Fetch is “The One” for The One’s Massive Package Management Challenge

Fetch is “The One” for The One’s Massive Package Management Challenge

Located in sunny Miami, The One at University City is a high-rise student housing community managed by Landmark Properties that caters to students at Florida International University. With 1,244 beds, this large population translates to a flood of packages and the leasing team found the volume completely overwhelming.

The One’s managers initially decided to handle package management themselves but soon realized that the task demanded too much of the team’s time and was detrimental to its goals and the resident experience. That’s when they turned to Fetch, a partnership that delivered as promised and exceeded the expectations of The One’s management team. Not only has Fetch been able to offer residents of The One reliable and secure package delivery, but they’ve also provided exceptional client service. By partnering with property management to get a comprehensive understanding of how the students and the community function, Fetch crafted a delivery program that doesn’t interfere with peak times. 

Package Management Becomes All-Consuming

Prior to the partnership with Fetch, the leasing team at The One manually logged every package from every carrier. With days where total deliveries reached as high as 1,000, The One needed to staff its package room with up to three employees to handle all the boxes. The team would scan each package to trigger a notification to the resident for pickup. Because the volume was so high, the team at The One was hampered by a backlog of packages received over the weekend, when nobody was available to log the incoming deliveries.

“We had to displace managers to go and scan packages, and we’d sometimes have to work until 10:00 p.m. to get as much done as we could,” says Mary Protzman, area manager at Landmark. “It had a huge impact on our payroll, staffing structure and the allocation of our resources. Residents were very unhappy with waiting for their package for even a few hours or a day.”

The One team often felt it difficult to locate packages in the overcrowded storage area, and often packages were linked to an old unit number if a resident relocated within the community. It became apparent to Protzman that their current system was never going to work. 

“I didn’t feel that it was delivering the right results to our residents. So I reached out to my regional manager and the regional vice president about the seriousness of the situation,” Protzman continues. “They were already looking at various package alternatives and package solutions for the portfolio across the board. They saw an immediate need to help us out with this issue and we became the first community within Landmark’s portfolio to implement Fetch.”

Fetch Eliminates the Frustration

Fetch wasted no time in impressing residents and onsite teams with their level of care and concern, as well as their ability to obtain a clear understanding of the unique needs of the property. In the case of The One, it made sure students, many of whom ordered all of their furniture and other items online, received their deliveries while still experiencing a smooth move-in.

“Fetch schedules a specific delivery time slot in the afternoon for heavy and oversized items. That eliminated the need for the resident to bring friends to help retrieve a package. We also don’t need our leasing or maintenance teams to take up large packages to the door. It’s a massive help that Fetch delivers the oversized items directly to the door.” Protzman explains. “The other really great thing Fetch does is allowing our future residents to ship things directly to the Fetch Warehouse up to 30 days before their arrival, and Fetch would deliver them on move-in day for them. That was absolutely a huge customer service win for us.”

Landmark and the management team remain highly impressed with not just the service residents receive from Fetch but also the attention given to clients. Protzman explains that Fetch initiated communication with The One’s team about the best approach to move-in day. Fetch ended up scheduling later delivery times on move-in day to ensure that package delivery would not disrupt the flow of arriving students and their families.

“Fetch helped us troubleshoot and problem-solve how we can encourage residents to utilize the service and have their stuff delivered directly to Fetch instead of the property,” Protzman adds. “Their customer service with our residents is absolutely phenomenal. They always respond the same day if there’s an issue with a package delivery. This means residents aren’t coming to the office with a lot of delivery errors or concerns.”

There was also one incident where a resident thought they had a package stolen only to later discover that their Fetch delivery partner retrieved the package to schedule re-delivery after seeing it sit outside the resident’s door for two days.

A Better Situation for Everyone at The One

The One covers the cost of Fetch via a package concierge fee, which also provides about $30,000 in ancillary revenue for Landmark. While the onsite team initially met some resistance, particularly among renewing residents, the exceptional service Fetch provided gave residents a new perspective.

“Once the residents move in and they see how convenient Fetch is and how it makes their lives better, they are over the moon with the value for the activity fee that they are paying,” Protzman adds. “It’s very helpful to say you are getting a full-service package concierge service for that monthly fee.”

Ancillary revenue is not the only benefit, and Landmark has seen savings in several different other areas particularly in payroll, since they no longer need to have staff just to manage the package room. It’s also helped keep their onsite teams happier and focus on the tasks they want to be doing.

“Working in the package room was a waste of our talent. Logging packages is a tedious task and the associates doing that were trained to sell leases,” Protzman explains. “The ability to keep my trained leasing agents out of the package room has made a huge improvement overall to our morale. It was an improvement on two fronts. Our team no longer needs to deal with packages, and it is a better use of our time to be able to channel that attention to residents and prospects. Second, for a minor monthly fee, our residents get peace of mind with their deliveries, encounter less hassle and receive outstanding service from Fetch.”