Credit crunch, what credit crunch? Online Furniture retailer announces huge company expansion figure

PR Log (Press Release) – Dec 07, 2009 – JB Global Ltd (Oak Furniture Land) are currently the market leaders in B2C selling of hardwood furniture. JB Direct; the transport and courier division of the company, this week announced that staff expansion has greatly increased in the last twelve months seeing employee numbers in their transport team rise from four to fifty in one year. JB Direct director Paul Isom said “it’s incredible, over the last year we have gone from a small group in one room to a large team spread across the UK”

JB Direct’s fleet has also seen a large expansion from just two Luton Vans to twenty-six in less than ten months with a new addition of *?* 7.5 tonne trucks. The expansion has now lead to two more depots being established in Manchester and Brentwood, Essex, which are currently serving 85% of customer orders across the UK.

Further developments in technology have also been established with JB Direct designing and launching their new booking in system for customer orders; (software name)

(software name) is an innovative piece of software which JB Direct commissioned to be designed for ease of use and customer convenience. The software sees features such as:

•   Real time order system from point of sale

•   Sorting system based on customer post code area

•   Simple drag and drop routing orders

•   Automatic route optimisation

•   Delivery Calendar

•   Ability to product picking lists and driver schedules

•   Automatically generated customer call lists for in house customer service teams

•   Orders customer deliveries in priority of when customer received their confirmation email.

With other useful functions being integrated into the system in the last six months, JB Directs system is fast becoming a market winner. Features such as automatically tying up customer orders for multiple purchases to avoid repeat visits to one address and system ability to print special delivery notes for driver communication are being recognised for customer convenience. Other features such as an “on hold status” have been brought in within the last three months to give customers greater flexibility with working commitments, holidays, renovations etc.

“We’ve really seen some great feedback over the past 3 months with more happy customers. The general consensus is that customers prefer to be given a small time frame when expecting deliveries so a whole day isn’t wasted waiting. Some customers can’t take delivery for a month or two whilst they are waiting for renovations and property purchases to complete so this new feature helps to find a time and date that best suits the customer” Said JB Direct Director Paul Isom.

Transport manager Ross Scrivens said “the feature that has worked best for us and our customers is the notification system. When the customer buys an item they receive a confirmation email, they will then receive an email notifying them a courier will be in touch to arrange a time and date for delivery. Once the delivery is agreed with the customer they will receive a confirmation text and email. As a reminder, we will send another text and email at midday the day before delivery which goes out to all numbers they provide on their details. Our drivers will then call them either one hour or half an hour before delivery to ensure they are in. We have found this method means people aren’t waiting around and are less likely to forget a scheduled delivery too.”

With the introduction of the new 7.5 tonne lorries JB Direct understand that peoples properties/streets may not always be equipped to deal with larger vehicles so customers are asked at point of booking whether or not they can take this type of delivery, if they can’t the booking system will automatically rearrange the delivery on one of the smaller Luton vans.

Further to JB Directs latest developments and expansions their shipping methods have also seen great improvement by using stillages on artics to reduce handling and damage. JB Direct say processes such as these are set to reduce dispatch and delivery time scales, speeding up the purchase to delivery times across the board ensuring a smoother process for all.

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