L.A.B. Unleashed

We are not joking.  Big promotion this week … your first errand on us.  Its better than FREE.  FREE would be if we were breaking even on your errand posting, but what we are actually offering you is to completely PAY for your first errand …. just keep it under $10 total!  You might be surprised what you can get done for $10 …. a lot of things!  Take a browse here.  And … if you don’t want to post your own errand, feel free to get in on one of our "Runs"!

To get your free errand, all you have to do is create an account and get sending.  That’s it.  No special codes.  No special hoops to jump through.  We’ve kept it as simple as possible.  All we ask is that you give it a try and we welcome feedback!  We ended up implementing the Kampyle feedback form, so it’s easy to drop us a note, from any page, using that tool.

Happy Sending!

This is a major feature that has been in the works for some time.  The "Runs" feature has been part of the original RUNmyERRAND vision from the beginning and we are thrilled to finally launch it this week!  Just as Senders can post errands, Runners can now post "Runs" … its kind of a mirror image of the current site.  Runs are generated by Runners and are planned trips.  We anticipate popular runs including trips to Target, IKEA, Costco, Goodwill, etc, but a Runner is free to post a Run to wherever they would like.  It is all part of our "errand sharing" model, which maximizes Runner’s profits, minimizes Sender’s expenses, and certainly has its green benefits!

We are starting the Runs feature this week with a trial group of Runners.  We don’t want to overload the system with an influx of Runs, so there will be handful of planned Runs generated by the same individuals for now.  Its nice to have a group of Runners that are really experienced on the site, and who I can immediately turn to when launching a feature like this.  They were eager to jump on board and give it a test drive.

Right now we’ve got a Target Run, Home Depot Run, and Wholefood Run open.  Senders can make requests, include a list of items, their location for delivery, and a Runner fee.  Just the same as a regular errand, a Runner can also counteroffer this fee, and Senders can pay with cash on delivery or reimburse their Runner with credit online.  We (the Ruby Ninja) leveraged a lot of the errand model code to implement this request concept, which makes it familiar to the end user with the same robust feature set. 

Just looking at these runs, I can already think of a few things I need from these places … and that’s the beauty of it.  We all need reminders, and if we know someone is making the trip anyway, why not get in on it!

Over the past 7 months we have some pretty good stories come out of RUNmyERRAND.  When I started this I of course anticipated the dry cleaning runs and clothing donation pick ups, but what was really fun to realize, is that every errand has its own story, and some of the stories behind these errands are just too good not to share.

Story #1 – "Lost cellphone, in need of chicken salad"
It was late on Sunday afternoon, when I saw the errand posting come through the system.  A woman had left her cellphone at a farm in Beverly, MA, and they closed at 4:00pm that day.  She needed a Runner to drive up to Beverly, pick up the cellphone she had left, and then also requested a tub of chicken salad.  She got her cellphone and chicken salad that night, and I’m sure it was a relief to start the week with her cellphone in hand … not to mention chicken salad in the frig!

Story #2 – "Flower delivery from the Caribbean"
At the time, zipcodes outside of the greater Boston area would not allow you to sign up on RUNmyERRAND.com.  I got a message from Dalton W, who lives on his gorgeous sail boat in the Caribbean, named Quietly.  He asked for help getting signed up and I obliged (we are now actually open in all zipcodes, but only running errands in Boston … for now).  So the next day, Dalton posted a flower delivery errand.  He wanted a runner to go to the local market, pick out a fresh bouquet of flowers, and deliver them to a door step in Beacon Hill.  He paid $7 for the flowers and $7 for the delivery fee … $14 total.  I think that definitely beats 1800FLOWERS (I’m sure the flowers did too) and he was supporting the local neighborhood shop.  Love it! 

Story #3 – "Get out and shop!"
Everyone loves to shop at IKEA … its the actual getting there and getting everything home that can be challenging.  They do offer store delivery starting at $99, but in this story, Robert M who is "… retired, 77 years, living at home and doing for myself as able.", saved himself some money, enjoyed a round trip ride, and wonderful shopping company from our Runner Lola A.  Two furniture kits were picked up, loaded up, and dropped off with Robert at his apartment in Malden Center.

Those are just a few of my favorite errand stories so far, but I’m sure there are all kinds of good stories in this bunch: http://runmyerrand.com/errands/allactivity?type=completed.  Share your stories with us … we want to hear more of them!