Getting started in August 2021, Shannon says she started her own business, Shannon’s Deliveries, because, “I saw so many people overcharged and unable to afford delivery, even when it was a necessity instead of a luxury. I started out helping locals, and things just expanded into vacation stocking.”
Shannon serves Sevierville, Gatlinburg, Pigeon Forge, and Cocke County. She’s the only personal shopper besides Instacart in both counties. She does advertise for vacations, but primarily focuses on small, local deliveries.
We asked her about the record-breaking vacation order she completed this year to get some insight into what it takes to complete a larger-than-usual order successfully.
Did you have prior communication with the customer before they placed their order?
Yes, I had conversations with the customer for about two weeks before they placed their order, and had a lot of adjustments all the way up to the day of the order.
What do you think made them decide to go with you over some other big-name platform?
One of the things that really made them want to use me was that I was able to handle an order this large, and that I was willing to help them in every way, as well as that I was able to stock the cabin for them. It made it so that they didn’t have to worry about anything before their meetings.
How did you prepare for this order?
I had to call ahead for different pieces and have them ready for pickup at regular intervals. I had to concentrate on getting everything done in a timeframe.
(Note from Dumpling - She also notified us ahead of time. She needed a smooth checkout process, and we needed to make sure our fraud preventatives wouldn’t prevent her from charging her client, either. She really covered all her bases!)
How did this compare to a normal shopping & delivery experience?
I’m not going to lie. This experience was very difficult, very stressful, and very confusing compared to a normal order. I even had to have people help me do the order. A unique situation was that the cashiers were ringing up the buggies full as I was filling them up, and then suspending the order until I finished shopping.
How long did it take you to do all of the shopping?
It took from 7 AM until 4 PM to do the shopping and then about two hours to stock it in the cabin.
Did you have room in your vehicle for everything, or did you have to make multiple trips?
I definitely did not have room in my vehicle. It was three pickup truck loads full, plus another van full.
Were there any difficulties with the order?
Oh, you wouldn’t believe how many difficulties there were! The deli at the store that I was shopping at was behind, so they didn’t have the meat sliced on time. We had a GPS glitch, which did not send us to the correct cabin. The most difficult thing to overcome was that the cleaning team had not finished cleaning the kitchen, so we could not stock it when we got there. They actually didn’t finish until after time for the client to check in.
How did the delivery go?
Through all the adventures of this order, I think it went great! I learned a lot about how to organize things and be prepared for the big events.
Would you do anything differently?
To do this again, I think the one thing I would do is call more stuff ahead and give a larger timeframe for the store to meet the demand of the order. Another thing would be making sure that I have better communication with the cabin company, and also not stressing the small stuff. You do the best you can, and that’s the best you can do. You give 100% to the order, but weird things do happen.
And finally, what advice would you give a business owner who is facing a larger-than-normal order?
The first thing I would do is lay out the list and organize it by paper. Phones have a chance of glitching, and having it on paper is easier to mark off what you need to go into the store with a plan of action. A smaller order usually only takes just a few minutes; an order like that takes a lot of preparation and a plan of action on how to get through the store.
