\u201cI did not expect that my number would be in the hundreds.\u201d<\/p>\n
Born in Fiji, Mudaliar lived in Australia before moving to New Zealand nearly 20 years ago.<\/p>\n
He settled in Tauranga and worked as a manager at McDonald\u2019s and KFC, but always dreamed of owning his own business. <\/p>\n
It was his nephew who encouraged him to buy a delivery run that had come up for sale.<\/p>\n
\u201cThen the opportunity came up. There was a courier run on sale, so he said to me, \u2018Hey, you always wanted to own a business, so why don\u2019t you try this?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
Mudaliar purchased a small run covering Te Puke, Paengaroa and Pukehina. Three years later, he expanded into Arataki, P\u0101p\u0101moa, Welcome Bay and Greerton, building one of Tauranga\u2019s largest Aramex territories.<\/p>\n
\u201cI loved it and I\u2019m still here, and not changing anytime soon.\u201d<\/p>\n
His work days start at 4.30am, sorting through freight before heading out on the road. Businesses are delivered to first, followed by residential customers later in the day.<\/p>\n
He said on an average day, he delivers 200 to 300 parcels \u2013 all on his own. <\/p>\n
Ten years of experience has taught Mudaliar one simple recipe for success: treat every customer the same.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s nothing left, or any customer forgotten. Every customer to me, whether big or small, they\u2019re all the same to me.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said he makes a point of remembering customers\u2019 names.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve got lots of names in my head, like I see them every day and they\u2019re quite happy to see me every day.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mudaliar said relationships with elderly customers have become especially meaningful as they sometimes need extra help with parcels. <\/p>\n
\u201cSo I take it inside the door, and the next time I go, they\u2019ve got chocolates for me. At Christmas time, they always remember to have like a cookie or candies for me. I mean, small things do count.\u201d<\/p>\n
Tauranga regional franchisee Pieter Baars (from left), courier Richie Mudaliar and Central North Island regional sales executive Terence Paulsen at the Aramex gala in Christchurch.<\/p>\n
He believed attention to detail had also helped grow his business. <\/p>\n
\u201cMy van is stacked nicely. Packages aren\u2019t thrown around. When customers get the parcel, it\u2019s the same way it should be.\u201d<\/p>\n
But for him, success came back to the small moments.<\/p>\n
\u201cA smile on your face makes the person on the other side go, \u2018Oh, look, he\u2019s cheerful\u2019, and that can make someone\u2019s day.\u201d <\/p>\n
Mudaliar recalled a Mother\u2019s Day a couple of years ago when a last-minute flower order on Friday afternoon needed to be delivered from Te Puke to \u014cmokoroa.<\/p>\n
No Saturday delivery was available and the flowers risked arriving after Mother\u2019s Day. Instead, he made the trip across the city after work hours.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey thought they weren\u2019t going to get it, so I said, \u2018Hey, I\u2019ll take it\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said the flowers arrived within hours of being ordered.<\/p>\n
Mudaliar had no plans to slow down and planned to break his own customer review record next year. <\/p>\n
Aramex Oceania regional director Mark Little.<\/p>\n
Aramex Oceania regional director Mark Little said Mudaliar\u2019s number of five-star reviews was remarkable in an industry where customer feedback is far more often complaints.<\/p>\n
Little said the Courier Franchisee of the Year award considered customer retention, operational performance, and customer reviews. <\/p>\n
\u201cFor Richie to get more than 174 five-star Google reviews is unbelievable. Most people don\u2019t congratulate a courier when a delivery\u2019s done well.\u201d <\/p>\n
Little said Mudaliar\u2019s review count was the highest among Aramex franchisees in New Zealand and reflected the care he put into his business.<\/p>\n
The award was presented at Aramex\u2019s annual gala awards in Christchurch, attended by about 100 staff and franchisees from around the country.<\/p>\n
Little said Mudaliar\u2019s business performance was impressive, but it was his humility that stood out on the night. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt was quite emotional. It was unusually emotional for a courier franchise to be as humble and as emotional as he was.\u201d<\/p>\n
Zoe Blake is a multimedia journalist at the Bay of Plenty Times and Rotorua Daily Post. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cI did not expect that my number would be in the hundreds.\u201d Born in Fiji, Mudaliar lived in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":490449,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[245920,60125,138,11652,91655,245919,185,440,111,139,69,3272,763,1227,102],"class_list":["post-490448","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-245920","tag-aramex","tag-business","tag-courier","tag-fivestar","tag-highestrated","tag-is","tag-local","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-nzs","tag-reviews","tag-tauranga","tag-with"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/490448","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=490448"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/490448\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/490449"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=490448"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=490448"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=490448"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}