February 17, 2025 • 13 mins
This episode explores how implementing porch pickup can streamline your small business while enhancing customer experience. You’ll learn practical strategies to take the plunge and set your business apart, along with addressing safety considerations when inviting customers to your home.
• Simplifying logistics through porch pickup opportunities
• Enhancing client satisfaction with efficient order retrieval
• Essential safety protocols for successful porch pickup
• Importance of clear communication and set boundaries
• Unique tips to personalize the porch pickup experience
Until the next challenge, keep turning down the hustle.
Got an idea for an episode? Shoot me a message and tell me about it!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Now, y'all know I'm all about finding ways to
simplify things.
I mean, come on, it's the TurnDown the Hustle podcast but I'm
not willing to simplify thingsat the expense of a great
customer experience.
If you've ever felt like you'respending too much time
coordinating meetups, if you'vesold something random around
(00:21):
your house on FacebookMarketplace, you know what I'm
talking about the back and forthtrying to figure out what's the
best place to meet and whichtime works for them, or
answering the same when can Ipick this up?
Is my item ready?
Where can I pick it up?
Those messages if you're havingto answer them over and over
again, then this challenge maybe for you.
For you, Porch pickup cantransform your small business
(00:46):
when it comes to saving time andenergy.
This also can increase customersatisfaction, because they can
get access to their orders a lotfaster than waiting to
coordinate a time to meet you.
However, before you just throwout a sign that says pickup here
, let's make sure that you setup your porch the right way, so
(01:08):
it's safe, offers a smoothpickup and actually is helpful
for your business.
For the full, deep dive on howto set up your porch pickup
effectively, I want you to goback and listen to episode 15 of
this podcast.
Speaker 2 (01:24):
I want you to go back and listen to episode 15 of
this podcast.
You're listening to Turn Downthe Hustle, the podcast
dedicated to transforming howyou run your creative online
t-shirt business by workingsmarter, not harder, so you can
spend more time with your why,people and passions that matter
most in your life.
So throw on your favoritegraphic tee and turn up the heat
.
Press, because it's time toturn down the hustle.
(01:44):
Here's your host digital thehustle.
Here's your host digitalmarketer.
Cold brew lover, t-shirt maker,freckled hype girl and owner of
Sunkist.
Virtual Assistant, amy.
Speaker 1 (01:53):
I covered everything from safety considerations to
customer communicationstrategies to make this process
work for you.
So let's dive right in.
When you're thinking aboutdeciding if porch pickup makes
sense for your business, somethings I want you to think about
.
Some questions would be doesthis actually save you time or
(02:15):
is it just adding more to yourplate?
Are you not actually meeting upwith people?
You ship all of your orders, sonow, if you add porch pickup,
maybe it's not something that'shelpful for your business, for
whatever reason.
The next question are youcomfortable with people coming
to your house?
Yes, whenever you shipsomething to them, your address
(02:38):
is on the return label, but it'sa little bit different of them
having your address or googlingit versus them showing up to
your doorstep.
Also, think about having extrasecurity measures in place,
whatever that might be for you.
I highly recommend, if youdon't have a doorbell camera,
that you don't offer thisservice at this time, just to
(03:00):
try to protect against porchpirates.
Not saying doorbell cameraswill keep them from stealing
anything, but at least you wouldhave proof that a porch pirate
took your orders.
Next, set up clear communicationand pickup instructions.
So if you use Shopify, there isan option for local like pickup
(03:21):
.
However, if you think aboutwho's probably using Shopify,
think of more like boutiqueowners who maybe have a
storefront.
So of course they don't mindputting their full address for
display, even if somebody hasn'tpurchased yet, so they can
decide is this somewhere I wantto pick up?
Now, me personally, I don'tfeel comfortable with just
(03:43):
displaying my address on mywebsite like that as a
home-based business.
What I recommend you do is youput in a dummy address.
You could say so it's aplaceholder for that local
pickup and say it's near WindyCity High School, a couple
blocks south, something likethat.
So you give them a geo-ref sothey know if that's close to
(04:05):
where they want to pick up andthen they don't have to charge
any shipping.
But then whenever their ordercomes through and it's ready for
pickup, then you send them youractual address.
You can create a copy-pastemessage you can send to
customers when their order isready.
You can also include this onthe confirmation email whenever
their order is ready for pickup,to include your address with
(04:27):
all of the instructions.
Also, the main point of thisepisode was to get a porch
pickup sign made.
You can get this at OfficeDepot or other local print shops
.
The reason why I recommend youget a porch pickup sign is this
is going to make it easier forpeople to find your house again,
increasing the customerexperience.
(04:49):
Now you don't have to put itdown by your mailbox, so then
everybody knows there's goods onher porch that I can grab.
You can put it more in anobscure place.
If you go to episode 15 in theshow notes, I give an example of
some pickup ideas.
I had it near some bushes soyou'd have to be looking for it
to really notice it.
(05:09):
I wouldn't say it was like stophere, get your attention, like
a billboard, but it would givereassurance to the customers
that they are in the right place.
Sometimes I found, before I hadthis sign out, I would get
messages.
I would see on my ring camerathe customer just sitting in
(05:30):
their car and they would messageconfirm your door has this or
your house has this.
They didn't want to get up andjust walk up to somebody's
random door and be wrong.
They wanted to know they hadthe right house.
I talked about having a ringcamera for extra security
measures in place for yourproducts.
But what about safety?
A doorbell camera is great ifyou're worried about the safety
(05:52):
aspect Also.
When thinking about safety, ifanybody is coming when it's
maybe not light out for whateverreason because once you provide
your address you can push yourpickup times I guess you could
pull the orders inside or lockthe box.
But you want to make sure thatif they are coming where it's
(06:13):
maybe not full daylight, thatthe pathway is lit so it's safe.
And then if you have maybe astep up on your porch having
that lit to make sure they don'ttrip or anything like that.
However, I do recommend you setup clear boundaries.
This is not a 24-hour stop andshop come whenever you want.
(06:35):
At 2 am I had a customer comebefore really late and the dogs
barked and that definitelystartled me.
I recommend you make sure theyknow when they can and can't
pick up.
Okay, shifting into some of myfavorite parts of porch pickup
so you can really enhance thecustomer experience by playing
(06:55):
on the season, so you can swapout your seasonal decor to make
that area feel really fun andinviting.
And who knows, it might justgive your customers an excuse to
order again just because theywant to see how you have it
decorated now, like that couldbe a very exciting thing.
Also, think about the ones thatmaybe are running from a long
(07:18):
day of work or hustling to kids.
Practice.
Anything like that snack bowlcan not only dupul as a nice
treat for your UPS FedEx drivers, but also think about those who
have, maybe, kids in the car.
Think about going to the bankand how you'd get a sucker or
maybe an energy bar, I don'tknow.
Something small goes a long wayfor that customer experience.
(07:42):
Also, in episode 15 I posted apicture of this, but I had a
secure payment drop box.
So some customers.
I had one customer.
She only wrote me checks and Ididn't want her to leave that
under a mat or anything likethat, and I also didn't want to
lose her business.
So what I did was I got thatsecure payment Dropbox and I
(08:05):
affixed it to my house so youcouldn't just rip it off, and it
had a key, so if somebody doesdrop off cash or checks, you can
have it actually secure.
Now, when it comes to themactually picking up from your
porch, think about creating thatdesignated pickup post in your
Facebook group or page.
You can get graphics like thisin any of my content calendars
(08:30):
included.
Also, you can tag customers whentheir order is ready, in
addition to getting that yourorder is ready for pickup email,
so they have a reference pointto check back on.
Because sometimes I can'tremember the specifics, but I do
remember I had an instancewhere I think I marked an order
fulfilled but I hadn't set itout outside.
(08:51):
I don't know if I did it beforebed, like I marked it was done,
but I didn't actually set it inthe box.
Which lesson learned don't markit fulfilled until you actually
set it out there.
But a customer came and itwasn't ready yet.
And then that's where I startedusing the Facebook post and
told them like hey, confirmingyour item is ready for pickup.
(09:11):
And I also told them how manybags they had.
Sometimes customers would doduplicate orders and they would
assume maybe it was all in onebag.
And then they leave and they'relike, oh my gosh, the shirt's
missing.
And I'm like, shoot, I shouldhave told you you actually had
two different bags in there.
And then I would delete theircomment whenever they picked up
(09:31):
those items.
I personally never had anexperience where people were
taking other people's items.
If anything, it was theopposite, where some customers
never came and got their items,which is a whole different thing
.
But creating that centralizedporch pickup area and then
redirecting them.
The key takeaway is with thatporch pickup sign, that can
(09:53):
alleviate a lot of those backand forth messages.
So if you're dabbling onwhether or not you're going to
partake in this challenge, Ihighly recommend.
If you're dabbling on whetheror not you're going to
participate in this challenge, Ihighly recommend.
If you're spending way too muchtime coordinating meetups or
times or you're just gettingstuck with items or frustrated
customers and you feelcomfortable with porch pickup, I
(10:14):
highly recommend you take thetime to get it set up Less
messaging, fewer meetups and nomore leaving the house multiple
times to meet up with people.
Customers love those fastpickups without the hassle of
maybe paying for shipping orwaiting to meet you if they're
local.
Now remember porch pickup isn'tfor everyone, but if it does
(10:38):
make sense for your business, itwill help you turn down the
hustle.
Treat this episode like yourquick start guide, but if you
want to dive in deeper, golisten to episode 15.
And I asked my community abouttheir experience with porch
pickup and here's what a few ofthem have shared.
(10:59):
Jesse says I don't have porchpickup, but I offer pickup at
the local coffee shop.
I'm really curious to pickJesse's brain on this.
I want to know more.
Are all of the orders behindthe coffee shop desk?
Are they in front of thecounter?
And also, how did you formulatethis relationship with that
(11:19):
coffee shop owner to set up thislocal porch pickup setup, which
is great for the coffee shopowner as well, because now it's
bringing people into their shop?
So this person I won't saytheir name, but he or she says
I'm not able to offer porchpickup because I'm not supposed
to be running a business out ofmy house.
(11:41):
Hoa, president, lives at thefront of my neighborhood.
Yeah, that would be a reason tonot offer porch pickup to raise
any eyebrows of what's going on.
Daiquiri said I don't offerporch pickup but I do offer
local pickup at a public spot,so meeting up for Daiquiri does
work.
And then Carol said I don'toffer porch pickup because I
(12:03):
live about 10 miles out of town.
So again, even with an episodeall about porch pickup, my
community so far is saying yeah,that's not really something I
personally offer and that isokay.
It's all about what works foryou.
Make sure that it's convenientfor you without adding extra
(12:25):
stress to your business.
I would love to know afteryou're done listening to this
episode.
You can submit fan mail throughthe podcast, or you can make a
post and tag my business, let meknow.
Do you already offer porchpickup or is it something you're
thinking about adding?
Until the next challenge, keepturning down the hustle.
Now, y'all know I'm all about finding ways to
simplify things.
I mean, come on, it's the TurnDown the Hustle podcast but I'm
not willing to simplify thingsat the expense of a great
customer experience.
If you've ever felt like you'respending too much time
coordinating meetups, if you'vesold something random around
(00:21):
your house on FacebookMarketplace, you know what I'm
talking about the back and forthtrying to figure out what's the
best place to meet and whichtime works for them, or
answering the same when can Ipick this up?
Is my item ready?
Where can I pick it up?
Those messages if you're havingto answer them over and over
again, then this challenge maybe for you.
For you, Porch pickup cantransform your small business
(00:46):
when it comes to saving time andenergy.
This also can increase customersatisfaction, because they can
get access to their orders a lotfaster than waiting to
coordinate a time to meet you.
However, before you just throwout a sign that says pickup here
, let's make sure that you setup your porch the right way, so
(01:08):
it's safe, offers a smoothpickup and actually is helpful
for your business.
For the full, deep dive on howto set up your porch pickup
effectively, I want you to goback and listen to episode 15 of
this podcast.
Speaker 2 (01:24):
I want you to go back and listen to episode 15 of
this podcast.
You're listening to Turn Downthe Hustle, the podcast
dedicated to transforming howyou run your creative online
t-shirt business by workingsmarter, not harder, so you can
spend more time with your why,people and passions that matter
most in your life.
So throw on your favoritegraphic tee and turn up the heat
.
Press, because it's time toturn down the hustle.
(01:44):
Here's your host digital thehustle.
Here's your host digitalmarketer.
Cold brew lover, t-shirt maker,freckled hype girl and owner of
Sunkist.
Virtual Assistant, amy.
Speaker 1 (01:53):
I covered everything from safety considerations to
customer communicationstrategies to make this process
work for you.
So let's dive right in.
When you're thinking aboutdeciding if porch pickup makes
sense for your business, somethings I want you to think about
.
Some questions would be doesthis actually save you time or
(02:15):
is it just adding more to yourplate?
Are you not actually meeting upwith people?
You ship all of your orders, sonow, if you add porch pickup,
maybe it's not something that'shelpful for your business, for
whatever reason.
The next question are youcomfortable with people coming
to your house?
Yes, whenever you shipsomething to them, your address
(02:38):
is on the return label, but it'sa little bit different of them
having your address or googlingit versus them showing up to
your doorstep.
Also, think about having extrasecurity measures in place,
whatever that might be for you.
I highly recommend, if youdon't have a doorbell camera,
that you don't offer thisservice at this time, just to
(03:00):
try to protect against porchpirates.
Not saying doorbell cameraswill keep them from stealing
anything, but at least you wouldhave proof that a porch pirate
took your orders.
Next, set up clear communicationand pickup instructions.
So if you use Shopify, there isan option for local like pickup
(03:21):
.
However, if you think aboutwho's probably using Shopify,
think of more like boutiqueowners who maybe have a
storefront.
So of course they don't mindputting their full address for
display, even if somebody hasn'tpurchased yet, so they can
decide is this somewhere I wantto pick up?
Now, me personally, I don'tfeel comfortable with just
(03:43):
displaying my address on mywebsite like that as a
home-based business.
What I recommend you do is youput in a dummy address.
You could say so it's aplaceholder for that local
pickup and say it's near WindyCity High School, a couple
blocks south, something likethat.
So you give them a geo-ref sothey know if that's close to
(04:05):
where they want to pick up andthen they don't have to charge
any shipping.
But then whenever their ordercomes through and it's ready for
pickup, then you send them youractual address.
You can create a copy-pastemessage you can send to
customers when their order isready.
You can also include this onthe confirmation email whenever
their order is ready for pickup,to include your address with
(04:27):
all of the instructions.
Also, the main point of thisepisode was to get a porch
pickup sign made.
You can get this at OfficeDepot or other local print shops
.
The reason why I recommend youget a porch pickup sign is this
is going to make it easier forpeople to find your house again,
increasing the customerexperience.
(04:49):
Now you don't have to put itdown by your mailbox, so then
everybody knows there's goods onher porch that I can grab.
You can put it more in anobscure place.
If you go to episode 15 in theshow notes, I give an example of
some pickup ideas.
I had it near some bushes soyou'd have to be looking for it
to really notice it.
(05:09):
I wouldn't say it was like stophere, get your attention, like
a billboard, but it would givereassurance to the customers
that they are in the right place.
Sometimes I found, before I hadthis sign out, I would get
messages.
I would see on my ring camerathe customer just sitting in
(05:30):
their car and they would messageconfirm your door has this or
your house has this.
They didn't want to get up andjust walk up to somebody's
random door and be wrong.
They wanted to know they hadthe right house.
I talked about having a ringcamera for extra security
measures in place for yourproducts.
But what about safety?
A doorbell camera is great ifyou're worried about the safety
(05:52):
aspect Also.
When thinking about safety, ifanybody is coming when it's
maybe not light out for whateverreason because once you provide
your address you can push yourpickup times I guess you could
pull the orders inside or lockthe box.
But you want to make sure thatif they are coming where it's
(06:13):
maybe not full daylight, thatthe pathway is lit so it's safe.
And then if you have maybe astep up on your porch having
that lit to make sure they don'ttrip or anything like that.
However, I do recommend you setup clear boundaries.
This is not a 24-hour stop andshop come whenever you want.
(06:35):
At 2 am I had a customer comebefore really late and the dogs
barked and that definitelystartled me.
I recommend you make sure theyknow when they can and can't
pick up.
Okay, shifting into some of myfavorite parts of porch pickup
so you can really enhance thecustomer experience by playing
(06:55):
on the season, so you can swapout your seasonal decor to make
that area feel really fun andinviting.
And who knows, it might justgive your customers an excuse to
order again just because theywant to see how you have it
decorated now, like that couldbe a very exciting thing.
Also, think about the ones thatmaybe are running from a long
(07:18):
day of work or hustling to kids.
Practice.
Anything like that snack bowlcan not only dupul as a nice
treat for your UPS FedEx drivers, but also think about those who
have, maybe, kids in the car.
Think about going to the bankand how you'd get a sucker or
maybe an energy bar, I don'tknow.
Something small goes a long wayfor that customer experience.
(07:42):
Also, in episode 15 I posted apicture of this, but I had a
secure payment drop box.
So some customers.
I had one customer.
She only wrote me checks and Ididn't want her to leave that
under a mat or anything likethat, and I also didn't want to
lose her business.
So what I did was I got thatsecure payment Dropbox and I
(08:05):
affixed it to my house so youcouldn't just rip it off, and it
had a key, so if somebody doesdrop off cash or checks, you can
have it actually secure.
Now, when it comes to themactually picking up from your
porch, think about creating thatdesignated pickup post in your
Facebook group or page.
You can get graphics like thisin any of my content calendars
(08:30):
included.
Also, you can tag customers whentheir order is ready, in
addition to getting that yourorder is ready for pickup email,
so they have a reference pointto check back on.
Because sometimes I can'tremember the specifics, but I do
remember I had an instancewhere I think I marked an order
fulfilled but I hadn't set itout outside.
(08:51):
I don't know if I did it beforebed, like I marked it was done,
but I didn't actually set it inthe box.
Which lesson learned don't markit fulfilled until you actually
set it out there.
But a customer came and itwasn't ready yet.
And then that's where I startedusing the Facebook post and
told them like hey, confirmingyour item is ready for pickup.
(09:11):
And I also told them how manybags they had.
Sometimes customers would doduplicate orders and they would
assume maybe it was all in onebag.
And then they leave and they'relike, oh my gosh, the shirt's
missing.
And I'm like, shoot, I shouldhave told you you actually had
two different bags in there.
And then I would delete theircomment whenever they picked up
(09:31):
those items.
I personally never had anexperience where people were
taking other people's items.
If anything, it was theopposite, where some customers
never came and got their items,which is a whole different thing
.
But creating that centralizedporch pickup area and then
redirecting them.
The key takeaway is with thatporch pickup sign, that can
(09:53):
alleviate a lot of those backand forth messages.
So if you're dabbling onwhether or not you're going to
partake in this challenge, Ihighly recommend.
If you're dabbling on whetheror not you're going to
participate in this challenge, Ihighly recommend.
If you're spending way too muchtime coordinating meetups or
times or you're just gettingstuck with items or frustrated
customers and you feelcomfortable with porch pickup, I
(10:14):
highly recommend you take thetime to get it set up Less
messaging, fewer meetups and nomore leaving the house multiple
times to meet up with people.
Customers love those fastpickups without the hassle of
maybe paying for shipping orwaiting to meet you if they're
local.
Now remember porch pickup isn'tfor everyone, but if it does
(10:38):
make sense for your business, itwill help you turn down the
hustle.
Treat this episode like yourquick start guide, but if you
want to dive in deeper, golisten to episode 15.
And I asked my community abouttheir experience with porch
pickup and here's what a few ofthem have shared.
(10:59):
Jesse says I don't have porchpickup, but I offer pickup at
the local coffee shop.
I'm really curious to pickJesse's brain on this.
I want to know more.
Are all of the orders behindthe coffee shop desk?
Are they in front of thecounter?
And also, how did you formulatethis relationship with that
(11:19):
coffee shop owner to set up thislocal porch pickup setup, which
is great for the coffee shopowner as well, because now it's
bringing people into their shop?
So this person I won't saytheir name, but he or she says
I'm not able to offer porchpickup because I'm not supposed
to be running a business out ofmy house.
(11:41):
Hoa, president, lives at thefront of my neighborhood.
Yeah, that would be a reason tonot offer porch pickup to raise
any eyebrows of what's going on.
Daiquiri said I don't offerporch pickup but I do offer
local pickup at a public spot,so meeting up for Daiquiri does
work.
And then Carol said I don'toffer porch pickup because I
(12:03):
live about 10 miles out of town.
So again, even with an episodeall about porch pickup, my
community so far is saying yeah,that's not really something I
personally offer and that isokay.
It's all about what works foryou.
Make sure that it's convenientfor you without adding extra
(12:25):
stress to your business.
I would love to know afteryou're done listening to this
episode.
You can submit fan mail throughthe podcast, or you can make a
post and tag my business, let meknow.
Do you already offer porchpickup or is it something you're
thinking about adding?
Until the next challenge, keepturning down the hustle.
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