LOCAL PROFILES

The UPS Store in Henderson has implemented a new idea for mailing solutions. When Matthew McGovern joined the team as manager of document services at The UPS Store #3626, he knew that the store could send mass mailings in addition to shipping packages. He decided to take the mass mailings concept a step farther by implementing a full-service custom mailing program.

Custom mailing is a way of personalizing and targeting your audience. Matthew likes to cite a U.S. Postal Service study in which personalized mailings were shown to have nearly twice the response rate of non-personalized mass mailings. One of Matthew’s clients, the owner of a local shoe boutique, recently asked him to design and send 1,600 personalized postcards to their customers. The result was phenomenal: 18 percent of the recipients responded.

As a comparison, most companies expect no more than a 7 percent response rate when sending non-customized mailings to customers, and no more than a 1 percent response rate when sending mass mailings to a blank list. “It’s not about how many you’re mailing,” Matthew says, “but about how successful your mailing is. With targeted, consistent, personalized mailings, you get the best bang for your buck.” The numbers agree: any increase in response rate is equivalent to a decrease in the per-customer advertising cost.

To that end, Matthew’s father Dave McGovern, who owns the store, invested in state-of-the-art printers. “We are not the norm in this business,” Dave says. “We have made the investment in the equipment.” In addition to the postcards that are personalized on both sides, the store can design and print signs, posters, and canvases up to 10 feet long by 42 inches wide, with up to 2,400 dpi. And, of course, The UPS Store can easily ship what it prints.

As a family-owned and family-operated business, quality is a foremost concern. “The quality of what you send is critical,” Matthew says. “It’s an extension of yourself.”

Although The UPS Store understandably does most of its shipping through UPS, the store also has both standard and first-class mailing permits from the United States Postal Service. The staff can design, print and mail any type of document using the combined resources of UPS and the post office. The store even has its own mailing list that can be tweaked by neighborhood or income bracket, among other traits. In all, The UPS Store’s document service is designed to help businesses stay in touch with customers, as well as to assist them in finding new ones.

Not only is the store’s quality the best in town, but its turnaround is quick. According to Matthew, “While some mailing houses take weeks [to complete a job], we take hours.”

As a testament to the stability of the staff, every employee has been there for more than two years. Long-term relationships are common, not only with the employees, but with the customers as well. For instance, the store rents out more than 500 mailboxes, and more than half of the box holders have been customers for five years or more. According to Dave, customers have good reason to stick around. “Customers know that if we say we’ll do something, then we’ll do it quickly, and we’ll do it well.”

The mailbox service is popular among business owners who want their mailing addresses to differ from their physical addresses. Mailbox addresses maintain a professional appeal by containing suite numbers instead of box numbers. The store can accept temperature-sensitive packages, and box holders can be assured that someone will always be present to accept packages.

The store’s connection to Real Estate professionals includes more than just mailing and document services. The retail section contains a vast selection of packaging supplies, including a warehouse with the Valley’s largest inventory of moving boxes. In fact, some customers in the process of relocation have used The UPS Store essentially as a moving company. The store packed and shipped all of the customers’ boxes and non-furniture household items.

Dave understands the need for tailoring his services to meet the needs of each customer. He grew up in London, Ontario, Canada, but has spent most of his career in the United States. He and his wife raised Matthew in Miami.

While growing up in Florida, Matthew learned an early respect for his father’s business acumen. Young Matthew watched Dave grow a distribution company from scratch to a $20-million firm in the span of eight years. “Everything he touches is good,” says Matthew of his father. “He treats people fairly, and people respect that.” Matthew also admires his mother, who spent 20 years as a REALTOR®.

In his previous career, Matthew worked as a sales manager for a toner manufacturing company and also as a shipping manager. His combined experience in shipping and printer parts made him the perfect addition to The UPS Store’s document service business line.

Dave has owned The UPS Store since 2003. Although Matthew has worked with his father in several business capacities over the years, he joined the store full time in 2007. Matthew has never been happier. “My dad is my best friend,” he says, adding, “We share a desk. I can’t think of anyone else I could share a desk with.”

The UPS Store #3626 is located at 10624 South Eastern Ave., Ste. A in Henderson at the corner of Horizon Ridge Parkway next to Smith’s grocery store. Dave and Matthew can be reached at (702) 897-9991, or e-mail store3626@theupsstore.com.

Photography: Elisabeth Libby