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How does your YRC pack end up on you mat?!
2009-11-26
YRC gaffer Hannah James realised early on in 2009 that licking and slicking each of the membership packs was costing a lot of time and money so when the chance came to change things for the new membership season, she dropped a line to her friends at
Accelero Direct – the company that used to distribute all the SEAT Sport UK BTCC merchandise. She knew they were good and that they’d look after the YRC members so made the trip down to their offices in Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire with the YRC Ford KA van stacked high with the new packs!
Setting up the systems was very simple and it’s made a huge difference to the way YRC works – now Hannah’s free to concentrate on recruiting new YRC members and what’s more, Accelero have joined the YourRacingCar.com Guerrilla Marketing Club sponsoring Fulvio’s G50 in 2010 in support of ‘their’ racing team!
Hannah caught up with Karon at Accelero to find out a bit more about how the business works.
HJ: What is distribution and fulfilment all about – sounds very ‘corporate’?
Karon: It’s taking the headache of organising mailings and shipping away from our customers so they can concentrate on their core business. In the case of YRC, that’s making sure your members are happy and that you’re managing the racing side of things – not worrying about getting your member packs out!
HJ: YRC are saving money by using Accelero – how is it that customers save money by using Accelero rather than packaging and sending things out themselves?
Karon: Savings can be made in a variety of ways, it’s not just the postage that we can help with it is also the time element that is very seldom considered, for example a mailshot starts on the desk top, which can include personalisation & printing, then what do you do next? You either have to fold it, insert it, lick it and stick it. Then trundle off to the Post Office. All this takes time and time is money, and stress. We have access straight to the Postal System. For small businesses it’s particularly relevant because you’re not printing things out using your office printers, plus it looks much more professional.
HJ: When events like the recent postal strikes happen, how does that affect your business?
Karon: It is always very worrying when we hear about industrial action, as we are Account Managed by Royal Mail we do receive prior notification about this and are able to advise on the best way to handle the mail. We still receive daily collections from the local office when there is Industrial Action so the mail does move. Again, another reason why using us takes a bit of hassle away. If you remember, YRC launched this year with a strike looming but we got through the action without any delays to your members.
HJ: Who are Accelero?
Karon: It’s me and Julia heading a small team of experienced personnel. I have many years experience in the Mailing Industry. Julia comes from the Processing and Manufacturing Industry having years of experience in Quality Assurance Management. We are both highly motivated individuals and thrive on good Customer service.
HJ: Can you give me three examples of customers that you service?
Karon: We have a wide variety of Customers from the BBC in Bush House, London, which we send out a magazine for worldwide distribution. Thomas Cook, who’s Monthly Train Timetables are packed and distributed to Europe, USA and UK. SportBusiness Group a Publisher in London who have 5 titles that we data manage, format template and print the carrier sheets, wrap in poly and distribute Worldwide. We also fulfil Worldwide to the Fashion Industry using our Courier network. We’ll deal with anything as long as it’s legal and we can manage its distribution from our offices.
HJ: How can you help businesses grow?
Karon: During this period of economic downturn, we need to be more cost effective offering services for the distribution of Direct Mail Campaigns to stay within budgetary requirements. People can’t afford to stop marketing so we just make it as pain-free and effective as possible.
HJ: Why do you enjoy doing it?
Karon: We get a great deal of satisfaction from providing our customers with a service that goes that extra mile. We do what we say we are going to do and I would say that all of our customers would agree with that statement.
HJ: You know we love what you do for us and we want to tell everyone how good you are so, what kind of clients are you looking for in the future?
Karon: We ideally would like to have Small to Medium Businesses that are sending a minimum of 1000 items per campaign. The best thing anyone interested in what we can do is to drop us a call at the Accelero Direct office – the number’s
01296 486240 or email me at
karon@accelerodirect.com.
So - we hope that helps our YRCers to know a bit more about how their packs arrive safe at their homes! We’re not just promoting Accelero as a sponsor – they’ve honestly changed things massively for YRC this year and it’s nice to have a team of people who are as passionate about what they do as we are – they’ve been to the races and will be joining us again at Silverstone next year in their special capacity as GMC Sponsors!
For more information as to how Accelero can help your business (it’s certainly worth finding out!) visit
www.accelerodirect.com.
