J
oel Pinsky joined Global Messenger & Logistics in 2008 to help a friend . He created his own job title - Director of Customer Care - and squeezed in as many hours as he could take away from his own business . “ They asked me if I could help out a little bit ,” he recalls . “ At the time , I had a restaurant that was running well , so I said , ‘ I can come a couple of days a week to help with sales and look at processes .’ Four years later , they asked me to come on full-time , and I sold off the restaurant .”
Pinsky , a CPA by training , has had a diverse career path that includes accounting and real estate . Today , CLDA ’ s new president is the CEO and CFO of Global Messenger and Logistics . The firm was started by his childhood friend Steve Hyman and his parents in 1990 in a little row house with three car drivers . Now , the company has a fleet of cars , vans and straight trucks that delivers everything from envelopes up to 12,000-pounds . Global also performs warehousing services and distribution in Maryland , Washington D . C ., Virginia , Delaware , parts of Pennsylvania , New Jersey , New York , and the rest of the Continental United States .
From the start , Pinsky took his made-up title seriously . “ I took the title of Director of Customer Care because I knew I could bring my experience with customer care to Global Messenger . The restaurant honed my skills in that arena . I was used to taking care of customers . So , I told the Hymans , ‘ Let me go out , talk to our customers . Let me see what their needs are . I ’ ll be the face of the company with the customers and make sure everything ’ s going right .’”
Pinsky could apply the lessons learned from the restaurant to Global . “ We did a lot of carry-out work at the restaurant ,” he recalls . “ Have you ever bought carry-out food and had someone call you afterward to ask about your experience ? Probably not . But we did . Every night , my staff members would select five random customers to call and ask about their experience with us . The concept was successful at the restaurant , so I decided to implement something similar at Global . We started calling customers daily at random to see if everything was satisfactory . It is important to tell customers that you care . Even though the company has grown , we still do a form of that regularly . We either go out and meet with them or have staff check up on their work . Those meetings also allow us to find out about their needs and tell them about additional work we could do for them that they might not even know we do . For example , we ’ ll find out about their needs in different areas of the country . Many don ’ t realize that we can deliver to just about anywhere through our CLDA connections . That is where my involvement with the association is a plus . I meet people through the association , and they end up partnering with us to expand Global ’ s company ’ s footprint .”
From Conference Attendance to Board Membership
Pinsky attended his first CLDA meeting in 2010 at the Red Rocks in Nevada and hasn ’ t missed the association ’ s yearly conference since then . At first , he attended the conference , absorbed as much as he could , made new connections , and brought back all he had learned into the business . “ I didn ’ t know a lot about this industry , so I was so grateful for everything that I learned at those meetings . This association has provided networking and educational opportunities that helped my business and me get to where we are today ,” he recalls . “ That made me want to give back to the association .” spring 2024 I customized logistics & delivery Magazine 49