Pickups pay up to $20/wk to see our smiling faces, not hear our voices. Do the right thing---go to each and every pickup each and every day. If you have occasional shippers you should try to covert them to smart pickups. I have 3 of those and absolutely love them.
While I normally find your posts insightful, articulated, and concise, I respectfully disagree about actually going to each and every pickup. The customers pay to have their items picked up one way or another. If I call my shipper(s) and I am told there is a pickup, I will go. If not then I will not go.
Yes, in a perfect world, personally dealing with each and every customer is proper customer service but in this day and age of reliance on technology, automation, increased costs, and overall urgency to complete deadlines / production quotas, most shippers could care less if they actually see me or my partners, just that their items were picked up to be shipped.
Is there any one customer who is more valuable than another? Whether it's the shipper who only sends one small letter each day or the shipper who re-loads our cars with 400 pieces a day, they both deserve the same service. Good customer service also entails making an effort to not have any missed stops and if calling some pickups saves just one business from being missed then I personally feel good about it. Yes it can be a hassle to use my own phone and yes it can take a little time but at least my customers know that even though the company might not have any problems with the way it operates or the image it projects with regards to customer service, I am a service provider and I DO care.
If the company is forcing us by way of directives and PCMs to stop at each and every pickup, I will do as told. The company itself is going to be the one hurting the customer service aspect of "service provider", not me.