When your llama (or alpaca) needs an accessory, Bruce and Chris Armstrong can sell it to you – and then help you track the shipment's progress with Quantum View.
- Useful Lama Items Inc., an Illinois-based mail-order business, sells supplies to breeders of llamas and alpacas (both belong to the genus Lama) across the globe.
- Owners Bruce and Chris Armstrong sought a more efficient way to ship and track the hundreds of packages each week.
- The Armstrongs rely on UPS Ground and air express deliveries and Quantum View® services to monitor and share information about shipments, ensuring that their supplies and merchandise reach llama and alpaca lovers on time.
A single, soulful glance was all it took, and Chris Armstrong was "toast."
"I still can remember to this day the face," she says. "They have huge eyes and big, long eyelashes. At first they're funny looking. But there's something about them, and I fell hook, line and sinker in love.
"I knew from that moment I would always have a llama."
That chance encounter as a teenager led to a llama-focused life for Chris and her husband, Bruce. For more than 22 years now, Chris has managed Blue Moon Llamas in Byron, 90 miles northwest of Chicago in the Rock River Valley. Today, more than 60 llamas and one alpaca – coveted for their lush wool – roam the green pastures, and customers from around the country turn to Chris for advice as they aim to begin their own breeding enterprises.
In the fall of 1999, Bruce Armstrong was burning out from his job selling building materials just as some friends were looking to sell their llama and alpaca accessory business.
Perfect timing
"It took us about 15 seconds to say yes," Bruce Armstrong recalls. "The timing was perfect." The enterprise –
Useful Lama Items Inc. – is thriving, assisting 24,000 customers around the world while adding an average of 100 new customers per month. Hundreds of packages are shipped out every week as orders pour in through the web, along with countless catalog orders.
"It's been a wonderful progression," says Chris Armstrong. "We love everything about the animals, and to be able to help people every day is just a great situation for us."
Among the items they ship: grooming tools, vaccines, medical supplies, nutritional items, books and even neckties made of alpaca wool. Although the business is definitely niche, it has struck a profitable chord as breeders and Lama lovers seek the products, knowledge and assistance they require.
In addition to providing Lama-related supplies, the Armstrongs have harnessed their fascination with Peruvian culture to give back to the area from which the llamas originate. Useful Lama Items sells imported Peruvian products ranging from llama-wool yarn to T-shirts, music, coffee and ceramics. Part of the money from these sales goes to nonprofit organizations in Peru that aid local residents.
"We've reached a point in our business where you can chase a dollar all day long but it's not interesting," Bruce Armstrong said. "We're in a position where we can do this."
Any speed Lama owners need
The number of orders that pour into Useful Lama Items requires reliable, progressive and effective shipping methods. The Armstrongs rely on UPS to ensure that each package of electrolytes or set of new shearing blades reaches customers promptly.
The primary product the Armstrongs use domestically is
UPS Ground, for nonperishable supplies and equipment. But when llama or alpaca owners require a fresh supply of plasma, vaccines or colostrum – milk from llama mothers taken during late pregnancy or following birth – these products are cold-packed and shipped using
UPS Next Day Air® or
2nd Day Air® services.
The Armstrongs have been as impressed with UPS tracking technologies as with the effective delivery services.
Bruce Armstrong is particularly impressed with
Quantum View®, which he relies on as a "tremendous planning tool" for both himself and his customers.
"It's one of the best tools UPS has," he says. "You can watch a package travel from point A to B. If the [incoming] shippers use an electronic system, we can look at the number of packages we're going to receive on a given day, and if something's going to require more labor, we can prepare for that. We know what tomorrow's going to bring, and it allows us to staff accordingly, put our priorities in place and alert customers when products are coming in."
Dialing down customer calls
The tracking information has been effective on both ends of the transactions. Previously, anxious customers would call the company seeking their order status. Once they were given the chance to track their shipment information through ups.com, the calls nearly ceased. For concerned customers who still call, the Armstrongs can tell them exactly where a package is en route.
"We started implementing Quantum View, and the phone calls went away," he says. "We put the capability in the customers' hands, and they love it. How cool is that?"
It gets even cooler.
The entrepreneurial Armstrongs have turned their extensive knowledge and experience with packing and shipping into a new enterprise:
Byron Quick Ship, a packing and shipping center designed to serve Byron's businesses and 4,000 residents. Byron Quick Ship features UPS products and services.
Despite the Armstrongs' extensive catalog of llama and alpaca items, accessories and gifts, the most popular product they provide can't be shipped in a box.
"It's surprising how many people call us for guidance," Bruce Armstrong says. "It's fun to be able to use our experience to guide new llama and alpaca owners."
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