Alaska Seaplanes is now offering text alerts to notify customers with packages to pick up. Text messages are optional and customers can sign up for the service by texting (907) 314-3800 or calling the office. Customer service questions should continue to be directed to the office’s landline at 766-3800. Seaplanes manager Emma Begly said any inquiries sent to the UPS cell phone will not be responded to.
Begly said she hopes the new service is “a huge timesaver” for staff. The Haines outstation has a contact base of over 1,700 customers and handles an average of 100 UPS parcels a day, a number that can “sometimes be much, much more,” during the holiday season, Begly said. Staff are required to call each customer that receives a package, a task that can take all day to complete.
“You call somebody, it rings four times, you listen to the answering machine and you’re not even sure if they got the message,” she said. “Texting is a lot more reliable. They’re automatically time stamped, too, so it makes it easier for us to say ‘Oh, this is the package you picked up last week’.”
Nearly 100 customers have since opted into text updates. Begly expects this number to keep growing.
“We had a good response right off the bat,” she said. “As soon as it got posted it started blowing up.”
Customers with multiple members in their household should specify all names included in their household when signing up for messages. Seaplanes will save a contact with all names associated with the phone number.
“If you don’t want texts, you are in no way required to receive texts,” Begly said. “We will still call people that want to be called. It’s definitely an opt-in (service) for convenience.”
The staff is currently sending a picture of each parcel with the text notification, but Begly is not sure if the staff has the “bandwidth” to offer it permanently.
“We’re going to try it initially but it’s not a guarantee,” she said.
The service is offered to all Seaplanes customers in Haines.