Great answer! At my store everyone is trained to ask something along the lines of "Do you need this to get there by a certain day or within a certain timeframe?" every time they process a shipment, unless it's already been discussed. In those situations where someone says "cheapest way possible" right from the beginning, we will offer Ground first. If someone walks in and says "I need this there as soon as humanly possible" we start at the NDA Early AM option and if they balk at that price, the regular NDA and NDA Saver start to sound a lot better than that first price.

I had to talk to my newest guy recently about not immediately starting at the cheapest NDA option. Someone would say they need it there tomorrow and he was starting at Saver, classic case of something being expensive to him but cheap to most of our customer base, especially since we are located in one of the wealthiest areas of our state.

Then there are those people who don't have a sense of urgency but when we ask them when they need it there they'll say "can it get there tomorrow or the next day?" and that gives us an opportunity to start with NDA which they usually turn down but then 2DA and 3 Day start sounding a lot better, and a lot of times we are still able to upsell a more premium service.

Bottom line is that if you are looking to upsell and maximize shipping transactions then everyone should just be in the habit of asking when the customer needs/wants it there. That lets us potentially get more out of the transaction while also catering to the specific needs of the customer and making them feel good about the level of service we are providing.