For overseas companies looking to expand to new markets, setting up their operational processes for serving customers in a foreign country may be daunting.
Expanding your offering to New Zealand is made easy when using Private Box. We provide a local address in New Zealand, local phone numbers and phone answering services.
This blog is part 2 in a series on how overseas businesses can leverage Private Box to manage physical products with customers in New Zealand.
- Part 1: Managing product returns
- Part 2: Managing customer submissions
- Part 3: Managing distribution to customers in NZ
What are Customer Submissions?
Customer Submissions are usually applications for repairing or servicing existing products which customers own, or are taking incoming applications or donations.
Some examples are:
- Glasses & spectacles for lens treatments
- DNA & hair samples for testing
- Competition submissions
- Applications
- Payments – cheques or physical credit card payment details
- Physical files and documents for processing
In general, these examples can be categorised into two groups – Physical Goods & Paper Documents. Below we’ll outline how you can use Private Box to manage each.
Managing Physical Goods
Providing a local address in New Zealand for customers to send their items to provides peace of mind, and lower costs. Many New Zealanders are reluctant to send items overseas due to cost and fear of items going missing.
Most domestic courier companies have a target delivery time of ‘next business day’, meaning items are delivered promptly.
When customer submissions are received at your Private Box address in New Zealand they are recorded and can be managed through our online portal, or with pre-set automatic rules.
Bulk send for cheaper international shipping
With Private Box you can wait until you have several items, then ship them together to save money on international shipping.
Flexibility
Private Box records each item that arrives, and you have an option to set up different sorting rules for incoming mail. This gives you the flexibility to manage different customer submissions in different ways.
For example, submissions for different services or product types can be forwarded to different warehouses or subcontractors.
Automation: Set & forget
Private Box’s Automatic rules allow businesses to set up automatic processing of customer submissions so you do not have to keep checking & managing your Private Box account.
Managing Paper Documents
For paper documents, as well as shipping overseas, Private Box can offer additional services. These are:
- Scanning & Optical Character Recognition (OCR)
- Long term document storage
- Cheque banking
- Secure document destruction
Real-world examples
Glasses reglazing – bulk shipment to suppliers
Online reglazing services for reading glasses and spectacles utilise Private Box to receive their customer’s glasses in New Zealand and then have them shipped in bulk to their service centre overseas where it is cheaper to service the glasses.
The glasses are then shipped back directly to the customer in New Zealand.
Professional Body Registration – digitising applications
Many professions in New Zealand require registration. Registrations usually require proof of qualifications, employment, and continuing education, and sometimes payment.
Some New Zealand professional boards use Private Box to receive and digitise their registrations, or applications for registration. That way, their staff can process the registration with digital documents and collaborate with their peers.
FAQ
What international shipping services does Private Box offer?
Private Box manages all the shipping from Private Box addresses.
This means you can’t use your existing shipping accounts to arrange pickups from a Private Box address.
The Shipping Services we offer:
- Air Mail – The cheapest postal option, but does not provide tracking, $250 insurance cover
- International Courier [carried by EMS] – Best value for money, includes tracking & $2000 insurance
- International Express Courier [carried by DHL] – The fastest service, fully tracked, $2000 insurance, this method is used to ship items that contain lithium-ion batteries
How much does it cost?
A Private Box business address is $49NZD/month (or $490/year).
International shipping costs depend on the weight & volume of the & parcel and the shipping service selected.
NZ Post’s calculator is a great tool to get an estimate of shipping costs.
Private Box charges a handling fee of $15.50 per shipment + 50 cents for each additional item added to the shipment.
You can see a detailed breakdown of the costs and options in our support article: How much will it cost me?
Other things to be aware of:
Shipping restrictions
Some items are prohibited or restricted from being sent via mail services. Before sending any items, it’s best to check the rules.
Read more on our website about prohibited or restricted items.
Insurance
For packages with a total value of over $2000, there will be an additional cost to insure the contents. This is calculated at 1.3% of the total value.
Take the next step!
Sign up for a $1 30-day trial to set up a Private Box account. You’ll be able to test it out and see if it works for you.
Got further questions? Get in touch with our support team.
