions? Ask your Customers

Here is an example of using a community to help you make decisions.

Recently, we’ve been approached by shipping companies asking us to use their service instead of our current shipping partner, Canada Post.

Because our order volumes are high, the prices are all very competitive. So when UPS approached us with really amazing prices, I was thinking, hey, yeah, let’s use UPS. UPS is a courier — that should be better than regular mail, right?

Well, right before sending the “yeah, let’s sign a contract” email, I posted the following message to my friends on Twitter:

And I posted a similar question to RedFlagDeals.com — the eCommerce forum in Canada.

Within days, I had dozens of answers from people that buy online frequently and have experienced both UPS and Canada Post.

Check out some of the responses:

1) UPS pick up centres are in the middle of nowhere. 2) They charge crazy brokerage fees when you ship across the border.

-funkaoshi (via twitter)

And RedFlagDeals offered this feedback:

I loathe UPS and much prefer Canada Post.

I actively *avoid* retailers that use UPS actually, so keep that in mind.

And:

I hate UPS and won’t buy anything if that’s the only option. [...] Hatehatehate UPS

Or:

If a company only offers UPS as a shipping option, I always go a with a competitor (all other things being equal).

Do not use UPS

And:

Why yes… I DO hate UPS.

Companies that use UPS are guilty about caring more about themselves and less about their customers.

And most convincingly:

UPS sux b___s.

Long story short, customers really, really, really hate UPS and we’re not going to use them. You can read the whole forum here. I had no idea – but it’s easy to make a decision now! Here’s the email I sent to UPS telling them that we cannot use their service.

If there is an engaged community around the product that you develop, why not participate and ask them for advice? To some this looks unprofessional. For me, speaking directly to our audience, minus the corporate messaging, is the best way to connect.

This example alone may have saved us a great deal of money. Thanks community!