This week, we spoke with Mark Glazman, CEO of USPack about USP Home: the white glove delivery and installation service vertical for USPack. For the sake of privacy, we can simply describe our white glove business customers as publicly-traded retailers including online furniture shopping companies, appliance retailers, and many other retailers that sale direct-to-consumer large home items that have a white glove or installation service deliverable as a part of the purchase. This includes furniture delivery and assembly, appliance delivery and installation, moving big and bulky items around the customer’s home and into their final spot, and whatever else our business customer guarantees to their customer and we help deliver. A majority of people reading this article will have purchased something from these companies multiple times throughout the year.

White glove is one of the most unique services we provide. In order to exceed the high standards of customer service for the end consumer, as though we were part of our business customer’s staff, it requires a high level of competence on our part, and a deep trust from our business customer.

Mark, can you tell us a little bit more about USP  Home and what makes it different from the rest of our services that we offer? 

For consumer delivery into the home – across the threshold – where you’re going in, you’re bringing something that’s big and bulky, you’re installing it, or you’re leaving it in room of choice…our customer wants to know that their customer – which is you, me, our parents, our brothers, sisters, friends – if they’re ordering something that needs to be installed or put into their home, they want to know that whatever time they’re expecting it, it’s going to be there at precisely their time, the people that are walking through their door are professional delivery personnel, and that they’re going to have a really good experience and want to buy from wherever they bought that product from again. That’s what we’re there to do. 

We’re the face of our customer.

And everything we’ve done in this industry – retail delivery, pharmaceutical and medical delivery, to eCommerce, to critical parts – they all necessitate that level of professionalism and precision. And all of that being backed up by technology which proves that you’re able to repeat the service, whether it’s in the Northeast, the Southwest, or or the Midwest, wherever we’re operating. 

How would you say that our core deliverables to our customers translate into USP Home? Specifically, when we’re talking about delivering things inside of people’s homes, it’s a big difference that that we’re certainly aware of. And how does that translate down to the level of service that we offer? 

First and foremost, [it’s about] safety and standards, especially when you’re going into somebody’s home. Everything we do at USPack has to be centered around standards and making sure that whatever is being delivered is being done so safely. That starts at the warehouse, on the road, and certainly at the end point – for USP Home, that’s the consumer’s home. That’s the place where they live, so our customer and the consumer, they want to know, that they’re getting something installed safely, that it‘s got standards behind it, and that it’s not just some fly by night service coming in and dropping a range into their home. 

For example: the [USPack] driver teams that are coming into a person’s home – they’re not just somebody that’s done a delivery once. There’s a huge process within USPack that goes along with all the verticals we service that’s reliant on standards. So when we’re sourcing that driver team you know and we know that they’re experienced. We know that there’s background checks, and we know their experience for the specific delivery profile that they’re going to execute. 

So again, it all comes back to safety and standards. And what’s at the root of all of that is being able to monitor that, track it, and we’re able to do so because we’ve got the visibility across the entire platform into how those standards are upheld and what the metrics are behind them. 

Where do you think white glove delivery is going in the retail consumer space and where does USP Home factor into that future for white glove? 

The biggest difference in the big and bulky space and furniture delivery or whatever somebody’s buying and getting delivered and installed in their home – the biggest difference is that you could shop for those things online five, six, seven years ago and maybe buy a thing here or there, but there was a trust factor where “I want to go and look at it. I want to see it, I want to touch it for myself, maybe I’ll pick it up and save a couple of bucks on the install.” 

But the last year has really showed people, well, there’s so many different ways to get delivery. There’s a new trust factor. Now, for the right services coming into their home and installing those items, it’s a reliable source of purchasing and delivering online straight to the home and getting it installed. 

The problem is – and it’s not a problem, it’s actually a great opportunity for companies like us – is that there’s so much demand and so little capacity to get delivery and install done with reputable companies. There are thousands of delivery companies in this country, but not many of them that operate with standards that can reliably come to somebody’s home on–time, install, or deliver to room of choice, and give the kind of customer experience that the consumers expected. 

So I think the demand [for white glove delivery] is just going to continue to go up. Where we fit in is everything I’ve been talking about: standards, technology, reliability and a real process for being able to to execute these services consistently across geographies. You know whether it’s in the Northeast and New England, and the Southeast, the Midwest – wherever we’re providing the service, it’s consistent and it’s repeatable. Again, because of all those tools that we’ve invested in throughout our existence, to give that same level of service through all of our verticals.