ParcelPedia Podcast

The Mail Center Evolution: Building ParcelPedia from the Ground Up

• James Banks • Episode 45

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What Are ParcelPedía’s Biggest Milestones? 

Ever wonder how a chance meeting can completely transform your career path? That's exactly what happened to James Banks, who left his isolating IT job for what he thought would be a temporary position at ParcelPedia, only to find himself signing partnership papers just one year later.

In this heartfelt conversation, James reveals the pivotal moments that transformed a basic shipping store into a comprehensive business services center serving the Frisco community. From expanding services beyond simple shipping to include large format printing, notary services, and more, to completely remodeling the space from "dark and gloomy" to bright and modern, each step reflects their commitment to growth and community service.

What truly stands out in James's story isn't the business expansion or the physical transformation, but the human connections made along the way. He shares a particularly moving insight about the moment he realized ParcelPedia was truly making an impact—when teachers and school staff from throughout Frisco began trusting them with their printing needs. As James puts it, "Teachers have their ears to the ground," making their trust especially meaningful compared to even the largest corporate clients.

Perhaps most surprising is the behind-the-scenes partnership with Amazon that developed when a representative walked through their door seeking feedback. This unexpected collaboration improved delivery processes for mailbox customers, creating a seamless experience that customers might never know about—a perfect example of the dedication to service that drives ParcelPedia's success.

Ready to experience the ParcelPedia difference for yourself? Visit their newly remodeled store in Frisco, Texas, or call 972-335-1450 to discover how they can make your shipping and business service needs a breeze.

To learn more about ParcelPedia visit:
https://www.ParcelPedia.com
ParcelPedia
8992 Preston Road, Suite 110
Frisco, Texas
972- 335-1450

Speaker 1:

Welcome to the Parcelpedia Podcast, the ultimate guide to all things shipping and business services in Frisco, texas, from US mail and FedEx to private mailboxes and packing supplies. We've got you covered. Stay tuned for a special discount code to save on your next order. And now delivering expert tips and insider insights with a smile, here's your host, james Banks. Owner of Parcelpedia.

Speaker 2:

From humble beginnings to community impact. James reflects on the defining moments that shaped Parcelpedia's journey. Welcome back everyone. I'm Sophia Yvette, co-host and producer, back in the studio today with owner of Parcelpedia, james Banks. James, how are you?

Speaker 3:

I'm doing well. How are you Sophia?

Speaker 2:

I'm also doing well, and it is great to have you back on today. Now, james, let's celebrate some wins what have been Parcelpedia's biggest milestones so far?

Speaker 3:

Oh man, let's see, I won't put this one into the milestone category only because I'm just gonna give you a little background about how me and Paul met as far as like Parcelpedia, the kind of the creation. So back in the day when the dinosaurs were still stomping around, I was in the IT world and I was working IT with a buddy in Frisco actually, and doing IT with him for a while and I just was just feeling like no, there wasn't that human connection. I was just literally just like reading articles and sending articles out and doing things like computers. I almost had zero interaction with humans other than other than him and it was just burning me out. So I was like I gotta do something different.

Speaker 3:

I did something different and so I just confided in him, say, hey, you know, I love working here, but I just need to do something different. I got to do something different. And so I just confided in him and said, hey, you know, I love working here, but I just need to do something else. You know, do you have anything in mind? Do you know anyone who's looking to hire anybody?

Speaker 3:

And he said yeah, my brother which I learned after a couple weeks, not his brother, they just had the same last name, and so he tricked me with that. He was like, okay, I'll go meet up and talk with them. And so I called him up on a Saturday. He's like, yeah, come on down, come come meet me. So it's Paul. So I go to Parcelpedia, I walk in, we start talking and I kid you not, before I left the day I was signing documents to become a Parcelpedia employee and I started working that very next day. So I was working like instantly. I just love the idea of the mail center. I never thought of working, you know, in shipping or working behind a counter. I've never worked retail before in that capacity. I'd only ever worked like stocking or in the back room. You know, I'd never been face to face with customers like that.

Speaker 3:

So I was a bit nervous and I was a bit you know, a bit anxious about what was to come. Within a month, I was running the store by myself. I just jumped to it. I loved it. Talking to people every day was really great, seeing different people, and so I knew that I liked it so much. I wanted to do that. I didn't want to just be my job, and so this was in October, when I met Paul. I worked about a full year, and then that, following January in 2016, is when I partnered up with him, so that's when we signed the paperwork to become partners, official partners with the company, and that has allowed me and allowed us to really about it too much in the podcast here. But we've done things where we like sponsored kids to go to events, kids that need help and special needs and things of that nature. Um, we don't really boast about it, but we have the opportunity to do that, so that's always great.

Speaker 3:

Another thing that we were able to do is add a bunch of new services. So Paul had purchased the company, so Parcelpedia was already pre-existing, and then I came into the picture and we kind of looked at it and we were like it's really just shipping. You know, just shipping. People come in the ship, drop off and pick up their mail Like we're sitting here all day. We off and pick up their mail Like we're sitting here all day. We gotta be able to do something else.

Speaker 3:

That's when we added large format printing and that's when we started adding. You know, we got some U-Hauls. For a time we had some fingerprinting booths in there. We've had all the notaries make sure everybody was a notary public. Um, just, you know just little things. We had at top some e-commerce here and there. We even started doing some some not bulk pickup and bulk shredding mobile for a little while. We had there possibly. So we've always enjoyed kind of bouncing ideas back and forth and just implementing them in at the store and adding the services, um. So I kind of look at that as a milestone, just because we realized the potential for the store was there and we didn't just sit back on it. You know we acted and partial pedia is where it's at now because of that, and so I always appreciate the fact that we kind of had a similar mindset to you know what else kind of push it.

Speaker 1:

You know what else can we do there.

Speaker 3:

What else can we do? You know, keep, keep at it, keep at it, keep at it. So that's that was always, always in my mind when I, you know, even when I walked through the store. Sometimes it's just I just remember like man, this't have that. You know, we didn't offer this service. This big sign with all these services on it wasn't even here because we didn't do half of that. So it was just cool to see. You know, it's always like your baby that you've helped grow and mature. So that's just always been really cool to me.

Speaker 3:

And adding onto that, we recently had a remodel. So if you're a customer in the store, you've known, you know, cause it's very man, I wish I had some. I should have been prepared. I have some before and after pictures for you. I maybe I'll post them up. So the store was. I loved it. I just didn't realize that it was so dark and gloomy, because I was there every day. Our carpet was brown, our walls were yellow, our like accent colors were like red and like that formica kind of linoleum on the counters. And I loved it. You know, it's just, it's the store, it's your store. You take it, you hold it and then loved it. You know, it's just it's the store, it's your store, you take it, you hold it. And then we were like you know, we can probably remodel the store and so now it looks really sleek. It's in the modern era. We have the wood flooring, we have some glass partitions in the store. Now we have white walls with fluorescent lighting.

Speaker 3:

So the customers that have come in, I have seen the remodel. They're always like oh, I thought I was in a different store. They all make a big exclamation. It's always a big laugh with us. Just because it's the same store, same people, they get scared. Oh, you guys are still here it's still us.

Speaker 3:

We just refreshed it, we gave it a facelift, that's all. The store looks completely new. It's nice and bright and sparkling. So I love that. I love that we were able to kind of catch up with the drive we have to, you know, keep pushing the stores Like it's got to match the look too. So you gotta, I gotta have you come by sometimes, sophia, so you can check it out. It's very cool, it's very modern. Another huge milestone that we did that you were probably pretty familiar with, I would assume, sophia is that we reached out and we branched out in our marketing to do podcasts and to go online, and that has been huge, because before we were just like are people seeing us on Facebook? Do people get our flyers in the mail? It was hard to really get that feedback, but when someone said, hey, I saw your podcast or hey, can I?

Speaker 3:

use the podcast coupon. I know it's not shipping, so trying to squeeze the podcast coupon and I'm just happy to hear the words. Well, yeah, it's fine.

Speaker 3:

You know, and it's just been. It's been a big change for us and a positive change, because we know that we can share so much of the knowledge we have in the store for so many other people, whether they even come into us or not. We're just happy to be able to let people know what we can offer them, what they can come to do, how we can help them all the different, you know, products we have to offer, services we have to offer. I just love that that's being able to be projected out there in a way that's very easily, you know understood.

Speaker 3:

You know I'm telling you exactly what we can do. So come, you know, put me on facebook and hitting what's in, like, oh, we got some engagement, someone liked it. You know, yes, you know, and you think that's all you can do. But this is such a different form, but it's modern and it's where everyone's at and it makes sense. So I had to definitely add that in there. Shout y'all out, because we love being part of the podcast family.

Speaker 2:

So yeah, and will we? We really love working with you guys and having you guys on, so it's really awesome I'm curious if you have any questions for me as far as yeah this story.

Speaker 3:

I had a feeling there's some bubbling there I definitely do.

Speaker 2:

Now, my biggest question for you is can you describe a moment when you realized the business was truly making?

Speaker 3:

an impact. When I have had multiple ISD employees come to us through a recommendation to print the PTO documents, you know just whatever it is that they need to get done the fact that they're doing it off of word of mouth and they're trusting it and they're coming and doing it, and I can see it's building on my own man this is like every corner of Frisco.

Speaker 3:

We're in almost every school. That, to me, makes me feel like okay, because I feel like teachers are the ones that are really. They got their ears to the ground. You know. They know what's going on in the city. They know what's going on with the students, with the teachers or not teach with the parents. And so for the faculty members, for the teachers to come and trust us to do their jobs for them, because their name is on the line. You know if they're having a big meeting or a big presentation, if parcel p messes up the print, they don't. They don't care about that, they care about the presenter. You know who's who's supposed to be bringing these documents. So for them to give that trust to us and allow us to service them and help them out, that to me is a big impact.

Speaker 3:

You know, a corporation come through, Coca-Cola can come through and say we need a million billion flyers. I'm like that's cool, it's gonna be a good sell. But I don't know. I mean it's Coca-Cola, you know, you don't feel like you're doing anything. But when you have, like the literal elementary schools, middle schools, high schools, you know, coming to you and saying hey, thanks so much. You guys are a lifesaver. You know that that always feels good, so I like.

Speaker 3:

I like hearing those stories.

Speaker 2:

That's really awesome. Okay, final question for you today Are there any partnerships or expansions that stand out as a game changer, other than the ones you've already discussed?

Speaker 3:

You know, I will talk about one that kind of is it's super behind the scenes, if that makes sense. I had a representative from Amazon literally walk in the door and hand me his car and say, hey, I work for Amazon. I want to know if there's anything we can do better. And I was a little confused. So I'm like I'm not a satellite office for Amazon. I, you know, I order Amazon personally sometimes, but I don't think that's what he's here to talk to me about, you know. And so I was trying to figure out what he meant. He goes yeah, you know, I know we have a lot of drivers come here and we do. You know, we have the mailboxes in the store and, of course, if it'd be in the street address, you can get anything delivered to you. So we get deliveries a lot all the time. I see Amazon trucks in and out of our parking lot like all day, every day. No, no joke, they can bring 30 to 40. And so he just wanted to know what can they do better? And I've had a couple of things here and there like, yeah, sometimes they're here too early, so I, they leave the note, but then the customer's upset Cause it doesn't come that same day. You know they come the next day. He goes, okay, no problem. He wrote down my store hours. I told him, you know, sometimes they come to the back, which is okay, but it's weird because you're not expecting someone to just come. And since that conversation I haven't had to call him back, I haven't had to retouch anything, Everything that I spoke to him about. He I don't know if he went and yelled at a bunch of people, I don't know what he did, but he made it happen. And so since then, everything's been very, very fluid and it's huge because my customers, you know, when you order from Amazon, they give you exact date, exact time, sometimes a window, and so we've come to expect those things to be there.

Speaker 3:

And part of my job is, when a package comes, it's to notify that customer, and so, with it being better streamlined with the deliveries, now my customers are getting their stuff on time. They're not getting pictures of their package at a door that they don't recognize, Like where is this? You know, it's just. It's the fact that he did that and that I was able to. You know, we were able to make that work.

Speaker 3:

No one would know about that without me saying this right now on this podcast. You know, no one would even know that conversation happened, but it did, and it's one of those things where they reached us, which is really cool, and I feel like they must've saw it, and we deliver a lot of packages to of packages to this parcelpedia. I need to go make sure that they're happy and I appreciate it because it makes my customers happy. That's what we're looking for, and he seemed to have a similar mindset. It's like we're trying to make the end customer very happy and make sure that they're satisfied, and so I thought that was cool. He went out of his way to come make sure that things were done right and done well, and he made it happen. So shout out to Amazon. I know they get a lot of flack, but I got to give that guy some credit Wow, James.

Speaker 2:

Well, it's been so inspiring to hear from you all about Parcelpedia's journey.

Speaker 1:

Thank you for walking us through some of those biggest milestones and we will catch you next time. Thanks for joining us on the Parcelpedia podcast milestones and we will catch you next time. Frisco, texas. Or give us a ring at 972-335-1450. We're here to make your shipping a breeze. Until next time, keep shipping and smiling.